A previous column indicated the benefits of earwigs in your garden. Although you may be disgusted by earwigs, remember they are considered beneficial insects, so they should only be treated as pests when their damage becomes excessive. This column offers some safe-to-humans-and-pets and effective methods to help you reduce their numbers.
Here are some helpful tips to control earwig populations already established in your yard or garden:
- Homemade trapping mechanisms are most effective and can be achieved with various methods that provide a dark, damp hiding place. If you use any of the methods described below, make sure to empty your traps each morning and dispose of the earwigs by first dumping them in hot, soapy water and then putting them in a sealed plastic bag before placing them in the garbage bin.
- Make traps from rolled-up newspapers, cardboard tubing or cardboard filled with straw or crumpled newspaper, tape shut at one end and then dampen slightly. Place them near plants in the late afternoon or evening and empty or replace each in the morning.
- You can also make a trap by filling a flowerpot with damp crumpled paper; then turn it upside down, propping one edge up with a stick. Earwigs will crawl into the newspaper to hide. Empty or replace each morning.
- The thrifty gardener recycles an old, leaky hose by cutting it into lengths of a foot or so long and scattering them around the garden. Each morning, immerse the hoses in hot soapy water to extract the earwigs and place them back in the garden.
- Cardboard boxes (as simple as a cereal box or a shoe box) turned open side down or with holes cut in the sides and the lids intact, dampened and placed near plants make great traps. Simply throw away or empty and reuse until no longer functional. You may see tips using this method, indicating to use oatmeal or bran in the box as bait. This is not necessary as it works just as well without the bait. Dampened sheets of corrugated cardboard work too, but there is less space to catch earwigs.
- Fill tuna cans with 1/4 inch of oil, preferably fish oil, but any type of edible oil will work (vegetable, safflower, olive, etc.) and sink them into the ground near plants. Empty them every day. I caution you on the use of this type of trap, as the smell of fish oil may also attract other pests like raccoons, bears, dogs, cats, etc. So, you may consider this method as more of a last resort. Like slugs, earwigs are also attracted by beer, so it can be substituted for the oil.
- Sprinkle a two-inch-wide circle of diatomaceous (crushed diatom fossil shells) earth around beds or the base of plants; reapply after rain. This can be purchased at feed or nursery supply stores and is an excellent source of calcium for the garden.
- Place a light-coloured cloth beneath an infested plant and shake or tap the branches. The Earwigs should fall onto the cloth and then can be disposed of.
- The earwig’s only insect predator in North America is the tachinid fly. Attract this fly by planting alyssum, calendula, dill, and fennel.
- Place a sticky barrier, such as Tanglefoot, sticky tape or even petroleum jelly, at the base of woody plants. Earwigs are crawlers, and they’ll get stuck in the sticky mess before they can get up the tree or shrub to cause damage.
- If absolutely necessary, insecticides labelled for crawling insects can be used. Apply in the evening, before feeding begins. In addition to homemade traps, commercial earwig traps are available at nursery supply stores. Some versions have pesticides in them, so read the label carefully and use with caution.
- If found indoors, remove by vacuuming.
Hopefully, you have a new appreciation for the benefits that Earwigs can provide to a garden and not just the negative side of this insect. If you still need to get rid of them, then I hope these tips are useful to you.
