What are Earwigs?

What are Earwigs?

Earwigs are common pests in the garden. They are dark brown, small, long and skinny insects, generally 12-24mm long. They are easily identified by the pointy set of pincers at the end of their abdomen. They also have wings, however, are mostly flightless. Earwigs are most abundant in mid to late Spring and in warmer environments.

What do Earwigs feed on?

Earwigs feed on a wide range of living and dead, plants and small animals, such as aphids, spiders, and caterpillars. During the day they can be found hiding in plant materials, underneath debris or just under the soil surface. They can cause significant damage to young seedlings and prefer bean seedlings, silverbeet, parsley, cucumbers, pumpkins, kale, celery, brassicas, apples, cherries, grapevines, and tomatoes.

What are the symptoms of Earwigs?

They are nocturnal and only feed at night. Symptoms are small holes in the leaves of plants, usually in the middle of the leaf rather than around the edge, shredded or jagged edges of leaves and flowers and small jagged chewed holes in fruit. The absence of slime trails is another indicator that damage is caused by earwigs and not slugs. To catch them in the act, head into the garden, an hour or two after dark and check the plants with the most damage for signs of earwigs on them. Natural enemies of earwigs are birds, lizards and other insect eating animals. Once crops have finished, turn over the soil and leave exposed for these insect-eating animals. Remove debris around the garden, to reduce potential hiding and congregating sites.

How to control Earwigs?

Control by spraying the earwigs with a strong soapy spray solution. Another method is to place baited jars filled with soy sauce and oil, buried around the garden with the lip visible above-ground to attract and drown the earwigs or lure them with scrunched up newspaper in pots to later discard. Using sacrificial crops, like nasturtium flowers will attract earwigs to them rather than your valuable crops, where you can easily find them and treat them.