Need Help Getting Rid of Earwigs Eww

I had the same problem in my house though... i talked to an exterminator and he said soapy water. it is safe for kids and works just as well as any chemical

Earwigs were destroying my roses - no they are not our friends. Get a plastic container (ie cottage cheese, margarine, etc) that has a top. About half way to 3/4 from the bottom poke small holes about an inch apart all around the container (they just have to be large enough so the earwig can crawl in). Add water to the container stopping about a half inch below the holes. Then pour a layer of cooking oil on top of the water. Then shake some Worstershire sauce on top and put the top on. Put this in your garden. In a week it will be full of earwigs as the Worstershire draws them into the container and the oil captures them and they die. You can dispose of the contents on a weekly basis and start over again until they are gone. This is completely kid and animal safe and does the job. Good luck.

Hey R., I have been having the exact same problem, and so has my neighbor. Here's our story:

Our gardens were being eaten down to the stems, one large leaf or small plant a night, starting with the marigolds that were supposed to repel bugs. We both thought it was the earwigs but a friend of mine told me that her entemology (not sure how that's spelled) professor insisted that they are good for our gardens and often blamed for bad things. I took this to heart and decided it must be slugs because I had another friend with a slug infestation. I went out late at night to pluck slugs off of my plants and guess what I found. Hundreds if not thousands of earwigs devouring my plants, I even took pictures for the nonbelievers. My neighbor had learned about making traps with soysauce, water and oil. That worked great for a couple of nights until it attracted our neighborhood skunk, what a treat, soy sauce soaked earwigs! I then did some investigation and learned that the earwigs are actually attracted to the vegetable oil alone, so I made a skunk deterant/ear wig trap by mixing water with cayenne and then pouring a thin layer of vegetable oil on top and low and behold it's working! It appeared as though the skunk investigated one of the traps but did not consume the contents and the other traps were left alone and full of earwigs. I used some tin cans and buried them in some straw at the base of some of the plants. It seems to work best if they are touching the plants so the earwigs have a bit of a ladder to climb in with. I also intend to double up with the rolled newspaper idea.

I think that earwigs may be helpful in some situations, but like anything if there is an imbalance or infestation they become a threat.

Good luck and thanks for reading about my earwig adventures.

M.

I just looked up earwigs on wikipeda. It offers a bit of information about them. They do eat other bugs, but also soft plant tissue. What I have used to control many different types of pests in my garden is a small amount of dish soap in water, put into a spray bottle and sprayed onto the plants in the garden. This does need to be done every couple of weeks or so, but is safe for your kids and can be applied to the plants even during harvest time whereas pesticides should not be used when consuming what you grow. I hope you find a solution. If you do please share it.

Earwigs like decaying material (you'll often find them in old tree stumps.) So, the earwigs may be a side-effect, not a cause of your dying garden. You may want to double-check for another bug or non-bug cause that my be troubling your garden.

One way my father told me to do is to take rolled up newspaper and place it around the outside of your home. They are attracted to it. After a day or so you can throw it away, earwigs and all. I hope this helps! Good luck!

Dear R.,
earwigs are 'friends'. They eat aephids and ants and other 'pests'. I guess I wouldn't get rid of them. I know people who hang nests made from up-turned flowerpots with wood-shavings in them to welcome and encourage them in their gardens. They don't bite and are good around roses and fruit trees and anywhere else that aephids love to live. Could the garden be dying from some other cause?
I hope you have success.
Warm greetings,
L.

Just moved and haven't unearthed all the books - try the Mother Earth News web site or Rodale Research Institute for natural ways of getting rid of them.

Turkeys find earwigs a delightful snack.

I know this may sond weird and I haven't tried it myself but I've heard that If you put beer in a container the smell will draw them to it and they will drown or possibly just die from being drunk... not sure but heard it worked.

we got an indoor/outdoor insect killing spray that is child and pet safe at our nearby hardware store. an employee recommended it.