Battling earwigs

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White_Hydrangea Aurora, CO(Zone 5a) Aug 06, 2006

I had two problems that I thought were unrelated. Now I'm not so sure. I have an infestations of earwigs in the house. That I know about.

But I've also had something eating my plants. It looked like it might be caterpillar damage, or maybe critters chewing on the leaves and pulling up the seedlings, or leafcutter bees.

But in my Internet reading, I've found that earwigs make holes in leaves and destroy new sprouts. Well, duh. Lightbulb finally went off.

Now what's the best way to get rid of the nasty little things? I have Neem oil, hot pepper wax, diatomaceous earth, and Safer 3 in 1. Will any of these work, or should I get something else?

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music2keep Peterstown, WV(Zone 6a) Aug 06, 2006

Well, We had them several years ago...they like moist & damp. Someone at work told me to spray a solution of Dawn & water every where that you see them. It worked like a charm. we had them everywhere! Not any more... But I cannot remember the mixture. I'm thinkin' Half/half, but not for sure.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Aug 06, 2006

I'll mention the rolled up wet newspaper approach that I've posted about before--supposedly they will crawl in there and then you can throw out them and the newspaper in the morning.

I don't think earwigs usually cause signficant damage to plants (unless you have a huge, huge infestation, then maybe they would) so if you're seeing a lot of visible damage on your plants I would probably suspect some other pest first. Not that you shouldn't still get rid of the earwigs, I'm not a huge fan of them either, but I would spend some time trying to figure out what else it might be.

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