Earwigs eating Vegetables

La Habra, CA

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to go about controlling Earwigs? I have most of my vegetables in large raised pots and barrels but it hasn't slowed them down at all. I don't water late in the afternoon anymore and that's helped but they seem to come out at night and have their way with just about everything edible I've grown from seed. The weeds they leave alone, naturally. I'd like to find something non toxic around the vegetables. The photo shows my half barrel with 12 heads of lettuce growing that a gang of Earwigs literally inhaled one head overnight. A couple of stragglers were so bloated from gorging themselves they couldn't crawl up and over the edge of the tub. I'm just at a loss as to what to do.

Thumbnail by GophersLoveMe
West Des Moines, IA

I think I remember that Escargo Supreme from Gardens Alive said it controled earwigs. It's natural and organic I think. You might give it a try. It works on my slugs quite well.

La Habra, CA

Thank you so much for the tip. I was just able to get back online and check to see if anyone had any ideas on what to use. Love the name of that stuff, "Escargo Supreme"...sounds yummy. It's like this year conditions were perfect for the earwigs to proliferate. I've never seen so many. Again, thanks again for taking the time to respond with much needed help.

Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom

Another thing you might want to try is to make a shelter for the earwigs to hide through the day (they do come out at night so they dont get eaten by predators) I stick a garden cane in the beds about a foot apart, then half fill small plant pot with either shredded paper or straw, stick this upside down on the cane and every morning or afternoon, go out and into a bucket of boiling water, shake the straw/paper where all the earwigs will drop into the bucket, they earwigs are then either cooked to death or burned to death, or just trample all the straw, but be ready as these run like the best olimpic runner, they creatures like a nice dry dark place to hide in the evenings. good luck. WeeNel.

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