The earwigs are coming! - Anne Boulton

Dealing with earwigs can, at best, be unpleasant. At its worst, it can be a nightmare of science-fiction proportions. While they aren’t brain-eaters, entering through the “ear,” they are still unpleasant and a challenge to control.

I got a call last week from Bob, who was woebegone — 15 years woebegone — since he and his Gatchell neighbours have been plagued with the pincered beasts. I was at a loss.

I mean, here is a long-time vegetable gardener, with all sorts of tricks and wisdom, on his knees because of a bunch of earwigs.
“There are at least five to 10 thousand of them,” he said with certainty.
“Oh my,” was my helpless reply.

A ton of research later, including pleading emails to master gardener Linda Hugli (again), I came up with generally similar advice, some of which is very interesting, in a sci-fi kind of prevent-aliens-from invading type of advice.

So if you aren’t plagued with the beasts yet, here’s how to prevent them from coming. If you have them, we’ll get to that later.

Prevention

- Repair any cracks in your foundation, which can harbour the pests. Like the shameful creatures they are, they prefer to skulk in the shadows, unseen.

- To keep them out of your house, repair any torn screens, and secure your windows and doors with caulking or weather stripping.

- Outdoor white lighting, while it keeps away other kinds of lurkers, can invite earwigs right to your back door. Switching to sodium lighting will deter them.

- Don’t over-water. They enjoy damp, dark places, so if you decide to water, do it in the morning hours.

- Don’t leave water sitting in flower pot saucers. Earwigs enjoy hiding among the pots. Moving your pots occasionally helps to deter them from settling down with the family.

- Keep your compost away from the house. It’s fairly inevitable that the earwigs will be attracted to the rotting vegetables, so the further away from the garden proper it is, the less likely it will be that they are eating your plants.

- Keep your garden clean. Rotting leaves or dropping fruit and vegetables are of particular interest to earwigs.

Eradication

If you are looking to demoralize an already hearty family of the pests, here’s what you can do:

- Trap them in margarine containers of vegetable oil and soy sauce. Punch holes in the lid, through which they can enter. The scent of the sauce will encourage them, but the oil will foil their efforts to climb away and they’ll drown. Bob, who I already mentioned, was able to capture “3,000” of them in a week. I shudder at the thought.

- White lights, like I said above, encourages earwigs to find a way to your back door. Leaving out a bowl or two of soapy water or beer, or the soy mixture above, will trap and drown them.

- Lay damp newspapers on the ground overnight. They’ll crawl under thinking they’ve reached the pinnacle of their journey. But you’re about to send them home.

A quick stomping should kill what’s underneath, but if you can’t bear it, try scooping them up before they scatter. An even better way is to make newspaper tubes. They’ll crawl inside and you can scoop them up in a more efficient, less violent manner.

- Boric Acid or DT powder or liquid, sprayed directly onto the affected areas can interrupt the digestive systems of the insects, rendering them unable to eat. They’ll die soon after.

Do you have any proven methods for doing away with your pests? Let me know! We can kid ourselves that someday, we’ll get a handle on the insects that plague us and our hard work.

Anne Boulton is an avid gardener who lives in Sudbury. Visit her blog at greenboots.ca or contact her at [email protected].

Posted by Vivian Scinto