earwig ....

they eat decaying material.. in the garden ...

and no.. its a old wives tale.. that they crawl in your ears.. and eat your brain ...

ken

Thanks Ken! Just speed-read up on earwigs and while it looks like they aren't a big threat to us (humans), they are probably the cause of the hole we've been finding in our flowers and their leaves in the flower bed right outside out bay window.

Looks like we'll have to get some boric acid powder or maybe an organic spray to deal with them somewhat. Any other thoughts/advice on these approaches would be appreciated.

i dont buy the earwigs attacking green foliage .. but others do ...

you ought to go out at night.. as late as possible.. with a flashlight.. and find out what is on your plants ... you have ID'd this bug.. but you have not necessarily ID'd what is eating the plants ...

though boric acid might work on these.. if it is slugs.. you will waste the cure ...

i dont understand your need to kill every little thing you find ... but i am willing to ID what i can for you ...

i used to be like you .. and 10 years ago.. i left my toxic dump.. and moved.. and since kids rolled along.. i quit almost all bug killing.. and frankly.. the net effect of the lack of effort is zero ... no body would know the difference ...

you really dont need to be this proactive.. when push come to shove ... there are very few actual bug plagues.. that require warfare .. i mean think about it.. you are willing to throw acid around the lot .. for a few holes on a plant ...

ken

Whatever you do, don't use boric acid in the garden. It's toxic to plants (and the soil). By all means, use it around your windows and doors. Do you have dry rot in the wood work?

We went out there tonight and saw a ton of slugs/snails. Actually, we've always had a bunch of them, and noticed they love to crawl up our bay window for whatever reason.

I'm not interested in bug warfare for the sake of killing them, but if they damage our flowers/plants which we are paying good money to grow/maintain, or perhaps infesting/damaging our house's woodwork, then obviously there's a conflict of interest there.

Earwigs and slugs require moist conditions. If you can address that, the bugs would not find the area as attractive and probably leave or just die. Do you notice moisture around the window when you see them in the morning? Earwigs are nocturnal and look for a cool, moist place to spend the daylight hours, but you probably already read that...

Some caulk or paint or weatherstripping might complete the fix, but without being there or at least a pic from the outside, that's hard to say. A tiny hole or crack is all it takes for lots of different creepy-crawlies to get in, like the crack between the jamb and the screen, but the conditions have to be right for them to want to hang around. Can't tell from the pics what the window is made of and don't mean to insinuate in any way that your home is in disrepair but if any moisture is getting to the wood, critters like this will show up. I would check stuff like that first, trying to alter the environment so it is less appealing.