This seems to be a bad year for bugs. Well, a good one for them, a bad one for us. I'm not seeing many box elders this year, and we only had a few cicadas, but mosquitos, earwigs, and japanese beetles seem to be having a banner year. Even the butterflies are more numerous this year.

Do the earwigs damage your plants? I have heard of this happening, but never witnessed it myself even though there are plenty around (though not as many as it sounds like you have). Kinda the same thing with pill bugs (rolly pollys), I have heard others complain of plant damage, but never saw them damage any of my plants.

Maybe they just become a problem when their numbers get super high?

I have heard of people using rolled up newspapers, slightly dampened and laid in the garden overnight to trap them. I was thinking that it might be OK to use a general insecticide on the paper to kill them since it wouldn't be on any plants and should only attract ear wigs and maybe some other bugs looking for a dark hiding place in the day like slugs (dunno if any good bugs would be interested). My thinking is that it would be less labor intensive than having to replace the traps each day.

They strip the new leaves on all my clematis and chew holes in the flowers. They are always on top of any upright daisy shaped flower, eating the bees' pollen, I guess. Before the buds started opening on the echinacea, they made lace out of the leaves as well as the buddlia. They chew on daylily buds that are about to open, chew on petunias, favor one basil plant over the other, and last night I saw many on top of the newly forming sedum blooms. They are on nearly every shrub, but have taken a recent liking to Weigelias and the dwarf burning bush. They mass on top of the elderberry blossom heads, chewing on the little flowers, which has resulted in less than half the berries it would have had. I was going to try to make elderberry wine this year, but there won't be enough berries. Oh, and lamium. My lamium plants are so chewed up I rarely find earwigs on them anymore. They chew on hosta flowers, and finer hosta leaves, and I even saw them on the boxwood. I think I may have cussed out loud when I saw that only because there are so many there are even trying to eat thicker leave plants. They are destroying the new growth tips on the white snake root and are on nearly everything else, only in less numbers.

I know what Sevin tastes like - that can't be a good thing.

I've have never noticed damage from pill bugs, and I have yet to see any Japanese beetles. I suppose I will get those, or something else as soon as the earwigs are under control.

I was looking for more safe ways to deal with earwigs and found this site- Golden Harvest Organics. They had this to say:

Earwigs:

Earwigs in general can be considered an ally in the garden as they will eat aphids, insect larvae, snails, and other slow moving bugs. and other pests at night as they are nocturnal. One truly good function of the insect is they eat the eggs of the codling moth which is a serious problem with apple trees. When you have an over population of earwigs they can become a nuisance. Generally they will feed on your marigolds and they really go for clematis vines, dahlias, delphiniums, pansies and chrysanthemums. They cause the most trouble June through October.

A favored control method is spreading diatomaceous earth where they are apt to crawl. Make applications in late spring about a week apart, and treat the soil around the foundations of houses, along walks, fences, and around trees. Botanical insecticides should be used as spot treatments or crack and crevice sprays.
One possible control in dealing with earwigs is to mix insecticide soap with isopropyl alcohol and spray the infested area every two to three days for two weeks. To make this spray add 1 tablespoon of the alcohol to each quart of insecticide soap.
Another method is to trap earwigs in pieces of old hose or rolled up newspapers. Check these during day and shake the insects into a bucket of soapy water.
A very successful method to get rid of earwigs is to take a shallow, straight-sided container and fill it half full with vegetable oil. Clean out the bodies every day and you may reuse the oil as often as you like. We have found that this works particularly well in a greenhouse situation.
Here's another trap mixture: 1 tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tbsp molasses, 1 tbsp dry yeast, 8 ozs water. Mix all the ingredients well and place in a small plastic container (like a cottage cheese container). Bury the container to ground level. Clean it out as needed.

tj

Here is a link that might be useful: Golden Harvest Organics

I really thought my yard/garden here in Fitchburg was the "earwig capitol of the world"! All my plants were getting chewed. Mix up some dish soap and water in a spray bottle. Check under flowerpots,stacks of wood or anything that holds moisture. When you see em, spray em! The soap/water combination kills them instantly! I had one flowerpot that must have had 100 earwigs in it, pulled the bottom off and it was like someting out of a horror movie! My earwig problem is solved, since spraying have not found one in the entire yard, plants are coming back and looking good!

Great info, all of you!
I too, have lots of earwigs, although not as many as krimjim.
I do not like seeing a family of them hiding deep in the throat of a daylily when I want to take a photo!

Going to try some of those methods today.

Julie

Is it bad if I have earwigs in my compost? At least most insects don't seem to survive in the soil I use for pots, but I of course worry about my garden under the deck... Hmm....

Thanks to all of you for the info on earwigs. I had suspected it was earwigs eating my flowers in Door County. Good ideas you shared. I will try some.

"...Is it bad if I have earwigs in my compost?..."

No, not really, at least not while they stay there. They'll just help the composting process. It's when you move them to planting beds that they become an issue.

tj

First time posting to Garden Web. New here as a member but love this site. I could not resist today. Earwigs! This is the first garden I've had with earwigs. Never seen them before and I've been gardening for a lot of years. Difference? I've always had lots of sun.

Where I live now is an apartment with evergreen trees around me in front of the patio, my newly planted sod, and started a garden this year. We have had so much rain, dampness and so many cloudy overcast days that it has created an environment for earwigs to flourish in.

You would literally have to get rid of everything organic and pave over everything with concrete to get rid of them.

I see they love dampness. They love to hide and anything will do to hide in. When they get in your house they will not breed so you can get rid of them because they need an organic place to breed and find food. But you have to find the point of entry and seal it tight.Remove anything organic from entry points and keep it cleaned off. No leaves, dead petals, mulch or anything they can eat and hide in. They like wood and basically thrive in organic, nature environments. Any crack or crevice is enough to hide in. Under flower pots, inside flower blooms, underside of chairs, tables.

I made a solution using dish liquid, alcohol and a little windex. Works instantly but I heard the dish liquid alone would do the same job. Don't know. But they don't like dish liquid of that I'm sure.

I hate them. The only way I found to keep them out of my house is to keep the patio door closed. At the peak of summer the door is closed (No fun) and they are gone. They come out at night so keep the vacuum cleaner handy.

Outside is another story. There is no way to get rid of them outside as long as their is organic stuff out there--like a garden LOl!

I think it's been all the rain we've had this year. Garden Web is the best sooo much knowledge here. You guys have been a great help so I finally joined a month or so ago.

P.S. Guys. I thought I needed to add this, I didn't spray the solution of dish liquid, alcohol and windex on my plants or in the garden or grass. I used it to kill some of them indoors (I don't have children at home and no pets), but mostly used out on the patio. Again, thanks for all the good info here.