Earwigs have been known as the “ear crawlers,” but rest assured as they are not attracted to human or pet ears.
Learn more about earwigs, including 12 DIY tips for earwig control, how we perform earwig control, and more.
If you suspect you may have these pests, give us a call today for a free quote: 651-342-9489!
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Earwigs
Earwigs range in color from brown to black and range in size from ¼ inch to 1 inch.
Earwigs have 2 pincher forceps-like things on the end of their abdomen called cerci. The male’s cerci is curved and female’s cerci is more straight and pointed, so they’re easy to tell apart.
While their cerci look dangerous, they only consume insects and plants and they don’t bite or harm humans.
Earwigs, though they have wings, rarely fly. If they fly, it may be around a bright light at night, as they are attracted to light.
These pests are nocturnal and hide in cracks and crevices in moist areas. They have been known to inhabit bathrooms. They feed on a variety of plants and insects, like silverfish.
Earwigs, unlike how their name may suggest, do not purposefully burrow into human or animal ears. The name was derived from the Old English and translates to ear beetle or ear insect.
Rarely do earwigs survive winters outdoors, instead they overwinter in cracks, crevices, homes, and basements.
Out of the 1,800 species, only 25 exist in the United States. Earwigs are on all continents except Antarctica.
Earwigs, unlike how their name may suggest, do not purposefully burrow into human or animal ears. The name was derived from the Old English and translates to ear beetle or ear insect.
12 DIY Tips for Earwig Control
Because earwigs are typically your occasional invader and not often an invasive pest, routine pest control is helpful in prevention of these pests.
If you ever do come across an earwig infestation, look to Done Right Pest Solutions for all of your earwig control needs.
Read on to learn 12 DIY tips for earwig control.
- Inspect all affected areas. Inspection is of vital importance in pest control. If you don’t know what pests you have, you don’t know how to treat.
- Identify the earwig. The earwig is pretty identifiable with its pinchers on its backside. Still, making sure you have earwigs ensures that you remove all desirable harborage areas for earwigs and treat correctly.
- Use a vacuum to remove visible activity. The nice thing about live or dead bugs is that they are easy to vacuum up. It’s not like they are mice or larger rodents and you don’t have to dispose of their carcasses. Simply, vacuum up the live or dead activity.
- Shake down items. Earwigs often hide in the strangest of locations. This often happens to be household items or outdoor furniture items. Shake these items out to dislodge any harboring earwigs from within the items.
- Remove harborage areas. Unfortunately earwigs enjoy moist conditions outside, like in mulch, under patio stones, and in landscaping rock. This means a lot of extra work is on the table just to remove the conditions that earwigs prefer. Instead, hire a pest control professional to seasonally treat these areas to remove earwig populations before they get out of hand.
- Check your gutters! Leaves, sticks, and other debris often collect in gutters. A pro tip is to clean your gutters seasonally, or in the spring and fall to ensure earwigs don’t make their home in your gutters.
- Eliminate excess moisture. Earwigs love damp areas, so if you’ve ever had a pipe leak in a wall void, this is a perfect condition for earwig populations to grow. Be on the lookout for any warping or bulging siding, as it means there has been water damage within that wall. Be sure to remove that source of harborage condition.
- Perform routine exclusion. Pest control professionals routinely and seasonally perform exterior exclusion work for rodent control. If your foundation has any gaps wide enough for mice to squeeze through, insects like earwigs, silverfish, spiders, centipedes and millipedes, stinging insects, crickets, and others can certainly come on in, just like if you left your front door open!
- Employ monitoring devices. If you have any creepy crawlies in the basement, but don’t know how or where to start, use glue boards or sticky traps to trap these insects. Once they are caught, you can identify and then repel or treat them!
- Set up a dehumidifier. Earwigs, like silverfish are attracted to moisture. Implement a dehumidifier in the basement to dry up some of the moisture and create unfavorable conditions for these pests within your home.
- Use barrier items. While carpenter ants or pavement ants don’t like dust, powder, or peppermint oils, earwigs do not like petroleum jelly. If you’ve had earwigs get into any of your plants or garden, spread a thin layer of petroleum jelly around the base to create a barrier.
- Create a bird sanctuary. Birds eat worms and insects, including earwigs. Put some bird feeders up around your yard to encourage birds to come and they may eat the earwigs too!
How We Perform Earwig Control
Done Right Pest Solutions technicians thoroughly inspect your property in order to determine the next best course of action.
Depending on your situation, the technician will treat using a liquid product, either a bait or repellent (but not both). The technician will treat cracks and crevices.
Since each situation is different, the technician may suggest treating the exterior foundation or full house, depending on needs.
In most situations, earwigs are only an occasional pest, one here or there. But sometimes infestations can happen and there have been some devastating horror stories.
Earwig control is included in our seasonal package, the Peak Seasons Plan. So make sure to check that option out if you’re through with your creepy crawlies! We even created a comparison between reactive pest control and proactive pest control.
Conclusion & Next Steps
You’ve learned quite a bit about earwigs, areas around your home that they are attracted to, how we perform earwig control, and 12 DIY tips for earwig control.
You learned about our different options in regards to one-time services or year-round services for insect control. If at any time you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our staff. We would love to answer your questions and take care of your concerns! 651-342-9489.
Here when you need us,
Done Right Team
Have you ever had earwigs in your home? We would love to hear of your situation in the comments!
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