Earwigs are Everywhere!
Durango Herald, Oct 12, 2006
Melissa Paxton, Development Coordinator

www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk

Earwigs play an important role as garden decomposers.

As temperatures drop and precipitation increases, you may discover that your homes have become host to some unwelcome insect guests. These pesky visitors are members of the Dermaptera (skin-winged) insect order and go by the common name of Earwig.

Once rumored to crawl into the ears of sleeping people to lay their eggs (not to worry, they really don’t!), our local species of Forficula auricularia, the European earwig, was introduced to the west coast of the United States in the first part of the twentieth century. This resourceful insect quickly made its way across the country, hitching rides in plants moving eastward, and taking up residence in any area with consistent rainfall and vegetation.

Though hard to spot and rarely used, many species of adult earwig do indeed have sets of thin, membranous wings that are kept folded and tucked away under their leathery abdomens. Sometimes called ‘pincher bugs’ or ‘forky tails’, earwigs also have a set of forceps, used for warning off attackers, mating and capturing prey, and a forked tail thought to be used for balance and burrowing.

In Southwestern Colorado, earwigs can be both a garden's friend and foe. While posing a threat to vegetables, flowers and fruits by chomping the tender leaves and stems of new plants, they also play an important role as garden decomposers, feeding on the dead and decaying plant material in our compost piles and snacking on aphids, mites and other pests.

During early spring and in late autumn, female earwigs burrow down into the soil, building nests big enough to hold 30 to 50 eggs. Upon laying her eggs, the female encloses herself in the nest and proceeds to lick her eggs over and over, keeping them moist and clean until they hatch. After the nymphs hatch, the female earwig continues to care for and feed her hatchlings in the nest until after their first molt.

In fall and early winter, juvenile and adult earwigs can become accidental home invaders as they look for warm, dark, protective places to hide out during the day.

In our house, we’ve found earwigs everywhere! In the kitchen, under the stove, around the sink, in the teapot, hiding in the fruit bowl, under the bathmat. Anywhere we look, there’s an earwig.

We've tried sweeping them back outside, to no avail. Now, we are trying to trap them in rolls of damp newspaper at night in hopes of dumping them out into the compost pile in the morning.

While we may not be able to stop the inevitable earwig invasion, we are hoping to give these decomposers a chance to do what they do best-keep our compost piles working!