Learn how to get rid of your earwigs or pincher bugs with these tips.
Preventing an Earwig Infestation
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Earwigs? Ew! Don’t worry. These menacing-looking insects don’t have a fetish for ears (or wigs), but they will go after garden plants. Here are tips for identifying, preventing, and getting rid of earwigs, also known as pincher bugs, in the garden (and your home).
What Are Earwigs?
Earwigs can be found in almost any growing zone, although they are more likely to inhabit warm, humid climates. You might have trouble spotting one—not only are they quick movers, but they are also nocturnal and tend to hide during the day when you are tending the garden. They like decaying wood and plant material and dark, damp spaces. Oftentimes, they can be found in basements and woodpiles.
Earwigs are the sole members of the insect order Dermaptera, ancient bugs that began crawling around Earth about 208 million years ago. Today, nearly 2,000 species are scattered everywhere but in Earth’s polar regions. Earwig comes from the Old English ear-wicga, which means “ear wiggler”—so named because the insect was once thought to seek out human ears to reside in. In France, they’re called “ear piercers” (perce-orielles) and in Germany, “ear worms” (Ohrwürmer).
In North America, we’re most familiar with Forficula auricularia, a European species. Earwigs were first reported in the early 1900s and have now spread to most of the United States and parts of Canada.
Earwigs enjoy a lively social scene. They congregate during the day because they tend to find the same hiding places. Their nests can number in the thousands, and they aren’t territorial, so they often live together.
What Do Earwigs Eat?
Pincher bugs are omnivores, meaning that they’ll eat pretty much anything that’s made available to them. In the garden, they primarily feed on dead or decaying plant and animal matter. However, when their population gets out of control, they may turn to feast on living plant matter, especially the seedlings or young foliage of vegetables and flowers. They will also readily prey on aphids, insect eggs, maggots, grubs, and armyworms.
This creates a conundrum for gardeners … Should earwigs be allowed to remain in your garden to eat up aphids and other pests? Or should they be removed before they turn their attention to your plants? Generally, earwigs do not cause enough damage to be worth fighting. However, if you do see large numbers of them around your plants, you can consider taking action.
Do Earwigs Pinch?
The pincers at the end of an earwig’s abdomen look rather formidable. They are capable of pinching (and sometimes biting) humans, but the pinch is not particularly powerful. Earwigs usually use their pincers to ward off enemies like toads and birds, or—in some species—to catch prey.
The pincers, called “cerci,” are also important for romance. Attached at the insect’s abdomen, they are indicators of gender, like tusks on an elephant. A male earwig’s pincers are long and curved, while a female’s are shorter and straighter.
How to Identify Earwigs
- Earwigs grow to be about 3/4-inch long. They’re reddish-brown insects with appendages on their tail ends that look like forceps. Few other insects have a set of scary-looking pincers like the earwig has. This is why some folks call them “pincher bugs” or “pinching bugs.”
- Earwigs run very quickly and can also fly, though they rarely do so. They actually have two sets of wings, and their pincers aid in unfolding the wings.
- What do earwigs eat? Nocturnal by nature, an earwig’s main meal is decaying plant material and wood, but it will attack living plants, including vegetables, fruit trees, and ornamentals, if given the opportunity. Earwigs are especially fond of flowers, lettuce and other tender greens, celery, and fruits.
- Female earwigs lay 40 to 50 shiny eggs in underground tunnels. Oddly enough, the eggs are diligently cared for and protected from predators by the mothers. They hatch in about a week, making it very difficult to control earwig populations before they hatch.
- Nymphs simply appear to be miniature versions of adult earwigs. They shed several skins, and ten weeks later, they reach adulthood.
- Earwigs often hide underneath pots during the day and then eat the flowers in the pots at night.
Signs of Earwig Damage
- Leaves will appear jagged and full of holes. Plants will become ragged overnight, and some leaves will only be partially eaten. There will also probably be a scattering of earwig excrement, which will be small, black pellets.
- Damage will often occur after rainy weather, which forces earwigs to seek dry shelter and climb up into plants and leaves.
- You might find earwigs under pots that contain damaged plants.
- Earwig damage looks similar to that of slugs and snails. To tell the difference, look for the telltale sign of slugs and snails: a trail of slime residue on foliage.
Photo Credit: Barbara Pleasant.
Catherine Boeckmann
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My Mother absolutely detests earwigs and one summer a few years ago her yard was full of them! She researched all the remedies, trapping, poisoning, and in the end she found the best remedy and has successfully gotten rid of the large numbers. Dawn dish soap (and probably any other dish liquid) and water. Mix it fairly strong....maybe 1 part soap, 4 parts water. Spray that solution on them and they die within seconds...they just curl up, wiggle around, and are dead! She found a large sprayer and would walk around the yard after dark checking her plants (under leaves, all the hot spots) around the foundation of the house and spray like mad! We all laughed at her slinking around in the dark with a flashlight, but it worked! Also keep a small bottle in the house in case you spot one....they can squeeze in little spaces but they can't escape the dish liquid! This shouldn't harm your plants or pets and it really works. If you are diligent enough early in the year you can absolutely reduce their numbers.
Is there something that can be done to get rid of earwigs as they get into the bottom of my hanging pots of flowers and eat the roots. They like it there because of dampness when watering. Thanks
I have earwigs in my new hut and found a white one never seen a white one before I killed it but I have got a lot of black ones what does the white one mean.
Yikes! Silverfish are very similar in shape to earwigs but are silvery-white to pale coppery brown in color. If look closely, instead of pinchers, they have 3 straight tails sticking out in back and they can't fly but are very fast runners. HOWEVER .... Far more damaging than earwigs but they are most damaging to the home rather than the garden ... because they love the indoors and being in homes .... where they feed on paper, glue, books, mail/envelopes, wallpaper, clothing, rugs, cloth furniture, linens, pillows, bedding .... they especially love eating books and paper and cardboard .... AND they also love to invade your pantry items like oats and flour and will eat the labels off of your canned goods.
Sounds like an albino.
Your web site proved it was pincher bugs and now I know how to save my vegetable garden from the unknown bug.....thank goodness it wasn't termites. Looking forward to the info on garden care from you
My cherry tree was looking fine after blossoming, them I looked and most cherries had been killed, leaves chewed up. When I looked, I found a nest of earwigs inside a foil wrapped around the tree to scare birds. I pulled it off but they killed most young cherries on our new tree from last year. I never knew they would attack leaves on tree and eat them.
I come across this little creepy crawlers quite a bit, even sitting outside on my porch every so often I get one crawling up my leg!
After all these years I have never had one pinch me!
Okay, whoa. "Some people think that earwigs use their pincers to pinch. Physically, this is possible, but they can’t exert enough pressure to result in much of anything.".
This is false! When I lived on the farm, my "room" was an old converted schoolbus. One summer after pulling on a shirt from the closet, there was a horribly painful pinching on my belly. I shook out my shirt, to no avail. Panicking, I reached up to brush at the spot and felt something which wouldn't be brushed away! Lifted up my shirt and there, with a tenacious grip on my abs, was a nasty earwig! It *would not* let go, and I had to actually grab the lil sumb*tch and PULL it off me! Kayh is right!
**Many articles say that they ***can not*** pinch with their pinchers**
