Earwig eggs are about to hatch, do this to keep them away
During the spring season, these creatures lay their eggs patiently, biding their time until the temperatures climb before making their grand reappearance
You don’t tend to see many earwigs at the start of spring simply because they’re still underground, but that doesn’t mean they’re not active. Both males and females descend into underground nests at the end of the fall and stay below ground over the winter.
In spring, they lay eggs and wait for temperatures to rise before making their grand entrance into your nightmares again.
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Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada entomologist Dr. Christine Noronha says cleaning up debris and raking the soil in your flower beds is one way to get ahead of them.
Raking your soil will help break the earwig nest. Consider using traps to keep them from feeding on your vegetables and flower plants. (Photographed: Nathan Coleman/The Weather Network)
“If you rake [the soil] lightly, you’re breaking up the nest, and you're exposing those eggs and even the little young that have hatched to predators,” Noronha tells The Weather Network.
Earwigs thrive in damp environments, therefore raking them out into the open helps to dehydrate them, subsequently leading to the drying out of their eggs.
Female earwig in its nest with newly-hatched young. File photo used for illustration purposes. Photographed by Tom Oates, Chester, UK, in 2010. (Source: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0)
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Once they become adults, if you don’t want them feeding on your vegetables and flower plants, you can build a trap that exploits their behaviour and psychology.
“They’re nocturnal, so they’re active at night. So during the day, they’re crawling into these little spaces, and the smaller the space, the better for them because they like the space touching their bodies,” says Noronha.
Paper straws or rolled-up newspaper can be used as traps, as they can be bent to form appealing crevices for the insects. Afterwards, simply shake them into a bucket of soapy water to remove them (you can see a demonstration of this in the video that leads this article).
Contrary to their name, earwigs do not actually venture into human ears as the popular myth suggests. While their pincers serve a mating function, they are also capable of delivering a nip or pinch if provoked.
