How do you get rid of Earwigs!?

Question

We moved into this house last fall. The people who had owned it for 3 yrs did not take very good care of the yard. Late this spring we started working on bringing back the yard , planting flowers , grass and so on. One day I was edging the yard and up came a ton of earwigs. Now I am starting to find the darn things in my house! started in the Basement and now I am even finding them on the second floor! I have a pet, so I am not much into using pesticides as I fear she may ingest or inhale them somehow. Anybody know of some old fashioned tricks or non-chemical ways of ridding us of these creatures?

Answer 1

My sister just recently had an infestation of earwigs in her car! She was using Sevin but didn't like using a pesticide and couldn't be sure she was actually killing all the earwigs since they generally hide "under" things.

There are a couple of ways to conquer earwigs without resorting to chemicals. The first is diatomaceous earth. Diatomaceous earth is naturalIy occuring substance consisting of diatoms of fossils of freshwater organisms and marine life. Crushed to a fine powder and observed through a microscope, the particles resemble bits of broken glass. When an insect crosses through it, its body is cut and it dies.

Use in places like bathroom and basement and around baseboards and windowsills to keep new earwigs from getting in and to kill those already inside.

There are two other natural, safe and effective ways to trap earwigs already in your home. Spray a newspaper lightly with water, roll it up loosely and secure with a string or rubber band. Place on the ground near earwig activity. The next morning pick up and discard the paper in a sealed container.

Another method to trap earwigs is to take a shallow, straight-sided container and fill it half full with vegetable oil. Clean the trap daily; the oil can be re-used.

These methods require that you be diligent in harvesting -- checking traps daily -- disposing of the newspaper and cleaning the oil. But both work and don't rely on pesticides, either!

If you want more information on managing insects without pesticides....visit http://www.eartheasy.com/live_natpest_control.htm -- my source for this information!

Answer 2

Ha, funny you should ask, I was randomly reading about earwigs today on Wikipedia. But anyway, it seems to be the general consensus that the dish soap Fantastik is good for killing earwigs. I've never used it and never had a problem but I would recommend it since it seems to be effective, especially since it's not as toxic and hazardous to your own health as Raid and insect killers.

So get an empty squirt bottle and mix fantastic and water and you have an effective earwig killing solution. As far as completely exterminating you may need an exterminator but they are most active at night so try to find the place(s) they are most active and give it a thorough dousing and hope for the best!

good luck

Answer 3

Lay on the soil, or stick one end in the ground a few inches, 12" pieces of bamboo. The earwigs will crawl into them in the night.

Every morning shake them out and dispose. You should be ahead of them in a short time.

Answer 4

When I lived in Ontario, I used to roll up damp newspaper outside at night, and then dump it into a bucket of soapy hot water in the morning. It never got rid of them, just kept them down to a nearly managable amount.earwigs are not native to north america, and have no natural enemy, that's why they are so proliferent. They've been around for about 45 years, and seem to really like moist places. Good luck. we don't have them in Alberta yet, thank god, and touch wood.

Answer 5

Try 7-dust or non acidic lime