Earwigs trigger disgust in many people - especially in the home. Here's how to fight them or get rid of them with traps.

The earwig is not welcome in the apartment - although it is harmless

Have earwigs (Forficula auricularia) chosen your hallway, garage, garden shed or even bedroom as an earwig hotel? While the prehistoric flying insects are very useful in the garden, they are occasionally a nuisance in the house or in the gazebo. Here you can read how to drive them away or fight them gently.

Earwigs in the apartment

First we will introduce you to the earwigs, which are often underestimated, then you will learn everything about fighting the animals. Here we go into preventive measures, the use of traps as well as home remedies, biological agents and chemical control agents. Here you can also find out whether earwigs are more useful or harmful and dangerous.

What are earwigs?

Earwigs (Dermaptera), as the animals are often called "earwigs", form an order within the class of flying insects. They do indeed have wings - only they almost never use them. The earwigs commonly found in Germany are the common earwig (Forficula auricularia), which occurs in Europe and North America. It mostly eats fungi, algae, dead plant material and small insects. Earwigs are always hidden: under bark and leaves, in crevices or in piles of wood. Here, in spring and autumn, the females lay up to 100 eggs and the larvae that hatch from them undergo extensive brood care. Earwigs are active at night and at dusk.

Note: Ancestors of today's earwigs (Dermaptera) lived on Earth as early as the Jurassic period, so the order is at least 150 million years old. This also explains the archaic appearance of the animals.

In the garden, earwigs are usually more useful than harmful

Fight Earwigs

Earwigs like it slightly damp, not too warm and hidden. They don't really feel comfortable in the house. Do you think …? Findone or a few earwigs in a normally heated and dry home, it is most likely a coincidence - the animals may have entered your home through a crack and may have been lured by an interesting food source. They can occur more frequently in sheds, garages, garden sheds, on balconies or in greenhouses. If you really want to get rid of them there, you will find tips on how to proceed correctly below.

Note: Earwigs produce only one or at most two generations per year. A plague of earwigs can hardly arise like this.

Prevent ear piercing

If a room is to remain free of earwigs, all existing entrances must be sealed: Spread cracks with silicone, clay or another filler. Doors and windows should also be sealed so that the narrow earwigs looking for winter quarters cannot get in. You should also avoid storing potential food in said space: food and dead plant matter of any kind must be out of reach and well sealed. You can also resort to traps and other methods, which we will now introduce.

Earwig Traps

Because earwigs are not dangerous and can even be useful in the garden most of the time, we recommend using traps to attract them first. You can then take the animals outside unharmed so that they can go about their daily work. What is meant here are, of course, traps in which the catchy tunes don't perish.

Clay pot trap against earwigs

It has proven useful to offer the earwigs a nice shelter overnight and to remove them the next morning. A clay pot filled with straw, hay, newspaper or excelsior and sprinkled with some soil, then placed upside down (so that the catchy tunes can still get underneath) is said to lead to regular meetings.

Earwigs feel good in pots - also in those of our indoor plants

Wet Cloth Trap Against Earwigs

You can also be successful with some damp paper or fabric in a corner of the room, laid out overnight. Because of their preference for moisture, some of the catchy tunes usually find their way here quickly and can then simply be taken outside. Of course, this only applies if the rest of the room is dry.

Glue trap against earwigs

If you want to keep earwigs away from your fruit trees, you can use the usual glue rings. Because earwigs (almost) never fly,they also stick to it on the way up, although the rings are actually intended for frost moths. However, earwigs rarely if ever cause major damage to fruit trees - in fact, they keep them free from aphids.

Organic Earwig Remedies

Controlling earwigs in the garden is a punishable offense - however, control is possible in living areas. Because this should be done as gently as possible and people and pets should not be harmed, we recommend biological control.

Control is effective with our Plantura ant repellent, which is also effective against ants (Formicidae), woodlice (Porcellio scaber), silverfish (Lepisma saccharina ) can be used. Unfortunately, many other pest control agents are anything but gentle on pets or beneficial insects. Approval in organic farming is linked to the natural origin of the ingredients. But highly concentrated natural substances can be just as harmful to bees, beneficial insects and aquatic organisms as synthetically produced ones. Our Plantura ant remedy is not based on a chemical but on a physical effect: the diatomaceous earth it contains ensures that the earwigs dry out or suffocate within a few days.

Our Plantura ant repellent relies on its physical effect to combat pests

Chemicals against earwigs

Bait traps with chemical insecticides or sprays are also available for controlling earwigs indoors. However, as I hope you can gather from the previous paragraphs, using toxins to combat earwigs is neither necessary nor more effective than organic or home remedies. In addition, earwigs are tough: Even sprayed directly with a pest control spray, they often recover after a certain time and carry on as if nothing had happened. We advise against the use of these insecticides in the house, also to protect people and animals living in the house. Use in the garden will be punished with severe fines anyway.

Home remedies for earwigs

Keep earwigs from invading your home with these simple tricks.

Fighting Earwigs with Light

Because earwigs tend to shy away from light and heat, they can also be driven away by this. Cleaning up the affected room and lighting and heating it brightly for a long time therefore forces them toRetreat.

Get rid of earwigs from bed and laundry

Sometimes earwigs are found in folded laundry. They get there easily if it is left to dry in the open air and is not removed completely dry. The animals feel very comfortable in the narrow spaces between the folds of the laundry. You can also make yourself comfortable in bed - here, too, it is often slightly damp, warm and dark. You can prevent these awkward encounters as follows.

How do you get rid of earwigs in bed and laundry?

  • Only remove laundry when completely dry or shake it out thoroughly
  • Air your sheets during the day and don't leave them on the bed
  • Regularly heat and ventilate rooms with linen and bed to remove moisture from the room

Find more detailed information on whether earwigs are useful or dangerous.

Category:

Hedgehog, Squirrel & Co.