Earwigs don't have a good reputation. They are suspected of penetrating the ear canals and cause disgust. But the insects are by no means as bad as is often assumed. If earwigs have settled in the garden, they can be used specifically as beneficial insects.

The earwig has a bad reputation but is very useful

Table of Contents

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  1. the essentials in brief
  2. In the flat
  3. Combat earwigs
  4. Prevent ear piercing
  5. Characteristics
  6. recognize species
  7. Encourage earwigs
  8. frequently asked Questions

    9. the essentials in brief

    • Earwigs are neither poisonous nor dangerous. They rarely appear as pests and are usually very useful pest controllers.
    • Insects do not need to be chemically controlled. Homemade traps are enough to get the animals out of the apartment.
    • Earwigs have special habitat requirements. If the conditions are right, they get lost in houses and apartments. Prevention is therefore important.
    • Four species are widespread and can be encouraged by insect hotels in the garden.

    earwigs in the apartment

    Earwigs, which represent the order of earwigs, are among the dreaded insects. Especially when they are discovered in the apartment and in the house, the concern is great. In fact, the insects prefer a sheltered habitat in the garden. If earwigs suddenly appear in your own four walls, it is usually a coincidence.

    Common names:

    • Ear louse or ear crawler
    • earwigs, hyraxes and ear brooders
    • Ohrawusler

    Are earwigs dangerous?

    In the past, the insect was considered dangerous to humans. Tradition has it that the earwig nests in the ears of humans and pets and destroys the eardrum at night in order to lay its eggs there. In fact, insect mouthparts are not strong enough to chew through tissue.

    Their pincers, which developed from abdominal threads, are used for hunting small prey and for defense. If they feel threatened, they can pinch with these so-called cerci. Such an earwig bite is neither poisonous nor dangerous and does not cause pain.

    Useful or harmful?

    The common earwig is considered an omnivore that feeds on both plant and animal food. It proves beneficial as it eats aphids and caterpillars of various species of butterflies and curbs mildew infestations. Earwigs use dead material and, as predators, actively hunt for smaller insects. They are involved in the decomposition of dead biomass. The sand earwig is considered a pure carnivore and can be used for pest control.

    In rare cases, the earwig occurs as a pest. It mainly eats soft parts of plants such as blossoms and tender vegetable sprouts. It cannot bite through hard leaf tissue and fruit skins. If the insect is observed on grapes or apples, then the fruits have been previously damaged by other insects. The earwig only uses the existing feeding passages that come from codling moths and other insects.

    Earwigs in the apartment - cause

    In search of a warm retreat, earwigs are sometimes drawn into the house

    Earwigs prefer warm and slightly humid habitats. If you spot an earwig in the house, there is no need to panic. They like to crawl into cracks and crevices, so they often find suitable retreats in window frames. In this way, the insects get into the apartment, which is not part of the optimal habitat. Various plants on the windowsill can attract insects through open windows and doors. Earwigs often get into the apartment through the soil in the flower pot.

    • in the bathroom: Earwigs crawl into freshly washed and slightly damp laundry
    • in the kitchen: Overripe fruit attracts insects
    • in bed: warm and slightly humid conditions are an attractive shelter

    Combat earwigs

    Usually there is no reason to fight the earwigs. Since the insects develop a maximum of two generations per year, an earwig plague rarely occurs. The insects feel at home in garages, sheds and garden sheds or greenhouses. If you still want to get rid of the earwigs, gentle measures are recommended. Insect sprays, poison and other chemical agents are superfluous.

    It is neither necessary nor useful to fight earwigs with the chemical club. The insects are harmless and often very useful.

    Earwig Trap

    A trap is particularly effective if it corresponds to the optimal habitat conditions for the insects. The animals like it warm, a little damp and dark. They are active from dusk to dawn and go on a rampage under cover of darkness. Leave the lights on at night to trap earwigs. However, it can take a while for the animals to discover the roost. In the garden you can protect fruit trees with simple barriers.

    Prepare Place
    clay pot fill with wood wool, straw, newspaper hang upside down in the kitchen
    material moisten place in a corner of the room
    sticky trap cut the double-sided tape glue around fruit tree trunks

    Attract with home remedies

    If you want to get rid of earwigs, you should attract the animals. A bundle of fresh lavender sprigs is said to magically attract insects. They crawl between the plant parts and can then be released outdoors. A bundle of brushwood also serves as a lure, because earwigs like to withdraw into such protected niches.

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    Prevent ear piercing

    With a few preventive measures, you can prevent earwigs from entering your home. If you get to grips with the way these insects live, you will quickly see the conditions under which earwigs thrive. For successful prevention it is important that the environment appears unattractive for the insects.

    Avoid forage plants

    There are a number of plants that earwigs prefer to eat. They do not belong to any particular plant family, but have particularly soft plant parts. Young plants or soft-skinned fruit such as apricots or grapes can also be eaten. So that the insects do not get lost in your apartment, you should avoid these plants on the windowsill:

    • nightshade family: angel trumpet
    • trumpet tree family: Trumpet flowers and Trumpet trees
    • Ranunculaceae: Clematis
    • daisy family: dahlias
    • orchids: thin-leaved species

    Daily Routines

    Before you bring laundry in from outside, it should be completely dry. Shake out bed sheets and towels thoroughly so that you don't bring earwigs into the apartment unnoticed. During the day, air your sheets and shake out your pillow and blanket outside. This allows moisture to evaporate and makes the laundry unattractive to earwigs. Rooms in which laundry and beds are located should be regularly heated and aired out.

    Inspect flower pots

    Flower pots are ideal for earwigs

    Before you bring plants into the house from the patio or balcony, you should get the root ball out of the pot. Potential residents are scared away in this way. If an earwig has settled in the substrate, you can watch the insect immediately flee. Then place the root ball in a bucket of water to flush out insects hidden deep in the substrate.

    Prepare windows and doors

    Since earwigs feel comfortable in niches, you should close all possible entry points to the house and apartment from the outside. Use silicone or acrylic for facade holes and close door gaps with special bristle strips. Open windows and doors are protected from intruders by fly screens.

    Characteristics

    Earwigs are not beetles but an independent order and are therefore related to beetles. Both orders are flying insects. The earwigs carry the scientific name Dermaptera, which is represented by 1,800 species worldwide.

    reproduction

    Earwigs exhibit a distinctive courtship behavior during which the males use their pincers. These are also used during mating to fix the female. After successful fertilization, this lays its eggs in spring and sometimes a second time in autumn.

    She builds an underground nest to lay her eggs, or places her eggs in leaf grooves and under rotten bark. The females remain in the nest until the larvae hatch. Brood care occurs mainly in the spring generation. The female cleans and feeds the larvae throughout their month-long development.

    Interesting facts about the larvae:

    • moult four to five times
    • lighter colored than adult insects
    • wingless
    • only overwinter in the adult stage

    Earwig males always have this with them

    Male earwigs have a main penis that can reach the length of the insect's body. When hardened, it can break out of the chitin shell and get stuck in the sexual duct of the female. Theories state that the males want to impose some kind of chastity belt on their partners. These can then no longer pair with competitors. The males are not bothered by this loss because they have a second replacement limb.

    What do earwigs eat?

    Earwigs eat aphids and other pests

    As omnivores, earwigs do not specialize in any particular food. They prefer aphids and their eggs and prey on other arthropods. Plant-based foods are also on their menu. The insects attack soft plant tissue and eat young shoots or flowers of roses and other flowering plants.

    They go on lettuce, celery or potatoes. Strawberries, peaches and grapes are not scorned. In addition, earwigs eat the dead and not yet degraded substance that collects on the ground. The insects also prey on the accumulated supply of solitary bees that store their food in soil nests.

    Can earwigs fly?

    Earwigs are flying insects. You will rarely encounter a flying earwig, as most species have degenerated flight muscles or imperfectly developed wings. The common earwig has wings reduced to stubs, making it unable to fly. Winged insects have membranous wings under their short elytra that are intricately folded. In order to unfold these, the earwigs have to use their pincers to help.

    activity

    Earwigs are more active at night

    Earwigs are mainly active at dusk and at night. They don't like daylight, which is why they rarely get lost in lighted rooms at night. During the day, earwigs hide in dark niches that are narrow and have slightly humid conditions. They form large accumulations under stones or rotten bark.

    Dense branches or piles of leaves on the ground are also attractive hiding places. They like to retreat to hollow peach pits or abandoned bird nest boxes. If you spot an earwig during the day, it has most likely been disturbed.

    Earwigs in Medicine and Popular Belief

    In ancient times, earwigs were used medicinally to treat ear conditions such as deafness. For this purpose, the insects were dried and processed into powder. The Latin name "auricula", which means something like little ears, presumably stems from this fact. The fairy tales about earwigs destroying eardrums may also come from the Middle Ages.

    recognize species

    Of the 1,800 known species of earwigs, ten are found in Germany, because the insects, as cold-blooded animals, prefer warmer climate zones. Most species are extremely rare, so they are unlikely to get lost in your own garden. Only four species are considered common and are represented throughout Germany.

    German name Happen frequency
    Euborellia annulipe Southern catchy tune Saxony Rare
    Euborellia arcanum - Saxony, Brandenburg Rare
    Labidurariparia earwig mainly northern and eastern Germany scattered
    labia minor Dwarf catchy tune almost throughout Germany often
    Paralabella curvicauda - Saxony Rare
    Chelidurella guentheri Forest catchy tune almost throughout Germany often
    Chelisurella thaleri - Bavaria Rare
    Anechura bipunctata Two-point catchy tune Bavaria Rare
    Apterygida media Bushy catchy tune almost throughout Germany often
    Forficula auricularia Mean catchy tune throughout Germany often

    Mean catchy tune

    The dark reddish-brown earwig is between ten and sixteen millimeters long. Its body appears laterally in a lighter brown. The short elytra are colored yellow-brown. Below them, the hind wings protrude slightly. Since the wings are greatly reduced, the common earwig is almost flightless.

    At the end of the abdomen the insect has a pair of pincers, the base of which is light brown in colour. Towards the top, the tools become dark brown. In males, the pincers are flat and slightly curved with one or two small teeth on the inside. Females have straight pincers that are shorter and more delicate than those of males.

    Bushy catchy tune

    With a body length of six to ten millimeters, this species is more delicate than the common earwig. The insect is finely hairy and has a glossy dark brown to almost black colored head. Its wings are severely stunted or completely absent. The name comes from the preferred habitats in hedges and shrubs. It needs cavities in tree trunks or holes in the ground to lay its eggs. Its diet includes flowers and pollen from various shrubs, although the bush earwig also eats decaying plants and aphids.

    Preferred Habitats:

    • Alluvial forests along water bodies
    • Parks and gardens in residential areas
    • not too dry forest edges
    • Shrubs overgrown with hops and Virginia creeper
    • in spring mainly on sloe and hawthorn
    • in summer on flowering nettles

    Forest catchy tune

    The forest earwig is widespread in our country

    The species is between ten and fourteen millimeters long and has a predominantly brownish to black colored body. Its flanks appear light brown. Forest earwigs have no wings and their elytra are very vestigial, which distinguishes them from other earwigs. Typical for males are the twisting pincers on the abdomen, which are pointed in the female. This species lives in deciduous and mixed forests, where it prefers to stay in fallen foliage. During the day the animal hides under stones and rotten bark.

    Dwarf catchy tune

    This small insect appears dull brown with a yellowish tinge because its entire body is covered with fine and dense hair. The head and antennae are dark brown in color, with the antennae tip being a little brighter. The abdomen has a reddish-brown ground color. Compared to other common earwigs, this species has well-developed wings. With a body length of six to eight centimetres, the dwarf earwig is the smallest species.

    Particularities:

    • prefers to be found on dunghills
    • as a good flyer also occurs far away from promising habitats
    • eats plant sap, droppings, fly eggs and maggots

    tips

    The dwarf earwig likes to fly on walls that have been painted with white lime paint. In the niches you have a good chance of observing the species.

    Encourage earwigs in the garden

    Earwigs are interesting and versatile insects that deserve a habitat in the garden. With an insect hotel you can settle the earwig and thus increase the biodiversity in your own garden. This appeals to numerous insectivores such as birds and hedgehogs, who like to eat earwigs as a treat.

    A treat for natural enemies

    When you encourage earwigs in your garden, you also attract a variety of insectivores. The animals are not only preyed on by ants, spiders and other predatory insects. Birds also like to peck the delicacies from their hiding places and hedgehogs use the crawlers as a source of energy to prepare for the harsh winter. The pincers are of little use as a defense against such predators. Therefore, the earwig tries to defend itself with a secretion that is supposed to deter the robber.

    digression

    Earwigs protect themselves with chemicals

    Researchers from Gießen found that earwigs are constantly surrounded by a cloud of chemicals.This fine mist comes from the weir secretion, which the insects can secrete when threatened. The secretion can be fired up to ten centimeters at the enemy. As a cloud of fog, it protects the insects from fungi, bacteria and parasites. This defense mechanism is necessary because earwigs live in warm, humid and bacteria-friendly environments.

    Build an earwig hotel

    An earwig hotel attracts the beneficial insects and offers them protection

    With a suitable nesting aid, you can encourage insects in your garden and thus benefit from natural pest control. If the insects feel comfortable, the sociable animals reproduce regularly and form a whole colony. In the hotel they are protected from predators and can lay their eggs. You will need a classic clay pot with a drainage hole or a ceramic jar, filling material, trellis or wooden sticks, wire and string.

    Building instructions for a hotel made of ceramic or clay:

    1. Tie string to small wooden stick and pull through drain hole
    2. Fill the pot or container with straw, wood shavings, hay and a handful of soil
    3. Cover the opening with lattice or wooden sticks and fasten with wire
    4. Hang the pot in trees with direct contact to the trunk
    5. alternatively set up in beds

    tips

    So that the filling material does not get soaked when it rains, you can stick potsherds to the drainage hole before filling.

    Make earwigs useful

    If you have discovered a large colony of insects that has settled in an unfavorable place, you can attempt resettlement. Place a bundle of hollow bamboo sticks near the colony and startle the animals with a light source. After some time, the catchy tunes have discovered the attractive hiding place and withdraw into the narrow cavities. Carefully remove the bamboo sticks and hang them in plants that are preferentially attacked by aphids:

    • elder: Sambucus nigra
    • hibiscus: Hibiscus syriacus
    • snowball: Virbunum opulus and lanata
    • Mock orange: Philadelphus coronarius
    • roses: numerous species and varieties

    frequently asked Questions

    Do earwigs crawl in your ears?

    It is a myth that earwigs prefer to penetrate the ears of sleeping people at night. Although it is possible for the insects to occasionally crawl around on the human body, nesting in the ears is extremely unlikely and is more likely to be classified as an accident. This incident is most likely to happen when you fall asleep in the long grass of a flowery meadow or in the hayloft in the barn. But here, too, the earwig does not target the eardrum.

    Why are earwigs called earwigs?

    There are several theories about the origin of the name. In ancient times, insects were dried and powdered. The powder was a remedy for various ear problems, which is reflected in the Latin suffix of the common earwig: auricularia means little ears. Other theories on the origin of the name relate to the shape of the pincers on the abdomen, which are often reminiscent of the eye of a needle.

    Can earwigs pinch?

    Earwigs are able to use their pincers as claws. They use the tools in hunting and courtship. If they feel threatened and are picked up by humans, they may bite. In most cases, such a sting is completely painless. Earwigs are not dangerous. If you have been bitten by the earwig, you should clean and disinfect the wound.

    What helps against earwigs?

    If you want to get rid of catchy tunes, you don't have to reach for the chemical club right away. There are gentler methods and natural remedies against earwigs in the house and garden. Hang a bundle of fresh sprigs of lavender in the apartment and wait for the animals to nest in it. Alternatively, you can also use a clay pot filled with straw and newspaper as a resettlement aid. Expose the insects away from your garden.

    What do male earwigs always have with them?

    The males are equipped with a second penis, which researchers previously thought was useless. The insects in the wild probably follow a special strategy. During mating, the males intentionally break off their body-length main limb, so that the sexual duct of the partner remains closed. Other males are no longer able to mate with the female.

    How do I build an earwig trap?

    You will need a flower pot or an empty tin can. Fill the dwelling with grass, hay, straw, and crumpled newspaper. To prevent the filling from falling out of the jar, put an elastic nest over the opening. The net of garlic bulbs, for example, is very suitable for this. The self-made insect hotel (€11.33) is hung upside down in trees and bushes that are often attacked by aphids. These serve as food for the earwigs.

Category:

Animals in the garden