How to get rid of earwigs

There is a reason why this little insect is called an earwig, because they crawl in people’s ears and nest in the brain. But don’t get shocked too early, it’s just an urban legend where their name came from. Earwigs like to hide in small, dark and damp areas, so there’s a possibility that it might accidentally crawl into a human ear which is still rare. Mostly they are found in yards, gardens, homes near plants, stones, trees, plants, boxes, books, cracks, newspapers and basements. I myself found some earwigs crawling in newspaper I left in my room untouched for months recently, so get those things away near your bed and clean them once in a while. Earwigs are mostly harmless to human, they don’t transmit diseases nor thier pincers can pinch hard enough to cause any injury. Though their pincers do look dangerous, they are actually quite harmless and poisonless. But still they are disgusting and you don’t want them to crawl around your house, we are going to teach you how to get rid of earwigs and prevent them from infesting your home.

First you need to find out where is their hiding spots. Earwigs love small, moist and dark places.

1.) Check around cracks around doors and windows.

2.) Check around furniture, especially in the drawer. If you have documents, papers…etc, take them out flip it and make there’s no earwigs hidden in it. Clean the whole area before you place the thing back.

3.) Throw away, sell or donate all your unwanted junks especially rotting newspapers and books you no longer need.

4.) Clean up your basements and don’t pile up books, newspapers or paper made material in there. Basements are the perfect places for earwigs rather than bedrooms, as its normally dark, damp and left untouched for a very long time.

5.) If you have a gardens or yards, earwigs like to hang around plants, root, stones and your patio furniture. Check every part carefully and find out where most of them are hiding.

Once you have find all possible earwigs hiding places, you need to get rid of them. You can kill the visible one by stepping or squeeze them with some toilet papers. If there’s a lot of them, the most effective way is to use a vacuum sucking them up and make sure you use a dust bag for easy disposal. Earwigs are not going to sit there and let you vacuum them up, so be prepared of little work because once they are disturbed they will scatter and run like crazy. Also make sure you vacuum up all white round things that could be earwig eggs. Now you might still miss some areas or they can be hidden deep within cracks that vacuum can’t reach. Buying a earwig specific insecticides is probably the best way to get rid the rest of them. These insecticides are typically not harmful to humans and dogs, but like other pesticides spray keep them away from your children. Spray around earwigs spots and in holes and cracks where they might be hiding.

For outdoor plants, you might not want to use insecticides or pesticides spray on them. Don’t worry, There’s another way you can get rid of them effectively, dishwashing soap. Before you water your plants, add some dishwashing soap in the water. Its poisonous to earwigs and kill them while not harming your plants.

How to prevent Earwigs

1.) To prevent earwigs from crawling into your house, you can place decretive rock such as gravel, white stones or lava rocks around the foundation of your house as it provide less suitable environment for earwigs.

2.) Repair, fix and seal all cracks with filler or silicon.

3.) Place boric acid powder and block out the areas where you think they are coming through. Remember it only works when they are forced to walk through them and they will try to avoid it. Boric acid is natural insecticide commonly used to kill insects and relatively safe for humans and dogs

4.) Clean your house very often and don’t pile up newspapers. Seal your books and important documents in a plastic to prevent earwigs and protect your property.

Some interesting facts about earwigs:

- They are harmless to humans.
- Adult earwigs have wings and can fly but apparantly they don’t like to do so very much.
- Earwigs love small, dark and moisture areas in daytime.
- They are active at night.
- Female earwigs lay about 30 eggs at once.
- Earwigs eat almost everything that they can chew, insects, plants, papers.

If none of the above method works for you. You can always call in the professional to help getting rid of earwigs.