Earwigs have been feeding on flowers and foliage this growing season

Earwigs don’t normally cause problems on plants, unless populations are high. They thrive in damp, wet, highly organic soils, their preferred environment. This spring, with the wet weather and recent rains, populations have grown dramatically.

They dislike light, which is why they thrive in the soil and in mulch or other dark organic matter. When I peeled back the layers of the flower on the magnolia, the earwig was exposed to light and immediately headed for the dark side.

Earwigs are reddish-brown and are a little over half an inch long. They have chewing mouthparts and distinct pinchers on the tip of their back end or abdomen. Male pinchers are strongly curved and wide at the abdomen, while female pinchers are slender, straight, and close together. I just learned this while researching this article.

Typically, earwigs hang out under containers, the welcome mat, a piece of wood, or some other object on the ground. Their main food source is decayed organic matter and sometimes other small insects.

Every so often, we have a season like this one in which earwig populations are high. My colleague, Dr. Curtis Young, mentioned having earwigs in the early part of the season feeding on the foliage of his coleus.

Because they possess chewing mouthparts, their feeding results in irregular holes in leaves and flower petals. The holes resemble slug feeding, and earwigs can leave a slime trail at times.

I suspect that I have earwigs on my containers in front of my house. The flowers have holes in them. The only way I am going to find out for sure is to go out at night with a flashlight. Earwigs usually feed at night.

There are several options for managing earwigs, and many of them are similar to what you may use for slugs. A wet rolled-up newspaper can be laid on the ground where you suspect feeding; they will hide under it. Small tin cans filled with vegetable oil can serve as a trap; dispose of any that are caught in soapy water.

There are pesticides available, but these are used as a soil drench and not sprayed directly on the flowers. Remember, they burrow down into the petals and are protected from sprays. Drench the soil or the container.

Drying out the soil helps to eliminate their habitat. Of course, it’s been quite difficult to dry the soil recently. I even had a container sitting on the saturated ground that had two inches of water sitting on top of the soil because it couldn’t drain.