Earwig Explosion

June 3rd, 2026

Mike is proud to present the very first episode of You Bet Your Garden from the studios of Gardens Alive! and Gurney’s Seeds & Nursery. On today’s show, Mike answers the very common problem of how to deal with weeds growing around pavers and brick hardscaping; AND in an expanded version of “Ask Mike”, discusses the earwig invasion in regions that experienced flooding this season; and of course, how to deal with the pinching pests in normal situations in the home and garden. Want Mike to answer your question? Write him at ybyg@ptd.net!

Bonnie in Moore, Oklahoma 73160 writes: “I was listening to your show regarding earwigs from a caller in Norman, Oklahoma. The city of Norman has a serious earwig problem. They do in fact eat the leaves off of young plants leaving just a stem. I've gone out at night and seen them munching away. I know this isn't typical earwig behavior. 

“In addition, these earwigs are coming out in the thousands, sometimes filling the entire bottom of a planter. It is so bad that they get into the house, and then into the indoor house plants. I appreciate any advice you can offer. It is like nothing I've experienced in my life and has resulted in me no longer gardening in my raised beds. Thank you for your expert advice. I really enjoy listening to your show.”

Mike: Since I was editor-in-chief of ORGANIC GARDENING in the previous century, I have been assuring gardeners that the fearsome looking earwig was essentially harmless. For instance, in one of my early issues, I assured people that, despite those horror movie pinchers, they did not bite. This answer came through research and interviews with professionals and my own experience.

Then the letters started coming in assuring me that they did bite; no venom involved; just a sharp pain (like me). One letter really stuck with me (this was pre-email, and yes, people wrote us letters--that came in the mail, and lots of them! Today’s mailbox contents are not nearly as much fun. Another lost art.) Anyway, a female reader described the time one got into her bathing suit, and frantic to escape, kept biting her. So I was wrong about that. (I blame the experts, who apparently never wore a bathing suit while gardening.)

I also assured people that earwigs mostly ate plant debris on the surface of the soil and if they appeared on plants they were searching for things like aphids and other soft-bodied insects to eat.

But I could not ignore Bonnie’s account of them acting like locusts; and her report was easy to confirm. Headlines like “Oklahoma rain causes invasion of earwigs” and “Earwig invasion: Warm, wet weather pushes pests inside” were easy to find.

Oklahoma News Channel Four had a nice report on them, and offered this possible cure: “According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, if you combine equal parts soy sauce and vegetable oil in a plastic container, poke holes in the lid and bury it in the soil, it will lure the earwigs out at night and trap them.”

Thanks to Wikipedia (to which I donate and so should you, as trustworthy and impartial sources of information are getting slimmer by the day), this has happened before: And I quote: “Under exceptional circumstances, earwigs form swarms and can take over significant areas of a district. In August 1755 they appeared in vast numbers near Stroud, Gloucestershire, in the UK, especially in the cracks and crevices of "old wooden buildings...so that they dropped out oftentimes in such multitudes as to literally cover the floor". A similar "plague" occurred in 2006, in and around a woodland cabin near the Blue Ridge Mountains of the eastern United States; it persisted through winter and lasted at least two years.”

OK—so I now realize that the sheer massive numbers being described would lead the earwigs to become more aggressive (similar to grasshoppers that swarm into locusts) and become actual garden pests as opposed to curiosities.

Back to quoting Wiki: “The common earwig is an omnivore, eating plants and ripe fruit as well as actively hunting arthropods. To a large extent, this species is also a scavenger, feeding on decaying plant and animal matter if given the chance. Observed prey include largely plant lice, but also large insects such as bluebottle flies and woolly aphids.

Wiki continues: “Earwigs are regularly preyed upon by birds, and like many other insect species they are prey for insectivorous mammals, amphibians, lizards, centipedes, assassin bugs, and spiders. European naturalists have observed bats preying upon earwigs. Their primary insect predators are parasitic species of Tachinidae, or tachinid flies. One species of tachinid fly, Triarthria setipennis, has been demonstrated to be successful as a biological control of earwigs for almost a century. Another tachinid fly and parasite of earwigs, Ocytata pallipes, has shown promise as a biological control agent as well.

Suggestions: Earwigs are in Oklahoma and other areas in abundance “thanks” to the unusual wetness in those regions, so think of water as your primary enemy. Earwigs are mostly nocturnal and soft-bodied, so the first thing I suggest is using diatomaceous earth, also known as DE. DE is a moisture-absorbing material made from mined diatoms; creatures that lived during the reign of the dinosaurs and were so numerous that they are now ‘mined’ in great quantity from what were once ancient seabeds, crushed, packaged and sold for moisture control.

It shouldn’t be hard to find big bags of DE, especially online and in stores that sell farming supplies. It is completely non-toxic, very light in weight and approved for organic growing. BUT it has been pulverized into extremely small particles, is extremely dusty and you must use protection to keep it from getting into your lungs. At the very least a high-grade N95 tight-fitting mask; preferably a true respirator. Ideally, you want to wait until a dry spell and coat your plants in it, being sure to reach the crevices and other plant parts where they hide at night.

Another option is a canister vacuum cleaner, a valuable but under-utilized garden tool. If you don’t have one, try thrift shops or sites like eBay before you buy new; just make sure that replacement bags are readily available. In my area there is both at least one brick and mortar vacuum repair shop nearby and a stand at the Allentown Farmer’s Market; the people in such places should be able to help you.

And canister vacuums are effective against any fairly large visible insect, like Japanese beetles. Make sure it’s plugged into a gfi (ground fault interrupter) outlet and use it during the day, when, according to reports, many of these earwigs in affected areas are visible. Suck them up until the bag is full, carefully remove it, tape it shut and leave it sit out in the sun all day before trashing it.

Household chickens might also enjoy them fresh, and if you are a person with household fowl who seeks revenge for the damage they’ve caused, stand there and watch. (Clearly, I am not a Buddhist.)

Same thing inside the house. A canister vacuum with a long hose is ideal for sucking them up. Be sure to fix any leaky sinks or other indoor water sources that attract them. If you can see where they’re coming into the house, caulk that area and replace any old weather stripping, especially in doors that connect to the outside. Run dehumidifiers in the house to reduce the dampness they crave.

Clean up the garden. Rake off any debris or mulch they could be hiding under. Add anything that isn’t wood to your compost pile and/or pile it up as far away from the garden as you can manage; hopefully, it will lure them away and then dry out to become compost for future use.

In addition to the Farmer’s Almanac trap, you could also try the beer traps that are normally used to control slugs. Ignore ill-advised advice to use “stale beer” as bait, as pests are as repelled by stale beer as humans. (I’ve drank warm beer, but never stale beer.)

Don’t waste a good IPA on this; buy the cheapest beer you can find, assemble your containers (ideally half-pint or pint-sized plastic containers or whatever you have that’s big enough), sink them into the soil near affected plants and wait until early evening to fill them with beer fresh from the can and check the traps in the morning. If they’re filled with dead earwigs and/or slugs, dump the bodies right there in the garden.

Living earwigs may feast on their departed cousins. If they don’t, make a big pile of those cousins (and any slugs) anyway to try and frighten the live ones. Maybe take one dead earwig and stick it on top of the pile with a long toothpick. They’ve terrorized you; now’s your chance to give back!

A few final thoughts from the always amusing Wikipedia: “The poet Thomas Hood discusses the myth of earwigs finding shelter in the human ear in the poem "Love Lane" by saying the following: "'Tis vain to talk of hopes and fears, / And hope the least reply to win, / From any maid that stops her ears / In dread of earwigs creeping in!"

“In Roald Dahl's children's book George's Marvellous Medicine, George's Grandma encourages him to eat unwashed celery with beetles and earwigs still on them. "'A big fat earwig is very tasty,' Grandma said, licking her lips. 'But you've got to be very quick, my dear, when you put one of those in your mouth. It has a pair of sharp nippers on its back end and if it grabs your tongue with those, it never lets go. So you've got to bite the earwig first, chop chop, before it bites you.'"