Have you ever planted out a new raised bed full of tender seedlings only to wake
up the next day and find that they are decimated by ear wigs?
I definitely have. And if I don't do something to this bed tonight,
I might find myself a sufferer of that same fate tomorrow.
Kevin Espiritu here from Epic Gardening where it's my goal to help you grow
greener thumb.
And part of that is making sure that your tender young seedlings actually make
it through to their adult stage so you have those nice Epic harvests.
Now earwigs are a pest, but not really.
They actually do quite a bit of biological control.
They eat soft-bodied insects, insect eggs. They're prolific eater of aphids,
so they're not really bad per se, but it's just how you think about them.
And there is such a thing as too much.
So in this video we're going to talk about how to identify them,
what they like to eat, how they like to live, how they reproduce.
And then at the end of the video,
I'll give you a couple different trapping options that are super effective even
on a low budget. So without further ado,
cultivate that Like button for Epic earwig immunity. It's hard to say.
And let's get into the video.
The first thing we have to know is what they look like.
And these are one of the easier pests to identify by sight alone because they're
about three quarters of an inch long.
So they're big and they have these alien looking forcep type of things at the
back of their body. In fact,
I think these caused nightmares in me as a kid because the name earwig,
with that little alien looking weapon at the back,
made me think it was like gonna eat my brain. But regardless of that,
the one we're focusing on is the European earwig. If you're here in California,
like myself, there's a striped earwig that really isn't that harmful,
but the European earwig can decimate tender young seedlings.
In order to combat a pest, you must know where it likes to live.
So the keys with earwigs are moist environments that are protected from the sun
and have some kind of shelter component to them.
So if you see underneath my little nasturtiums here, this could be a good spot.
But I've seen them underneath the soil, they can hide in half-eaten fruits,
under wood chips.
Under any type of mold source is a great spot to find them and that's where they
hide during the day because they feed at night.
This raised bed here is actually the tall raised bed from my How to Fill a Tall
Raised Bed and Save 60% on Your Soil.
So what I did there is I used a lot of passively composted yard waste,
which is actually the perfect habitat for earwigs.
And that's why I know I have an earwig problem in this particular bed.
And I know for a second reason because I actually saw the entire life cycle of
earwigs pop up when I put a seedling tray on top and I left it there for a
couple hours. Then when I took it off,
they all scattered to avoid the sun and the heat.
Now that's really my indicator.
So now we have to think about how to prevent and control them if need be.
The three things you can do to prevent earwigs before they become a real
problem.
The first thing that you can do is know that earwigs are actually the thing that
are eating your plants. So the best way to do that is to come out at night.
Remember they feed at night. Come out at night with a flashlight,
shine it on a plant that you suspect might be getting decimated by earwigs.
And if you see them, then voila. You know that's the problem. Otherwise,
some of these other tips won't really help you because you'll be trying to
prevent a pest that's not actually eating your plants.
Now the second thing to do is to remove anything that earwigs like to live in,
if it's near your plants.
So if you have a mulch layer right up next to a tree that you want to protect,
you want to move that away slightly.
You want to remove some dead and dying debris that will fall down to the bottom
of your raised beds. That's another good idea.
So just removing the environment can really help.
And the final thing is they like a moist environment.
So if you can avoid overwatering or keeping your soil constantly moist on the
top, that can also help. Let's assume, and I hope it's not true for you,
that you have too many earwigs and you need to control them.
What am I doing with this little tin right here? And what is this little tin?
This is a tin that was once full of wild sardines, but I've kept the oil.
There's about a quarter to a half inch of oil down there with a little slice of
lemon. It is quite pungent if I do say so myself.
I quite like the smell and earwigs do too. So what you'll do here,
and this is kind of similar to a slug beer trap,
is you will bury this at surface level somewhere in an area that you know
earwigs are. So let's go ahead and do that right now. Okay.
So I've got a couple seedlings right here that I definitely don't want eaten.
But what I'll do is come in and just nicely bury this right at surface level
cause you want them to walk in and get caught by the oil and then they won't be
able to get back out. Which is the whole point.
And then you can slowly reduce their population. Now you might be saying,
oh there's raccoons in my area, or something like that.
Well then in that case you would use something with a cover like a yogurt cap
and then you can drill holes in the side and the earwigs can get in but
everything else is capped off.
So this is my little trap and that is THE most effective way to capture earwigs.
Check it out guys. The earwig trap is already working.
You can see there's a couple, this guy, this guy, this guy.
You can see how there's different styles of them.
This one's hiding under this big dirt clod and there's a couple there.
Wow they're big! But anyways, this works really well.
As you can see, there's already a few in there.
I suspect these ones aren't going because I'm shining a bright light on them and
they hate that. But it's a great way to cut down on their population,
remember they're not a true pest,
but cut down on their population just slightly so that these tender seedlings
can actually have a chance at life. All right.
One thing to keep in mind with that trap is that if you don't already have a
pungent smelling oil,
then you'll need to add something like bacon grease or something pungent that's
going to attract the earwig. But that's a really good trap idea.
Now the other one,
if you don't have a tin like this or you don't want to use that,
is to simply take something like this, like this magazine, roll it up,
make sure it stays secure so you can put a little tape here.
Now take this and put this in common areas where you think your earwigs are in
your yard. So, for example,
I would put it right here and then in the middle of the night you can come out
and just pick these up. You can do it in the morning too,
and just dump these into a bucket of soapy water.
And what you're doing there is you're giving them an environment that you
control, picking it up and then disposing of them.
And so you can do this over the course of the season to cut down on the numbers
if they're too much and they really are eating your plants. Remember,
earwigs aren't true pests. They do quite a bit of beneficial work in the garden.
So if you don't have too many,
then don't do any of what I just suggested and let them be because they're going
to eat your aphids, your eggs, your soft-bodied insects,
and do quite a bit of beneficial pest control. But if you do have too many,
I hope these tips helped. Good luck in the garden and keep on growing.