Insect Earwig: Damage and Fight

To begin with, we will tell you that in many countries, in the same old England woman, for example, the name has a consonant meaning - “earwig”, which is translated into Russian and means “earwig”. However, there was probably a pun of the English language and it is correct to call the insect the term “ear-wing” - “wing in the shape of an ear” for wings of a special shape.

One way or another, but two-tails creep into a person’s ear extremely rarely, however, like other insects: bugs, ants, bugs and other cockroaches. And for those who have not yet understood who they are talking about or want to admire once again, we present a photo of the earwig.

Animal biology

The common earwig belongs to the order of the winged-winged, which has about 1900 species. By the way, biologists call insects a completely different detachment, cryptomaxillary, but we will not take this into account when writing this article, for the national name for us in this case prevails over the scientific one.

Description

So, the insect earwig is an arthropod of brown or brown color with a characteristic bifurcated tail. The size of males reaches 17 millimeters, females - 14. Behind the head on the back are hard elytra, under which there are two folded wings. The insect uses them for flights extremely rarely, a flying earwig is an incredible phenomenon. It flies, probably, only to penetrate the human ear 🙂

Behind the elytra there is a mobile body segmented into 11-14 parts. Completes the picture of what the earwig looks like, its tail. In fact, these are forceps: mites or tongs with which an insect helps itself as if by hand when feeding or repelling an attack. If you try to tease an insect with a pinworm, then it may not pinch you with pain. For an adult healthy person, this may seem completely painless, but noticeable redness and, after combing, pimples may appear on the skin of a child or a susceptible allergic person.

Food

In many ways, harm from a particular creature is determined by the peculiarity of its nutrition. Therefore, we will tell what the earwig in nature eats. This insect is omnivorous, can eat both plant and animal food.

The very factor of finding in the diet of the earwig of other harmful insects can even take it for a while to the rank of defenders of our garden. Judge for yourself, a two-tail can destroy pests such as:

• aphid;
• spider mite;
• other slowly crawling creatures.

But mostly earwigs feed on plant foods, including:

• mosses;
• lichens;
• seaweed;
• fruits of fruit and berry trees and shrubs.

The two-tails are particularly fond of overripe and cracked fruits, as well as those that are damaged when dropped or pecked by birds.

In addition to berries and fruits, biologists consider garden plants, such as:

• peas;
• beet;
• cabbage;
• celery;
• cucumber;
• salad;
• potatoes;
• Tomatoes
• rhubarb.

If necessary, earwigs are able to feed on coarser feeds, gnaw grains of cereals and plant stems.But at the same time, the beekeepers noticed that the two-tails are still those sweets, they climb into the hives and eat them honey and bee bread.

Attention! Have you noticed that when listing the edible there are no pets or humans? Conclusion - earwigs do not bite!

Lifestyle

If you ask yourself where the earwigs live, it turns out that you can find them everywhere. At the same time, they prefer moist and cool areas. These can be places under blockages of leaves, fallen trees, stones. Two-tails also settle in greenhouses, especially where excessive watering is done. A warm, moist environment promotes decay of plant debris and attracts insects.

Now let's start scaring our reader. In wet weather, insects try to clog into various crevices. Sometimes these crevices lead the earwig to our homes and other buildings. Unheated holiday cottages are especially prone to invasion by uninvited guests or the well-dried baths and summer showers carried too much.

However, with general unsanitary conditions, two-tails can also occupy multi-storey buildings, so there is nothing strange if you come across an earwig to the apartment of such a house.

Output! Keep track of the sanitary condition of your home, dry and ventilate the rooms on time, then no two-tails will creep into your ear!

Breeding

One could skip this aspect of the life of the earwigs, because this process in them occurs like most insects. However, there is something that cannot be ignored, but first things first.

Two tails mate in late summer - early fall. After this, a couple, namely dad and mom, begin to build a nest. To do this, they dig minks up to ten centimeters long with several tunnels and outlets in a moist substrate: loose soil, old sawdust and the like. In the depths of the tunnels, an expanded egg-laying chamber is being arranged.

Earwig eggs are laid at the end of winter, and here the female transforms into an angry lioness. Not only does she follow the masonry, she also aggressively drives away other individuals from her, even her future father, who, however, the future fate of the female and offspring becomes uninteresting.

But mother carefully takes care of her children. Feeling that it becomes too dry in some corner of the nest, she transfers the eggs from there to a more suitable place. The usual number of eggs of winter masonry ranges from 30 to 60 pieces.

At the end of spring, the female can lay an additional twenty eggs. Children hatch in May-June. Duration of egg incubation lasts from two to three months, depending on environmental conditions.

Earwig larvae grow rapidly, shedding every three weeks, and by the beginning of September they have already reached puberty and are ready to reproduce offspring themselves.

Fight

As mentioned above, earwigs are harmed by our cultivated plants in the garden. And their appearance in the apartment makes you wonder how to get rid of earwigs.

Depending on where you are going to strike the enemy, there are various ways to deal with the earwig.

Garden

If you want to remove earwigs from your garden or vegetable garden, then you can use the following methods:

1. Traps. In different corners of the site, lay out the bait, which then destroy along with the earwigs. Wet rags, putrefactive plant wastes and the like substrates will help to attract a two-tail in one place.
2. Preventative spraying of the soil. Not only vampires, but also many insect pests do not like the pungent smell of garlic. Therefore, against earwigs, barrage cultivation of the soil with garlic tincture can help.
3. Boiling water. A large cluster of two-tails is simply poured with boiling water, from which insects die.
4. Vinegar. The sour smell of vinegar also scares off the earwigs, drip it on cotton wool or rags and spread it over the site.

Living spaces

In an apartment or other room, they act a little differently, because there the concentration of insects is much lower than in the natural environment, although ... how to say.

To get rid of uninvited guests, you need to do this:

1. Purity. First of all, bring the room in good sanitary condition and constantly maintain it.
2. Lures. Indicate the lures with boric acid indoors. It can be moistened cereals, boiled egg yolk and the like.
3. Vinegar. And here this remedy for earwigs will help. Lubricate them with pots and earwigs will not penetrate your indoor plants.

Attention! Put the lures out of the reach of children!

As always, watch the video at the end of the article. This time we introduce plot about the invasion of earwigs in Tatarstan.