Are you sure it was earwigs and not the European Corn Borer?
Earwigs can be controlled with garlic oil sprays.

im pretty sure it was earwigs, each destroyed cob i opened up had a bunch of them in there

An insecticidal soap solution like Safers (follow instructions on bottle) works really well on earwigs.

Alfalfa pellets also attract birds and don't sprout. Alfalfa pellets also make a great fertilizer so use them freely on a monthly basis.

justaguy2,

Great post, very interesting.

I found that putting canola oil in empty cans attracts the earwigs and drowns them but was really uneffectively controlling their population. Also if you use sprinklers or if it rains around them it will overflow and leave marks on pavement and get into the soil which can kill certain plants (like my lawn).
Usually the cause of an infestation of earwigs is due to an inbalance in the garden system.

Try introducing chickens underneath trees where there is mulch buildup. Earwigs travel a fair distance at night time so introducing chickens into high mulch cool shaded areas is a good idea. You feed your chickens a controll the earwigs at the same time.

IF you dont have chickens get some!!! or cleanup the mulch around your yard an put it in one place for composting away from your corn and place canola oil traps. prehaps put some bird seed around the composting area to attract birds that will hopefully eat the earwigs.

I’m having the same problem but I can only see earwigs not other pests. I’m going to try one of the above tips of using a soap solution, my chicken won’t touch them (I don’t think they like the flavor) and the canola oil trap has worked but traps small quantities of this bugs. I’m in California and water with drip irrigation so idk how to control their population.

Do you use Roundup? I had a container of Roundup that apparently they were attracted to and climbed in to..going up the spout I guess as when I emptied the container out, it was full of dead earwigs and floating in Roundup. I've googled Roundup and earwigs and can't find anything about it but I just did it just now and can take a picture of my ball jar, filled with Roundup and floating earwigs. Looks like there is a dozen of them. No other bug in there. I guess I'll contact the company. Perhaps you can make a Roundup trap for them, so they can climb in and get killed by it. The Roundup container had a tiny hole in the bottom and was dripping out slightly, so I got a ball jar and poured the Roundup in that. Now I am going to wash and dry bottom and put duct tape over tiny hole and pour this back in minus the earwigs because I hate to throw pesticide or herbicides away. We have enough deadly chemicals in our environment to be wasteful of it.

Earwigs really seem to like lettuce & corn. They don't seem to bother with any other plants in my garden.

Earwigs where in my corn and cabbage badley. Is there anything I can do to prevent them next year and/or do something before winter to prevent them?

a friend of mine has had success using tanglefoot. You can apply it to the base of the stalk and they will get stuck in it. They destroyed my corn last year so I plan on growing in Tupperware bins with tangle foot around the edge of the container this year. they can’t fly so they have to crawl through it and the will get stuck. It’s certified for organic gardening too. I’ve also seen collars around the base of the stalks to keep them out. Good luck!

I lost my first crop of a hybrid container corn last year. Only one lot of 11 ear, but still😕

If I wrap each stalk with a band of aluminium foil covered with petroleum jelly, might that work? It worked for Gypsy Moth prevention in Maine!

Happened to me last year. It was definitely earwigs. They love the silks/tassles. This year I did my corn in whiskey barrels and I’m going to wrap the top of the barrels with tanglefoot! It’s the only thing I could think of to keep them from climbing in!

I don't grow corn, but I have had seasons where earwigs were a big problem. They ate a lot of plants in my vegetable garden and their favorite seemed to be Basil. I have been growing organically since 1980. It took me awhile to figure out it was earwigs. I could never see a critter for the damage. Until someone suggested I take a flashlight out at night and look and sure enough there were the little buggers making a feast of my garden. I had that problem a couple of seasons, but I would go out at night with a plastic cup with hot soapy water in it and knock them into the cup and I kept that up until the damage stopped.

Figuring it out early is the key and taking care of them is simple, just removing them and disposing them. You do have to keep after it but if you put the time in you can get control of the situation.