Poor Basil....Bad Earwigs

17 years ago

I'm so spitting mad! I've been doing all I can for the last few years to trap and kill earwigs. For a few good years the population went WAY down. This year has been a serious population explosion! My basil can't get half a chance this year to get past a few leaves!

Stupid earwigs have munched on quite a few things this year but the Basil is taking a serious beating no matter where I plant or move them too.

Time to get serious again with the trapping. Starting tonight I will put out moistened crumpled newspapers near the victims and under plants where they are likely hiding during the day and bag'em up in the morning. I also have some old hose that can be cut up into 2' lengths and placed around the garden under mulch. Those can be dumped into a bucket of soapy water.

Normally every spring I rack out the majority of the mulch to prevent giving so much hiding and nesting space, but now I have so many perennials that hug/cover the ground and provide nice shady moist environments to camp! Last year I even found a earwig nest inside the string cap on the weed wacker; I had just left it out for a week after using it and it was that quick!

You know if they could just stick to eating aphids and slugs (which they do well) that would be nice. Earwigs are opportunistic eaters...anything is game!

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Comments (11)

karendee
17 years ago
Vera so sorry to hear of those darn earwigs...
For me it is pill bugs, slugs and Bunnies. those darn creatures!!!

Karen
carrie630
17 years ago
ditto on all of them... just chased two rabbits - I need to change my borders so I can see where they HIDE! Too many plants... darn that wintersowing.. LOL

Carrie
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bakemom_gw
17 years ago
In 2001 I was driving to work and felt a pinch on my toes and rubbed it out on the freeway. When I got to my office I screamed as a dead earwig was attached to my toe. Kill them.
lblack61
17 years ago
Ahhhh! Bakemom, you just gave me the heebee jeebees!

That is such a drag, Vera. When that happens to a garden staple, it makes me want to search and destroy with a blow torch...lol.
(But then that would kill everything...including my house!)

Linda
morz8 - Washington Coast
17 years ago
Vera, someone on the Clinic forum was using a soy sauce trap similar to beer traps for slugs for what looked like a mega infestation of earwigs a while back...not sure what else was in it to drown them but you could google it. She had so many hundreds of earwigs in those little containers after one night in her garden, I wanted to shake out my clothes and shower just looking at her pictures.

I know there were earwigs pictured on the container of the cutworm flaked/powdered bait I had here at one time so that must have been an option for them too if you ever buy commercial baits. I don't know if it's cool here for them or what but I rarely find earwigs at all....with all the slugs and deer we deal with, guess we deserve to be lucky somehow in our W side gardens.
vera_eastern_wa
Original Author
17 years ago
Sounds good Morz8...I'll be looking that up!
The latest victims were my dwarf marigold seedlings and some celosia. Don't know if the Marigold will come back or not. That really teed me off as none of the others I wintersowed/springsowed for edging the border ever germinated! Guess I could always go around the yard and dig up self-sown Sweet Alyssum to fill in. I do finally have some Bat Faced Cuphea seedlings, but not sure how tall they will be?
vera_eastern_wa
Original Author
17 years ago
I found the recipe; made 3 traps to start...we shall see :)

Vera
nancy_drew
17 years ago
Vera, you found it but aren't sharing?

I resorted to Sevin. One window box filled with Basil is pretty much gone. Thankfully I had saved some in another container to share. Didn't think I'd end up sharing it with myself... They are also going after my only green been plant. Yep! Sevin it is! Momma needs to eat too!
vera_eastern_wa
Original Author
17 years ago
nancy_drew,

Did I mention my bush beans were under attack too! I was covering them with the tops of gal. jugs, ect. but now they are getting too big..grrr!

Traps worked! I mostly got a lot of nymphs and only a total of 4 adults in 3 locations around the yard. Not so happy that I also drowned a couple of Harvestman...AKA Daddy Long Legs...these guys are great predators of aphids :(

Recipe is:
1 Tbsp. each of oil, molasses and soy sauce. I didn't have the molasses and used Karo Syrup instead. Mix it up well to blend. I used a few yogurt cups and a 8oz cream-cheese container.

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvestman
carrie630
17 years ago
Vera - everytime I come across the heading of this thread, I picture you shaking your fingers at the earwigs... need of picture of you doing that, please...

Carrie
vera_eastern_wa
Original Author
17 years ago
Oh no Carrie....I'm not about to camp out over night scouting earwigs with a flashlight lol! Checked the traps again this a.m. and again mostly catching nymphs. I wonder where all the egg laying adults are?? Haven't yet checked on the lengths of hose yet, but after these few more cups of coffee I might move my bootie towards the door LOL!