Earwigs are supposed to be a neutral pest which feeds on dead garden materials. But to me when they are present in high numbers they're just the cockroaches of the garden. At my previous home they were all over the place and would invade my peach trees. Sometimes ripe peaches will develop a tiny opening at the stem end where these cruddy critters would find their way inside the peaches and make a home inside around the pit. I'm glad they are rarely found here at our new digs. I did not grow potatoes at my previous home so not sure if they'd be a troublemaker for spuds.

Foe, because they will eat vegetation. One year earwigs were crawling up into the corn, nesting & eating in the whorl where the leaves emerged. They damaged a lot of the young leaves. Their population is usually low enough for them to be only a minor nuisance, but they can be bad in wet years. Garden cockroaches indeed.

Thanks!

If you take a piece or row cover or other lightweight cloth and loosely wrap it around the container at night, the earwigs will get in it and you can gather it quickly and carry it off to shake it out.

The worst insect damage I ever had in a season was from earwigs. I couldn't figure out what was destroying leaves in the vegetable garden. I never saw any pests. Someone suggested I look at night with a flashlight and sure enough there were the little buggers taking bites out of basil and lots of other things. Basil seemed to be their favorite. Took me almost 2 weeks of going out there every night with a plastic cup of soapy water to knock them into to get them under control. I've not had that issue again.