earwigs

[mt benMember]

Has anybody out there got any suggestions of how to control earwigs ?

I have million of the little things, they’re eating almost all my seedlings as they stick the first leaves out of the soil and chew there way though older plants at ground level. If I pull back any mulch they are there and also in cracks between timber and the woodpile is home to millions more.

I tried the wet newspaper in the pot thing, to not much success.

I’ve tried letting the chooks have a go but the mess they make is not worth it. HELP PLEASE !! :@

[scarecrowMember]

The easiest way is to trap them and feed them to the chooks…takes a bit of work to remember to collect them each morning :confused: but it does bring the numbers down to a tolerable level

Here’s a blog post on how I do it.

Good luck :tup:

[wizzbefMember]

I have success with the ol’ putting cheap cooking oil in a marg container and placing around the garden in places they frequent at night time.

[DocMember]

Hey, Scarecrow :kiss:

Maybe we could take a couple of chooks over and visit Fingal Valley to get away from the heat :tup:

earwigingly yours

Doc 😉

[HummerKeymaster]

My chooks don’t eat earwigs, maybe they bite their innards or maybe they are just fussy :shrug:

[purplehatMember]

wizzbef wrote:

I have success with the ol’ putting cheap cooking oil in a marg container and placing around the garden in places they frequent at night time.

Me too! – it’s the very best method we’ve found so far (and I’m sure we tried everything including squishing, newspapers, pipes and vegemite/yeast & sugar)!!

Something else that really helped me in the front garden was making habitat for skinks. Rocks and mulch and biscuits of straw-bales in the garden.. We don’t have an earwig problem out the front garden anymore, and I’m sure it’s mostly because of that.

We suffered badly in the spring, they destroyed just about everything. Now we have them under control. We only really see them in the compost heap these days! Yay!

[Anonymous]

I had great success with beer.. I cut the bottom off milk containers (about 2cms high) and then pour some cheap old light beer in (until the whole bottom is covered) Not only did I get a heap of ear wigs, I also got slugs 🙂 I did that at night and emptied them out int he morning to the chooks.. and then re – did it at night again.. did this for a week and no more ear wigs.

[SteveKeymaster]

Just continuing with the oil methods, the latest Organic Gardener magazine (Mar/Apr issue) on page 16 has a method using fish oil. They talk about half-filling a tapered neck jar with water then adding a splash of tuna oil (from tackle shops).

Though that beer method sounds pretty good to me as well.:)

[Anonymous]

mt ben wrote:

Thank for all your suggestions people, I will try a couple out tonight

I have tried the beer thing and I found if I drank enough of it I didn’t care anymore, so it works, but only temporarily.

Hence why I bought the cheap light beer, so I wouldn’t be tempted

[marigoldMember]

Just in passing, I thought it was just crumpled newspaper in a pot. I dont think they particularly go for damp do they:shrug: Or do they?

[AJYMember]

i have used cardboard (from boxes) placed under pots, bricks and cracks. they crawl into the holes in the end and then, in the morning, feed them to the chooks. They pick apart the cardboard and eat the earwigs (if they are not fussy). This way they dont eat your seedlings aswell as your pests.

[aldrumMember]

I heard they like the whiff of fish oil, hence why Scarecrow’s

“You can trap them in old tuna tins filled with cooking oil”

Worked.

Maybe more the old tuna tins than the cooking oil?

Good luck

[drdreadMember]

a good deterrent, along with the crumpled newspaper trick is to sprinkle ashes over the top of the plant, check by torchlight that it is earwigs

ashes are great as a deterrent, experiment!

[Anonymous]

were they ablle to get to the beer ? Maybe try a Jar lib just placed on the ground with some beer in it..

[Author]

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