DYI earwig oil trap that works!
Testing out Earwig Trap Ideas
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Why are you seeing a container of oil? Unfortunately, it has been a banner year for earwigs in the vegetable garden. I tested five earwig trap ideas to figure out which worked best! See my results and make your own earwig trap!
You know those crawly critters with the pinchers on their tail end. If their looks aren’t enough to creep you out then the old wives’ tale about them crawling into your ear at night and burrowing into your brain should do it. Of course none of that is true! Darn those old wives! Earwigs are a common garden inhabitant and it seems like everything in the garden that I disturb or move, even just a little bit, usually has a few hiding under it.
Another Garden Mystery Solved
It took me a while to put 2 and 2 together and come up with earwigs as the problem when my rutabagas were under attack.
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Every day more and more of the leaves were being eaten until they looked like tattered rags. Normally I would blame a caterpillar but since we grow most of the brassicas under a shade cloth tunnel to keep moths from laying eggs on them I had to rule that out.
Plus there weren’t any caterpillars to be found or their tell-tale droppings. Slugs were my second guess but it has been a dry year and I haven’t seen many slugs. Also there was no trace of the slime trail they leave behind. The damage is limited to just the rutabagas, even though they are planted next to broccoli and cabbage plants, those have not been touched at all. A puzzle. Then when harvesting bok choy from another part of the garden I noticed that those plants had similar damage.
When I shook them upside down after cutting them, several earwigs fell out. Aha! We have seen them in the past mostly on the dahlias and zinnia flowers but I was under the impression that they were actually beneficial in the garden. They are known to eat aphids and insect larvae but feed mostly on decaying plant matter.
Then I learned that the nymphs are the ones that do the most damage, eating holes in leaves of young plants while the adults are the ones eating the flowers. The teenage nymphs look very like the adults but their shells are softer and not as dark.
Both the adults and the nymphs feed at night, doing their dining under the cover of darkness and sleeping it off in a moist shady spot during the day. I decided to try and eradicate them from the rutabagas by trapping them. After searching thru several books and websites, I found 5 traps to try:
Testing Five Earwig Traps
- Trap #1 had me punch holes near the rim of a small plastic container, add some oil and a bit of soy sauce. Then I replaced the lid and buried the container with the holes level with the top of the soil. All it caught were ants—loads of tiny ants. Drawn by the promise of Chinese food I guess.
- Trap #2 was a toilet paper tube stuffed with straw placed among the plants under attack. A bit more successful. It caught 1 earwig.
- Trap #3 was a can with leftover beer in it. (Honestly, who ever has leftover beer?) I thought at least it would catch a slug or two but it caught nothing, as slug do love beer. They probably didn’t like the cheap brand I bought.
- Trap #4 was crumpled damp newspaper stuffed into a flowerpot. I hung the flowerpot upside-down next to the rutabagas and again caught nothing. Maybe they had already read the comics from that day’s paper.
- Trap # 5 was the “oil trap” which simply a small container baited with fishy-smelling oil in it. That was the most successful trap. It caught about a dozen earwigs in one night!
You could also bait with canola oil. Some folks add bacon grease or hamburger fat as, apparently earwigs love greasy, oily stuff. But I didn’t have anything like that in the house. Plus, this could attract larger critters including raccoons and skunks so if your garden is not fenced to keep them out you might not want to risk it.
Another idea to test is to cover the container with a lid, with an entry hole cut in the lid, and then empty and refill every week or so. That way you only catch earwigs (no other insect is interested in the oil trap).
I assume that the heavy amount of mulch we use in the garden is contributing to the rise in the earwig population. Next spring I might wait and use a straw mulch later in the season after the nymphs have matured. The earwigs have stopped feeding and my rutabagas seem to be recovering. Next year I will try to be more observant and take action sooner if the plants are under attack again because I do love my rutabagas!
See the Almanac’s article for more information on how to identify, prevent, and get rid of earwigs.
Robin Sweetser
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In another article about Garden Slugs by Ms Sweetser It was mentioned as a liquid attraction for these pests noted "Slug Bait: Bring out the Beer" I hadn't seen this substance mentioned herein that might popular for earwigs https://www.almanac.com/garden-slugs Might work as well. Otherwise, you might have a happy Raccoon
My true earwig horror story. About 8 hears ago I lived in California where my home backed up to Long Beach channels. My deck was concrete with only a few plants scattered around. I kept noticing more and more earwig bugs on the deck at nite. One nite I was in my house when my doggie wanted to go outside. As I approached my sliding glass door I noticed the sliding door was completely covered in earwigs from top to bottom, as well as the 4 windows in the kitchen, on the same wall as the slider, that faced the channel. In fear of them coming in the house I did not open the back door. I went out the side door and much to my horror the entire back of my house was completely covered solid with those nasty bugs. Im not exaggerating, like a SCI-FI movie. In the morning they were gone. I learned they are nocturnal. I tried vegetable oil in a few empty plastic butter tubs with no lids. Because of my dog I put the tubs out of his sight on the deck. That evening they seemed to be gone. I went outside to check the traps when I saw the first 2 tubs were overflowing with thousands of earwigs but when I got to the last 2 traps I noticed they were completely filled with earwigs but dry of oil which led me to believe my dog lapped up the over 1 cup of oil. I called an emergency vets. hot line to see what will happen to my dog. Thank goodness they said he would be okay but to watch out for lots of diarrhea. He was okay and after that I never saw another earwig. Please use caution with pets around earwig traps.
Yikes! Thanks for sharing!
So I do the soy sauce and veg oil in an open plastic container and catch millions lol. Wish I could post a picture of my full trap
Before I empty it…..
If I left a can of fishy smelling oil in my garden I'd have visitors a LOT bigger than a raccoon or a skunk to worry about! The bears would come running to my place!
I will swear by the oil trap with a dash of soy sauce. Earwigs were getting into my artichokes, but the oil traps were full of them the first day, and gradually got less and less each day until they were gone.
The oil and soy sauce trap worked amazingly well for me. I poked holes in an empty pop can, filled it with the oil/soy sauce mixture, buried the can up to the holes and this morning it's full to the top of the liquid with earwigs
In my garden the earwigs love to spend their days sleeping in the upper parts of milkweed plants and it's very easy to knock them off into a coffee can of water, the same way I do with Japanese beetles. They like to hide in the newest leaves that are still somewhat vertical and tucked against the stem.
I tried the can with oil method - I used a tuna can and olive oil - and the next morning a whole colony of ants had committed suicide in my oil can bath. But not a single earwig.
Thank you for your article. It helps readers identify ear wig damage in the garden and gives practical advice on how to get rid of them. Terrific!
