What To Do About Earwigs In My Home

Thursday, August 29, 2013

The next time you venture out to your mailbox, have a quick look in the back. Are there little brownish-red insects crawling around in there? If so, you may have earwigs in your mailbox and every time you bring the mail into your home, you could be bringing in earwigs as well. Because mailboxes are dark and sometimes damp, they can attract earwigs, but they aren’t the only place around your home where you’ll find these insects. 

What does an earwig look like?

Earwigs have smooth and elongated bodies with a pair of horny forceps-like appendages on their abdomens.  These are called ‘cerci’ and they look like pinchers; in the male, these cerci are more curved than in females. These insects range in color from red to brown and most of the earwig species we see are approximately half an inch in length.  

What are earwigs doing in my home?

Earwigs, despite their name, don’t actually enter ears nor do they burrow into our brains, as the old wives’ tale says. Fortunately, earwigs are simply a nuisance pest, entering our homes looking for dark and damp places to live when it is too hot or too dry outdoors. They can be found all over our properties, hiding under rocks or boards on the grass and in anything left outdoors (children’s toys, buckets, and wheelbarrows).  If you have any areas in your home that will allow pests to get inside, earwigs will enter and then make themselves at home in the dampest places they can find. These places can include your laundry room, basement, crawl space, attic, bathroom, and areas under sinks.  If you have earwigs inside your home, you may not notice a problem at first. Besides the fact that they just look creepy, earwigs in Ohio don’t really cause a problem; that is, until they start entering your property in large numbers. When you have a large infestation of earwigs crawling through your home, then you need to look into professional earwig control. 

Rose Pest Solutions knows that having a population of earwigs inside your home can be a problem; finding dead earwigs everywhere or chasing them around in your bathroom can be a burden, which is why we offer our exceptional earwig control solutions for your Ohio home. Before these pests become a problem for you, following these prevention methods can help eliminate an earwig problem before it even occurs. Our earwig prevention tips include: 

• Repair any cracks or openings around doors and windows and seal any gaps in the foundation.  

• If you’ve spent time working outdoors or you bring any items in from outside make sure you are also not bringing in earwigs. Inspect items like children’s toys for earwigs before you bring them inside. 

• Avoid overwatering plants that are near your foundation and don’t let the mulch touch the side of your home. These areas can attract earwigs.  

• Remove potential hiding places for earwigs outdoors; these can include leaf debris, plant pots, firewood, and garden hose. 

These prevention tips for earwigs can help limit the earwig population on your property, making it less likely that these insects will become a problem indoors. If you should find an earwig population inside, don’t hesitate to give the pest control professionals at Rose Pest Solutions a call. We can set up your first appointment and our technician will check your property for earwig infestations and offer treatments and solutions to eliminate the problem and keep it from returning. 

For more information on earwigs and our earwig control solutions, please call Rose today.  We can offer earwig control solutions to homes and businesses in Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois and throughout our service area; give us a call today to request an inspection and let us help you maintain a safe and pest-free environment. 

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