Earwig
Looking for Cheap Control For Earwigs? First start with knowing your enemy, then prevention, then control.
2. For cheap pest control for eatwigs, you can trap them. Spray a newspaper lightly with water, roll it up loosely and secure with a string or rubber band. Place on the ground near earwig activity. The next morning pick up and discard the paper in a sealed container.
3. Take a shallow, straight-sided container and fill it half full with vegetable oil. Clean the trap daily; the oil can be re-used.
4. Put tuna fish cans out filled with 2/3 vegetable oil and 1/3 soy sauce. bury the cans so the rim of the can is level with the ground. empty often. Go out at night with a flashlight and either spray them with soap or, if they are up on a plant, try to tip them into a wide mouthed jar and then put the lid on.
5. Another tuna fish trap consists of placing a tuna can into a shallow pot or saucer. Fill the pot or saucer with potting soil up to the rim of the can. Inside the can, put a heaping tablespoon of bread crumbs and add about a half inch of cookies oil. The earwigs will be lured into the can. Once inside the can, they become coated in the oil, rendering them incapable of escaping.
When placing traps, make sure they are placed in and under shrubs and other dark hiding places that the earwigs would like to stay. Place the traps when the nests are opened up later in the summer. People that report failures with traps result from setting the traps too early. They operate the traps and find that no or very few earwigs are caught. They then stop trapping and when June/July comes earwigs by the “hundreds” are found and they think the traps were not successful.
6. Since they are attracted to lights, reduce lighting around doors, windows, and other potential entry sites. Earwigs are attracted to moisture, so be sure to eliminate damp conditions in crawl spaces, under the house, around faucets and near air conditioning units. Use putty and weather stripping around doors, windows, and pipes especially on the ground level to block their entry.
7. Try packing a pot with loose straw, turning it upside-down on a stick, and place it among your violets. This produces a trap where earwigs will shelter during the day. Be sure to destroy the contents of the trap each day.
8. Place cardboard boxes baited with oatmeal or bran in your garden. Punch pencil-sized entry sites in the sides near the bottom. Frequently empty the captured earwigs.
9. Another tuna fish trap consists of placing a tuna can into a shallow pot or saucer. Fill the pot or saucer with potting soil up to the rim of the can. Inside the can, put a heaping tablespoon of bread crumbs and add about a half inch of cookies oil. The earwigs will be lured into the can. Once inside the can, they become coated in the oil, rendering them incapable of escaping.
10. Two species of parasitic fly, including Digonichaeta setipennis, have been introduced to help control rwigs naturally. In good years these parasites attack and kill over 1/3 of the earwig population.
11. Remove any shelter sites, prune low-growing bushes, avoid growing the earwigs’ favored food plants, and destroy moss and algae. Avoid overwatering and don’t use thick organic mulches.
Watch the video below to learn more about natural earwig control. It was produced by Container Gardening Magazine.
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