How to Make and Use Eco-Friendly Earwig Traps

If you have flowers in the landscaping around your house, or, you have a vegetable garden or fruit trees, you may notice ragged holes in the leaves. This can be a sign you have an earwig problem. Besides loving to chew on plants outside, earwigs can come indoors. Earwigs will also chomp on houseplants, and on sweet and greasy foods. They thrive in dark, damp, cool places such as around building foundations, in damp basements- anywhere there's moisture. That's the bad news. The good news is, you don't need to use toxic chemicals to get rid of earwigs, you can trap them instead. Read this informative article and learn how to make and use eco-friendly earwig traps!

Feeding Habits of Earwigs
Earwigs are sneaky pests that feed during the night. Come daylight, they look for moist, dark places to hide in. That's why, to effectively trap earwigs, you should put the traps out at night and empty them in the morning.

#1 Earwig Trap
Cut up an old garden hose into 8-inch lengths. To make eco-friendly earwig traps, dip the hoses into a bucket of plain water. Then, set them all around your garden at night. In the morning, put a squirt of dishwashing soap in a bucket. Fill the bucket about three quarters full with warm water; swish the solution.

Then, head out to your garden to check the earwig traps. As you pick-up each length of hose, hold it over the bucket and tap on it. The earwigs will fall into the soapy water and drown.

#2 Earwig Trap
Gather together several low-sided metal cans. Empty tuna and cat food cans work well as eco-friendly earwig traps. Don't wash the cans out. At night, place them around outside in hidden places anywhere you have earwigs. Fill each can a half-inch with cooking oil- it can be new or used.

The earwigs will be attracted to the oil in the cans. They will crawl into the oil and drown.

In the morning, check each eco-friendly earwig trap. Use a disposable plastic spoon to remove any earwigs from each can so the oil can be used again. Or, dump out any earwigs with the oil. Then, refill the cans with oil and use them again to trap earwigs.

#3 Earwig Trap
In the evening, gather up several small flower pots and some newspapers. To make eco-friendly earwig traps, crumple-up a piece of newspaper so it's a little wider than the top of the pot. Spritz the newspaper with water. Then, set it on the ground. Place a pot over it to make an earwig trap.

In the morning, take a bucket of warm, soapy water with you to check the earwig traps. Pick up each pot. Place the newspaper into the bucket. Place fresh, crumpled newspaper under each flower pot at night to catch more earwigs.

Resources
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/bugreview/earwigs.html
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2068.html
http://www.youcanmakeadifference.co.cc/indoors.html
http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/land/pesticides/greenGardening.php