How do you get earwigs out of your house?
Old folklore dramatically details earwigs as creatures of the night looking for a human ear to crawl into. In doing so, earwigs use their pinchers to eat away at sleeping humans. While bugs in general and the occasional earwig have found their way into the ear of a human, it is not their intent to feast upon you. Unlike the tall tales of long ago, if an earwig were to crawl in your ear, it would solely be by random chance. Earwigs aren’t something you want to chance having in your house. Seeing an earwig is enough to give you nightmares without knowing folklore stories, so how do you get earwigs out of your house?
Intriguing Identifiers
Earwigs are long, black, and brown beetle-like bugs. The main identifier is the pincers on the end of its backside. Nobody wants to mess with pincers, and that is what makes these tiny pests look big and bad. The way that the earwig is shaped by being long allows it to be able to raise its pincers in the air—kind of like a mini scorpion. Earwigs use this stance to scare off predators like birds and frogs. The sight of pincers could be enough to ward them off, and it’s an earwig’s main defense.
Earwigs are very social bugs with an eye for the nightlife. Nighttime is when earwigs like to go on the hunt for food. They love a good meal of plants and decaying matter. A lovely garden is a gold mine for earwigs as well as a pile of rotten trash. These property marks will make your house vulnerable for them to seek shelter in if need be. During the day, earwigs like to congregate together under a cool, moist, mulch pile or under a pile of wood. If you’re outside doing yard work or gardening and you come across a pile of them, do not fear but take some precautions if they are close to your house.
Earwigs will enter houses seeking shelter from rain. They love moisture, but a good rainfall or several rainy days will have them leaving their comfortable mulch bedding for a drier space. That drier space will likely be your garage or basement, and then the earwigs will migrate to your laundry room, kitchen, and bathroom. See a trend here? Earwigs look for dark, moist spots to lay low during the day and at night will go on the grand tour of your house. Many people make reports about finding earwigs in their house, by seeing them crawling around in a sink full of dirty dishes, bolting from under dirty clothes piles, and in trashcans. Once earwigs are in your house, they no longer have the abundant food source they had outdoors, which is why you might see them more during the day looking for food or a way back out. Best thing is to give earwigs a reason to leave by keeping your house clear of things they are attracted to.
Removal Solutions
Finding earwigs in your house is a red flag for finding them anywhere and everywhere. Checking to see if any home modifications need to be made would be first on the list of how to remove earwigs out of your house. Earwigs are tiny, slender, and beetle-like, making it very easy for them to slip through any cracks. They are also very fast in moving from one place to another. Once earwigs are in your house, they aren’t leaving unless forced. Check doors for any gaps when they are closed and if it’s not tightly closed, apply sealant to secure the cracks. The same applies to windows, such as making sure the caulk isn’t cracked. Earwigs can hitchhike in your house by hiding in outside gear that is brought into the house. When bringing those things in, give them a good shake outside so any earwigs that are latched on will fall off. Outside modifications or general awareness will prevent earwigs from nesting nearby. Maintaining any outside plants, gardens, trash, and debris will limit and cut down on earwigs nesting.
There are many trap options for earwigs to remove them from your house or to collect them outside for removal. A unique combination of soy sauce and vegetable oil mixed in a plastic container will draw them in and trap them. These can be set up inside or outside, but you will have to empty them daily. To stop earwigs from crawling up your plants, a little tip is to put some petroleum jelly at the base of the stem to keep them from crawling up.
You can check your house for exposed cracks, set earwig traps, or try some DIY solutions, but if you want to know how to get earwigs out of your house call a pest control company. Earwigs don’t reproduce indoors, so there’s no cause to worry about them laying eggs. They also don’t do damage or spread illness, but earwigs are an ugly presence to have crawling around your house. If not dealt with, earwigs will seek out different food sources by invading your pantry and easily make their way into partially sealed containers or bags. Kapture Pest Control has targeted ways to treat earwigs. We can immediately point out problem areas and offer solutions. Using professional pest control treatments through Kapture will solve an earwig problem quickly. Put to bed the myths and legends surrounding earwigs with a call to Kapture today and sleep worry-free tonight.
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