Gardening: earwigs, part 1

Self-tutoring about earwigs then and now: the tutor reflects….

In PEI and the Annapolis Valley, I spent a lot of time outside playing. I didn’t see many earwigs, if any, in either of those places.

In Newfoundland, however, they were very common where I lived. One of my friends in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, mentioned them as well. Therefore, they were in some parts of the Atlantic provinces, if not everywhere.

Here on the West Coast, earwigs seem easy to find outside. Gardening the last couple of days, I’ve seen a few of them. Are they good for the garden?

The answer might be that earwigs are good in the garden, depending. For instance, they eat aphids, soft-bodied insects, slugs, and nematodes. Apparently they can be cannibals. Moreover, they eat decaying plant material.

Yet, it seems earwigs can become problematic if they can’t find items such as those mentioned above to feed on. Not finding those foods, earwigs apparently can feed on garden plants. However, one opinion is that they prefer not to eat garden plants if they can find pests or decaying plant matter to eat instead.

Earwigs can look a bit menacing, but it seems one gets used to them. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt in the garden:)

Source:

environmentalpestcontrol.ca

my.ucanr.edu