Another question asked by people is what are natural methods of controlling earwigs
Earwigs eat anything that’s organic – that means any dead or decaying tissue is fair game to them. Generally in the garden, they’re not much of a problem, but when they get to plague proportions, you can do something about it.
Another method is to take a old magarine plastic container, place slits on the sides of the container just above where the sides of the container become the base. Then place a small amount of oil in the bottom of the container, put in your garden near the plants. Place a brick or something heavy on top of the container so that it doesn’t get blown away in the wind. The earwigs are attracted to the oil, enter through the slits on the side of the container, and then can’t get out of the oil. Empty regularly.
Earwigs will feed at night and hide in the trap in the daytime. Hiding spots are the go, so rolled-up hessian, newspaper or (my favourite) corrugated cardboard, with some wheatmeal in the middle as a lure, in amongst your vegies. Tin cans with rolled up/scrunched up paper inside and the lure at the bottom. Check your traps regularly and dispose of the earwigs, then reset your traps on a daily basis.
Best control or disposal is via the chooks. If you feed the chooks lots of greens first, so they’ll crave protein and be ready to clean up the ‘wigs, either directly in the garden, or the finds of your traps. Try grooved decking boards on the ground, grooved side down, then you can turn them over when the chooks are out.
Earwigs give off an aggregation pheromone (‘smell’), which continues to attract other ‘wigs back to the same spot, so use this to your advantage by reusing traps to continue attracting and trapping them, and changing stakes,tree guards etc. from areas of past high infestation.
Stop earwigs climbing up fruit trees and stakes, or into pots, with a barrier – something greasy or sticky but not sweet. Recommended substances are hand soap rubbed on, liquid hand soap, vaseline, oil, hair gel, paraffin.