You just moved a damp flowerpot or lifted a piece of soggy cardboard in the garden, and suddenly, something wriggles. It’s dark, fast, and has a pair of menacing pincers sticking out of its backside. Your first instinct? Grab your phone, snap a quick pic of an earwig, and Google whether or not you need to burn your house down.
Relax. They won’t crawl into your brain.
The "earwig" name actually comes from an old European myth that these insects would burrow into human ears to lay eggs. It's totally fake. Scientifically known as Dermaptera, these little guys are mostly just looking for a cool, damp place to hide from the sun. If you’re looking at a pic of an earwig right now and feeling a bit squeamish, you aren't alone. Their anatomy is designed to look intimidating, but once you understand what those "forceps" are actually for, they become a lot less like a horror movie monster and more like a slightly annoying garden roommate.
What You Are Actually Seeing in a Pic of an Earwig
When you zoom in on a high-resolution pic of an earwig, the first thing that grabs your eye is the cerci. That’s the technical term for those tail-pincers. Interestingly, you can tell the sex of the bug just by looking at a photo. If the pincers are relatively straight, you're looking at a female. If they are curved and look like a pair of calipers, that’s a male.
They use these for a few things: folding their wings (yes, they have wings, though they rarely fly), defense against other insects, and sometimes during mating. They aren't strong enough to cause a "bite" that breaks human skin, though they might give you a tiny pinch if you sit on one.
Most people don't realize that there are about 2,000 species of earwigs globally. In North America, the one you most likely caught on camera is the European Earwig (Forficula auricularia). They have these weird, leathery forewings called tegmina. Underneath those are complex, fan-like hindwings. It’s one of the most sophisticated folding mechanisms in the insect world. NASA researchers have actually studied earwig wing folding to inspire better designs for foldable solar panels on satellites. Pretty cool for a bug that lives under a rock, right?
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The Dark Reality of Their Diet
Earwigs are the ultimate opportunists. They are omnivores, which sounds fine until you realize they’ll eat almost anything in your yard. In a garden setting, they love tender seedlings, dahlias, and zinnias. If you see jagged holes in your leaves, it might be them.
But wait. They aren't all bad.
They also eat aphids and mite eggs. If you have a massive aphid problem, a few earwigs are actually your best friends. They are natural pest controllers. The problem only starts when the population explodes and they run out of "bad" bugs to eat, turning their attention to your prize-winning marigolds.
Why Do They Keep Coming Inside?
If you find an earwig in your bathroom or laundry room, it’s not because they want to hang out with you. It’s because it’s dry outside. Or too wet. Or too hot. Basically, they are looking for "Goldilocks" conditions. They need high humidity to survive because they lose moisture through their exoskeleton very quickly.
Houses with crawl spaces, leaky pipes, or lots of mulch pressed up against the foundation are basically earwig hotels. They squeeze through cracks no thicker than a credit card. Honestly, if you’re seeing them inside, it’s usually a sign that you have a moisture issue somewhere near your entry points.
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Identifying the Imposters
Sometimes, a pic of an earwig isn't an earwig at all. People frequently confuse them with Rove Beetles. Rove beetles also have short wing covers and can look "wiggly," but they lack the distinct rear pincers. Another common mix-up is the silverfish. While both like damp areas, silverfish are carrot-shaped and silvery, lacking the hardened body and pincers of the earwig.
Managing the "Pincer Bug" Without Using Heavy Chemicals
If your garden is crawling with them, you don't necessarily need to douse everything in poison. There’s a classic "trap" that works incredibly well and provides a great opportunity to get a clear pic of an earwig to confirm your diagnosis.
Take a shallow tuna can or a plastic container. Fill it with about a half-inch of vegetable oil and a drop of soy sauce. The soy sauce attracts them with its salty, fermented scent, and the oil does the rest. Bury the container so the rim is flush with the soil. By morning, you’ll likely have dozens.
Another trick is the "damp newspaper" method. Roll up a wet newspaper and leave it out overnight. In the morning, the earwigs will have crawled inside to stay moist. You can then shake them out into a bucket of soapy water or move them to a compost pile where they can actually be useful by breaking down organic matter.
How to Prevent an Indoor Invasion
Prevention is mostly about "defensive landscaping."
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- Keep mulch at least six inches away from your home's foundation.
- Fix leaky outdoor faucets.
- Ensure your gutters are clear so water doesn't pool near the walls.
- Check your weather stripping. If light can get through the bottom of your door, an earwig definitely can.
The Surprising Side of Earwig Biology: Good Parents?
One of the most fascinating things about earwigs—something you’d never guess from a scary pic of an earwig—is that they are surprisingly good mothers. In the insect world, most bugs lay eggs and then bolt. Not earwigs.
The female earwig stays with her eggs. She cleans them constantly to prevent mold and fungus from growing. Even after they hatch into "nymphs" (which look like tiny, pale versions of the adults), she continues to guard them and bring them food until they’ve molted a few times. It’s a level of maternal care that is actually quite rare among non-social insects.
So, next time you see one, maybe give it a little respect. It’s a devoted parent, a NASA-level engineer, and a part-time aphid hunter. It just happens to have a very unfortunate set of tail-tweezers and a bad reputation based on a 500-year-old myth.
Actionable Steps for Homeowners
If you’ve just taken a pic of an earwig in your home, follow this immediate checklist. First, check under the sinks for any slow drips or "sweating" pipes; earwigs are drawn to that moisture like a magnet. Second, walk around the exterior of your house and clear away any piles of dead leaves or firewood that are touching the siding. Third, if the infestation is outdoors and ruining your plants, set the oil-and-soy-sauce traps mentioned above. This approach deals with the root cause—moisture and habitat—rather than just killing the ones you see. By reducing the humidity and hiding spots, you make your home a lot less attractive to these pincer-clad visitors.
Check your window screens for small tears. Earwigs are nocturnal, and while they aren't strongly attracted to light like moths are, they will often wander toward a lit window if there is a gap. A little bit of caulk and some fresh weather stripping usually solve an earwig problem far better than a can of bug spray ever will.