Earwigs decimated my corn

17 years ago

Before I could realize it they had eaten and nested inside my immature corn cobs and ruined almost all of them. Is there any way to fight them back? Diatomacious Earth? Organic mulch seems to provide a haven for these things.

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justaguy2

17 years ago

Earwigs are kind of a mixed bag. They can damage corn as well as other young plants, but they are also voracious consumers of mites, aphids and other soft bodied pests. They are also members of the decomposing community and play a valuable supporting role in helping dead organic matter get incorporated into the soil to benefit plants.

I have lots of earwigs around my property, but attribute very little in the way of plant damage to them.

They very well may have ruined your corn, but it is also quite possible they didn't move into the corn until some other pest damaged it in which case they found crawling inside to to be a comfy, moist, dark place to hang out and the decaying corn provided them a nearby food source.

Nevertheless if you believe you need to control their overall population then it helps to understand their life cycle.

Earwigs can be baited with vegetable oil that you place a tiny piece of bacon into. Set this inside tuna cans (or other shallow dish) and place in areas earwig presence is a concern. The earwigs will drown in the oil and this is non toxic to anything that doesn't drown in it. It is important to do this early on because overwintering earwigs promptly set about breeding and each female will lay around 30 eggs. So, each female you trap early on is 30 less earwigs in the garden later.

The use of an organic mulch favors earwigs. Organic mulches have so many benefits though that I would still advise using it. You can try raking the mulch a bit during the day when the earwigs are hiding to get them running for cover and being more vulnerable to predation, but don't expect great results from a raking or two. If birds are not a pest problem in your garden you can introduce cracked corn which attracts birds by the dozens. Birds are a natural enemy of earwigs. One warning though is cracked corn has a tendency to germinate, so some hoeing will be in order if you use it.

Lastly, earwigs need a moist hiding place during the day. I don't know how much rainfall you get or how you water the garden, but if you use drip irrigation or soaker hoses to limit the water to the crops instead of the entire mulched area this goes a long way to reducing the desirability of habitat for earwigs. If you gets lots of rainfall then this will be of limited effectiveness.

Other trapping methods that can be effective if started early in the season are rolling up a newspaper loosely and dampening it. Set it out at night and in the morning once the sun is out burn it or otherwise dispose of it so the earwigs in it can't get back to the garden. There will likely be scads of earwigs hiding out in it once the sun is up.

Before doing any of this though, make sure the earwigs really are the bad guys. They often get an undeserved bad rap when they are really just cleaning up the mess made by some other bug.

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Comments (15)

Kimmsr
17 years ago
Are you sure it was earwigs and not the European Corn Borer?
Earwigs can be controlled with garlic oil sprays.
hoorayfororganic
Original Author
17 years ago
im pretty sure it was earwigs, each destroyed cob i opened up had a bunch of them in there
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paulns
17 years ago
An insecticidal soap solution like Safers (follow instructions on bottle) works really well on earwigs.
dchall_san_antonio
17 years ago
Alfalfa pellets also attract birds and don't sprout. Alfalfa pellets also make a great fertilizer so use them freely on a monthly basis.
fertilizersalesman
17 years ago
justaguy2,

Great post, very interesting.
happyslappy
17 years ago
I found that putting canola oil in empty cans attracts the earwigs and drowns them but was really uneffectively controlling their population. Also if you use sprinklers or if it rains around them it will overflow and leave marks on pavement and get into the soil which can kill certain plants (like my lawn).
Usually the cause of an infestation of earwigs is due to an inbalance in the garden system.

Try introducing chickens underneath trees where there is mulch buildup. Earwigs travel a fair distance at night time so introducing chickens into high mulch cool shaded areas is a good idea. You feed your chickens a controll the earwigs at the same time.

IF you dont have chickens get some!!! or cleanup the mulch around your yard an put it in one place for composting away from your corn and place canola oil traps. prehaps put some bird seed around the composting area to attract birds that will hopefully eat the earwigs.
PRO
INTENSION design
5 years ago
I’m having the same problem but I can only see earwigs not other pests. I’m going to try one of the above tips of using a soap solution, my chicken won’t touch them (I don’t think they like the flavor) and the canola oil trap has worked but traps small quantities of this bugs. I’m in California and water with drip irrigation so idk how to control their population.
Barbra B
5 years ago
Do you use Roundup? I had a container of Roundup that apparently they were attracted to and climbed in to..going up the spout I guess as when I emptied the container out, it was full of dead earwigs and floating in Roundup. I've googled Roundup and earwigs and can't find anything about it but I just did it just now and can take a picture of my ball jar, filled with Roundup and floating earwigs. Looks like there is a dozen of them. No other bug in there. I guess I'll contact the company. Perhaps you can make a Roundup trap for them, so they can climb in and get killed by it. The Roundup container had a tiny hole in the bottom and was dripping out slightly, so I got a ball jar and poured the Roundup in that. Now I am going to wash and dry bottom and put duct tape over tiny hole and pour this back in minus the earwigs because I hate to throw pesticide or herbicides away. We have enough deadly chemicals in our environment to be wasteful of it.
Allaiyah Weyn
3 years ago
Earwigs really seem to like lettuce & corn. They don't seem to bother with any other plants in my garden.
Darlene Ellison
3 years ago
Earwigs where in my corn and cabbage badley. Is there anything I can do to prevent them next year and/or do something before winter to prevent them?
Ev Evans
3 years ago
a friend of mine has had success using tanglefoot. You can apply it to the base of the stalk and they will get stuck in it. They destroyed my corn last year so I plan on growing in Tupperware bins with tangle foot around the edge of the container this year. they can’t fly so they have to crawl through it and the will get stuck. It’s certified for organic gardening too. I’ve also seen collars around the base of the stalks to keep them out. Good luck!
Elizabeth Mountain
3 years ago
I lost my first crop of a hybrid container corn last year. Only one lot of 11 ear, but still😕

If I wrap each stalk with a band of aluminium foil covered with petroleum jelly, might that work? It worked for Gypsy Moth prevention in Maine!
Ev Evans
2 years ago
Happened to me last year. It was definitely earwigs. They love the silks/tassles. This year I did my corn in whiskey barrels and I’m going to wrap the top of the barrels with tanglefoot! It’s the only thing I could think of to keep them from climbing in!
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
2 years ago
I don't grow corn, but I have had seasons where earwigs were a big problem. They ate a lot of plants in my vegetable garden and their favorite seemed to be Basil. I have been growing organically since 1980. It took me awhile to figure out it was earwigs. I could never see a critter for the damage. Until someone suggested I take a flashlight out at night and look and sure enough there were the little buggers making a feast of my garden. I had that problem a couple of seasons, but I would go out at night with a plastic cup with hot soapy water in it and knock them into the cup and I kept that up until the damage stopped.

Figuring it out early is the key and taking care of them is simple, just removing them and disposing them. You do have to keep after it but if you put the time in you can get control of the situation.

Earwigs decimated my corn

justaguy2

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Kimmsr

hoorayfororganic
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Earwigs decimated my corn

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