I had an awful time with earwigs about 5 years ago. Have no idea why, but it took me awhile to figure out they were the problem. I didn't see any insects during the day chewing on foliage, but someone suggested I go out with a flashlight at night and sure enough, that is what I saw.... a ton of earwigs eating plants. They were destroying my basil plants and echinacea more than anything but eating other things as well. I was forced to do something about them because they were making such a mess, so I just knocked them into soapy water every night for awhile until the populations were more manageable. I haven't had that problem since and I haven't had them hiding in roses when I bring them in the house, but I only have 5 rose bushes so....

I didn't know they eat bad bugs, really? They do eat foliage for sure. I've seen them.

Consensus?
Here?
LOL....that made my morning....

Okay, so maybe not a consensus, but a smattering of opinions that can be constructed into a general trendline with deviation inside an expected range? lol

The remarks I posted about their habits is what I gathered this morning from general browsing about the web. I didn't see much here on our forum after doing a search for "earwig" except a couple of random comments.

It takes quite a whacking to knock these stubborn, ugly things out of blooms before bringing them inside. They seem to enjoy the dark blooms, and they hide deep down in the crevices.

I've come close to inhaling an army of them. When I smell a rose I SMELL A ROSE. I think if I inhaled an earwig, it'd end up in my foot.

My only comment is look before you sniff!

Eew, ick! Lol, that's all I know about them!

don't bother about 'em on roses - mainly because the swine are all lounging about in the dahlias, munching away. Here, the recommended advice is to upend a pot stuffed with straw or leaves on a cane - the earwigs will scuttle up inside to sleep, whereupon you, the would-be earwig murderer, can sneak up on them and drown them (or something). Apart from the odd fright when they crawl out of a posy, I pretty much ignore them as even the dahlias only get the odd nibbling. Of course, these are titchy little english earwigs and not some Californian monster......

put the blooms in a bucket of water. The earwigs come out of the flower and I dump the bucket so they can run away. Sometimes shaking the flower upside down is all you need to do.

I had quite a battle with earwigs a few years ago. Tried the newspaper and straw remedies but that didn't put a dent in 'em. As mentioned above, they are particularly fond of dahlias. Soap spray didn't do much either. Diatomaceous earth, applied regularly, finally did the trick.

Yes, I've been thrashing the roses about but I hadn't considered the dunking method; probably a lot more effective and less brutal! I really don't see much damage. The main thing is the EEEW/creepy factor. The ones here aren't terribly huge; about an inch long at most. I just can't make my skin stop crawling when I see one, though.

yep, and I think they can give you a nasty nip too.

They will often nest in rose flowers here. Besides the ick factor, they will eat the petals. I've set up oil traps and that works a bit, but the feral cats love licking the oil up or knoacking them over. I've planted 'sacrificial' plants nearby my roses so they will eat those instead; They seem to really love eating the leaves on Flowering Tobacco and have left the roses alone for now.