Help the development of the site, sharing the article with friends!
Earwigs in the apartment are a real nightmare for many people. However, the animals give no reason to panic. They are absolutely harmless to humans and only occur in large numbers in the rarest of cases. What remains, however, is the disgust factor. A few basic measures are all you need to get rid of earwigs, or earwigs, as they are also known. It's about expelling, not killing.
earwigs in the apartment
Earwigs, whose Latin name is Dermaptera, are an insect species that first appeared in the Jurassic 150 million years ago. They belong to the order of flying insects and therefore have wings, which they only use very rarely or not at all. Some specimens are even completely flightless despite having wings. The species native to Central Europe usually reach a body length of ten to 20 millimeters. The most common of these is Forficula auricularia, the common earwig. The nocturnal animals love a rather damp and cool environment. A house or an apartment is therefore not one of their preferred places to stay. Normally they are rarely found there. Since these animals also lay relatively few eggs, an invasion or even a plague indoors is very unlikely. This is especially true because they do not necessarily find the food they prefer there - certain parts of plants, for example, or other insects such as aphids.
notice: Outdoors, earwigs must not be hunted or killed as they are under conservation protection. The animals eat pests and are therefore explicitly considered valuable beneficial insects.
prevention
In most cases, earwigs get into the house by accident. If you want to prevent the animals from visiting you, you can protect yourself quite well with a few small measures. For example, small gaps and cracks, especially in the window area, should be closed or sealed. Uninvited guests find access through these openings, which are often only minimal. In addition, laundry that has been dried outdoors must be shaken out thoroughly before being brought indoors. The earwigs hide in it again and again and are then unintentionally smuggled in. The situation is very similar with plants that have been in the garden over the summer. If you bring them back inside in the fall, a close inspection of both the foliage and the potting soil is essential.
plague
As already mentioned, a real catchy tune invasion is extremely unlikely, since the living conditions for the animals inside are usually not suitable. So you will mainly be dealing with isolated specimens that do not pose any danger to humans or pets. Nevertheless, many of these very archaic-looking animals feel threatened. There are a number of things you can do to get rid of them. The simplest and most brutal is certainly to simply kill them by slaying them. Even if this is generally permitted indoors, it should not be done. It always makes more sense to catch them with a glass and a piece of paper in order to be able to carry them outside. However, they can also be persuaded relatively easily to leave the apartment again on their own. In addition, you simply worsen the living conditions for them even more. The following measures are recommended:
- Significantly increase the heating temperature
- avoid airing as much as possible
- Move indoor plants to another room
- Thoroughly remove dirt and any plant debris from the floor
- eliminate possible hiding spots
- switch on the light as soon as dusk falls
All of these measures discourage the earwigs from staying on the premises and usually cause them to flee within a few days.
tip: Above all, the combination of a high room temperature and a lot of light drives the animals away relatively reliably.
Clay Pot Trap
However, the measures described above do not represent a one hundred percent success rate. If you want to be on the safe side, you should therefore work with traps in which the earwigs can be caught alive and then taken outside. The clay pot trap has proven itself. How to build them:
- Use a standard clay plant pot of any size
- Fill the pot with wood shavings, straw, an old newspaper and some soil
- Leave the drainage hole free
- put it upside down on a base
- place in the room with earplugs overnight
The conditions that the filled pot offers the animals are extremely attractive to them. The next morning, you carry the entire pot, including the base, outside and unload it there.
cloth trap
Earwigs love moisture. That is why damp or wet pieces of fabric exert an immense attraction on them. Very effective traps can therefore also be built with leftover fabric that is simply wetted. There is a very high probability that the animals will crawl into it at night and can then also be brought into the garden the next day. It is important that the fabric is crumpled up so that the catchy tunes can crawl into it. You should also make sure that the rest of the room is dry and, if possible, well heated. The wet fabric then acts like a wet biotope on the ear crawlers.