Earwigs

The common European earwig is a brown insect, that reaches up to 13-15 mm long (about ½in), they have a pair of distinctive pincers or forceps on their rear end.

• Flower petals and young leaves can be eaten; older foliage is sometimes reduced to a tattered network of veins
• Inspect plants by torchlight on a mild night to find earwigs feeding on the flowers and foliage 
• Earwigs hide in sheltered places during the day and emerge after dark to feed
• Other nocturnal pests that might be responsible are slugs, snails or caterpillars

Control of fruit aphids

On fruit trees earwigs can give good control of fruit aphids and do not cause damage to the trees or fruit. Providing shelters such as flower pots loosely stuffed with hay in trees can help increase numbers.

On fruit trees earwigs should be encouraged as they are useful predators of fruit aphids.

Prevention

• Avoid growing susceptible plants against wooden fences, which provide daytime hiding places

Non-chemical control

• Trap earwigs by placing upturned flower pots loosely stuffed with hay or straw on canes among plants being attacked
• Every morning shake out the pots and remove the earwigs
• This may not protect plants when earwigs are abundant, but it is a useful means of monitoring their numbers

Chemical control

• Before resorting to chemicals remember that earwigs are omnivores and can be of benefit in the garden by eating small insect pests
• If damage is extensive, spraying at dusk on mild evenings when earwigs are likely to be active with products such as deltamethrin (e.g. Bayer Sprayday Greenfly Killer) or lambda-cyhalothrin (e.g. Westland Resolva Bug Killer)
• Do not spray plants in flower due to the danger to pollinating insects
• Inclusion of a pesticide product does not indicate a recommendation or endorsement by the RHS. It is a list of products currently available to the home gardener

Download

Pesticides for gardeners (Adobe Acrobat pdf document outlining pesticides available to gardeners)

Earwigs overwinter as adult insects in the soil and other sheltered places.

• Batches of eggs are laid in the soil in midwinter and again in early summer
• Female earwigs remain with their eggs until they have hatched
• The nymphs look like smaller versions of the adult insect 
• Earwigs are one of the few insects where the adults show some parental care, protecting the eggs and nymphs from predators
• Earwigs come out to feed at night during late spring to early autumn, and prefer soft tissues to older foliage
• Earwigs also feed on aphids and other pests and can help reduce infestations.
• They can eat small insects and eggs, as well as plant material

Ants
Aphids
Aphid predators
Chafer grubs in lawns
Cherry blackfly
Currant aphids
Currant blister aphid
Earthworms
Fruit aphids
Fungus gnats
Ground beetles and rove beetles
Leatherjackets
Millipedes
Pear bedstraw aphid
Plum aphids
Pollen beetles
Raspberry and blackberry aphids
RHS statement on pesticides in horticulture
Rosy apple aphid
Vine weevil
Woolly aphid