Earwigs Infestation: How To Get Rid Of Earwigs Or “Pincher Bugs” In The House?

Insects often settle next to people. You can eliminate them with herbs, home, and chemical remedies. There is nothing pleasant about such a neighborhood. They occupy the right corners of the living space. So they can meet in unexpected places for humans. No less than silverfish, spiders, and carpet beats, earwigs spoil a person’s life. The owners of private houses and villas, as well as apartments, are familiar with this problem. This insect intimidates in its appearance. 

Long whiskers’ abdomen in the form of a stovepipe looks terrible. But the main fear is the cloven claws at the end of the brown-red body. And the older the individual is, the more powerful its claws are. Since the problem is widespread, we have decided to tell you in detail about the dangers of earwigs. And how to get rid of these insects through your efforts. Let’s find out how to get rid of earwigs in an apartment or a house. 

What Causes Earwigs in the House?

The most common causes of earwigs are:

• Lack of effective ventilation
• Increased humidity
• Free access to food
• Access to the leaves and roots of plants

Let’s consider these causes in more detail:

• Lack of effective ventilation. In such conditions, condensation forms in cracks, under baseboards, and other closed areas. 
• Increased humidity. Household rooms where laundry is washed and dried, bathrooms, and toilets are attractive to earwigs. Wet clothes, leaking plumbing, and stuffy rooms are the best places for earwigs to live and develop.
• Free access to food. A whole trash can and dirty dishes left in the sink overnight are excellent food sources for pests. They also appear in boxes of stored fruit or vegetables. That’s why earwigs came house.
• Access to the leaves and roots of plants. Growing specimens or cutting plant debris are equally attractive to cottontails. They eat them with pleasure.

Earwigs prefer to live in moist soil or any other damp place. In search of food, they can survey quite a large area at night. They move rather quickly. They are attracted by:

• crumbs of bread;
• remnants of vegetables or fruits.

Insects enter rooms through:

• cracks in foundations and floors;
• open doors and windows.

They can be brought in with fruits and vegetables from the vegetable garden or the market. Pincher bugs try to settle nearby in the house where they find food. During the day, they go to secluded places and go out to hunt at night. 

You should know that they need high humidity to survive. In a dry, clean house, they cannot stay. Let’s list the possible causes of the appearance of unpleasant neighbors. 

What are the Best Ways to Kill Earwigs in the House?

It is necessary to begin the fight by identifying where the “enemies” are hiding. For example, they can be in the baseboard or the wall cracks. They crawl into all the damp corners. In apartments, earwigs hide in bathrooms, toilets, and poorly ventilated rooms. 

On garden plots and dachas, they also have their favorite places. First of all, these are greenhouses. Here it’s always moist and warm. Earwigs like to settle in these parts of the house:

• wood barns;
• in flowerbeds;
• porches;
• baths and outbuildings;
• in cellars and basements. 

We recommend starting with the most straightforward ways for earwigs infestation:  

• Carry out general cleaning. Eliminate all places with high humidity and reasons why it increases: holes around sewage and water supply pipes, cracks in the floor and baseboards, leaks, etc.
• Continue to maintain standard humidity at home. Also, you have to not allow moisture or condensation in hidden areas. Do not leave wet rags on the floor, as they can attract pincher bugs in the house.
• Control watering of houseplants. They won’t suffer from excess moisture, and you’ll thereby reduce the risk of earwigs.

We suggest turning to other effective techniques if you have already tried them.

Professional remedies to control earwigs

Earwigs are sensitive to chemicals. So you can start with mild preparations to eliminate earwigs in the house. And only if they do not give the desired effect can you use more potent formulations. We have listed remedies against earwigs in the recommended order for use:

• Chalk pencils. You can use them to draw lines around door and window openings. So you can apply this pencil everywhere where you spot earwigs.
• Powder. You have to scatter the remedy in the earwigs’ habitats and place a damp cloth nearby to attract them. After about a week, you should replace the powder with a new one.
• Aerosol. It is a proven remedy to get rid of earwigs in the house.
• Insect repellents for houseplants. Any universal pest control agent for houseplants will help to eliminate it. A broad-spectrum insecticide is excellent for getting rid of earwigs.

Home remedies

Not everyone agrees to use chemical preparations, despite their high effectiveness. They are toxic and can have adverse effects on human health and pets. To remove earwigs in the house, you can use gentle home remedies.

Boric acid

With its help, you can get rid of earwigs and almost all domestic pests. It is enough to get rid of pincher bugs in the house to sprinkle the powder. You should do it on the floor along the baseboards and with cracks in the walls. In contact with the preparation, the insects die.

The result will be even more effective if you additionally spread edible baits. You have to:

• take acid and mix it with the yolk of a boiled egg; 
• you take 50 g of the poisonous substance per one yolk; 
• then you need to stir the mixture thoroughly;
• and separate into small lumps;
• spread on flooring, near baseboards.

Wet trap

This method will not radically help to provide earwigs infestation but significantly reduce their number. In the evening, you have to soak old rags, newspapers, or clothes in water and place them on the floor. The pests that have come out of the hiding places hide under them.

In the morning, collect the traps and take them outdoors. You need to destroy them to prevent the caught specimens from spreading over the territory. For example, you can pour boiling water into the traps.

Garlic and onions

It is possible to get rid of uninvited neighbors quickly with a strong-smelling tincture. Make the remedy for earwigs control from garlic and onions:

• crush a medium-sized head of garlic and two onions;
• pour the resulting pulp into 750 ml of boiling water;
• stir well;
• leave for three to four hours to infuse. 

You can prepare the mixture in the evening to use in the morning. You need to pour infusion into a sprayer and applied to the problem areas of the house:

• plank floors;
• baseboards;
• bottoms of walls, etc. 

In spring and summer, treatment is carried out at least once a week. The technique has a significant disadvantage. It is a strong smell that many people do not like.

Herbs

This method for earwigs infestation is also good. It is especially suitable for those who have herbs growing on or near their property:

• wormwood;
• yarrow;
• tansy;
• oregano. 

You can prepare an infusion of them. This remedy is by pouring chopped, and dried herbs overnight with boiling water. Afterward, add some laundry detergent and sprinkle this solution on cracks, baseboards, and all the favorite places of caterpillars.

Final thoughts

We have learned how to get rid of earwigs in the house quickly and effectively. In addition to treating with various compositions, it is desirable to find out where they come from in the house to block all possible ways. If neither folk methods nor chemicals help, call specialists. They will conduct treatment with highly effective insecticides. After that, you can forget the unwanted neighbors for a long time.

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