Controlling Earwigs
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RE: Controlling Earwigs
I'm not sure what's in Fantastick but Ok. I'd rather use products specifically meant for bugs because they have been tested for that use. There are 3 easy steps you can do that might let you keep the Fantasik for use on the grease spots it was meant for. Check out this article for details; http://pestcemetery.com/3-easy-steps-rid-earwigs/
Good Luck
Post by Dutch 1962
RE: Controlling Earwigs
Why does the bowl have to be glass? I had them so bad i found them in between my toothbrush bristles also my loofa in the shower. I finally pulled out the prickly ferns out front and the bark! Never again. However I am selling my house so I had someone lay down that weed barrier...then rock! They're back! and in force. I just put out soy sauce n oil, with the bent sticks into it. Ah yes, lets not forget they crawled between my toes while on the computer! ugh! No one else in the neighborhood has them like I do. I think I'm on a earwig farm!
Post by Tenderheart43
RE: Controlling Earwigs
Well I have some new treatments that work great. First seal every crack and hole in your house near the foundation. Hard I know but that's the first thing.
Then pull all the mulch back from the foundation 1 inch so that the soil is exposed. Go to the local pool store and get some Diatomaceous Earth. Diatomite is also used as an insecticide, due to its physico-sorptive properties. The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layer of insects' exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate. This also works against gastropods and is commonly employed in gardening to defeat slugs. It is most commonly used in lieu of boric acid, and can be used to help control and eventually eliminate a cockroach infestation.
For a trap outside place soy sauce or beer and a tsp. of fish or Veg oil in a glass bowl. Put a couple of sticks as access ramps and cover w/ some card board leaving a 1/4" or so open and place is a shady area where you are having the issue. You will find tons in there. Also you can put 2 tsp of cheap Palmolive (the green kind) 2 oz of mouth wash (Listerine) a can of coke and a can of beer in a garden sprayer and spray the area you think they are coming in. The soap will make them sick and the Listerine will too. The coke and beer are there for the plants helps green things up and will promote Bactria growth. If they are coming in your house its because is is damp and cool. Cool good, damp bad, turn on the dehumidifier or get your air cond. serviced.
Post by akman
RE: Controlling Earwigs
I moved back to my family home in Massachusetts in 2005. We never had earwigs but I started to find them in small numbers at first. I hired 3 different exterminator companies but they don't seem to know how to treat for them and unfortunately the earwigs seem to have developed immunity to the chemicals they use. These companies also just treated the house and not the yard.
This year the problem was so bad that the earwig babies were everywhere and I can relate to the people who had bugs falling on them - it is horrifying. I tried a Seven like solution, Ortho Max and Fantastik. They were immune to the Seven like solution (it aggravated them and made them more active), Ortho Max worked only for 24 hours as did Fantastik. I tried two things that, so far, have helped and are more "natural" that I found about online. One is 20 Muleteam Borax - a laundry detergent that is a brand of Boric Acid. I place this weekly in any "opening" in my house like window sills, door entrances, etc. I don't let my dog walk through it though. Additionally, I found insecticide soap mixed with one tablespoon of isopropyl alcohol sprayed around the outside of my windows and doors helpful.
Both products I believe are supposed to negatively affect their nervous systems. I have heard of trapping but they gross me out so I haven't started that yet. Some things exterminators told me - keep basement low moisture using dehumidifier, keep brush and plant life away from house foundations, remove mulch - especially against house. Sealing cracks and crevices also helps. I too am waiting for something that kills these things off outside. Apparently in small numbers they are good for gardens but I don't have a garden just tons of these bugs. Good luck to all - I keep praying that these measures that have given me some relief keep working and that they don't develop immunity to these too.
Post By Liz (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
i thought i'd see how many i could kill in a night.so i attached a tube(hollow mop handle_ to a 20 ounce bottle filled with soap and water,and the other end attached the top 1/2 of a 20 ounce bottle to scoop em in with.i filled a pickle jar the 1st night.the gizmo i rigged worked realy well specaly the ones on the house.they slide right down and into the soapy water.its a pain but eeffective.
Post by rikmysta_73
RE: Controlling Earwigs
Read some on hosing them down. Do not hose em down the water will attract them rake up any yard debris because they love to hide under it. I read they love leaves love to eat them to the veins. So any tree's close to your house get rid of. Earwigs are harder to control than cockroaches.
Post by rikmysta_73
RE: Controlling Earwigs
I lived on the east coast for many years and have seen these earwigs. No biggie. Since I moved to California, I am infested with these things. My 3 year old and I go out every night with flash lights and kill about 100. No lie about 100 every night on our house! They get in the house daily. How do I stop them? I tried the grease so they drown thing only got an ant problem. So please what will really work to stop these things?
Post by rikmysta_73
RE: Controlling Earwigs
Moved into this apartment a year ago, and have had earwigs bad during warm, humid summer nights. One even got into my food; I hope I didn't accidentally swallow one, because the bowl was almost finished -- yuck!
Anyway, Ortho Home Defense kills them, BUT the smell is quite offensive and irritating, possibly toxic. Also, a mixture of chlorine bleach and water in a spray bottle stops them right away, BUT watch out for bleach stains. Sevin spray is a joke to earwigs-- they keep crawling. I may try boric acid sprinkled around my wall perimeter next, as it is effective against cockroaches.
Post By J. Laws (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
I hate these little things with a passion! Has anyone tried using a pest control service. I am thinking about it but want to know if it will just be a waste of my money! I kill about 10 to 20 of these things a day. I want to stop them on the outside. They just make me sick to my stomach. I'm even scared to eat my food because I think there will be on in there.
Post By Sherry Hollis (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
Okay, I too want to know if the Fantastik works to keep the earwigs OUT before even coming in, or is it just a spot treatment?
Post By Mooch (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
I live in NC, and in a 5 year old house have recently been swarmed by earwigs. I have had terminix come out 4 times to try to zap these guys, but it only lasts for about 3 days and then, every night starting at 9:00, I can look in my kitchen and kill as many as I like until 11:00.
One night recently I killed 22. On nights when I really go nuts and spray a bunch of RAID I see only 1 or 2, but then 5 or 6 dead in the morning. I don't want to end up with cancer, so I'm going to try out this soap method.
These little disgusting guys are a plague, and when I smash them I am equally disgusted and satisfied.
Post By Mike (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
Hi everyone. I have those horrible little things bad, too, and I hate them with a passion. We even spent the last weekend caulking our living room and putting up molding just to try and stop them from coming in, but I have read that toads, yes toads love to eat them. They will actually gorge on them. I have noticed that we have a toad living out by our garage and there are no earwigs in the garage at all! So, I am going on a toad hunt and putting them around our basement wall.
Post By Rosie (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
I feel somewhat better knowing I'm not alone in this earwig infestation. I don't recall ever seeing one in the apartments I've lived in over the years. I just moved into my first house on the West coast and THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. Without fail, around 9 p.m., I see one near the sliding glass door. No sooner do I get my fly swatter and kill it than another one comes along. Within a 10 minute span tonight, I killed six or seven. We bought some earwig pesticide and will spray it tomorrow. I hope it works; these things have me freaked out. I found one in the cat's bowl of dry food this morning. I hope it doesn't get so bad that they're falling off the walls into my hair, like someone else posted.
Post By Really disgusted (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
I would greatly discourage any toxic chemical use and Fantastik falls into this category. ESPECIALLY if you have children or pets! With all the current publicity out there, we should know better.
As for the earwig issue, I live in Montreal where the weather in the summer is very hot and humid making it a perfect breeding ground for earwigs. Furthermore, we have a pool in our back yard and lots of gardens with river rock and mulch. My best advice, things I have done for over 10 years, is as follows: Do NOT leave any clothes or towels hanging overnight. When bringing in these moist items after spending the day in the pool, shake them WELL! Also shake all children's toys (trucks and buckets) before the kids play with them. Teach your children to do this on a regular basis. Repeatedly fill a 10 litre bucket with hot water and add generous amounts of liquid dish soap (or any other detergeant). Pour around your home and pool at dusk. You may have to refill several times but it is well worth it. I may only have to do this once or twice during the season.
We do not have serious earwig problems every year, but this year is definitively a winner. This is what we have done in the past and it worked well. Keep in mind that any toxic products you use around your house and your fruit/vegetable garden will affect you as well as your vegetation. I am happy that we live in a pesticide and herbicide-free province and we are able to find healthier solutions to pest-control. I hope you will all take this into consideration, for a healthy home and healthy planet!
Good luck.
Post By Stephanie (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
Can you use the Fantastik on flowers as well?
Post By Todd (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
Try stale beer in a container, they are attracted to the smell and drown(will also attract slugs). I use old glass jars with a few nail holes punched inthe tops, so the rain won't dilute it. Also, insecticidal soap works, but it's best to go out at nite, with a flashlight, and spray them as they eat your plants. they have e tendency to congregate with each other in the joints of fences, in bird feeders etc. - spray with the soap during the day, if you can find the groups. If someone invents a bait for them ( like roach bait), I would be eternally grateful, I hate these things. lori in chicago
Post By lori (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
Place two teaspoons of melted bacon grease in a small (margarine etc) container add just enough vegetable oil to cover the bacon grease. Place container outdoors.
Earwigs love the grease, will crawl into the container and die. This works!
Keep container away from pets or they will get to the mixture first.
Post By Lois McGuire (Guest Post)
UGLY LITTLE THINGS
Me and my mom have had these things every nite, every since we have lived in California. If I walk in a room and look on the ground theres one always there.Then I sometimes scream if see them! I think I'll take my mom to the store to buy Fantastik. If there is another solution please keep posting.
Post By Jake Morrison (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
Can you just spray the FANTASTIK around windows and doors to avoid them coming in? Or do you have to wait to see them and then spray it?!
Post By leeX2 (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
i have lived in santa fe for 4 years, and have never seen an earwig here until this season (except under boards left on the ground). in new mexico, bugs seem to have a sharp population spike...i'm hoping these onerous bugs' spike will dip soon! i am seeing them everywhere!
but i did figure out that they go for water, and i have a metal bucket outside with fairly steep sides...they crawl in for the rain water collected in it, and can't crawl up to get out. there are hundreds of dead ones in there. if you live in a relatively dry area (so you don't have to worry about mosquitos breeding) then this might be somewhat of a solution for you.
i am also glad to hear about the Fantasik solution--but that stuff really stinks, so i am going to go for the soapy water solution.
i grew up on the east coast, where earwigs are rampant. they use their pincers to cling to clothes hung on a clothesline to get access to the indoors. and they love to hide under pillows & blankets because they like dark places. so beware, if you go sit on your couch on your outdoor deck, especially at dusk! for instance, i just went inside to use the bathroom and an earwig fell out of my shorts! yuck is not a strong enough word!!!
they are pretty hard to kill physically, especially if you are horrified by them like i am. you can't just step on them and assume they are dead, because they have such strong, resilient bodies (again--yuck!) so you need to be emotionally prepared to crush them with fingernails or some other extreme crushing technique. good luck!!
lisa
Post By lisa (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
So we left our dishes sitting in soapy water overnight, and found 2 earwigs floating in it. I think they were attracted to the food on the dishes, but were dismayed to find out that the soap really burns.
Post By sargent awesome (Guest Post)
ICK!
I am moving into an older house with my boyfriend and they are EVERYWHERE! I may have noticed more at night because they are nocturnal. But last night I squashed about 6 of them with a hammer within 3 feet of our back door. It was actually quite fun. They come in all three doors and I see them crawling around on the carpet. Disgusting creatures. I'm going to try some of your suggested methods because I can't stand them, and once my 1 yr old puppy gets moved in, I don't want him trying to eat them. YUCK.
Post By Sarah (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
I have a bug living under the eaves of my house,
it is dark brown red underneath and when the wings are closed,there are thin red lines going across, it almost looks like a shield. I do not not know what this bug is, but I had so many all around my house I decided to use ant and roach spray for twenty minutes I was spraying, killed them all.
Post By T.G. (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
It is nice not to be alone with these little nuisances. I bought my home in Sept 06. I saw a few weird bugs and didn't think much about it. You know how moving in can be but I thought to keep an eye on it. Well, I find a couple of these stupid things dead around my base boards.....also, just laying on the carpet half dead. Once in awhile I will find one or two crawling accross the living room floor. This strikes me as weird....nothing is consistent about the ones I have seen around. Is it possible for me to kill them all outside? I have two huge acorn trees (very healthy), pine tree, and some other tree....so I suspect these hide under all the leaves....or something. Also, none of them I see in the house ever get 6inches (that is scary to think about.) Also, I have never seen them outside. Any suggestions or ideas? I am getting really worried about this...
Post By Ann (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
i recently seen these earwigs in my house i have a 4 year old and a 3 month old and my 3 month old was laying down on the couch and she started to cry so i picked her up and was changing her diaper and there was an earwig in her pamper i dont know what it did to her but she wont stop crying so i have to find something to kill them i hope this fantastic everyone is talking about helps i need it
Post By marie fuentes (Guest Post)
Earwig invasion!!!
I should try the FANTASTIK as we have had a bad earwig invasion for afew years and i'm not getting much sleep, I hate them!! I like spiders better!, When we first moved into the house they were much worse, they would crawl up the walls at night and fall in your hair and under your pillow, there horrable! We are just starting to get them back again, we have them outside more than inside now, they gather outside near the door trying to get inside, we tryed a product called Coopex which comes in a powder and you mix it with water it killed them in over a few months but it worked, I spent all my time sweeping up all the dead ones and at one stage I was getting half a bucket full in afew days, that's how bad they can get! Well thanks for the advice and I will be sure to try FANTASTIK.
Post By Tamika (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
While fantastik does work really well, it is kind of pricy. I find it just as effective to buy ultra cheap dish soap, mix some with water in an old windex bottle and blast em. Also if you spray some around the outiside of your lower windows and decks once in a while, it will help keep them away all together :)
Post By Rusty (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
I have just moved into a 3 year-old home. I had never seen an earwig before now. There are truly ugly little things. I think I'll try the Fantastik. Thanks!!
Post By Janet (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
any detergents and/or dish soaps are known to quickly kill earwigs-- yes fantastik works awsome as well
they wont get more then 6 inchs before they die --works on many isects - ants- moths-fly-beetle-
but ANY soapy solution will do the same
Post By steve (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
FANTASTIK IS TRUELY FANTASTIK ON EARWIGS!!
IT TRUELY KILLS THEM IN 10 - 15 SECONDS FLAT!! BUY THE HOUSEHOLD CLEANER FANTASTIK AND YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!! :)
Post By Kim Berry (Guest Post)
RE: Controlling Earwigs
If you have earwigs comming in you have trees that they are eating go aroubd and start looking they will bore holes in them and eat behind the bark and kill your trees
Post By Frank (Guest Post)
Ah
My parents went out and my brothers and I were left alone in the house we were getting ready to watch a movie when we saw a earwig on the closet door...now me and my brothers don't like to kill bugs so I didn't want to go near it cuz its so ugly and scary so i took the first thing i could grab and it happend to be hairspay and after I sprayed it it fell and i guess crawled away now i have no idea where it is! I looked every were! And after looking at pictures on the internet i found out it was a female...should i be worried it will have babies? I should have read about the fantastik first!
Post By Kelly (Guest Post)
Diazanon for Earwigs
I have been invaded by earwigs. I think I have the ants down to a dull roar.
It seems at night the earwigs invade my porch just about dusk. That's when I like to keep my door open to cool down and air out the house. I thought I had picked the right pest control product so that I wouldn't have that problem. So, back to wal-mart I go. There happened to be a very helpful lady shopping there who must have been some sort of master gardner. I also asked the clerk what product I should use.
The other shopper and the clerk were right: DIAZANON. Now of course you have to read and FOLLOW the directions. That's the real catch, but what a success. I may have to do it again in a few weeks, but wow, NO EARWIGS, and not a lot of other bugs too. All these products are good, but you have to buy the right ones and you have to read the directions and do exactly what it tells you to do.
I also learned from the other shopper, that if you have weeds in your white rock where there are no plants, pour vinegar on them. IT WORKED, and that was months ago, and it's still working. It changes the ground and inhibits growth till next year. A gallon of white vinegar is still very inexpensive.
By Ardis Barnes
Post by ThriftyFun
re:bug hater
does the fantastic work to keep them from coming in at all?? can i use it outside? I dont even want them coming in they are so ugly.
Post By jennymommyofthree. (Guest Post)
Spiders and Earwigs
I recently bought some bug traps that are about two inches by four inches wide with stickum on the surface. I had them inside, and they caught a few. I finally turned one upside down and found out that it's an excellent way to catch earwigs. They love to crawl under and into tight areas; "ha!" fooled them. I hate earwigs and spiders the most. I took two of them and set right outside my doorways; SUCCESS. I might as well get them before they get into the house. I think the thing that works the best for keeping spiders down is hosing off the house under eaves and all the nooks and crannies on the outside of the house every two weeks.
By Ardis Barnes
Post by ThriftyFun
Fantastik
Nobody likes killing earwigs, just because they are so ugly looking, and kind of scary at times. The best hands-free way to kill this suckers is to buy a bottle (spray) of "FANTASTIK" (www.fantastikcleaners.com). Yes...the stuff you clean countertops, sinks, toilets, etc. with.
Buy the Lemon kind and your house will even smell nice after. Believe it or not, this stuff will kill earwigs and spiders in just 10 seconds, but it has no effects on ants for some reason. Just simply spray a squirt on the insect and wipe it away with papertowel. This stuff is also "ok" to use on carpets as long as you don't get the one with BLEACH in it. Same thing, just spray on the earwig, wait 10 seconds and pick up with a vacuum or paper towel. All in all, the pest will be dead and your house will smell like Lemon "Fantastik".
By David Schaefer
Post by ThriftyFun
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