Anyone else have earwig problems? (flower, grass, insects, vegetable)

[CA central coast]

Those suckers can do some damage.

[FLPL75]

Unless your having an infestation keep in mind Earwigs eat aphids, mites, dead leaf matter, and dead insects. They’re useful garden predators and have been called one of nature’s housekeepers.

Some of the things you can do to control them
Keep work areas in garden dry and free from litter
Remove decaying vegetable matter from garden areas and around the house.
Avoid leaving piles of piles of leaves or grass clippings lying around, or ANY pile of wet, damp organic matter which may encourage and feed earwigs.

[KarenBo]

What do you do if you are having an infestation? Those buggers are all over my lettuce, my corn, my broccoli! I tried using an organic insecticidal soap but so far no good.

[CA central coast]

they were all over my lettuce. I had a ton of wood chips spread around my yard, near my garden. I raked them all up and haven't had the earwig problem since. I know that was the main problem. They were living under my chips. They devastated my carrots. After I raked up, my new row of carrots hasn't been touched.

[Icy Tea]

I saw one in the kitchen this morning and before I could smash him with a paper towel he ran under the dishwasher. Now I guess I have to spray under there. We have a few in the basement near the sinks and outside by the garden hose and flower pots. I read a good story about a guy who as a kid went to drink from a garden hose. His mother turned on the water and and a swarm of earwigs came out of the hose and into his mouth. She screamed and ran away and he had to spit them out and rinse them out.

[KarenBo]

Well, that must've cured him of ever drinking out of the garden hose again. Yikes!

I don't currently have any mulch in my raised bed so I'm not sure what's attracting them. I did dig out quite a few grubs from my raised planter bed earlier in the season so it may be that eggs were either laid there at the end of last season or the compost I added to the beds were infested.

I think I'm going to try beer traps this weekend and see if it helps.

[CA central coast]

I tried beer traps and oil traps. The oil traps were tuna cans with vegetable oil with some fish oil or bacon grease added. They caught a couple. Not enough to make a difference. The beer traps didn't catch any.

They like moist areas, they may have been in that compost. Do have anything else they could be living under? Wood pile, flowers, anything stacked outside?

[Giesela]

Try this. Take some sections of the newspaper and roll them up a little loosely (so there are some pockets/holes to crawl into). Wet the newspaper and put out where the earwigs are problem. Leave for a day, maybe two.
Get a large bucket and fill with water and some gloves or tongs.
Go out in the morning and pick up the newspaper and immediately dump in the bucket of water. Hopefully you will have drowned a ton of earwigs that crept into the moist newspaper.
Check back and let us know if it worked or not!
If it works, repeat!