Stopping earwigs from damaging your plants comes down to exploiting their own habits against them: their love of tight, dark hiding spots, their predictable nightly climb from soil to foliage, and their attraction to moisture. The most effective approaches combine physical traps, trunk barriers, habitat modification, and targeted treatments when populations get out of hand. But the strategy you choose should account for something many gardeners overlook: earwigs are also voracious predators of aphids and other soft-bodied pests, so wiping them out entirely can backfire.
Why Earwigs Go After Your Plants in the First Place
European earwigs are omnivores. They eat decaying organic matter, small insects, and living plant tissue, and the balance shifts depending on what is available. During spring and early summer, when populations boom and tender new growth is abundant, plant feeding ramps up. Earwigs chew ragged, irregular holes in leaves, petals, and soft fruit, often leaving damage that looks a lot like slug feeding. The difference is that earwig damage tends to appear overnight and is concentrated on plants near moist, sheltered ground-level spots where the insects hide during the day.
Soft-fleshed fruits are especially vulnerable. Stone fruits like apricots, peaches, plums, and cherries take a beating because earwigs can chew shallow holes or tunnel into the flesh, and they also feed on cherry stems and the foliage of young trees.1Journal of Integrated Pest Management. Biology and Management of European Earwig in Orchards and Vineyards Seedlings, dahlias, marigolds, zinnias, lettuce, strawberries, and corn silks are frequent targets in home gardens. If you are seeing damage mainly on tougher, established woody plants, earwigs are probably not the culprit.
Corrugated Cardboard Traps
The simplest and best-studied trapping method uses rolled-up corrugated cardboard. Earwigs are compulsively drawn to the tight, dark corrugations as a daytime hiding spot, and you can collect and dispose of them each morning. A recent series of standardized trials found that cardboard traps outperformed both black and translucent plastic alternatives, and that traps placed on the main trunk of a tree caught more earwigs than those set at the base or near branch tips.2Journal of Economic Entomology. Evaluating trapping methods to increase earwig capture in temperate tree fruit crops For garden beds without trees, laying rolled cardboard or damp, tightly rolled newspaper among affected plants works well too.
A few practical details from the research are worth noting. Trap length had diminishing returns beyond about 30 cm (roughly a foot), so you do not need enormous tubes. Enclosing the cardboard inside a plastic bottle, which some gardeners do to keep it dry, actually reduced catches dramatically. Baiting with fish sauce sometimes increased captures, but the effect was inconsistent, and no other lure or bait reliably helped. The unbaited, open corrugated cardboard roll was the winner overall.2Journal of Economic Entomology. Evaluating trapping methods to increase earwig capture in temperate tree fruit crops
There is an interesting chemical reason these traps improve over time. Earwigs produce an aggregation pheromone, likely a minor component of male cuticular lipids, that draws other earwigs to occupied shelters.3PubMed. Pheromonal basis of aggregation in European earwig, Forficula auricularia L. (Dermaptera: Forficulidae) Lab work found that corrugated cardboard shelters occupied by earwigs continued to attract new individuals for up to five weeks after the original occupants were removed, within a range of about 50 cm.4Crop Protection. Aggregation behavior in the European earwig: Response to impregnated shelters In practical terms, this means a cardboard trap that has been out in the field for a while becomes more attractive, not less. Leave your traps in place rather than replacing them with fresh ones every few days, and just shake the earwigs out each morning into a bucket of soapy water.
Sticky Barriers for Trees and Raised Beds
If earwigs are damaging fruit or foliage in trees, a sticky band around the trunk is one of the most effective physical controls available. In a California citrus study, researchers used video monitoring to track earwig movement along trunks and found that sticky barriers slashed vertical climbing. On unbanded trees, about a third of observed earwigs moved vertically up the trunk; on banded trees, that number dropped to roughly 2.6%.5Journal of Economic Entomology. The European earwig Forficula auricularia (Dermaptera: Forficulidae) in California citrus: a sampling method, population surveys, and description of earwig movement into the tree canopy The bands did not create an impassable wall, but they reduced movement enough to protect the canopy in most cases.
Timing matters. The same study observed earwig movement along trunks from late March through mid-June, well before fruit was at its most susceptible stage, which suggests that you should apply barriers early in spring rather than waiting until you see damage.5Journal of Economic Entomology. The European earwig Forficula auricularia (Dermaptera: Forficulidae) in California citrus: a sampling method, population surveys, and description of earwig movement into the tree canopy Commercial sticky bands sold for codling moth and ant control work fine. In a pinch, you can wrap the trunk with masking tape sticky-side-out and coat it with a product like Tanglefoot, though you will need to replace it as dust and debris accumulate.
For raised beds, a similar concept works using copper tape or petroleum jelly along the rim. Earwigs dislike crossing greasy or tacky surfaces. This is less well studied than trunk banding, but the principle is the same: exploit their ground-to-plant travel route.
Habitat Modification
Earwigs thrive in moist, cluttered environments. During the day, they hide under mulch, boards, stones, pots, and dense ground cover. You cannot eliminate every hiding spot, nor would you want to, since mulch is good for your soil. But you can reduce earwig pressure on vulnerable plants by keeping a few inches of dry, bare ground immediately around seedlings and susceptible crops. Watering in the morning rather than the evening lets the soil surface dry before nightfall, making the area less appealing for nocturnal earwig activity.
Moving firewood piles, stacked pots, and lumber away from garden beds removes the daytime refuges that concentrate earwigs near your plants. If you use thick organic mulch, pulling it back from the stems of young transplants during the first few weeks after planting gives them time to toughen up before earwigs find them. Once plants are larger and less tender, you can push the mulch back.
When Earwigs Are Actually Helping You
Here is the complication that makes blanket earwig extermination a bad idea for most gardens. Earwigs are significant predators of aphids, and in some settings their pest-control value outweighs the plant damage they cause. Research in a Mediterranean organic citrus orchard showed that earwigs were important aphid predators but also reduced flower survival, giving them a genuine dual role as both beneficial insect and pest.6Biological Control. Friend or foe? The role of earwigs in a Mediterranean organic citrus orchard
In pip fruit orchards (apples, pears), earwigs often do more good than harm by suppressing aphids, mites, and psylla. In stone fruit orchards, where the soft flesh invites direct feeding damage, the calculation flips.1Journal of Integrated Pest Management. Biology and Management of European Earwig in Orchards and Vineyards This means your control strategy should be based on what you are growing. If you have apple trees with an aphid problem, keeping earwig populations around and using barriers only on your nearby peach tree makes more sense than a yard-wide spray program. In a mixed vegetable garden, trapping and relocating earwigs away from lettuce seedlings while leaving them alone near plants plagued by aphids is a reasonable middle path.
Chemical Options and Their Trade-Offs
When populations are high enough that trapping and barriers are not keeping up, some gardeners turn to chemical treatments. The most common active ingredients used against earwigs in home gardens are carbaryl, permethrin, and spinosad. Of these, spinosad is often marketed as an organic-friendly option because it is derived from a soil bacterium, but the story is more complicated than that label suggests.
Field trials testing spinosad against earwigs found it highly effective at killing them. In one study, earwigs on plants treated with spinosad granules or sprays suffered over 80% mortality within two days, compared to less than 15% on untreated plants and about 33% on plants treated with granular chlorpyrifos, a conventional organophosphate. However, the same researchers concluded that spinosad’s toxicity profile toward predatory insects means it “cannot be considered to have an environmental safety profile similar to most established biological insecticides.”7Biological Control. Toxic Effects of Spinosad on Predatory Insects If you use spinosad in a garden where earwigs are also eating aphids, you may solve one pest problem and create another.
Diatomaceous earth (food-grade) is a physical rather than chemical control. The fine silica particles damage the waxy layer on an insect’s exoskeleton, causing dehydration. It is most effective when applied in dry conditions around the base of plants and in crevices where earwigs hide. Research on earwigs has also explored diatomaceous earth as an adjuvant alongside biological control agents, and it does increase earwig mortality when combined with entomopathogenic nematodes.8PubMed. Stage-dependent susceptibility of the ring-legged earwig Euborellia annulipes to entomopathogenic nematodes and diatomaceous earth On its own, diatomaceous earth is a moderate tool rather than a knockout blow, but it has the advantage of being nontoxic to mammals and birds.
Biological Controls Worth Knowing About
If you lean toward letting nature handle things, a few biological agents target earwigs specifically. Entomopathogenic nematodes, microscopic roundworms that infect and kill soil-dwelling insects, have shown activity against earwigs in laboratory and limited field testing. The species Steinernema carpocapsae has been shown to infect European earwigs, with infective juveniles responding to earwig cuticle as strongly as they do to standard laboratory test hosts. Interestingly, earwigs appear to recognize the threat: when exposed to these nematodes, they significantly increased leg-cleaning and scratching behavior compared to unexposed controls.9PubMed. European earwig (Forficula auricularia) as a novel host for the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae
The practical catch is that earwig nymphs are more susceptible to nematode infection than adults, and earwig mothers guard their eggs and young nymphs in underground nests, which markedly reduces nematode-induced mortality during those earliest stages.8PubMed. Stage-dependent susceptibility of the ring-legged earwig Euborellia annulipes to entomopathogenic nematodes and diatomaceous earth Maternal care is unusually well developed in earwigs compared to most insects, and it acts as an effective shield against soil-applied biological controls. Nematode applications in late spring, after nymphs have left the nest and are foraging independently, are more likely to make a dent.
A parasitic fly, Ocytata pallipes, has also been identified as a natural enemy of the European earwig. This tachinid fly deposits tiny eggs on plant surfaces near earwig feeding damage. The eggs have to be swallowed by an earwig to develop; the larvae then hatch inside the gut and penetrate into the body cavity, eventually killing the host.10Journal of Applied Entomology. Ocytata pallipes (Fallén) (Dipt., Tachinidae), a potential agent for the biological control of the European earwig This fly is not commercially available for purchase, but it does occur naturally in parts of Europe and has been discussed as a potential classical biological control agent. If you garden in a region where it is established, avoiding broad-spectrum insecticides helps preserve it.
A Practical Step-by-Step for Home Gardeners
Pulling all of this together into a workable plan depends on the severity of your earwig problem and what you are growing. For most home garden situations, a layered approach works well:
- Start with traps: Place rolled corrugated cardboard (about 30 cm long, unbaited, not enclosed in a bottle) among affected plants and on the trunks of any damaged trees. Check and empty them every morning for at least two weeks to gauge population size.
- Reduce habitat: Clear daytime hiding spots near vulnerable plants. Water in the morning and let the soil surface dry before dusk. Pull mulch back from seedling stems.
- Add barriers: Apply sticky bands to tree trunks in early spring, before you see damage. Use petroleum jelly or copper tape on raised-bed rims if earwigs are crawling in from surrounding ground.
- Escalate only if needed: If traps are pulling in dozens of earwigs nightly and damage is still heavy, consider a targeted application of diatomaceous earth around plant bases, or spinosad bait applied directly to the soil near hiding spots rather than broadcast across the garden.
Avoid spraying the foliage of plants where earwigs are also eating aphids, unless the plant damage is genuinely severe. In mixed plantings, selective placement of traps and barriers lets you protect your dahlias and lettuce without collapsing the earwig population that is keeping aphids off your roses.
Why the Oil-and-Soy-Sauce Trap Is So Popular (and Whether It Works)
You will see advice everywhere to set shallow containers filled with vegetable oil and soy sauce near affected plants. The idea is that the soy sauce attracts earwigs and the oil drowns them. This is a folk method that many gardeners swear by, but it has not been rigorously tested in published research. The controlled trapping studies available focused on shelter-type traps, not liquid pitfall traps, and found that baits and lures generally did not improve catches over simple unbaited corrugated cardboard.2Journal of Economic Entomology. Evaluating trapping methods to increase earwig capture in temperate tree fruit crops Fish sauce was the one exception that sometimes helped, which makes sense since it shares the umami quality of soy sauce. But the effect was inconsistent.
If you want to try the oil trap, there is no harm in it, and anecdotal reports from gardeners suggest it does catch some earwigs. Just do not rely on it as your sole control method. The corrugated cardboard approach has a stronger evidence base and, perhaps more importantly, benefits from the accumulating aggregation pheromone effect that makes traps more attractive over time.
Earwig Defenses You Might Not Expect
If you have ever picked up an earwig and been hit with a foul smell, that is not your imagination. Earwigs produce chemical defensive secretions from abdominal glands, and at least one species, the shore earwig, has been shown to spit a discharge containing sulfide compounds that mimic the smell of rotting flesh. In lab experiments with anole lizards, a single encounter with this discharge caused the lizards to reject earwigs as prey for several weeks afterward, despite continuing to eat other insects.11SpringerLink / Naturwissenschaften. Earwigs (Labidura riparia) mimic rotting-flesh odor to deceive vertebrate predators This chemical defense, combined with those distinctive pincers (which can give a mild pinch but are not dangerous to humans), means earwigs are not easy pickings for backyard predators like birds and lizards. It also means that relying on natural vertebrate predators to control earwig populations in your garden is unlikely to be sufficient on its own. Ground beetles and some parasitoids are more reliable natural enemies than birds in this context.
The defensive chemistry also explains why earwigs can be so bold about foraging on exposed plant surfaces at night despite being relatively soft-bodied insects. They are not defenseless, and they know it. Their willingness to climb into tree canopies, feed on flowers, and forage out in the open after dark is underwritten by chemical weaponry that gives most small predators pause.