Invasion of the earwigs

They have wings? Eww! (public domain photo)

Arghhhh! Denver is normally hot and dry in July. We've been enjoying the afternoon and sometimes morning showers we've been getting. What we're not enjoying is the nasty little critters eating our lettuce.

Some call them earwigs. Some call them pincher bugs. Whatever they are, it was not very pleasant to pick a rose to smell and have 10 of them crawl out of it, an inch from my nostril the other day.

Now, we are lucky. Most of what we planted in the garden is purposefully earwig resistant. Thank goodness our precious kale has survived the onslaught. I'm really worried about the corn, though. I'm pretty sure they have a great fondness for hiding in those golden ears.

Perish the thought! I've really been looking forward to being able to eat corn again. I won't touch that supermarket stuff (GMO's, you know).

So, how do you get rid of earwigs in the garden? You trap the little buggers! Beer traps work. (Like the ones you use for slugs and snails.) You can also trap them in rolled newspaper.

I'm not one for killing things, but I also don't want them killing my crops.

So, the newspaper is my first choice, since it can be thrown under a bush to disintegrate naturally. As for the beer traps, well, I'm guessing the ones trapped in the beer are destined for earwig heaven. So, I'll try to use the newspaper if at all possible.

We don't poison our food with pesticides around here, so that's not even an option. So, off I go to deposit some rolled newspaper under my corn. Wish me luck!