Ridding your corn silk and ears of earwigs

My corn (copyright Jaipi Sixbear 2014)

A few days ago, I wrote about the earwigs. As it turns out, the little buggers have now gotten into my ears. My ears of corn, that is. Strangely enough, though, there are no articles online that specifically tell you how to remove earwigs, once they have already infested your corn. Until now, that is. Because, here you go. Your welcome.

Banishing earwigs from your corn ears and silk.

Earwigs are beneficial bug busters. However, they can also be harmful to some plants and veggies. Corn is one of them. So, you will want to get them off the corn as soon as you notice them, before they can damage your whole crop. Here's how.

Wait until dark.

Those suckers will be all over the place right around dusk. I don't know why. I'm no entomologist. I do know that if you take a spray bottle and fill it with water and some dish soap, you will need no other weapons in this battle. Just spray the stuff all over your corn, especially on the ears and the tips of the stalks. The earwigs will start dropping like crazy off the stalks and to the ground.

Some people use orange oil on corn ears.

You can if you want. It works just as well as the dish soap. However, it doesn't work any better. It's more expensive. You have the dish soap right in your kitchen. If you use environmentally friendly dish soap, it's just as green. So, why make an extra trip to the store?

You should also keep your weeds down and use the newspaper.

Controlling weeds discourages earwigs. Using rolled wet newspaper to trap and dispose of them keeps the population down. So, while these two things won't get rid of the bugs that are already on your corn, it will keep more from doing the same.