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Much to gardeners’ disgust, this is a slightly above-average year for the number of ugly, plant-hungry earwigs in town, thanks to the rain from Memorial Day weekend.
UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri said the earwig, a distant relative to the cockroach, is at the top of almost everyone’s most-hated insects list, just behind the Japanese lady beetle.
"I’ll see an ant and I’ll leave it alone, or if I see a spider, I’ll leave it alone," said Regan Howe, owner of Howe Brothers Plumbing, 1215 Williamson St. "But if I see an earwig, I’ll smash it and turn it into bird food."
Pellitteri said earwig larvae emerge from the ground every year around Memorial Day, and some earwigs will still be hanging around until September.
The good news? Most of them should be gone by the end of the month, he said.
"If people haven’t been driven to tears by now, it’s a good sign that it’s not going to happen," Pellitteri said.
Though Karen Johannsen said she hates mosquitoes and Japanese beetles the most, she doesn’t really like earwigs either because they destroy her plants.
"They’re definitely out in full force now in some areas," said Johannsen, one of the owners of Johannsen’s Greenhouses.
Pellitteri said they are notorious for attacking marigolds, hostas and aphids. Johannsen said earwigs also seem to like basil, zinnias, petunias and dahlias.
"Their marigolds looked like rabbits showed up, but it’s just earwigs feeding," Pellitteri said.
He said earwigs only come out to feast on plants at night and hide from the sun during the day, which is often under mulch or sometimes in the house.
Once inside, though, there’s nothing for earwigs to eat. Pellitteri said they’re just there to hide wherever it’s cool, damp and dark — in the bathroom or kitchen in a laundry basket or under a rug, for example.
"They don’t breed indoors, they don’t want to live indoors. They don’t hurt things, though they scare the heck out of people," Pellitteri said. "The reality is they’re harmless."
Howe, a master plumber, said he used to regularly find at least a dozen earwigs congregating under water appliances, such as a toilet, water softener or heater, while on service calls.
And because he’s often outdoors, Howe said sometimes he’ll unknowingly bring a free-riding earwig into the house with him.
"When you have a daughter who doesn’t like them, one may as well be a million."
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