Ew! Earwigs! If you’ve got them, and yet you don’t want to use poison, you may be wondering how to get rid of pincher bugs and earwigs naturally.

Earwigs look wicked and they CAN pinch enough to break the skin, they’re not otherwise harmful or dangerous to humans. In fact, they’re more likely to scurry away than attack and pinching only if feeling threatened or trapped.

However, pincher bugs can certainly damage your garden plants.

What’s Eating My Plants Leaves?

When I planted my tomatoes and cucumbers in containers at the end of April, my mother warned me that earwigs would be a problem. I scoffed; even as a first time gardener, I was certain I wouldn’t have any issues with pests if I was doing all my growing in pots.

As usual, mom was right.

Within a week, I noticed jagged holes in the leaves of my cucumber plant. I looked high and low, but there were no signs of insects of any kind. Since there was no damage to the tomato plants, I shrugged it off as an anomaly and continued routine care.

But it got worse.

My poor cucumber plant was being shredded by an invisible menace. I did a quick google search, and earwigs came up as a possible culprit. Again, I dismissed it. I hadn’t seen a single earwig, so it had to be something else.

Nocturnal Plant Eating Insects

If something you’ve yet to see is eating your plant leaves, it might be pincher bugs. If those holes are jagged and uneven, then all the more likely that it is the pincher bug / earwig, Forficula auricularia.

Had I continued to research the issue, I would have discovered that earwigs are nocturnal and seek shelter during the day. So it was highly unlikely I’d ever catch them in the act.

However, the problem eventually grew so large that I actually did see an earwig. At that point, there was no denying that those evil little pincher bugs were the ones destroying my cucumber plant. Unfortunately, I was facing a bit of a dilemma.

Natural Garden Pest Control for Earwigs

I’m not a big fan of pesticides for a couple of reasons. One, I don’t like taking the chance that I’ll kill beneficial bugs and insects like bees and ladybugs. Two, I have a pair of nosey dogs who love to stick their heads directly into the plants in the containers. I will never, ever use a product that might poison them.

Birds!

Birds are a longer term strategy because if you don’t have the right birds to prey on the bad bugs bugging your garden, you can remedy that over time. There are things you can do to invite the right birds to take up residence in your area, such as placing the birdhouses, food and planting the plants they enjoy.

For instance, chickadees and nuthatches eat earwigs, so you may want to check out this article on birds that eat mosquitoes and bad garden bugs. There will be tips to help you recruit the feathered garden friends. Natural predators are the best long term strategy for creating a balanced biodynamic ecosystem in your yard and garden.

Diatomaceous Earth – DT

I considered diatomaceous earth, something that also helps get rid of ants naturally, but it still had me worried for the bees and whatnot.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Diatomaceous earth (DT) can harm bees but is less likely to with careful application because bees aren’t likely to be crawling through it. To protect the bees, just be sure to avoid sprinkling DT on blossoms and leaves and the bees should be fine.^[1]https://www.diatomaceousearth.com/blogs/learning-center/how-to-apply-diatomaceous-earth-without-hurting-bees

Oil Traps for Pincher Bugs

After another Google search, I found a number of people advocating oil traps. I was dubious as to how effective these traps could possibly be, but I was desperate.

Many tutorials for the traps called for lids, holes punched into containers, and fancy soy sauce/molasses/oil combinations. The only containers available to use at the time was a couple of small Gladware containers .

I figured they’d have to do for the time being since I was in between grocery runs and needed a fast fix. and some vegetable oil. So I punched pea sized holes in two lids, filled each container a quarter of the way, then added oil and lids.

Next, i dug some shallow holes in the soil, of each planter and placed one trap in the soil of each plant.

Do Oil Traps for Pincher Bugs Work?

When I woke up the next morning, I rushed outside to check the traps. They were empty. I was incredibly disappointed. I decided I’d just have to grab some diatomaceous earth on the next visit to the garden store… and it would need to happen soon!

But the following morning when I went to water the plants, I realized that I had forgotten to remove the traps from the containers. When I bent over to grab the one underneath the cucumber plant. I noticed that the oil was dark. Had it gone bad in the heat?

Nope. It was full of earwigs. I counted them as I emptied the trap — there were 82 in total! I refilled the trap, and caught another 47 by the next day. In three weeks I’d killed 269 earwigs between two oil traps, one in each planter.

These days I keep the traps in place, but fortunately, catch far fewer earwigs in them. A few times a week I might find 2-4 dead earwigs in the oil trap, which is a good sign that I’ve significantly reduced the pincher bug population.

I still can’t believe that such a cheap, simple, and safe solution exists to get rid of this garden menace. If you find yourself in the midst of an earwig infestation, I hope this article will help you win the battle.

YES! Oil Traps for Earwigs Work!

Editor’s Note:  If you want to see other examples, here’s a video rendition if you like visuals. The video is shaky as Marc Lane tries to juggle filming walking, talking and using his hands, but it gives you a good idea.

Also, I cringed in the first section when he’s using expensive olive oil, but on the next round he got some cheaper vegetable oil. You can also just use disposable plastic containers with holes punched in the lids as Liz did.

A Gardens All Facebook fan wanted to know how they get killed by the oil, and well… it seems they’re drawn to it for some reason and then they drown.

Video of How to Get Rid of Pincher Bugs With Oil

Also… from the Gardens All Facebook conversation on this thread, several others have had success with oil and Nathaniel says beer works too! 🙂

Good luck out there, friends and wishing you great gardens and happy harvests!

Liz Greene is an animal loving, history studying, plant growing wild woman from the beautiful City of Trees, Boise, Idaho. You can follow her on Twitter @LizVGreene^[2]https://twitter.com/LizVGreene and catch her latest misadventures on her blog, Instant Lo.^[3]https://instantlo.wordpress.com/