Help! Help! Help!

Sydtunes · Jun 23, 2008

Folks, really need to pick your brain on this one. After almost 1 month in the ground my plants are having their leaves slowly chewed up. I finally found the culprit – Earwigs!!!

I hate those blasted little critters – any suggestions on how to get rid of them?

They have already reduced many of my plants to 12” stems 2 or 3 leaves left.

Any help is welcome…

LUCKYDOG · Jun 23, 2008

Place two teaspoons of melted bacon grease in a small (margarine etc) container add just enough vegetable oil to cover the bacon grease. Place container outdoors.
Earwigs love the grease, will crawl into the container and die.Also, Try stale beer in a container, they are attracted to the smell and drown(will also attract slugs).
Plus dont water at night
A few ideas I found surfing

AlabamaJack · Jun 23, 2008

I know its chemical, but it works...just can't use it where pets can get to it...I use it in my raised tomato bed...and it works...

http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/p...ral_general_title&itemId=cat50080&id=cat50008

fineexampl · Jun 23, 2008

Wikipedia says that you can use diatomaceous earth, but don't take my advice as i don't know if that would be harmful. Apparently it's harmful to humans as well.

LUCKYDOG · Jun 23, 2008

I like the name AJ -- BUG GETA

gardenkiller · Jun 23, 2008

fineexampl said:
Wikipedia says that you can use diatomaceous earth, but don't take my advice as i don't know if that would be harmful. Apparently it's harmful to humans as well.

Ummm DE is not harmful to plants or to humans. It is not poison. It is simply ground up sea creature shells that work by cutting bugs as they crawl across it and thus they dehydrate and die. Trust me on this one, I work at a large grain storage complex and use this almost every week. The only catch is you have to get the bugs to crawl through it. I can get the stuff in very large quantities for about nothing here, lemme know if I can help. Shipping would be a pain though.

gardenkiller · Jun 23, 2008

http://www.insecto.com/

Check out that link for DE, great stuff for earwigs and I had good luck killing ants with it too!

wordwiz · Jun 23, 2008

DE can be dangerous to humans if they inhale a lot of the dust. It is recommended that one wear a mask while spreading it, although I used it in my pool for years - I just made sure the wind was blowing the right way!

Mike

fineexampl · Jun 23, 2008

Well what i was reading said that DE is dangerous to humans, i don't claim to be any sort of expert or anything. I've never used the stuff. It said that it's good for pest insects, but might also harm beneficial insects.

I only copies what i reads.

gardenkiller · Jun 23, 2008

fineexampl said:
Well what i was reading said that DE is dangerous to humans, i don't claim to be any sort of expert or anything. I've never used the stuff. It said that it's good for pest insects, but might also harm beneficial insects.

I only copies what i reads.

I apologize, after rereading my post I seemed to be biting your head off, which wasn't the case at all. Yeah it has just as much chance to get rid of the good bugs with the bad, but as far as I know nothing really eats earwigs, and earwigs will kill a plant FAST, so I say let em all die!