My name is Jerry, and I have an earwig problem.

Jerry Rigatoni

Jerry Rigatoni

Still new here and new not great with imgur, so if this belongs somewhere else or my syntax for pics is screwy please let me know!  Thanks folks!  And sorry for the wall of text!
 
TLDR: trapping earwigs in the humble bucket garden.  This is happening on a  small (4'x7') area of a wooden deck.
 
Someone gave me 2 little basil starts and they were happy for about 3 days, then something found them and ate most of them. I put them up in a moat like I do to keep ants off cakes and found something was munching the pepper plants as well. I set out some beer thinking it may be slugs because it was the night shift wrecking the Rigatoni humble bucket garden.  I pulled the "traps" and lined them up for a photo op.
http://i.imgur.com/S6lpzYA.jpg  
 
Some earwigs.  I saw some in action after dark as well.  And squished them.  I left out some cheap vegetable cooking oil the next night.
http://i.imgur.com/5SCEBNn.jpg
 
I also read that they are attracted to soy sauce, water, smelly oil, cheap beer and combinations thereof.  So I tried a little batch testing the next night just to experiment, because..why not!  I pulled the "traps" and lined them up for a photo op.
http://i.imgur.com/icSeMrY.jpg?1
 
 
So left to right:
50/50 soy sauce and Busch beer.
100% soy sauce
Ground beef grease and Busch beer (proportions unknown)
Remaining 3 all 100% store house brand "vegetable oil".  
 
I know it is hard to make out in the dark soy.  So from left to right again:
1:The first(soy/beer) had about as many earwigs as the 3rd (pot pie tin)  give or take.  
2: (just soy sauce) had about 3 in there.
3: (grease and beer) 
4,5,6 (cooking oil)  
 
This experiment has only gone on 3 days and there can be so many variables.  I currently feel my results are very inconclusive as to what constitutes a better bait.  It seemed to have made a bigger difference on where I put it, than what it was.  It may make sense though, as it appears they travel from a separate raised bed from the west and get distracted on their way to the east of the garden.  So I am going to make a slight assumption that proximity is as at least as important as contents and set up a barrage of traps on the west side, and taper down to for the east.  I have also read about a damp newspaper trap for them, so I intend to look into it.  Perhaps I can set some of that up as traps/barriers on the western front of the Rigatoni deck theater before the sauce traps.  Let me know if any of you have any pointers here or are interested in what I learn/or don't.  There are other options to take care of them, but as it stands I would consider them at least "managed" and not devastating anymore.  So a good time to mess about for the cause, I thought.  I can't help but wonder if I am a novice preaching to the experts of what has already been established, so I apologize if this is redundant. 
 
Cheers folks!  
bonus pic:  wee little mantis patrolling my wounded de arbol
 http://i.imgur.com/pcSmLey.jpg
 
Edit: wording
 
bhut camp said:
Neem oil with a surfactant works well!
Click to expand...
What do you recommend specifically, and what is your regimen?  If you don't mind me asking, of course.  I used neem oil.  It seemed to take care of aphids but the earwigs were still after the new little growth here and there, but not as bad (A-holes!).  I have insecticidal soap, but I have not employed it.  Not sure if it was the pests or neem but after treatment some of the branches kind of twisted.  Perhaps I was not diligent enough, or too much dowsing?  Thanks for the input!
moruga welder said:
:welcome: Thanks for having me aboard!  
Click to expand...
 
Jerry Rigatoni said:
What do you recommend specifically, and what is your regimen?  If you don't mind me asking, of course.  I used neem oil.  It seemed to take care of aphids but the earwigs were still after the new little growth here and there, but not as bad (A-holes!).  I have insecticidal soap, but I have not employed it.  Not sure if it was the pests or neem but after treatment some of the branches kind of twisted.  Perhaps I was not diligent enough, or too much dowsing?  Thanks for the input!
Click to expand...
n.p. ! glad to help ya out when i can !      :onfire:
 
I use dyna grow neem and Dr Bonner's soap together.I spray quite heavily but do this only once a week to a week and a half
 
bhut camp said:
I use dyna grow neem and Dr Bonner's soap together.I spray quite heavily but do this only once a week to a week and a half
Click to expand...
Oh cool.  I have some Dr Bronner's tea tree oil soap.  Maybe I should work a little into the mix?  It is very pungent for sure.  Has an astringent quality to it almost.  Do you have a preferred flavor?  I kind of want to ask you folks many questions, but I'm not trying to get your secrets!  I am just excitable!
 
You might find this helpful: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74102.html
 
Basically the traps you set plus reducing moisture in and around the plants is a good approach. The article linked above includes the name of an insecticide that works. 
 
That aside, it looks like you've been over-feritlizing the plants. If you used a reasonable amount of neem oil, it would not cause the puckering of the leaves that your plants have. However, if you used an excessive amount it might. If you don't think you used an excessive amount, back off on the feritilizer. If you're not using fertilizer and instead are using soil with built-in fertilizer (most potting soils have this), the manufacturer might have used excess fertilizer, in which case your best solution is to get fresh soil. 
 
Keep in mind that chile plants prefer fairly dry conditions, so reducing your watering and letting the soil dry out a bit should help discourage the earwigs.
 
geeme said:
You might find this helpful: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74102.html
 
Basically the traps you set plus reducing moisture in and around the plants is a good approach. The article linked above includes the name of an insecticide that works. 
 
That aside, it looks like you've been over-feritlizing the plants. If you used a reasonable amount of neem oil, it would not cause the puckering of the leaves that your plants have. However, if you used an excessive amount it might. If you don't think you used an excessive amount, back off on the feritilizer. If you're not using fertilizer and instead are using soil with built-in fertilizer (most potting soils have this), the manufacturer might have used excess fertilizer, in which case your best solution is to get fresh soil. 
 
Keep in mind that chile plants prefer fairly dry conditions, so reducing your watering and letting the soil dry out a bit should help discourage the earwigs.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the that!  And yes, you hit the nail on the head there.  In the early stages of pests I thought the wrinkled leaves and whatnot were signs of deficiency.  Epsom salt, fish emulsion, etc didn't help my bug problem (surprise!)  Being more of a tomato guy, that was a logical (or I thought) path to wander down.  Yes I did overwater and over fert the poor little plants.  But I'm getting better at it because of folks like you.  A tomato grower does not a pepper grower make.  Not by a long shot, I am finding.  If some is good, more is not always better.  
Thank you for the input, always learning here!
 
I just beat my Earwig problem I had 8 bowls full of them 100's per bowl I used olive oil and beer,  I also would Ninja Neem late at night and before sunrise, I used diotamacious earth too So I trapped sprayed and dusted- But what Really did the trick was removing the weed block from under my bark mulch.
 
Jerry Rigatoni said:
Still new here and new not great with imgur, so if this belongs somewhere else or my syntax for pics is screwy please let me know! Thanks folks! And sorry for the wall of text!

TLDR: trapping earwigs in the humble bucket garden. This is happening on a small (4'x7') area of a wooden deck.

Someone gave me 2 little basil starts and they were happy for about 3 days, then something found them and ate most of them. I put them up in a moat like I do to keep ants off cakes and found something was munching the pepper plants as well. I set out some beer thinking it may be slugs because it was the night shift wrecking the Rigatoni humble bucket garden. I pulled the "traps" and lined them up for a photo op.
https://imgur.com/S6lpzYA

Some earwigs. I saw some in action after dark as well. And squished them. I left out some cheap vegetable cooking oil the next night.
https://imgur.com/5SCEBNn

I also read that they are attracted to soy sauce, water, smelly oil, cheap beer and combinations thereof. So I tried a little batch testing the next night just to experiment, because..why not! I pulled the "traps" and lined them up for a photo op.
https://imgur.com/icSeMrY


So left to right:
50/50 soy sauce and Busch beer.
100% soy sauce
Ground beef grease and Busch beer (proportions unknown)
Remaining 3 all 100% store house brand "vegetable oil".

I know it is hard to make out in the dark soy. So from left to right again:
1:The first(soy/beer) had about as many earwigs as the 3rd (pot pie tin) give or take.
2: (just soy sauce) had about 3 in there.
3: (grease and beer)
4,5,6 (cooking oil)

This experiment has only gone on 3 days and there can be so many variables. I currently feel my results are very inconclusive as to what constitutes a better bait. It seemed to have made a bigger difference on where I put it, than what it was. It may make sense though, as it appears they travel from a separate raised bed from the west and get distracted on their way to the east of the garden. So I am going to make a slight assumption that proximity is as at least as important as contents and set up a barrage of traps on the west side, and taper down to for the east. I have also read about a damp newspaper trap for them, so I intend to look into it. Perhaps I can set some of that up as traps/barriers on the western front of the Rigatoni deck theater before the sauce traps. Let me know if any of you have any pointers here or are interested in what I learn/or don't. There are other options to take care of them, but as it stands I would consider them at least "managed" and not devastating anymore. So a good time to mess about for the cause, I thought. I can't help but wonder if I am a novice preaching to the experts of what has already been established, so I apologize if this is redundant.

Cheers folks!
bonus pic: wee little mantis patrolling my wounded de arbol
https://imgur.com/pcSmLey

Edit: wording
Click to expand...
Put a wetting agent (i.e. dawn dishsoap,aloe vera gel, etc.) in your ‘liquid‘ traps to help the liquid to stick to them or they just drown from falling. Like a majority of insects/beetles they breathe through tube (tracheae-they don’t have lungs) openings located on their throax and abdomen called spiracles (their nostrils. The wetting agent allows the liquid to from a film over those openings which in turn suffocates them. You’ve gotta stay in it to win it-it’s all about the battle. There’s approximately 220 million insects for each person on the planet…batter-up…Bountiful Harvest!!!
 
Jerry Rigatoni said:
Still new here and new not great with imgur, so if this belongs somewhere else or my syntax for pics is screwy please let me know! Thanks folks! And sorry for the wall of text!

TLDR: trapping earwigs in the humble bucket garden. This is happening on a small (4'x7') area of a wooden deck.

Someone gave me 2 little basil starts and they were happy for about 3 days, then something found them and ate most of them. I put them up in a moat like I do to keep ants off cakes and found something was munching the pepper plants as well. I set out some beer thinking it may be slugs because it was the night shift wrecking the Rigatoni humble bucket garden. I pulled the "traps" and lined them up for a photo op.
https://imgur.com/S6lpzYA

Some earwigs. I saw some in action after dark as well. And squished them. I left out some cheap vegetable cooking oil the next night.
https://imgur.com/5SCEBNn

I also read that they are attracted to soy sauce, water, smelly oil, cheap beer and combinations thereof. So I tried a little batch testing the next night just to experiment, because..why not! I pulled the "traps" and lined them up for a photo op.
https://imgur.com/icSeMrY


So left to right:
50/50 soy sauce and Busch beer.
100% soy sauce
Ground beef grease and Busch beer (proportions unknown)
Remaining 3 all 100% store house brand "vegetable oil".

I know it is hard to make out in the dark soy. So from left to right again:
1:The first(soy/beer) had about as many earwigs as the 3rd (pot pie tin) give or take.
2: (just soy sauce) had about 3 in there.
3: (grease and beer)
4,5,6 (cooking oil)

This experiment has only gone on 3 days and there can be so many variables. I currently feel my results are very inconclusive as to what constitutes a better bait. It seemed to have made a bigger difference on where I put it, than what it was. It may make sense though, as it appears they travel from a separate raised bed from the west and get distracted on their way to the east of the garden. So I am going to make a slight assumption that proximity is as at least as important as contents and set up a barrage of traps on the west side, and taper down to for the east. I have also read about a damp newspaper trap for them, so I intend to look into it. Perhaps I can set some of that up as traps/barriers on the western front of the Rigatoni deck theater before the sauce traps. Let me know if any of you have any pointers here or are interested in what I learn/or don't. There are other options to take care of them, but as it stands I would consider them at least "managed" and not devastating anymore. So a good time to mess about for the cause, I thought. I can't help but wonder if I am a novice preaching to the experts of what has already been established, so I apologize if this is redundant.

Cheers folks!
bonus pic: wee little mantis patrolling my wounded de arbol
https://imgur.com/pcSmLey

Edit: wording
Click to expand...
Put a wetting agent (i.e. dawn dishsoap,aloe vera gel, etc.) in your ‘liquid‘ traps to help the liquid to stick to them or they just drown from falling. Like a majority of insects/beetles they breathe through tube (tracheae) openings (located on their throax and abdomen called spiracles. The ‘wetting agent’ will allow the liquid to create a film over those openings and the insect will suffocate.
 
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