Earwigs eating leaves?

i have noticed there are a lot of earwigs around my house in general but lately I have been plucking 2-6 of them off my plants a night. I am having problems with larger holes in leaves which I thought was probably caterpillars but now I’m thinking otherwise? Any opinions?

They insects and plants.

Rmaclaren said:

i have noticed there are a lot of earwigs around my house in general but lately I have been plucking 2-6 of them off my plants a night. I am having problems with larger holes in leaves which I thought was probably caterpillars but now I’m thinking otherwise? Any opinions?

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NOPE!

They eat decaying plant matter.

Organic control method - Take sheet of something moisture proof. Wet down some straw or hay and place that in a clay flower pot. Now set that pot, upside down on 3 sets of 2 quarters stacked (on the plastic sheet) or anything that's about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick to get a space twixt the sheet and the pot rim.

Do this in the area you want to control and let it sit for a cpl of days. During day time or lights on time. carefully remove the spacers and let the pot rim sit on the sheet. Pick up the sheet and take it to where ever you want to dispose of them and simply dump out the damp hay or straw in the pot.....They love damp and dark places and lay their eggs there too...So they use that as a hiding place.
Repeat as needed.

Rmaclaren said:

i have noticed there are a lot of earwigs around my house in general but lately I have been plucking 2-6 of them off my plants a night. I am having problems with larger holes in leaves which I thought was probably caterpillars but now I’m thinking otherwise? Any opinions?

Click to expand...

I just plucked off an earwig from one of my sunflower seedlings. It sure as shit was taking big ol bites out of one of the leaves. Holes weren't there earlier.now I'm all wigged out cuz my weed plants nearby, 3 of them only like 10 days old.

Earwigs are a bitch.
Ugly fuckers too.
DE works if u can keep it dry

Earwigs definitely eat live plants. We've been at war with the little f*@kers for years. They eat tomato, pepper, sunflower leaves. They haven't touched my weed yet, but this is the first year I've grown it outdoors. You can make traps for them out of scrap wood, I saw an ad for them in a Lee Valley catalog (I think) and just copied them myself. Just takes a saw, some wood, some glue and a bit of patience.