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Earwigs- HALP


Zx2guy19

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Came home from a 5 day trip to Florida yesterday to be lovingly greeted by 50+ earwigs. They were anywhere from in our curtains near our back door (I believe to be the source, back corner of house) to finding 3 in our bed. Needless to stay, we spent the night in another strange place, my parents couch.

 

I'm reading a bunch of different methods online to killing these fuckers, but nothing that is very clear cut. Has anyone experience this first hand? We have ants, in which case we do a treatment that works for 30-60 days and then they'll slowly come back, so that's not a big deal. But these earwigs are nasty and my understanding is the bites are pretty aggressive.

 

Anyone have any recommendations that they've done themselves?

 

Thanks!

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The "bites" aren't bad at all. One got my little toe the other day and I was alerted to its presence but not much more than that. Been dealing with them myself for the last week or so. From what I've read "infestations" are not common at all because they don't colonize or have any social structure like ants or bees. Actually kind of relieved to read someone else is experiencing it because I was kinda freaked out.

 

I've got traps and the Raid bug barrier spray coming today. I did the bug barrier thing 2 years in a row and didn't have many problems (crickets and house centipedes were my biggest issues before) but forgot to do it this year and I guess this is my punishment.

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I have seen a few around our house here lately too. We have never seen them before so it makes me wonder why so many this year and where they are coming from.

 

Biggest problem we have had was the food ants but they were all around the sink where there was never any food. I put some ant killer stuff out and sprayed the house with Home Defense and now we get a few here and there.

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I usually see a few in my house each year. I generally don't worry about them. However, last night after my shower, I was drying off and one fell out of the towel and onto my foot. Scared the shit out of me. If this trend continues, I will need to contact someone to come out and spray the house.

 

Keep us updated. I'd like to know how you end up resolving the issue.

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Diatomaceous Earth. Amazon has food grade or you can get non food grade at lowes/home depot. Sprinkle a small dusting everywhere you think the bugs will crawl inside and outside the house. It will slowly kill anything that has an exoskeleton as long as it comes in contact with the bug. It should work on your ant problem. Once it is down it should work for up to 6 months. It isn't toxic and won't hurt you. You can throw it in your garden as well. As long as you don't bump lines of it you will be fine. At most it will dry your skin if you handle a lot of it without gloves.
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Good thinking on DE. I used that in 2010 to get rid of bed bugs (man I'm starting to sound nasty, got them from Drury Inn in Troy, Michigan). That stuff worked awesome. May pick that up. Thanks everyone.

 

Anyone can get those don't feel bad. I've had them before. DE works wonders for those fucking vampires. Man I itch now thinking about them. I am highly allergic to their bites. It is like poison ivy except twice as bad. I rather have mosquito bites :mad:

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I used the DE on the crickets a few years ago as well. They never made it in the house but they were close enough to my windows to annoy the shit out of me. These fuckers had no rhythm or it may have been OK but I went all out to get rid of them with the Raid and DE.
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DE works best on soft bodied bugs. Most likely not going to have the best results with De alone on earwigs. How ever Lowes sells a bag of bug killer that has DE along with some other things in it that should work great, and is safe to apply in the house.
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as a side note to the comment above above using in the garden as well. Do not use pool grade for anything garden related, or in the house for that matter. You only want food grade for that. Pool grade has a high amount of crystalline silica which can be harmful if inhaled, and since this stuff has the consistency of talcum powder, you will be breathing it in no matter how careful you are with applying it.
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I have seen a ton of them around the outside of my house. Quite a few around the screened in porch. They are nasty things. I need to do some bug treatment for them and some ants.

 

 

And now i am itching all over and thinking the bugs are out to get me. Thanks

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Put down a couple of the traps I bought tonight. Haven't checked them yet because I've been busy killing earwigs. Every 10-15 minutes I check the area where they've been showing up the most and see 2-3 of them. There better be like 20 in those traps. Have to spray outside tomorrow.
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As a quick update, I sprayed the entire foundation last night with Ortho Insect stuff. It was pretty easy to do with my pump sprayer. I did all the window sills of the inside of the house, and the areas around my outside doors from the inside.

 

I had 7 at the 'spot' (curtains) when I got home from work. I killed them, mowed the lawn and there were 2. Killed them and then treated the house. Since then, I haven't seen any.

 

I'll keep everyone updated!

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