Hi everyone,

Is there a home made spray i can make that will kill earwigs.
We planted 2 passion fruit vines and they have been decimated. There were no signs of what was doing the eating so last night when i got home Nat seed the Celery and Zucchini seedlings have also started to be eaten, so outside i go with a torch and there are earwigs all over them…

What’s the fastest solution to this

Thanks
Rook

we recently chatted about this here

bluegreen said:

we recently chatted about this here

Thanks bg, i’ll give it a go…..beer and newspaper, might screw up the form guide for them so they can study the races while having a beer.

They wrecked a couple of gums also….bloody things

Rook

yeah, I’m finding them everywhere at the moment. they’ve been munching on my newly germinated seedlings. Chooks love it when I turn something over and there is a nest of them though :)

How’s things otherwise Rook? And how’s the family?

Rook said:

bluegreen said:

we recently chatted about this here

Thanks bg, i’ll give it a go…..beer and newspaper, might screw up the form guide for them so they can study the races while having a beer.

They wrecked a couple of gums also….bloody things

Rook

If you are game.. do some experiments with the various forms of snail bait

beer is good for slugs but not so great for snails.. haven’t observed it doing in any slaters or earwigs. the form guide will only make them all breed up underneath it.

the blue stuff kills everything that eats it.. so it is a good indicator of what is eating your plants.. snails slugs, slaters, earwigs and millipedes all go under or rather, lie around on top.. after you use the blue stuff.

The green stuff seems to be as good as the box it comes in .. for it rarely even gets the snails.

the red stuff.. is useful as a trace element in iron poor soils but doesn’t seem to kill much at all. Though I must admit.. those that eat it.. may wander off to die where they are less visible.

the good thing is that the red stuff allows the spiders room to live and hunt.

I think Pepe was having some results with dishes of water with cooking oil on top, or was that for slaters?

bluegreen said:

I think Pepe was having some results with dishes of water with cooking oil on top, or was that for slaters?

Haven’t tried that one .. but I will ;)

um.. coffee cups left lying around the yard do attract slugs and slaters.. so I daresay also earwigs and snails.. so instead of tossing dregs.. keep them until you have enough to drown them in if you don’t want to share your beer with them. stubbies left lying around the yard with the last dregs in them may be picked up before the sun hits them and binned.. let the recyclers work out what to do with the slugs.

Things are really good bg, taking the family up to Qlnd in a couple of weeks so looking forward to spending some quality time together.

Planted over 130 trees and plants in the last 12 months and the place is really starting to look good. I have also just had a concrete slab poured for the new BBQ area, ( 6 Meters x 5 Meters ), which will have an outdoor bar.

Blue snail bait…..sounds good roughbarked

I would normally leave them but its shattering when you plant something just to have it destroyed in a couple of days.

Rook

yes Rook.. in small places.. and in small quantities.. especially if you can do it without allowing it to leach into your soil.. the blue stuff is the go for knocking all and sundry off. Trouble is if you put it in a saucer.. your pet will probably have a go at it..

The red stuff is visible in that photo with the spider.

Rook said:

Things are really good bg, taking the family up to Qlnd in a couple of weeks so looking forward to spending some quality time together.

Planted over 130 trees and plants in the last 12 months and the place is really starting to look good. I have also just had a concrete slab poured for the new BBQ area, ( 6 Meters x 5 Meters ), which will have an outdoor bar.

good to hear Rook. Enjoy your holiday. Hope it’s not too hot for you or threatened with bushfires.

I usually do at least 130 trees an hour or I feel I am am wasting time..

nearly 60 and a nutcase according to most but I still climb trees with a chainsaw in hand.. still too stuppid to come in out of the rain as my dad always said.

roughbarked said:

The red stuff is visible in that photo with the spider.

that’s the “pet and wildlife friendly” stuff, isn’t it? Although if they eat enough they can still get sick I believe…

roughbarked said:

I usually do at least 130 trees an hour or I feel I am am wasting time..

nearly 60 and a nutcase according to most but I still climb trees with a chainsaw in hand.. still too stuppid to come in out of the rain as my dad always said.

yeah, but you are in a class of your own :D

bluegreen said:

yeah, but you are in a class of your own :D

worse than that.. you are lucky that this screen isn’t scratch and smell.. ;)

Rook said:

…..beer and newspaper, might screw up the form guide for them so they can study the races while having a beer.

Rook

So you’re a “man’s man”, Rook? LOL!

yes i did have success with placing a pot plant saucer level with the ground, filling it almost to the brim with water and then pouring a bit of linseed oil on top. i caught hundreds, maybe thousands of earwigs !! just a pity there were millions of them. after a while they all mature and go back to nibbling the waste matter (detritus?).

pepe said:

yes i did have success with placing a pot plant saucer level with the ground, filling it almost to the brim with water and then pouring a bit of linseed oil on top. i caught hundreds, maybe thousands of earwigs !! just a pity there were millions of them. after a while they all mature and go back to nibbling the waste matter (detritus?).

We get the odd earwig up here but I’ve never seen them in numbers like that. But we have fruitfly don’t we? that makes up for it.