Earwigs: They Don't Crawl in Your Ears and Those Pincers Won't Hurt You

Let's kill this one right away. Earwigs do not crawl into human ears. The name comes from an Old English word "earwicga" and the myth has been floating around since at least the 1600s. There's no truth to it. None. Entomologists have been debunking this for over a century and people still believe it, which is honestly impressive for a piece of medieval misinformation.

Those menacing pincers on the back end? Called cerci. They use them to spar with other earwigs and occasionally grab small insects. On a human, they can pinch but they rarely break skin. It doesn't hurt any more than a weak clothespin. There's no venom, no disease risk, nothing.

What Earwigs Actually Are

Earwigs are moisture-loving omnivores. They eat decaying organic matter, small insects, and plant material. During the day they hide in tight, damp spaces. Under rocks, inside rolled-up newspaper, beneath mulch, in the crevices of stacked firewood. At night they come out to feed.

They don't infest houses the way roaches or ants do. Your home isn't their habitat. But when conditions outside get too hot and dry in summer, they migrate toward moisture and end up indoors through gaps under doors, cracks in window frames, and spaces around plumbing penetrations. You'll find them in bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms. Sometimes the garage.

Why Your House Has Them

Moisture around the foundation. That's the answer 90% of the time. Heavy mulch piled against the house. A leaky hose bib that keeps the soil wet. Clogged gutters dumping water right at the foundation wall. Landscape timbers holding moisture against siding.

If you've got a garden bed right against the house with 4 inches of mulch and daily sprinkler irrigation, you've built an earwig resort.

Fixes That Cost Almost Nothing

Pull mulch back at least 6 inches from the foundation. Fix that dripping outdoor faucet. Clean the gutters. Make sure sprinklers aren't hitting the house. These four things alone will cut earwig numbers by half or more. It's not glamorous work but it's the real fix.

Replace worn door sweeps. A new one costs about $8 at any hardware store and takes 10 minutes to install. Check the weatherstripping on basement windows. If you can see daylight around a closed window, earwigs can get through.

Old-school trapping works surprisingly well. Roll up a section of damp newspaper and leave it near your back door or wherever you're seeing them. In the morning, pick up the rolled paper (they'll be hiding inside) and toss it in a trash bag. Repeat for a week. It's low-tech but it gives you real numbers on how bad the problem is. Check out our pest-proofing guide for a full room-by-room approach to sealing entry points.

Chemical Options

Ortho Home Defense perimeter spray runs about $12 for a ready-to-use gallon with a wand applicator. Spray a band along the exterior foundation, around door frames, and along window sills. Reapply every 3 months. It's a bifenthrin-based product and it kills earwigs on contact and leaves a residual barrier.

Diatomaceous earth (food grade) dusted into cracks and under baseboards works too, though it loses effectiveness when wet. About $10 for a 4-pound bag.

When to Call a Pro

Most earwig problems don't need a professional. If you're finding 20 or 30 a day inside the house and the DIY steps haven't helped after two weeks, a pest control company can do a perimeter treatment for $100 to $200. They'll use a product with longer residual than the retail stuff and they'll identify entry points you missed.

But honestly, if the earwigs keep coming back, the answer is moisture. No amount of spray fixes a foundation that stays wet.