By Calvin Jones 

Earwigs really don’t deserve their bad reputation. The name earwig is derived from the old English ‘earwicga’ which means ‘ear beetle’.

These harmless little insects are plagued by the perpetuation of an age-old superstition that earwigs crawl into the human ears at night and burrow into the brain to lay their eggs. In reality any earwig in the vicinity of a human ear is undoubtedly lost.

The common or European earwig is a small, smooth, elongated brown insect usually between 8 and 18mm (0.3 and 0.7 of an inch) long. Earwigs can fly, and have a pair of papery, fan-like hind-wings, although they are seldom used. For the most part they remain folded away beneath the short, leathery forewings.

At the rear of the abdomen the earwig sports a pair of threatening-looking pincers that are actually used to help the insect fold its hind-wings away and as a defence to dissuade would-be predators. Sexes can be distinguished by the shape of these pincers, which are much more curved in male earwigs than in females.

Earwigs are nocturnal scavengers, and emerge at night to feed primarily on decaying plant and animal matter. They will also prey on some other insect species. They avoid light, and during daylight hours tend to hide in dark, damp crevices in buildings, gardens and woodland. They are often found in discarded hollow plant stems or under stones and plant pots in the garden.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own