The common name “earwig” is derived from a European superstition of ancient origin that these insects enter the ears of sleeping persons. Despite their formidable appearance and reputation, earwigs are not directly harmful to humans.
Indeed, earwigs are often beneficial in habit, acting as scavengers of decaying matter and predators of insect larvae, slug eggs, aphids, and other garden pests.The length of the adult earwig is approximately 1.5 to 2.0 cm long. It is elongated and flattened, with a tough, shiny, reddish-brown exoskeleton and antennae about half as long as the body. This insect is distinguished by prominent pincers, or forceps, at the end of its body.Earwigs live only one year.
They spend the winter hiding just below the soil surface, usually close to house foundations. Warm weather brings them out of hibernation. In the spring, each female lays as many as 60 round, pearly white eggs in a nest in the top 5 cm of the soil.During the day, earwigs like to hide in cool, dark, moist places.Earwigs come out of hiding at dusk to begin foraging. While decaying organic matter forms the largest part of their diet.In search of food and shelter, they crawl over the ground, climb houses, fences and trees, and usually begin to infiltrate homes in June or July. What is particularly objectionable is to find these insects among foodstuffs, clothes and occasionally between bed covers.
Sow Bugs and Pill Bugs
Sowbugs are land crustaceans which look very similar to pillbugs, at least at first glance. Sowbugs are small crustaceans with oval bodies when viewed from above. Their back consists of a number of overlapping, articulating plates. They have 7 pairs of legs, and antennae which reach about half the body length. Most are slate gray in color, and may reach about 15 mm long and 8 mm wide.The Pillbug When disturbed, frequently rolls into a tight ball, with its legs tucked inside.
Sowbugs have gills which need constant moisture, so they tend to live in moister northwest climates. They are primarily nocturnal, and eat decaying leaf litter and vegetable matter. They may also feed on the tips of young plants, so can be considered pests, but they also help the environment by breaking up decaying plant matter and help speed up the recycling of the nutrients they contain.
Millipedes and Centipedes
Warm, wet weather always encourages the activity of several moisture-loving animals, including millipedes, or “thousand-legged worms,” and their near relatives, the centipedes.
Centipedes are related to millipedes and are also worm-like in form, but they differ in having flattened bodies and only one pair of legs on each body segment. They also possess a pair of poison claws or legs just behind the head which are used to paralyze their prey – usually insects or other small animals.Millipede eggs are deposited in masses in the soil. Young millipedes mature the second year after hatching. Some species may live for several years.
Millipedes feed on organic matter, including decayed plant material such as leaves and wood.If millipedes are abundant in mulches and litter in landscape plantings around homes and other buildings, they often enter through cracks and crevices. Once inside, they usually die unless basements are very moist. Entry into structures is most common after heavy spring rains saturate the soil and drive millipedes to higher ground and in the fall, when they seek hibernation sites.