Earwigs on your bathroom floor at night? These reddish-brown insects with pincer tails look scary, but they are easy to kill. The hard part is keeping them from coming back. My family has run Better Termite in the DMV for more than 50 years, and earwig complaints peak every summer, usually after a wet stretch.
One earwig that wandered inside is different from dozens in your garden beds. Here’s how to handle both.
How To Get Rid of Earwigs: 7 Ways That Work
If you want the short version, these are the methods I’d use, roughly in order:
- Kill the ones you see. Vacuum them, crush them, or knock them into soapy water. Then wipe the spot with soapy water. (What kills earwigs instantly)
- Set oil traps. A tuna can with half an inch of oil, sunk level with the soil, is the DIY trap I see work best. (Trap instructions)
- Roll up damp newspaper near beds and the foundation at dusk. Shake it into soapy water each morning.
- Thin the mulch next to the house to 2 inches or less, and pull it back from the siding.
- Dry things out. Fix gutters and downspouts, and run a dehumidifier in a damp basement.
- Close the big gaps. Door sweeps, garage door seals, and the holes around utility lines.
- Treat the perimeter. A labeled insecticide in a 5 to 10 foot band around the foundation cuts down how many reach the house.
Steps 4 and 5 do most of the long-term work. Traps and sprays handle the earwigs you have now.
Understanding Earwig Biology and Behavior
Earwigs belong to the order Dermaptera, and here in the Mid-Atlantic region, we mostly deal with the European earwig (Forficula auricularia). Adults are usually about 3/4 inch long and have the forceps-like pincers called cerci. Males have curved pincers; females have straighter ones.
According to Virginia Cooperative Extension, the European earwig is the most common earwig in Virginia. Females lay their eggs in a chamber two to three inches under the soil, and most species have one generation a year. The University of California statewide pest program puts a typical clutch at 30 or more eggs, and notes that a female can raise two broods.
That buried egg chamber is why the yard matters more than the house. The next round of earwigs is already sitting in your damp beds.
These nocturnal creatures are actually omnivores. They’ll munch on soft-bodied insects like aphids, but they also enjoy decaying organic matter, seedlings, and flower petals. During the day, they hide under mulch, stones, leaf litter, or any damp, dark spot they can find.
Earwigs need moisture to survive. Without it, they dry out and die fast. This is why fixing moisture problems around your home is the most effective earwig control step you can take.
Diagnosing Earwig Infestations and Damage
Before you figure out how to kill earwigs, make sure they’re actually the problem. Mix-ups go both ways. Daren, one of our registered technicians, says earwigs are one of the bugs customers most often call in as termites. Look at the back end. Earwigs have pincers and no wings you can see. Termite swarmers have straight antennae and long wings that fall off. If you’ve got a slender, shiny bug without pincers, compare it with our earwig vs. silverfish guide.
In the garden, earwig damage has a few signs that set it apart from other pests.
Look for irregular holes chewed in leaves without any slime trails. Slugs leave slime, but earwigs don’t. On corn, you’ll notice missing kernels near the tips along with chewed silk. Soft fruits like strawberries and raspberries develop shallow, jagged cavities.
The best way to catch them in the act is with a flashlight inspection after dark. Earwigs are most active at night, so that’s when you’ll spot them feeding. During peak season in Virginia, Maryland, and DC - typically July through August - you might find dozens clustered under a single piece of mulch or garden debris.
Are Earwigs Harmful? Why Bother Killing Them
Earwigs don’t pose health risks. The myth about them crawling into ears is false. A big one can give a light pinch if you grab it, and that’s it.
But large populations can wreck flower gardens. I’ve seen earwigs completely shred zinnia and dahlia blooms overnight. They also damage young seedlings by clipping them off at ground level, which can ruin an entire vegetable garden planting.
Earwigs also leave a scent, called an aggregation pheromone, in the cracks where they hide. Other earwigs follow it to the same spot. That’s why a pile of them shows up under one board or one door mat while the rest of the yard looks empty. Killing one earwig won’t attract more. But if you leave its hiding spot alone, the scent keeps working.
What Kills Earwigs Instantly?
For the earwig in front of you, the fastest options are the plain ones:
- Vacuum. Suck it up, then empty the canister or bag outside.
- Soapy water. Knock it into a cup or bucket of water with a squirt of dish soap. The soap breaks the surface tension and it drowns in seconds. This is also how you finish off trap catches.
- A shoe or fly swatter. Their bodies are soft and flat, so one hit does it.
- A pyrethroid aerosol. A crawling-insect spray with an ingredient like bifenthrin or cypermethrin knocks them down fast on a direct hit. Use it for one you can’t reach, not as a room-wide spray.
What doesn’t work instantly: diatomaceous earth. It dries earwigs out over a day or more, and it stops working once it gets damp, which is exactly where earwigs live. For baits, University of California experts rate spinosad baits as the most effective option.
One earwig inside usually wandered in by accident and doesn’t mean you have an infestation. If you’re finding several a night, see our guide to earwigs in the house for what that pattern usually means.
After you kill one, wipe the spot with soapy water so the scent doesn’t keep drawing others there.
Treating Cracks You Can’t Reach
A spray only kills the earwigs it actually hits. Don’t fog a room or wet down baseboards “just in case.” It won’t stop the next one from walking in.
For cracks and voids you can’t seal, residual dusts like silica aerogel can provide longer-lasting control. Puff small amounts into gaps where earwigs might be hiding. The dust sticks to their bodies and dehydrates them over time.
How To Kill Earwigs Indoors: A Step-by-Step Plan
Inside, you’re cleaning up the ones that got in and taking away the reason they stay.
- Find where they show up. Note the rooms. Basements, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and the door from the garage are the usual spots.
- Vacuum what you see and wipe those spots with soapy water.
- Dry the room out. Fix drips under sinks and around tubs. Run a dehumidifier in a damp basement. Daren tells customers who swear their basement is dry to set up a cheap hygrometer. Plenty of them come back reading around 72% relative humidity, when you want 45 to 50%.
- Close the obvious gaps at the bottom of exterior doors and the garage door.
If you keep finding them in the same room night after night, there is usually a damp spot right next to it, inside or out. Our earwig pest library page covers the species and its habits in more detail.
How To Get Rid of Earwigs Outdoors: Perimeter Treatments
Outside is where the earwigs actually live, so this is where most of the work happens.
A residual insecticide around the foundation cuts down how many reach the house. Products with permethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, or cyfluthrin are common choices. Virginia Cooperative Extension recommends a perimeter spray 5 to 10 feet out from the foundation. Always follow the label for rates and where you can spray.
Timing matters for perimeter applications. Late afternoon works best because it targets earwigs as they emerge for their nightly foraging. The treatment also needs to reach their hiding spots under mulch, leaf litter, and dense vegetation.
On its own, a perimeter spray won’t fix a bad earwig yard. If the mulch is 4 inches deep and the downspouts dump next to the foundation, the earwigs keep coming back. The spray buys time while you fix that.
Preventing Future Infestations: Cultural Controls
Killing earwigs handles this week. Changing the yard handles next year.
Start with the mulch. Virginia Cooperative Extension advises raking it out into a thinner layer that dries faster. Daren puts it more bluntly: mulch piled against the house brings everything, and thick mulch is the worst. Keep it at 2 inches or less and pull it back a few inches from the siding. Then clear out dense ground cover near the foundation and any debris piles, and move firewood about 20 feet from the house.
Lighting helps a little. Swap bright white bulbs by the doors for yellow ones. University of California researchers note that yellow or sodium vapor bulbs draw fewer earwigs than white ones.
After that, it’s routine upkeep: rake fallen leaves away from the foundation and keep the gutters clear.
Moisture Management Strategies to Prevent Earwigs
Earwigs dry out fast, so a dry strip around the house does more than any product.
Start with the grade. Soil should slope away from your house at a rate of 6 inches per 10 feet. This prevents water from pooling against your foundation where earwigs love to congregate.
Check the downspouts next. Add extensions, splash blocks, or buried drain lines so roof water lands several feet from the house, not in the mulch bed. In crawl spaces and basements, a dehumidifier or better venting takes away the damp spots earwigs (and centipedes, millipedes, and roaches) look for.
Exclusion Techniques: Sealing Entry Points
Be realistic about sealing. Daren’s view is that you can’t fully seal insects out of a house; you’d have to caulk every crack in the place. What you can do is close the big, easy gaps so fewer earwigs wander in.
Start with doors and windows. Quality weather stripping and properly fitted door sweeps eliminate many of the gaps earwigs use to get inside. Pay special attention to garage doors, which often have significant gaps.
Foundation-to-siding joints need careful attention because they’re common entry points that homeowners often overlook. Use appropriate caulk to seal these gaps, but make sure you’re not trapping moisture inside wall cavities.
Then check where pipes, cables, and wires enter the house. Daren says utility lines are the biggest gaps he seals, because whoever works on them rarely reseals the hole. These entry points are easy to miss.
Trapping Earwigs: DIY Oil-Pit and Newspaper Traps
Traps work because earwigs spend the day hunting for a tight, dark, damp spot. Give them one and they’ll crawl in.
Take an empty tuna or cat food can and bury it so the rim sits level with the soil. Pour in about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil, the amount University of California experts recommend. A little bacon grease or soy sauce makes it more attractive.
Set the traps near the plants or the stretch of foundation where you see earwigs. Check them every morning, dump the catch into soapy water, and refill. Keep going every day until the traps come up empty. In a bad summer that’s often two weeks or more.
Rolled newspaper, corrugated cardboard, or a short piece of garden hose work too, especially if you dampen them a little. Lay them out at dusk and shake them into a bucket of soapy water in the morning before the earwigs leave. For store-bought options and placement tips, see our full guide to earwig traps.
When to Call a Pro
Most people can handle a few earwigs with the steps above. Call someone when:
- You’ve trapped and fixed the mulch for a couple of weeks and still find earwigs inside every night.
- There’s wood rot, a drainage problem, or a damp crawl space you can’t sort out yourself. Those keep pulling earwigs in no matter how many you kill.
- You’re also fighting other bugs, like ants in the walls or spiders. One plan usually costs less than chasing each pest separately.
Our earwig control service is part of our standard home pest plan, which starts around $49 a month for an average DMV home, plus a $200 setup fee on the first visit. We treat the perimeter and the harborage in mulch and plantings, and we’ll point out the moisture problems that are feeding the earwigs.
The Better Termite & Pest Control Method: Our Family Legacy
Our family has been doing pest control in the DMV for over 50 years. Earwig problems here follow the weather. A wet June or a week of summer thunderstorms soaks the mulch beds and pushes earwigs toward the foundation.
So we start with moisture. On the first visit we look at the mulch depth, the downspouts, and any damp basement or crawl space, and we tell you which ones are feeding the earwigs.
Our research team also removed 9 of the harshest products from what we use. For earwigs we lean on products like Essentria and Alpine, which are EPA-registered and which we’d use in our own homes.
Our 78-point inspection looks for the conditions that brought the earwigs in, not just the earwigs themselves. Fix those and you won’t need to keep killing them.
Seasonal Earwig Prevention Calendar for Virginia, Maryland, DC
Earwig work goes better when you time it to their year. Here’s how it lines up in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and DC.
Late winter (February): Complete your exclusion work while earwigs are still dormant. Seal cracks, repair weather stripping, and finish any caulking projects. This prevents emerging earwigs from finding easy entry points.
Early spring (March-April): Deploy oil-pit traps in garden beds and remove winter debris where earwigs might have overwintered. Thin mulch to less than 2 inches and improve drainage around your foundation.
Late spring to summer (May-August): Monitor traps regularly and refresh as needed. Peak season. July and August bring the most indoor complaints.
Fall (October): Complete final debris cleanup and store firewood away from your house. This preparation prevents earwigs from establishing overwintering sites near your home.
If you’re reading this in the fall, the earwigs you’re seeing are near the end of their season. Rake the beds, thin the mulch, and fix the downspouts now. That’s the cheapest way to have fewer of them next June.
