How to get rid of earwigs on tomatoes

[Whitewolf2578]

I am sure there are a billion threads on how to get rid of earwigs and though those are helpful, I couldn't really find anything on how to get rid of them when dealing with tomatoes. I honest never knew they liked tomatoes until I cut one open and saw that the inside was filled with them. They were literally embedded in the flesh, it was so gross and weird. There has to be some ultimate secret formula I can spray on them so they go away.

 

[Chuck]

I have never in over 60 years heard of this. I have heard about and seen caterpillars on the inside of a tomato, but an earwig? Please.....................send pic.

 

[Gardener]

I have never seen earwigs in my garden. They seem to stay away for some reason, but I have seen a snail-like worm in a vegetable I got from a farm once. It was embedded in the flesh as well, and I haven't gone back to that farm since. I honestly don't have a method to keeping pests away. I have seen a neighbor of mine mix dishwater soap (couple tablespoons) with water. Then spray that formula in the garden. Try it out and see how it works. I have yet to experiment with it myself.

 

[firelily99]

Open a can of beer and drink it until you have about an inch in the bottom. Plant the can at the end of the row. Open another can of beer and drink until you have an inch left and bury it at the other end of the row. Continue this process on all rows. If aren't a beer drinker then as your neighbors, I think they would be glad to help you if you explain the plan. Good luck!

 

[Chuck]

Open a can of beer and drink it until you have about an inch in the bottom. Plant the can at the end of the row. Open another can of beer and drink until you have an inch left and bury it at the other end of the row. Continue this process on all rows. If aren't a beer drinker then as your neighbors, I think they would be glad to help you if you explain the plan. Good luck!

A two person job for sure. My neighbor seemed interested at first but for some reason reneged when I handed him the shovel instead of a beer.

 

[JiminJax]

I am sure there are a billion threads on how to get rid of earwigs and though those are helpful, I couldn't really find anything on how to get rid of them when dealing with tomatoes. I honest never knew they liked tomatoes until I cut one open and saw that the inside was filled with them. They were literally embedded in the flesh, it was so gross and weird. There has to be some ultimate secret formula I can spray on them so they go away.

I too have earwigs in my tomatoes. They burrow in and destroy the fruit. I'm going to spray with bifenthrin...wait for 30 minutes, then rinse the pesticide off the plants and into the mulch.

I'll let you know how that goes.

 

[zigs]

Welcome to the forum @JiminJax

 

[Zenj]

You need to reduce there numbers I used this go out at night with a torch and dazzle them and give them a good spray with this it works my fences used to be covered clematis and dahlia flowers in tatters .
To reduce earwig numbers treat foliage and flowers with a combination of neem oil insecticide and insecticidal soap. This combination is very safe and won't disrupt beneficial species. ... New botanical insecticides can be safely used indoors and outdoors for a variety of pests including earwigs.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I would suggest the addition of oils or sticker spreaders in the spray as the waxy fruit surface would repel water.

 

[HandiestHandyman]

When I moved into my house, the backyard was infested with earwigs. You couldn't move something in the yard without at least 5 earwigs crawling out from under it and we found at least 2 in the house every day. Part of it was that there were a lot of weeds in the back yard and I'm sure getting rid of them helped, but the best thing I did was to put about an inch of vegetable oil in the bottom of plastic cups and place them around the yard. They crawl in, get covered in oil and can't climb out. I put 6 cups around the perimeter of the lawn. I dug a small hole so that the cups could sit down in the hole a bit and not fall over. After one week, each cup had about 100 earwigs in them (I also got beetles, spiders, roaches and other bugs)! I emptied them out, replaced the oil, and got similar results a week later. The third time, I got a lot less and it took longer for any of the cups to fill up. Now, I rarely find earwigs in the yard and almost never in the house. I'm not totally sure how much of it was the time of year, how much of it was getting rid of the weeds and how much of it was the oil, but I'm sure the oil killed thousands of them and protected a lemon tree we have out there.

 

[DirtMechanic]

When I moved into my house, the backyard was infested with earwigs. You couldn't move something in the yard without at least 5 earwigs crawling out from under it and we found at least 2 in the house every day. Part of it was that there were a lot of weeds in the back yard and I'm sure getting rid of them helped, but the best thing I did was to put about an inch of vegetable oil in the bottom of plastic cups and place them around the yard. They crawl in, get covered in oil and can't climb out. I put 6 cups around the perimeter of the lawn. I dug a small hole so that the cups could sit down in the hole a bit and not fall over. After one week, each cup had about 100 earwigs in them (I also got beetles, spiders, roaches and other bugs)! I emptied them out, replaced the oil, and got similar results a week later. The third time, I got a lot less and it took longer for any of the cups to fill up. Now, I rarely find earwigs in the yard and almost never in the house. I'm not totally sure how much of it was the time of year, how much of it was getting rid of the weeds and how much of it was the oil, but I'm sure the oil killed thousands of them and protected a lemon tree we have out there.

This was the coolest post I have read on bug patrol in some time. Thank you.