How to Control Earwigs in the Vegetable Garden

Earwigs are the garden’s misunderstood night shift. Those pincer-tailed insects look alarming, but they are mostly harmless — until their population booms, at which point they chew ragged holes in lettuce, seedlings, and soft fruit like strawberries, then hide by day in any moist, dark spot they can find.

Because earwigs are nocturnal and moisture-loving, control is mostly about traps and habitat, not sprays. The methods below are the ones home gardeners report working most reliably, and almost all of them cost a few dollars or less.

What You Will Need

• Shallow containers and soy sauce + vegetable oil — the classic earwig trap; they crawl in for the smell and drown in the oil.
• Rolled newspaper or cardboard tubes — daytime hiding spots you can collect and dispose of.
• Food-grade diatomaceous earth — a dry abrasive powder (like Harris) that damages earwigs’ soft undersides.
• Garden gloves and a bucket of soapy water — for hand-picking during evening patrols.
• Mulch management — earwigs breed in deep, damp mulch and debris, so a little tidiness goes a long way.

Step-by-Step: Control Earwigs Organically

Step 1 — Confirm earwigs are the culprit

Earwigs eat at night, so check after dark with a flashlight, or look for their signature damage: irregular, ragged holes in leaves and shallow gouges in soft fruit, with the insects nowhere in sight during the day. If you flip over a board, pot, or wet newspaper and find clusters of them, you have found both the pest and its hideout.

Step 2 — Set soy sauce and oil traps

This is the most effective DIY trap in the earwig playbook. Put a few tablespoons of soy sauce and a generous layer of vegetable oil in a shallow container — a tuna can or yogurt cup works — and sink it into the soil so the rim is level with the ground. Earwigs follow the smell, crawl in, and drown in the oil. Empty and refill every few days. Place several traps around the beds that show damage.

Step 3 — Use rolled newspaper as daytime traps

Roll damp newspaper or use cardboard tubes and lay them near damaged plants in the evening. Earwigs crawl inside before dawn to hide. In the morning, pick up the rolls and drop the whole thing into soapy water. It is a satisfying, zero-cost method, and it directly removes breeding adults.

Step 4 — Sprinkle diatomaceous earth

Food-grade diatomaceous earth works on earwigs the same way it works on other soft-bodied pests: the abrasive particles damage their cuticle and they dehydrate. Sprinkle a light dusting around plant stems, along bed edges, and under the plants earwigs are eating. It only works when dry, so reapply after rain or irrigation.

Step 5 — Remove their daytime habitat

Earwigs need moist, dark cover. Clear away piles of plant debris, boards, and pots sitting on the ground. Keep mulch a few inches away from plant stems rather than piled against them, and thin dense plantings so air can move. If you keep a compost pile, that is fine — it is a natural hotspot — but locate it away from beds you are protecting.

Step 6 — Patrol in the evening and hand-pick

Ten minutes with a flashlight after dark, picking earwigs off plants into soapy water, removes more insects than most people expect. Do it two or three evenings in a row while traps are working and the population collapses noticeably.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Only spraying. Earwigs hide by day, so contact sprays mostly miss them. Traps and habitat removal outperform spraying.
• Leaving the traps empty. Traps that are not checked become breeding grounds themselves. Empty them every few days.
• Deep mulch right against stems. It is an earwig motel. Keep mulch away from plant bases, especially on young seedlings.

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FAQ

Are earwigs harmful to humans?

No. Their pincers are for defense and mating, not attack, and they rarely break skin. They do not sting or transmit disease. The only real problem is what they do to your plants.

Do earwigs eat other pests?

Yes — they are omnivores and will eat aphids, mites, and insect eggs as readily as plant material. Small numbers are arguably beneficial. The goal is to reduce the population, not eliminate every single earwig.

Will diatomaceous earth hurt beneficial insects?

It can affect any insect with a soft body, including some beneficials, so apply it as a targeted band around problem plants rather than broadcasting it across the whole garden. Reapply after moisture.

Why do I only see damage at night?

Earwigs are strictly nocturnal. They emerge after dark to feed and retreat to damp cover before sunrise. That is also why daytime sprays fail and why evening traps and patrols are the effective approach.

Bottom Line

Earwigs are manageable with patience and cheap supplies: soy sauce-and-oil traps pull them out of the garden by the dozens, newspaper rolls collect the daytime hiders, diatomaceous earth dries up the stragglers, and a tidy, low-disturbance bed gives them nowhere to breed. Keep the habitat clean and the traps checked, and your lettuce and strawberries will make it to the table intact.

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