Revealed, Why Are Earwigs In Your House? And Easy Solutions

Earwigs in the house are not a good sign at all.

Though these pincher bugs are harmless, seeing them inside the house indicates that insects and bugs can easily invade your house.

In this guide, you’ll find out the three factors that cause earwigs in the house.

You’ll learn to remove earwigs in your home from their source, which is your yard or garden.

And you can do it without hiring a pest control specialist.

Keep reading.

3 Reasons For Earwigs Inside Your House

1. Light from your home
2. Easy entry into your house that allows the earwigs to crawl inside
3. The hot and dry weather outdoors

The light from your house attracts earwigs. Earwigs are phototaxis bugs, chasing the light source for navigation.

This inherent biological trait makes the earwigs invade your house to reach the bright light source from your home.

That brings us to the second reason for earwigs inside the house: easy entry points.

Your home’s foundation, windowsills, crawl spaces, and doorways have gaps and holes that allow earwigs to enter the house.

Earwigs are moisture bugs.

Earwigs prefer to hide in cool and damp environments like moist leaf litter, organic debris, rotting wood piles, and decaying mulch beds.

The dry weather outdoors robs the earwigs of their living conditions.

That triggers the earwigs to look out for moist environments to survive. And hence, they sneak inside the house.

You can also bring earwigs home by bringing in potted plants, wood pieces, and cardboard boxes with earwigs in them.

Earwig Infestation Inside The House

Earwigs don’t cause any infestation inside the house. It’s because your home isn’t an ideal habitat for the earwigs to breed and lay eggs.

Even if you see too many earwigs inside the house, it doesn’t mean an infestation.

Too many earwigs inside the house mean that there are too many of them in your yard or garden.

So, the actual earwig infestation is at your outdoors, not in your indoors.

Excessive dampness in your outdoors, organic wastes, insects, and garden pests cause earwig infestation.

Where Do Earwigs Hide Inside The House?

The following are the top hiding places for earwigs inside the house –

1. Underneath sinks
2. Near leaky faucets and pipes in the plumbing areas
3. In cardboard boxes
4. On the soil beds of houseplants
5. The cracks on the bathroom, kitchen, and basement walls and floors.

Damp areas inside the house are the perfect hiding places for the earwigs in the house.

So, places like the bathroom, basement, kitchen, and laundry room are places where earwigs will gravitate towards.

In the house, earwigs will hunt and eat other insects that hide in these places.

So, bugs like silverfish, roaches, and pill bugs will be their targets.

Dead insects and food wastes in your kitchen trash bin are also the food sources of earwigs hiding inside your home.

How To Kill Earwigs In The House?

Eliminating earwigs inside the house is a straightforward task.

With a vacuum cleaner, you can scoop the earwigs off the floor or from their hiding places.

Then dispose of the vacuum bag far from your property, so they don’t come back home.

You can also use an earwig-killer spray on the earwigs to kill earwigs. And dispose of the dead earwigs outside of your home and property.

Dead earwigs will attract insects like ants and roaches that feed on dead insects. So, don’t forget to dispose of the dead earwigs.

You can also use sticky bug traps to entrap the earwigs.

Keep the traps overnight on or near the hiding places of earwigs inside the house.

Take a pincher and put the entrapped earwigs in soapy water to kill them.

Once you remove all the earwigs found inside your house, it’s time to prevent earwigs from entering the house and get rid of earwigs from your yard or garden.

Let’s find out how you can do both.

How To Get Rid Of Earwigs In Your Yard And Garden?

The source of earwigs in the house is your thriving lush green yard or garden.

Earwigs in the yard or garden are not destructive pests like termites, roaches, and ants in the yard.

They’re helpful bugs that protect your garden plants from other pests like mealybugs, caterpillars, aphids, and many more.

But as they’re omnivores, they can cause some damage to your live plants.

Many homeowners notice dead plants and seedlings in their yard or garden when there’s an earwig infestation in the yard.

Also, not getting rid of them can cause the earwig population to explode.

It’ll cause more earwigs to get inside your house during the dry season.

So, it makes complete sense to get rid of earwigs in your outdoors.

Here’s how you can easily do it.

Remove Leaf Piles And Clean Your Yard

Earwigs hide in piles of dead leaves, in dead logs, underneath rocks, and in tree bark. Some of them are even buried deep inside flowers.

Earwigs can also use the gaps in the paving stones as their hiding place.

So, remove these wastes from your garden or yard to eliminate earwig hiding places.

Control The Moisture In Your Yard

The presence of moist locations and organic debris in the yard makes your yard a perfect location for earwigs.

So, you’ll also need to control the moisture levels in your yard or garden soil.

To do that, it’s essential that you don’t overwater your yard.

Secondly, remove sources of stagnant water like puddles, potholes, tires, discarded pots, and trash bins.

Standing water raises the dampness levels of your yard soil. That attracts other pests too.

Also, ensure that there are no leaky pipes in your yard.

Water leakages in the yard increase the soil’s dampness, making your yard attractive to bugs and pests.

Scatter Diatomaceous Earth Or Boric Acid Powder In Your Yard

Diatomaceous earth is a natural bug killer that kills earwigs too.

It has got sharp particles, which are known as diatoms. These particles are fossilized plankton and algae.

Diatomaceous earth is a desiccant. It works by penetrating the exoskeleton of the bugs.

Once inside the insects, it’ll absorb the moisture, fats, and bodily fluids that keep the bugs alive.

That results in the slow death of the bugs.

So, scatter diatomaceous earth on places where you’ve noticed earwigs.

Do not forget to sprinkle it on shady areas with dense vegetation around the damp areas of your yard.

Boric acid powder also performs in the same way as DE does.

So, you can use boric acid if you don’t have diatomaceous earth.

Spray A Mixture Of Soapy Water And Rubbing Alcohol

A mixture of soapy water and rubbing alcohol is also a potent earwig killer.

Prepare soapy water by mixing three tablespoons of dish soap in three cups of water.

Then add an equal amount of rubbing alcohol to the soapy water.

Pour the mixture into a spray bottle and use the spray in your yard or garden, especially where you find earwigs.

The mixture will kill earwigs on contact. The rubbing alcohol smell will also repel earwigs.

Keep A DIY Earwig Trap In Your Yard

Mix equal amounts of olive oil and soy sauce in a container.

Seal the container with aluminum or plastic foil. And create holes in it.

The smell of soy sauce and olive oil attracts earwigs.

The earwigs will climb up the container and sneak inside it through the holes in the plastic lid.

Result?

The earwigs will drown.

Dispose of the dead earwigs from your property.

How To Prevent Earwigs From Entering The House?

The bright lights from your home attract the earwigs. So, use light bulbs that don’t attract bugs and flies.

Poorly sealed doors and crevices on the walls and windowsills allow earwigs to sneak inside the house.

Use a good quality sealant to seal those cracks. If they need repair, then do it.

Those cracks and gaps are entry points for earwigs and many bugs and insects.

Spray earwig-repelling essential oils, like peppermint, on your home’s perimeter, doors, windows, and in the hiding places of earwigs inside the house.

Also, remove excessive and unnecessary plants and vegetation from your yard.

Remove dead leaves and wastes choking the gutters.

All these places can harbor earwigs, ants, and other home-invading pests.

Are Earwigs Dangerous?

There are ten native species of earwigs in the USA. However, there are also European earwig species present in the US.

Despite looking scary, all earwigs are harmless bugs.

They survive by eating dying vegetation, organic debris, and insects.

Earwigs are long bugs with pinchers on their abdomen that make them look like scorpions.

Because of their pinchers, earwigs are also known as pincher bugs.

The pincers of male earwigs are curvy. The females have straight pincers.

Earwigs don’t bother humans at all. And as mentioned earlier, earwigs don’t cause an infestation inside the house.

Even in your yard, an earwig is a nuisance pest rather than a damage-causing pest.

However, earwigs can bite, especially when you handle them with bare hands.

They’ll use their curved pincers to bite you. But the bite is harmless.

The pincers barely penetrate the skin. And an earwig bite causes minor irritation.

Earwigs can also generate a foul smell when they feel threatened.

The foul odor is a defense mechanism to ward off predators.

Many people fear earwigs get inside people’s ears. That’s not true at all.

Earwigs wouldn’t like to come near humans. And they’re one of those insects least likely to get onto your bed.

Conclusion

If you’ve wondered what earwigs are attracted to inside your house, this guide answers that question.

Light from your home, the crevices on the home’s walls, windows, and doors, and the dry weather outdoors cause earwigs inside the house.

But earwig infestation inside the house is a myth. Your home indoors is not an ideal habitat for earwigs to multiply.

But their presence inside the house indicates an earwig infestation in your outdoors.

This guide also revealed how to get rid of earwigs both indoors and outdoors in the safest ways.