So many of our customers are coming in right now reporting that they are finding overnight destruction of many of the leaves in their garden. The leaves are filled with holes. This is especially prevalent in the vegetable garden. The culprit is likely earwigs!
Earwigs are mostly nocturnal and find moist, dark hiding spots during the day. When they come out at night, and feed on a wide variety of plants including foliage, flowers and various crops.
How do you rid your garden of these nefarious pests? We have several products we recommend and a few home remedies to try:
The first product we reach for is Sluggo Plus. Sluggo Plus helps gardeners control some of the most infamous garden pests. It combines proven slug and snail control with the addition of Spinosad which is an insect killer to control not only earwigs, but cutworms, sowbugs and pillbugs as well. Sluggo Plus can be used around all organic vegetables, fruits and berries. People and pets can enter area after product is applied.
Make 3 lines of defense – Sprinkle immediately around the effected plant, around the bed where they are growing and then hand cast some Sluggo Plus under nearby low-growing shrubbery where they hang out during the day.
All organic Captain Jacks Deadbug Brew® kills does just as the name implies. It kills earwigs, bagworms, borers, beetles, caterpillars, codling moth, gypsy moth, loopers, leaf miners, spider mites, tent caterpillars, thrips and more! Again, the active ingredient is Spinosad which is a product first isolated from a naturally occurring soil dwelling bacterium.
For home remedies, you can try a few different options. Take an empty tuna or cat food can (or maybe a metal pie dish), sink it into the ground near the most affected plants and pour in a little soy sauce (which attracts them) and cooking oil (which traps them). Alternately, you can fill the can/dish with a thin layer of beer and see who you can catch.
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