Battle of the Earwigs

They lurk in dark places. Hide in corners and crevices and clothing. And are completely disgusting. And we are infested with them......Earwigs!

I know that earwigs are not necessarily a bad insect to be infested with. I mean, they really don't do any damage. (They don't actually climb in your ear and lay baby eggs.) But they are super gross and totally annoying, and hard to get rid of.

We have them lurking everywhere in our house. I will go to pick up my dish rag and five will fall out. Our curtains have uncountable hanging out in the folds. I opened up my sewing bag to find at least 7 or 8 running around inside. Every morning we have to wash them down the tub, and I cannot even begin to tell you how many I have found either in my laundry as I sort it or in the dryer vent that I didn't catch before it got washed. And those are just the ones that are hiding, there are plenty that just find their way crawling across my counter or floor.

After the sewing bag experience I finally got fed up with it and the lack of progress we seemed to be making with the bug spray and got online to do a little research. Turns out that the most effective thing for Earwigs is Boric Acid and powder bug repellents. (They need to crawl through it to really kill them.) So, we placed this around the foundation of our home. But, what to do for the inside. I can't put bug poison along the baseboards of my home with little children in the house. I found the perfect solution online. Vinegar.

That's right, simple vinegar. I put it in a spray bottle and it has become one of my best friends. Every couple of days I will spray my windows and doors and baseboards and it actually works. It kills the little suckers and pretty quickly. And best of all, it is totally harmless to my little family. I was able to spray down the kids toys with it so that we could stop having unexpected guests and screaming while playing, and "ta-da" no more problems. The only down side, the smell. Vinegar is not the best smelling stuff, I know, but that is a small price to pay to stop finding earwigs on your kitchen counter.

So, we are not earwig free yet, but we have started to begin to win some battles. The war continues, but armed with my handy powder and vinegar I hope to conquer one day. If you have any other ingenious ways to get rid of the pesty little slugs please share the wisdom.

We shall prevail!