Earwig Control for Pensacola Homes

No. It is an old folk name with no basis. Earwigs do not burrow into ears, they do not lay eggs in people, and the pincers on the abdomen are used for defence and for handling prey. A pinch from a large one is startling and can break skin slightly, but it is not venomous.

Earwigs live in the top layer of soil, mulch and leaf litter. When that layer floods they move, and the nearest dry sheltered space is often your slab edge, garage, or the gap under a door. Pensacola's heavy summer rain pattern produces exactly this, which is why the calls arrive in waves rather than steadily.

Usually not from outside directly. They follow moisture along plumbing chases and wall voids from a damp slab edge or crawlspace. A bathroom with a slow leak or poor ventilation is a destination, not an entry point. Finding them in a bathroom is worth mentioning because it often means there is water somewhere it should not be.

Not structurally. They chew on soft plant tissue and seedlings outdoors, so they will damage a vegetable garden or bedding plants, and indoors they are a nuisance rather than a threat. The value of dealing with them is mostly getting rid of the moisture problem they are pointing at.

Expected. The population lives outdoors in the mulch, under stones, under the deck and in the leaf litter. Killing the individuals that came inside last night does nothing about the reservoir a few feet outside the wall.

Pull mulch back four to six inches from the foundation, clear leaf litter from the slab edge, get downspouts discharging away from the wall, and replace failed door sweeps and garage door corner seals. Those four things do more than any aerosol.