How do I get earwigs out of the house and garden?

Earwigs live outside in damp, dark places: under pots, in mulch, inside flowers and in the folds of washing on the line. They come indoors by accident, mostly in laundry, plants and cut flowers, or through gaps under doors. Inside, it is too dry and there is little to eat, so they do not usually settle. They can give a small pinch if you handle one, but they are a nuisance rather than a danger.

So the fix comes in two halves. Close the routes they use to get in, and cut the numbers in the garden.

The ones under the fridge and washer

You do not need to pull the kitchen apart. Earwigs under appliances are after dark and damp. Some will come out at night where you can sweep them up, and the rest will dry out.

• Check for water. A leaking washer hose, a damp drip tray or condensation behind the fridge keeps them there. Fix it and the space stops suiting them.
• Sweep or vacuum them up when they come out, and empty the vacuum outside. Or catch them under a glass with a card and put them back in the garden.
• Put a sticky monitor trap at the edge of each appliance for a week. It tells you whether more are still coming. See monitor traps.

Stop bringing them in

• Shake washing before you bring it in, especially folded towels, jumpers and anything with deep seams.
• Check cut flowers and pots that stood outside. Dahlias and chrysanthemums are favourite hiding spots.
• Fit a door sweep or brush strip to outside doors, and close the gap at the base of patio doors.
• Seal cracks round pipes and along the bottom of outside walls. See sealing gaps.
• Keep outside lights away from doors at night, or switch them off. Light draws insects towards the house.

In the garden: a trap that works

Before you blame earwigs for the marigolds, go out at night with a torch. Slugs and snails do similar damage to young plants, and they need a different plan. If you see earwigs on the flowers, this is the classic trap: a hiding place they choose for themselves.

1. Stuff a flowerpot loosely with straw, crumpled newspaper or dry grass.
2. Turn it upside down on a cane among the plants they are eating. A rolled-up damp newspaper or a piece of corrugated cardboard laid on the soil works too.
3. Check it each morning. Earwigs crawl in at dawn to hide for the day.
4. Empty it well away from the beds, such as a hedge or compost heap at the far end of the garden.

It is low effort, and it is worth keeping up while plants are young and most at risk. Earwigs also eat aphids and other small pests, so a few in the garden are not all bad. The aim is fewer near the house and off your seedlings.

Make the house less inviting

• Pull mulch, bark, leaf litter and log piles back from the walls of the house.
• Fix dripping outside taps and gutters that overflow down the walls.
• Move pots and stones away from the back door. Earwigs shelter under them by day and walk in at night.

Kids and pets: sticky traps have no poison, but the glue sticks to fur and fingers. Set them behind furniture or in a shut cupboard, not on open floor a child or pet can get to. If you choose any insecticide for outdoors, follow the label and check it is allowed where you live.

When it is not stopping, or not earwigs

Numbers change from year to year. Mild, damp weather suits them, so some summers bring far more indoors than others. That alone is nothing to worry about.

But if you see lots indoors every day for weeks, look for a damp spot inside, such as a leak under a floor or a wet wall. That can keep them alive in the house. A plumber or builder will help more than a pest controller here, who is rarely needed for earwigs.

Not sure it is an earwig? The pincers at the tail end are the tell. A long brown crawler with lots of legs is something else: see how to keep house centipedes out of the bathroom.