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Author Topic: These ugly earwigs  (Read 3139 times)

Offline Cindi

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These ugly earwigs
« on: August 06, 2007, 11:49:15 am »
Yep, we have the earwigs galore, I can't stand them, I squish them when I see them on the inner cover, ugly.  I can't stand it when they get the edge and give me a nasty pinch, makes me want to squish them even faster.

There was a post about rolling up newspaper and placing it under the colonies to catch them.  Yep, I checked the rolled up newspaper the other day, and man was it full of these horrible little critters.  I put them all into a big bucket as I was gathering (9 colonies, alot of rolled up newspaper).  Then I headed off to the chickenyard and shook them out.  Boy were the chickens excited about chasing all these little guys and eating them all up.  It is amazing how keen the eyesight of a chicken on the hunt is!!!!!!!

So, if you are plagued by the earwigs, try this method.  It worked for me.   Surely it will make the bees a little happier too. :)

I wet the newspaper so it would roll up nicely, of course it dried out, but the little darlings still had a wonderful time inside.  Right, it also caught alot of pesky little tiny ants that are about 1/4 inch long too, along with some beetles.  Love our life you're livin'.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline bassman1977

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Re: These ugly earwigs
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2007, 01:02:03 pm »
Interesting.  How long did you keep them under the colonies before taking it out.  I find those ear wigs between the inner and outter coversr all the time, and it's only one or two.  I chop them up with my hive tool.  Bees never seemed to have an issue with them.
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Offline Scadsobees

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Re: These ugly earwigs
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2007, 03:51:15 pm »
I'll have to try that.  I mostly have stacked wood behind the hives, and will move them occasionally and it will have 100's under a log and I will stomp and stomp the dirty little ....s to death.  Great excersize and very satisfying.  But they always come back.

I need chickens, I wouldn't ever have to buy feed for them. But all the earwigs would probably make the eggs taste funny... :roll:
Rick

Offline Cindi

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Re: These ugly earwigs
« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2007, 01:05:36 pm »
The rolled up newspaper was probably under the colonies a good couple of weeks.  I actually forgot about them until I was pulling out the grass beside them after I mowed the main apiary area.  I was shocked at how many were living inside the paper.  I have put more newspaper under, and will clean it out again sooner, we have thousands of earwigs around our place, and yep, they are uglies and I can't stand them....almost as much as the yellowjackets  :-D

The earwigs won't taint the taste of the eggs.  The chickens process everything, and turn them into beautiful little things that we all (well most of us) love to eat.

I love the ducks eggs much more than the chicken eggs.  I like the yolks and the duck eggs are mostly yolks.  When I break open a duck egg and put it in the fryin' pan, the yolk looks like a large golf ball, does not lose its shape and stays round, but then I poke it and it breaks a little bit.  I wind up with a yummy thick yolked, fried egg.  This makes my mouth water, haven't had breakfast yet.  Guess what I am gonna have?  Have a wonderful day, beautiful life, health.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Dane Bramage

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Re: These ugly earwigs
« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2007, 02:02:47 pm »
Mmmm, duck eggs!  Wish I had some of those for my smoothies Cindi!  :-D

Insects (earwigs included) are an awesome source of protein for those chickens I imagine.  My cats sure seem to enjoy many an insect appetizer around my place (they stay away from the bees, of course), when they're not too busy eating squirrels, moles, and anything else they can catch.  :evil:  Varmint control via cuddly little carnivores!  heh!

I've got quite a few smaller sized yellowjackets performing vulture duties around my hives.  I haven't seen any problems with them yet as they're solely focused on the bee-graveyard.  I'm going to keep a close eye on them come fall though to see if they get more aggressive.  No earwigs here (that I've seen).

Cheers,
Dane

Offline mgmoore7

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Re: These ugly earwigs
« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2007, 03:03:55 pm »
I have had a real problem with earwigs in our house in the past.  The only successful treatment was a "professional" grade interior bug spray I had to buy from one of those do-it-yourself places.   Tens to hundreds of these in your house and clothes is no fun.


Offline Cindi

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Re: These ugly earwigs
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2007, 11:47:19 am »
Matt, hideous and horrible earwigs, no wonder you were on a vendetta to get rid of them.  I wonder what purpose on earth they serve?  Hmmm....maybe to feed predator bugs, wonder which ones  :)

Dane, I wish I could send you down some of my duck eggs.  It is the Indian Runners that have the pretty bluish ones, and the shell on them is so tough, it is really hard to break, wonder if they would make it through the border?

About the yellowjackets.  Don't doubt that they will be harassing your bees.  My two summers of beekeeping, I didn't have problems with them until about the middle of August (eeks!!!!  we are almost there).  Then they became very aggressive with the bees.  But I am already one up on them.  I have the wasp traps set around the apiary and yep, they have been enticed to the cheap old beer that I buy for them, the flies seem to really like it too.  So that is good because I have an over abundance of flies around this year too.

Those blasted yellowjackets.  The other day I had to turn off the electric fence so I could pull out some tall grass.  I opened the little house that houses the internal parts of the electrical, it is about 1' by 2' in dimension.  What do you think I saw in there.  About 4 good sized yellowjacket nests with those critters all over the top of it.  Well, I lose it, I get my runner and start pounding the heck out of them.  I won't use any kind of insect control near the bees, so I took a good chance that these nasties would attack me.  I killed most of them, and then with an enormous amount of glee, I grabbed out the remainder of the nests and looked at them really good.  Yep, larvae growing like crazy.  Two days later I looked inside again.  Sure enough they had started to rebuild.  So I pounded the heck out of them too.  Got rid of them all I think, cause a couple of days later, no yellowjackets.  My enemy, no place on my farm.

Have a wonderful day, beautiful day.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service