Pesky problem

The invaders

They have been at it again. The pesky earwigs are out in force with their cunning plan to take over the world. Not only the outside world in the garden but in the houses too.

Earwigs in the garden feed on aphids, mites, fleas, and insect eggs so they can be beneficial in some ways. Unfortunately they also munch on dahlias, marigolds, lettuce, potatoes, and hostas. They will also feed on mosses, lichens, and algae so if there were enough of them they could keep your driveway clean and be a natural remedy for mossy lawns.

Our army of earwigs have decided to come indoors for food and to shelter in the nooks and crannies that are dark and damp. They have also been mobilising themselves in the bedroom and taking chunks out of our visitors. The arrogant pests are nocturnally sneaking the kitchen, front room and bathroom for food looking for their next victim. I’m not sure what I dislike about them the most; their ability to jump out of dark corners and scare the living daylights out of you, their attraction to living in my bread bin or the fact that you have to check the bed before jumping in. I should admire them for sticking their pincers up in the air and taunting me for a fight, it’s a bit of a lost cause when I push my size nines in their face.

Just here for the shopping

Earwigs don’t reproduce indoors thankfully, they just come shopping. One way to keep then out is to block up all of the entrances, window seals, door frames and skirting boards. In most houses this is nearly impossible, gaps in doors and windows are inevitable. So how can I keep the invasion at bay? The best way is to keep a clean and dry area around the outside of the house, which again here in Ireland is almost impossible, and then for those brave enough to sneak into the house we can set traps. Get a sheet of newspaper and add a drop of water until it’s damp all over, scrunch it up into a ball and then leave it where you think the earwigs are, usually worktops in the kitchen or any dark corner. In the night when you are asleep they should use these as their home and be curled up asleep when you get up the next day. Do with them as you will, throw them into the compost, set them free or give them a sacrificial burning in the fire, whichever you think most appropriate.

Earwigs are not the only pests that stray from the garden into the house. Ants can be irritating too. I have a constant stream of them coming in from under the door in the hallway and making their way into the kitchen for a few grains of sugar. I’m sure they wave to me on the way out.

Ants

Red and black ants are nuisance pests rather than plant damaging ones. I used to think that the ants were beneficial to the garden because they farmed aphids for honeydew. This has little effect on the greenfly’s ability to suck sap though and the ants fight off the natural predators away from the greenfly. If I see an infestation of greenfly I tend to just cut off the affected stem and throw it away. If the ants are nesting in containers they can do damage disturbing the roots and they can be a big problem in the lawn where they are active from early April to late September. Damage to lawns is caused by ant mounds, where soil that has been excavated for nests appears on the surface. I don’t really come across this problem though as generally our lawns are far too wet for them and they tend to nest under paving slabs or stones in the rockery. If they do nest in the grass, mowing could get a bit noisy as the dust flies in the air and the presence of ant adults on lawns can be unpleasant. I remember sunbathing once and woke up itching. A whole colony of ants was swarming over me as I slept. I have never jumped into a shower so quickly. Ants can make nests in the flower beds too, it’s less distance to walk to the plant stems that have their greenfly farms on and the perennial plants and trees make the soil a dryer place for them to live.

Controlling the ants

Although total removal or elimination of ants from gardens is difficult to achieve and probably very environmentally unsound, it is possible to drive them out of areas you don’t want them in using nematodes that can be applied directly to ant colonies when the soil temperature is 10ºC/50ºF. One application of the small eggs will gain control of ants already present in the soil where the tiny microscopic worms act as an irritant to ants causing them to leave their colonies and nests. I used to spray the nests under paving slabs with paint when I was young. They were my army and I could identify them in the garden, although thinking about it they didn’t live very long after being painted.

For indoor invasions by ants, or for use in between paving slabs and under patios, we can use natures own insecticide – pyrethrum, which is a 100% natural insecticide made from ground up chrysanthemum leaves so is completely organic. A liberal dusting everywhere the ants are keeps them at bay.