Earwigs just love to munch on those veggie gardens and even some flowers, and they simply are a pain.
If you have a small garden or a container style one, you can simply pick them off the plants after daily inspection by hand.
But if you have a large sized one, this can become tedious. But there is one thing I have found out about earwigs while trying to grow a garden..
They love beer to death!
What? You Say??
Step 1 - Get beer in tins (this is the easiest way)
Step 2 - Drink 2/3 of the can
Step 3 - Dig a hole in the row between your plants the size and depth of the tin
Step 4 - Bury the tin up to the opening
Step 5 - After a 2-3 days empty the tin and you will find lots of dead earwigs and some slugs
Step 6 - Repeat
But What if I Don't Drink Beer??
Here is another option that also works.
Step 1 - Purchase beer
Step 2 - Using small tinfoil muffin cups
Step 3 - Place tinfoil muffin cups of small pie plates slightly into the dirt and weigh down with a couple of stones between your plants.
Step 4 - Fill each pie plate or muffin cup with some beer.
If you don't drink the beer then you will have more to use in the garden. Every couple of days or if it rains, replace the beer with fresh.
You will be absolutely amazed at how many earwigs will drown themselves for the love of beer. I am not sure exactly what attracts them to it, but this method works.
But What if the Infestation is Huge?? Petroleum Jelly at the Base
A further step you can take to help save your plants, is to take some petroleum jelly or what I call Vaseline and put some around the base of your plants.
Earwigs don't like to climb over this and it doesn't harm the plants. This can be a tedious process but between the Vaseline and the beer they should decide that your garden is not worth the trouble and move on!
