Earwigs

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 95, 18 April 1941, Page 46

Earwigs

Dear Aunt Daisy, Could you or any of your Daisy Chain tell me how to get tid of earwigs? They are a perfect pest at our place, and also at several other places here. Everything that we pick up outside the house has a number of them on it, Any vegetables brought in from the garden have lots of them, and the little pests very often get into the house as well. We all very much dislike these creepy crawly things, so wonder if you could help us in any way. I will watch your page in The Listener. -Hopeful, Rotorua, You will have everyone’s sympathy. Earwigs are loathesome things-so are woodlice, Some seasons seem to be worse than others, and this must be a specially bad one. Some people get good results by driving sticks into the ground — plenty of them-and putting over them inverted tins or flower pots, half filled with hay or just dry grass. The earwigs crawl up and cuddle down into this hay, which can easily be taken out and burnt, Large numbers are got rid of this way, especially the first thing in the morning, when you will find great numbers have gratefully used it as a night shelter, but go round two or three times through the day, too-there will always be more, and be sure to arrange a fresh lot of hay for the night. If they get into the house, the best thing is to squirt a mixture of creosote and ammonia into the cracks between the boards; where they hide. Another method is to spread a mixture of Paris Green (bought at the seed merchants) and bran round their haunts, One gardener we know screws up little balls of newspaper and puts them out at night amongst the flowers, the branches, and the stems. The next morning he burns the papers, which are full of earwigs. Here is a professional recipe, and well worth doing if the pest is bad: Two pounds of bran, 2 ozs. sodium fluoride, 8 ozs. treacle, 2 ozs, glycerine, one pint of hot water. Dissolve the sodium fluoride in the water, add the treacle and glycerine, and stir well. Then mix in the bran. Sprinkle the bait round the house, among the vegetables, in the woodpile, or anywhere where the earwigs congregate. Renew the application when the bran becomes dry, or after rain. It is not injurious to hedgehogs or fowls, Sodium fluoride may, be obtained from any local seedsman, and is not expensive, It you use the Paris Green method, you must be careful of this, as it is poison.