Earwig

What you see

The familiar brown insect with rear pincers, hiding in crevices by day. In a garden it is genuinely both friend and foe.

Damage

Ragged holes in dahlia and clematis petals, and occasional damage to soft ripe fruit. Against that: it is a major predator of aphids, codling moth eggs and woolly aphid.

Lifecycle on this coast

One generation a year, and unusually among insects the mother guards her eggs and young through winter.

When to act

In a fruit tree they are firmly an ally - leave them alone. Only on show dahlias and soft fruit is trapping worthwhile.

Months: May, June, July, August, September, October

Plants it bothers

Dahlia, Peach, Apple, Strawberry, Fig

Natural enemies

Not recorded — the field is blank rather than guessed.

Remedies

Encourage predators

The thing people get wrong

Before you trap earwigs, count what they do for you. In an apple tree they eat codling moth eggs and woolly aphid, and orchardists deliberately install straw-filled pots to house them. Trap them only where they are actually spoiling flowers, and move the catch to the fruit trees rather than killing it.