Insects like earwigs are attracted to lighting. Try to move lights away from the home. Since this may not be possible for every home, if you can’t move the lights away, try to change the bulbs from white to yellow. The brighter the light, the more bugs it will attract.
Earwigs do not typically prefer to thrive in our space, but through human activity or lack of good maintenance via screens, doors or conditions leading to excessive moisture, these insects can come into our apartment or house.
They don’t feel ‘pain,’ but may feel irritation and probably can sense if they are damaged. Even so, they certainly cannot suffer because they don’t have emotions.
Even more interesting, earwigs can be a beneficial pest to have outside your home. Being omnivorous, they eat other bugs and plants. They are predators to other insects, including their eggs and larvae, feeding on mites, aphids, slugs, nematodes, spiders, and other soft bodied insects.
Crickets. Across Asia and Europe, crickets are a symbol of good luck, says Jeanne Ewert, a specialist in folklore studies at the George F. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. They were even kept as pets as in the Charles Dickens’ story “The Cricket on the Hearth.”
Earwigs Seek Food
The main reason they may be entering your home is because your house offers a dry, safe place to hide and plenty of opportunities for food. Earwigs are not picky eaters and will eat rotting vegetation in the yard, many of your live plants and even fruit fallen from trees.
Your Blood Type. Another insect attractant, unfortunately, is your blood. Your blood type contains specific chemicals that may be very appealing to certain insects, especially mosquitoes, who can smell your blood right through your skin.
Oil and Soy Sauce Trap
Pincher bugs weirdly love the smell of soy sauce and will crawl in to get it. The oil will prevent them from crawling back out.
While their pincers are used primarily to aid in reproduction, hunt prey and for defense, earwigs will pinch humans if they are picked up and agitated. While the pinch can sometimes be painful, no venom is transferred, and the pinch rarely breaks the skin. Additionally, earwig pincers do not spread disease.
Some of the best scents to keep earwigs away include peppermint, eucalyptus, cinnamon and basil. In order to distribute these scents throughout your house, simply put a few drops of essential oil into some water to dilute it.
While earwigs are known to be a scary looking, anti-social night scavenger, they are a very beneficial insect ecologically speaking. Known as environmental janitors, earwigs will feast on dead and decaying plants and insects. This is great for keeping a garden clean and maintaining the look and feel of the greenery.
Earwigs inside the house do not cause any harm or destruction. They are an annoyance or nuisance because of their presence. If disturbed, earwigs may produce a noticeable foul odor. Earwigs found inside the house can be swept or picked up and discarded.
Although an ancient myth that earwigs burrow through the external auditory canal and eat sleeping persons’ brains is considered unfounded, these bugs sometimes do enter the ear, causing severe ear discomfort.
Most bugs have creepy sounding names, but the thought of “earwig” seems especially bad. And personally invasive—as though the name itself is a threat. Luckily, it’s basically an empty threat. Earwigs are harmless to humans.
Earwigs like dark, warm, humid places, so it’s technically possible that they may be attracted to a sleeping person’s ear. This would be an extremely unlikely occurrence, however, and the bug wouldn’t stay there long, lay eggs, or burrow. You shouldn’t worry about earwigs burrowing into your ears.
Earwigs are often considered aggressive insects that sting and bite, probably because of their pincers and name. However, earwigs never attack humans: they are not dangerous at all. In addition to being harmless, earwigs have no interest in settling in your home.
Earwigs are attracted to lights. They can become a nuisance on porches and patios on summer evenings. In the morning they will be gathered under things like cushions that were left outside overnight.
In ancient Eastern culture, crickets used to be kept in cages as pets due to their musical chirping. Because they also lay many eggs at a time, they are seen as a symbol of prosperity and success in China.
The Dragonfly has been a symbol of happiness, new beginnings and change for many centuries.
List
Symbol | Culture |
---|---|
Four-leaf clover | Irish and Celtic, German |
Shamrock or Clover | Irish |
Horseshoe | English and several other European ethnicities |
Jade | Chinese |
Despite their name, earwigs won’t crawl into your ears! Their unsettling appearance may make you uneasy, but these nocturnal pests won’t creep near your face at night.
Major Factors of Attraction
Certain body types emit more heat and carbon dioxide than others. For example, overweight people and women who are pregnant give off more heat and carbon dioxide. Bugs are also attracted to the increased levels of lactic acid odors from people who are exercising.
Bugs are attracted by the quality of energy people radiate. The pesky pests can detect the emotional state a person is sitting in.