Invertebrates

Earwig

Dermaptera · also called earwigs, pincher bug

Not Evaluated omnivoreinsectivore Temperate forest Temperate grassland Rivers & wetlands

An earwig is a slim, reddish-brown insect with a pair of curved pincers where a tail would be, and two facts have followed it around for a thousand years. It does not, and cannot, crawl into your ear and eat your brain. And, quietly, it is one of the very few insects whose mother stays with her eggs — turning them, cleaning off mould, and guarding the young after they hatch.

Overview

Earwigs are their own insect order, the Dermaptera, about 2,000 species, on every continent except Antarctica and most diverse in the humid tropics. They are nocturnal scavenging omnivores — decaying plants, fungi, pollen, ripe fruit, aphids, mites, insect eggs — that spend the day packed into tight, dark, damp crevices under bark and stones and inside flower heads, which is why they turn up in cut flowers and picked produce.

The pincers and the wings

The rear forceps are modified cerci — curved in males, straighter in females — used to grab prey, fend off rivals, court, and fold and unfold the wings. Those hindwings pack away beneath tiny forewings at one of the highest folding ratios of any animal wing, yet many earwigs barely fly. The pincers can pinch a finger but almost never break skin, and earwigs do not bite or sting.

Insect motherhood

A female lays 30–60 eggs in an underground chamber and then stays — turning them, licking each clean of mould with antifungal saliva, defending them, and feeding the hatched nymphs for weeks. Brood care this thorough is found in very few insects.

Status

Not Evaluated and mostly common — the European earwig is now worldwide. The one clear loss is the Saint Helena giant earwig, an 8 cm island species declared extinct in 2014 after introduced centipedes, mice, and rats and habitat destruction.

Earwig: common questions

Do earwigs really climb into your ears?

No. This is one of the oldest and most persistent insect myths, and it is the reason for the name in English and in several other European languages. Earwigs are not attracted to ears, do not seek out warm bodies, cannot tunnel into flesh, and do not lay eggs inside a host. They like tight, dark, humid gaps, and an ear canal is one such gap, so on very rare occasions an earwig, like an ant, a moth, or a cockroach, has been found in someone's ear, but there is nothing special about earwigs in this respect and no case of one burrowing into a brain. The stories are folklore.

Are earwig pincers dangerous, and can they bite?

Earwigs do not really bite, having chewing mouthparts suited to soft plant and animal matter rather than to nipping skin, and they are not venomous. The pincers, or forceps, at the rear can deliver a pinch if the earwig is squeezed or handled roughly, and a large male can produce a nip that is noticeable and may briefly pinch hard enough to be startling, but it very rarely breaks the skin and carries no venom or disease. Earwigs are harmless to people and pets. In the garden they can damage soft plants like dahlias, clematis, and lettuce seedlings, but they also eat aphids and other pests, so their overall effect is mixed.

Why do earwigs care for their eggs when most insects do not?

Egg and brood guarding has evolved independently in several insect groups where it pays off, and in earwigs the key threat is mould and fungus. A clutch of eggs left in a damp underground chamber quickly becomes overgrown and is destroyed, so a female that stays and repeatedly cleans each egg with her mouthparts, applying antifungal secretions from her saliva and moving the eggs to better spots, hatches far more offspring than one that abandons them. She also defends the clutch from predators and from other earwigs, and after hatching she regurgitates food to the nymphs and lets them feed on droppings and, in some species, on her own body when she dies. It is a genuine, if brief, form of family life.

How do I get rid of earwigs in the house or garden?

Indoors, earwigs are almost always accidental visitors that have wandered in from outside or been carried in on cut flowers or firewood, and they will not breed or establish in a dry house, so removing them by hand or vacuum and sealing gaps around doors and pipes is usually enough. Outdoors, if they are damaging specific plants, effective low-impact methods include trapping them in rolled damp newspaper, upturned flowerpots stuffed with straw, or shallow dishes of oil left out overnight and emptied in the morning, and reducing mulch and debris near vulnerable plants. Because earwigs also eat aphids and other pests, blanket insecticide treatment is usually unnecessary and counterproductive.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published September 10, 2026. Last updated September 10, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Dermaptera
Diet: A scavenging omnivore eating decaying plant matter, algae, fungi, pollen, ripe and damaged fruit, seedlings, and flower petals, along with aphids, mites, insect eggs, and small soft-bodied insects, so an earwig is a minor garden nuisance on some plants and a useful predator of pests on others
The pincers: The forceps at the tip of the abdomen are modified cerci, curved and stout in males and straighter and more slender in females, and they are used to grasp prey, to fold and unfold the wings, to fend off rivals and predators, and in courtship, and a firm pinch on human skin can be felt but rarely breaks it
They do not crawl into ears: The name, from Old English meaning ear insect, and the folklore that earwigs enter sleeping people's ears to burrow into the brain are both ancient and false, and while any small insect can very occasionally wander into an ear, earwigs do it no more than others, cannot bore into tissue, and lay no eggs there
Wings folded 40 times over: Most earwigs have functional hindwings that fold up into an intricate fan and tuck away beneath tiny leathery forewings, packed at one of the highest folding ratios of any animal wing, yet many earwigs rarely or never fly, and the folding and unfolding is helped along by the pincers
A rare case of insect motherhood: A female earwig lays a clutch of 30 to 60 eggs in a underground chamber and then stays with them, turning them, licking them clean of mould and bacteria, defending them, and after they hatch continuing to guard and feed the nymphs for their first weeks, a level of parental care found in very few insects
Nocturnal and crevice-loving: Earwigs hide by day packed into tight, dark, humid spaces such as under bark and stones, in leaf litter, inside flower heads, in wall cracks, and among fruit, and emerge at night to feed, which is why they turn up unexpectedly in bunches of picked flowers, harvested produce, and folded garden furniture
A very old group: Earwigs are their own insect order, the Dermaptera, with a fossil record stretching back over 200 million years to the Triassic, and around 2000 living species, most of them in the warm and humid tropics
Range: Every continent except Antarctica, and most abundant and diverse in the tropics and subtropics, in gardens, farmland, grassland, woodland, leaf litter, riverbanks, seashores, caves, and buildings, essentially anywhere with moisture and sheltered crevices, with the widespread European earwig now a cosmopolitan species carried around the world in plants, produce, and cargo.
Conservation status: Not Evaluated ≈ Earwigs have not been assessed as a group and most species are common, widespread, and in no danger, with the European earwig in particular now established on every continent except Antarctica as an introduced species. A small number of species are of conservation concern, the clearest example being the Saint Helena giant earwig, an 8 cm island species last seen in 1967 and declared extinct in 2014, lost to habitat destruction and to introduced predators such as centipedes, mice, and rats in the wild