Earwig: An Insect That Won't Let You Hurt and Can Injure (6 photos)

With the arrival of warm weather, all living things come to life—including things most of us would prefer never to encounter. The earwig is a creature that makes even hardened men recoil with childish squeals. But does this insect deserve such a reputation?





You could say it's the scorpion of the temperate zone.

The earwig is often popularly called a two-tailed bat, but this is inaccurate. True earwigs are members of the order Cryptognatha, and they look much more modest and inconspicuous. The earwig belongs to the order Dermaptera and has a distinctive feature that is unmistakable: impressive cerci at the end of the abdomen. In males, these cerci are curved and massive, while in females, they are straight and more graceful. It is these "butt nippers" that give the insect its sinister appearance.



This is an iapygid, a modest representative of the order of true two-tailed insects. Next to the heroine of our article, it looks like a child in front of a tank.

The name "earwig" is a tracing from the English word "earwig." It's believed the word may have come from "earwing," a reference to the unusual shape of the insect's hind wings: when folded, they actually resemble a human ear. Along with the translation of the word, a frightening myth has also come to us: earwigs supposedly crawl into sleeping people's ears, gnaw through the eardrum, and lay eggs there. It sounds like the plot of a cheap horror movie—and, fortunately, it's just as fictitious. Yes, earwigs love dark, damp crevices, but cases of their discovery in human ears are rare and purely accidental. This insect has no interest in the ear canal.





It already has two of its own "human ears" :DD

What does the earwig actually do? The earwig is much more at home in the garden. It happily gnaws the leaves of potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, peas, strawberries, and many other crops, leaving characteristic holes along the edges. Fruit isn't safe either, although the insect prefers damaged or cracked fruit over fresh ones. But there's a downside: earwigs actively consume aphids, mites, other pest larvae, and even carrion. Essentially, they're a sanitation worker with a bad reputation. In some countries, they're even deliberately used in orchards as a biological aphid control method—especially on apple trees.



Delicious and sad...

Are earwigs dangerous to humans? They can bite if pressed or grabbed. Their pincers can pierce the skin, drawing blood, leaving two small, pinpoint wounds. It's unpleasant, but nothing more: earwigs don't have venom and don't carry infections. An allergic reaction is theoretically possible, but extremely rare.



You can tell a girl from a boy by the design of these same tweezers. At the top of the photo is a girl with elegant tweezers. At the bottom is a man with what appear to be "combination pliers."



Boy or girl?

The earwig is a classic example of how appearance shapes reputation. Its pincers, agility, nocturnal lifestyle, and sticky ear myth have turned this common insect into a folk monster. In reality, it's an omnivorous, useful, and biologically interesting organism that behaves much like most other garden bugs. There's no need to fear it. Respect it, perhaps.