Do they actually go in your ears!? (Earwigs)

This week we are talking about Earwigs! We'll cover everything you need to know from life cycle to behaviors and urban legends including how they got their name and if there is any truth to the legends. 

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Transcipt:

 

Welcome to episode 46 of Insects for Fun! This week is a listener submission from my mom (gasp) wanting to learn more about earwigs! So without further ado let's get into it. 

 

Intro: 

 

Earwigs are insects in the order Dermaptera which means skin wings and refers to the leathery short forewings they have, that being said hidden underneath are a pair of beautiful wings that fold out in a spring-like fashion which is actually impossible to replicate through origami folds. I’ll add a picture to the socials so everyone can see. 

 

These insects are pretty common being found throughout the entire world except for the cold scary place in the southern hemisphere… There are around 2,000 species and 12 families of Earwigs and they all have a very distinct look which is the color brown or black with a smooth and relatively flat body, and of course the pincers or cerci that come out of the abdomen. I’m really hoping everyone here has seen one but if not I’ve got you covered on the socials. 

 

As far as these cerci/pincers go, earwigs are actually sexually dimorphic with the females having straightened ones and the males having curved ones. The reason why they have these is actually to fend off predators, help catch prey, pair with a female (in the case of males), and even compete with each other. The competing portion is also reserved for the males though, and that’s actually why they have curved cerci. Another cool fact is that males with asymmetrical cerci actually have an advantage over males with symmetrical cerci. The reason is that the asymmetry makes it easier to grip on to other things. 

 

Life Cycle, and food source: 

 

Earwigs do not have complete metamorphosis which means they go from an egg to an adult through a series of molts and have no larval stage. In general most earwigs have 5 molts before reaching their adult stage but some have 4 or 6, and their lifespan only lasts for 1 year. The time it takes for a Nymph to reach its adult stage varies on factors like food availability and temperature and of course species also play a role in this but some can go from egg to adult in a 70 day period.

 

Females can lay between 20 and 80 eggs, and this usually happens in mid to late winter and early spring with the pairing usually happening in Fall. 

 

Behaviors: 

 

Couple culture in earwigs starts in autumn as males and females begin searching for mates. Once paired the couple builds a small den around 1inch deep in the soil and they remain together until the female is ready to lay her eggs. The courtship begins when a male presents a female with his two cerci. The female has to do a taste and smell check to make sure he’s a good match which could take up to 10 min (Mkay) 

 

Female earwigs actually have maternal care despite not being a social insect, and they will watch after, protect, and care for their young until they reach their 2nd molt. These insects also make sure to feed their young with regurgitated food similar to birds. The fathers on the other hand are never in the picture, and females will actually kick them out of the nest once it's time to lay eggs. 

 

Once the eggs are laid the female then checks all of them to make sure everyone is accounted for, and if she finds anything that resembles an egg but is not she removes it from the nest. They even go as far as to clean all the eggs for the first three days to make sure no mold or fungi develop on them and she also will not leave this den even for food until all the eggs have hatched. 

 

Ecology, Defenses and Predators: 

 

Earwigs are nocturnal, and prefer to stay hidden under rocks and debris like logs and wood during the daytime. This also protects them from their natural predators which include birds, frogs, lizards, small mammals, and even other insects. As far as what earwigs eat, most of them are scavengers which will feed on anything they find edible from plant materials to other insects and even pollen in flowers! And some earwigs actually hitch rides on mammals and live off bodily excretions and dead skin. A couple examples of these earwigs would be earwigs in the family Hemimeridae which are blind, flightless and live on African rodents as well as earwigs in the family Arixeniidae which are also blind and flightless but these live on southeastern bats. 

 

In general earwigs are like antisocial insect janitors. They don’t hang out in large groups unless its to share a common space when going gets rough, like huddling together in winter under a stone or log, and they do a good job of cleaning up dead and or dying debris in your gardens and patios etc. That being said if they clean up everything or you keep things super tidy then they’ll move on to eating live plants and smaller insects like aphids etc. Their favorite fruits and vegetables are actually corn, cucumbers, strawberries, lettuce, peaches, and potatoes. 

 

You might also find these in your home because similar to silverfish these insects enjoy a dark and damp place like a cellar or bathroom maybe. They’re also attracted to lights. 

 

One more thing before we move on is that some earwig species can actually spray out a smelly liquid when threatened. I’ve never seen this, but one species that can do this is Doru taeniatum which can be found in Central and South America. 

 

Lore: 

 

Now let’s get into the good stuff and by that I mean the folklore behind earwigs including why they even have that name, and whether or not there is any weight to them entering our ears. 

 

So a long long time ago, like stone age time ago, earwigs got a reputation of entering human ears, laying eggs in there and boring into your brain causing insanity. You remember Pliny the Elder? One of, if not the first naturalist to publish information on everything, which I talked about last episode? Well, he’s even got a blurb in his natural history book saying that if an earwig enters your ear the best way to get it out is to have someone spit in it. I mean.. He’s not wrong but like, why not just put water down there instead? I think it's safe to say that back in the day people did in fact have the unfortunate experience of having earwigs crawl in their ears. Especially when infrastructure wasn’t nearly what it is today and people were sleeping on the ground or on beds made of hay, but I don’t think it was a common occurrence at all. In fact a separate belief is that earwigs actually got their name from an entomologist who believed the hindwings resembled ears when looked at up close, and then afterwards people started creating horror stories about the insects. 

 

Either way, the fact is that earwigs do not actively seek your ears and don’t even prefer your ears over anything else, and they especially will not use your ear canal as a den for their eggs. So if you’ve been told they’ll enter your ears as I’m sure many of us have at some point or other, fear not! It really is an old wives' tale that makes for a fun story. 

 

Speaking of fun historical stories, I came across another myth regarding these insects but this one is from Japan. Turns out back in the day some prefectures in the Kansai region of Japan would refer to earwigs as chinpo basami or Chinpo kiri which translates to penis pincher/cutter and the reason was because they could often be found near traditional Japanese squat toilets. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, traditional Japanese toilets are essentially urinals built into the floor. In fact some western-style toilets here have signs that say don’t stand and squat on these because the notion of sitting comfortably on a toilet was not always commonplace and still isn’t always guaranteed if you’re living in the boons.