The Rolled-Newspaper Trap Beats Store-Bought Earwig Spray — And It Only Takes One Night to Prove It
One overnight rolled-newspaper trap beats store spray for earwigs — see why, when to leave them alone, and how to spot real damage.
Set a loosely rolled tube of damp newspaper on the soil next to a chewed-up dahlia at dusk, and by morning it’s often packed with earwigs. No spraying, no waiting three days for results, no guessing whether the product worked. That single overnight test is also the fastest way to see why trapping beats spraying for most garden-bed earwig problems: it removes the insects that are actually there, on the night they’re actually active, without touching anything else nearby.
Store sprays promise the same outcome but rarely deliver it as cleanly. Broad-spectrum contact insecticides kill on contact but do nothing about the earwigs hiding two inches deeper in the mulch, and most gardeners spray during the day, when earwigs aren’t even out. Worse, an aggressive spray program can wipe out earwigs that are working in your favor elsewhere in the yard — a detail almost no earwig-control guide mentions. Here’s the mechanism behind the trap, the research on when earwigs are actually helping you, and a diagnostic table so you’re not blaming earwigs for damage a slug or caterpillar did.
Confirm It’s Actually Earwigs
Earwigs are nocturnal, so daytime damage assessments are unreliable — you’re looking at the aftermath, not the culprit. The Royal Horticultural Society recommends inspecting susceptible plants after dark with a flashlight to catch earwigs in the act, since slugs and caterpillars leave similar-looking ragged holes and torn petals [5]. Adult European earwigs (Forficula auricularia) run about 5/8 to 3/4 inch long, reddish-brown, with a visible pair of pincers at the tail end — curved and heavier in males, straighter and narrower in females [1][4]. If you’re not confident on sight, our garden pest identification guide covers earwigs alongside the 30 other insects most often confused with them.
Why You Might Not Want to Kill Every Earwig
Earwigs are voracious feeders on aphids and insect eggs, which is why blanket-spraying the whole bed can backfire [1]. A 2023 field study on European earwigs in commercial orchards put a real number on that benefit: mass-releasing earwigs into apple orchards cut woolly apple aphid colonies by roughly 61% compared to untreated plots, with pear psylla populations also dropping significantly by the second year after release, and earwig abundance running about 49 times higher in treated orchards than controls [3]. The RHS makes the same point about home gardens: on fruit trees, earwigs give good control of fruit aphids and cause no damage to the tree or fruit itself, so trapping them out of that spot works against you [5]. The practical rule: treat where they’re damaging blooms or seedlings, and leave them alone anywhere they’re patrolling for aphids — see our guide to beneficial insects and pest control for how to tell predator from pest at a glance.
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The Rolled-Newspaper Trap: How and Why It Works
Dampen a few sheets of newspaper, roll them loosely into a tube, and secure with a rubber band or string. Lay it flat on the soil at the base of the plant being damaged, or tuck it against a stem, just before dusk. In the morning, shake the accumulated earwigs into a bucket of soapy water before unrolling and disposing of the trap [1][2]. Corrugated cardboard, a short length of old garden hose, or bamboo tubes work on the same principle [1].
The mechanism is straightforward entomology, not folk wisdom. Earwigs are photophobic and thigmotactic — they’re driven to avoid light and to seek out spaces where their body touches a surface on multiple sides at once, which is why they wedge into cracks, rolled paper, and grooved boards rather than sitting in the open [4]. A spray has to land directly on an earwig’s body to kill it; a rolled tube exploits an instinct the insect can’t override, pulling it out of hiding and into a container you control. That’s also why continued daily trapping — not a single application — is what actually drops a population to a tolerable level; extension guidance is explicit that you keep resetting the trap each evening until you stop catching anything in it [1][2].
UK gardeners fighting earwigs on dahlias, clematis, or chrysanthemums use a variant built on the same principle: an upturned flower pot loosely stuffed with hay or straw, set on a cane among the affected plants and shaken out each morning [5]. The RHS is careful to note the trade-off directly — skip this trap near fruit trees, where you’d rather the earwigs stayed to work on aphids [5].
What’s Really Damaging Your Plants
| Symptom | Likely Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Ragged, unevenly torn petal edges on dahlia, clematis, or chrysanthemum; earwigs found inside the bloom at night | Earwig feeding | Rolled-newspaper or straw-pot trap at dusk; clear flower debris where they shelter by day |
| Missing leaves or stems on young seedlings, damage worse at the soil line | Earwigs feeding on tender growth overnight | Trap nightly; use a row cover until seedlings are established and less vulnerable |
| Shallow gouges in stone fruit like apricots, cherries, or plums | Earwigs feeding on soft fruit flesh | Hose-piece or grooved-board trap at the tree base; a Tanglefoot band on the trunk blocks climbers [1] |
| Chewed corn silks, poor or spotty kernel fill | Earwigs interfering with pollination by feeding on silks [1] | Time trapping to the silking stage; reserve a targeted spray only if trap counts stay high |
| Slime trail alongside chewed leaf margins | Slugs, not earwigs | Different pest, different fix — iron-phosphate bait, not an earwig trap |
| Leaves reduced to a skeleton of veins, damage visible in daylight | Caterpillars or another day-feeding chewer — earwigs are strictly nocturnal | Confirm with a nighttime flashlight check before treating; day damage means a different culprit |
| Aphid colonies shrinking with no spraying or intervention on your part | Earwigs already predating the aphids [1][3] | Leave undisturbed — this is the beneficial activity working in your favor |
When a Spray Actually Earns Its Place
Trapping is the right first move for garden beds, but it isn’t the answer for every situation. Extension guidance lists permethrin, bifenthrin, pyrethrins, carbaryl, and azadirachtin as labeled active ingredients for earwigs, applied in the late evening just before the insects come out to feed, with enough water to carry the product into the top layer of soil or mulch where they hide [2]. Spinosad-based baits are highlighted as the most effective, environmentally sound option where a chemical approach is genuinely warranted [1]. Two situations justify reaching for one: a heavy population overwhelming seedlings faster than trapping can keep up, or a perimeter problem where earwigs are entering the house rather than just the garden. Whatever you choose, check the label before using anything near food crops — not every earwig product is registered for edible plants [2].
Habitat Removal Makes the Trap Work Faster
Trapping without sanitation is treating the symptom on a loop. Earwigs need daytime hiding spots — thick mulch, leaf litter, weedy groundcover, ivy, and rubbish piles all qualify — so removing them shrinks the population feeding your traps every night [1][2]. Switching to a smaller-particle mulch, pulling weeds and dense groundcover away from vulnerable beds, and keeping a dry gravel or stone strip along foundations all reduce the shelter available [1][2]. None of this replaces trapping outright, but a garden with fewer hiding spots empties out faster and stays that way longer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do earwigs actually crawl into ears? No — this is a persistent myth with no basis in earwig biology or behavior; the name comes from an old folk tale, not documented behavior.
How long before trapping shows results? You’ll typically see earwigs in the trap the very first night. Extension guidance recommends resetting the trap daily and continuing until you stop catching anything, which is usually a matter of days to a couple of weeks depending on how large the population is [1][2].
Will the newspaper trap catch anything besides earwigs? Occasionally slugs or sowbugs, since they share the same preference for dark, moist hiding spots. That’s a useful side benefit, not a problem — just sort what you find before deciding whether you have a slug issue too.
Is it safe to use around vegetables I plan to eat? Yes — a rolled tube of damp newspaper and a bucket of soapy water involve no chemical residue, which is one more reason it’s the better default over a spray for food gardens.
Key Takeaways
Start with the trap, not the sprayer. A damp rolled newspaper set out at dusk removes the earwigs actually causing damage that same night, works on a mechanism sprays can’t replicate, and — unlike a broad-spectrum insecticide — won’t collateral-damage the earwigs quietly protecting your fruit trees from aphids elsewhere in the yard. Reach for a targeted, label-checked spray only once trapping and habitat cleanup have proven insufficient, and always confirm with a nighttime flashlight check before assuming earwigs are the culprit at all.
Sources
- UC Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM) — Earwigs, Pest Notes
- Utah State University Extension — Earwig Control
- PMC (peer-reviewed) — Turning a Pest into a Natural Enemy: Removing Earwigs from Stone Fruit and Releasing Them in Pome Fruit Enhances Pest Control
- Penn State Extension — European Earwigs
- Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) — Earwigs
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