| I have a pomegranite tree and the fruit is being eaten by what appears to be earwigs. How can I get rid of them without using a lot of chemicals? |
| An easy and mostly effective way to control them is to take empty tuna cans and fill them 1-inch up with water, then float a thin layer of vegetable oil on the surgace of the water. Place the cans around the garden near the plants where the earwigs are doing the most harm. The earwigs will be attracted to the oil and crawl in, and drown. Empty and replace the oil when the can fills up a bit. This method won't kill all the earwigs, but will keep them in check. Note that if you have neighborhood cats that occasionally roam by, you will want to run the empty tuna cans through the dishwasher first, to rid them of the cat-attracting tuna smell. When I started with the cans this season I was often surprised to find them licked clean of their oil the next morning (I'm sure some of those dead pincer bugs got gobbled up too, yech!) |
