Re: Earwigs
Your message prompted the startling thought that I haven't seen any
earwigs at all this year. I can remember as a child that we had
plagues of earwigs. Whoever brought something in from the yard
(whether the newspaper or a bouquet of flowers) would shake out the
earwigs first and we'd stamp on them with our feet. Ripe peaches
always split just enough to let earwigs in, and there they'd be, in
the peachstone. I always considered them a pest. It wasn't till we
had an infestation of winter moth, originally from Europe, but
brought to Victoria (on the Pacific coast) from the Atlantic coast of
Canada,that I discovered otherwise. The winter moth totally stripped
all deciduous trees each spring for a number of years before its
natural predators were deliberately introduced here from Europe. In
the meantime, the earwigs had a feast. In those years of no tree
fruit, since all the blossoms were eaten as well as all the leaves, I
was somewhat cheered to see earwigs carrying caterpillars out of my
fruit trees. Needless to say, my attitude to them did an about-face,
and I recognize them now as part of a balanced system, although I
think they originally came from Europe, too.
Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
zone 8, Sunset zone 5,
cool mediterranean climate (dry cool summers, wet cool winters)
