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Will earwigs be 'The Pest of the Year'?

The munching insects appear out in force this spring

Earwig on an apricot
Earwigs won't kill mature plants, but they'll destroy
seedlings and damage soft fruit and berries. (Photo
courtesy UC Integrated Pest Management)

One insect apparently liked our roller-coaster spring: Earwigs.

“We’ve gotten a lot of questions about earwigs,” says Kevin Marini, community education specialist for the UCCE  Master Gardeners of Placer County. “There’s always a pest every year that rears its head and becomes ‘The Pest of the Year.’ We’re still waiting, but by all appearances, maybe it’s earwigs.”

Earwigs eat holes – especially inside rose flowers or through heads of lettuce. They usually won’t kill a mature plant, but they can be death to seedlings.

“Earwigs are very, very challenging for emerging plants,” Marini says. “Direct seedlings or little transplants; they just get munched.”

With their pinchers, earwigs are very distinctive among common garden insects. Their little forceps-like hooks are used for defense (although they rarely bite people).

About an inch long when mature, earwigs can do serious damage to soft fruit and berries (such as apricots, strawberries, raspberries or blackberries) and corn.

But they also are a major predator of aphids; that makes earwigs a garden good guy, too.

Anecdotally, the earwigs may be tied to late spring showers.

“We got sporadic rain; not much, but just enough,” Marini observes. “Late rain can cause outbreaks of earwigs.”

The moisture cups inside roses, lettuce heads and other places that earwigs like to hide – and eat.

On the other hand, early spikes in heat may have held down aphid invasions, Marini observes. “We’ve had hardly any calls on aphids – but that can change in a week.”

Maybe all those earwigs were hungry?

For more about earwigs: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74102.html

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Garden Checklist for week of May 5

Survey your garden after the May 4 rainstorm. Heavy rain and gusty winds can break the neck of large flowers such as roses. Also:

* Keep an eye on new transplants or seedlings; they could take a pounding from the rain.

* Watch out for powdery mildew. Warmth following moist conditions can cause this fungal disease to “bloom,” too. If you see a leaf that looks like it’s dusted with powdered sugar, snip it off.

* After the storm, start setting out tomato transplants, but wait on the peppers and eggplants (they want warmer nights). Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash.

* Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.

* Don’t wait; plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

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