r/earwigs

(I'm sorry this is so long, but please read)

Hi there, I'm a new homeowner. I moved into a 2-story home with my brother, it's a brand new neighborhood with all new houses that were finished a year ago, sometime in June. The house sits on a slab, in Middle Georgia and we are 50-70 ft. away from a giant pond. (more on this pond later). There is some mulch out in the front, that we will be getting rid of as well. We moved into this home in October. Everything was great, working perfectly fine, and most impressively, not a single bug. That is, until late May/early June when all the rain started pouring.

In June, earwigs began to invade the house like crazy, we would see 15-30+ a night and it has been a battle since. They are gravitating to upstairs where we have carpet. The downstairs is hardwood floors and there's less downstairs but still a good amount. The crawl on the walls and ceilings as well.

We've had an exterminator come out since we've moved here, he's been to the house 3 times prior to the earwig problem. And came out since we had the issue but nothing seems to be working. So we took things into our own hands with many DIY projects. We tried the oil/soy sauce traps, we used Diatomaceous earth which seems to have worked but it's too toxic to keep inside the house. We are currently using indoor Ortho Home Defense on our baseboards and it's somewhat killing them, but still there are living. We definitely need door sweeps and thinking of getting screen doors for sure. Removing the mulch will help but we need HOA approval so we are waiting for that. But the biggest issue is this pond and we think that the pond is definitely their breeding ground and where they live. Unfortunately, we can't move the pond so we are looking for other solutions.

Things we've tried so far:

- Soy sauce/ oil traps (not successful)

- Diatomaceous Earth (worked inside but too toxic, even the FOOD-grade, now we have it outside)

- Indoor Ortho Home Defense (works, but barely)

- Ortho Bugclear Insect Granules (outside, all around lawn)

- Dehumidifier upstairs (not a very powerful one, but it does help with moisture)

- Caulking cracks in baseboards and little cracks they can crawl under.

- Using tape for the front door as an emergency measure. (the tape along the door does catch the earwigs and stops them from coming inside. we've caught many with the tape)

I've had two Home Foundation specialists come out to search for places where the earwigs could be getting inside and they were stumped as well. They were confused considering many of the places like under the sink, kitchen, or bathrooms were Not the places we found the earwigs most of the time. They would come into the bathroom when we showered because of the moisture but otherwise they weren't in there. Overall in the home, there are no leaks, no standing water inside, no places with high moisture. So they were very confused and couldn't offer much assistance.

We know the entryway doors are a big problem but all of our windows are sealed pretty tightly. It's a new home so there's no wear or tear on the windows. It'll be tough for the earwigs to get in through the windows. But most of the earwigs are upstairs, and we are stumped on how they arrive upstairs. They seem to be getting inside upstairs and going downstairs which is very odd. We've been able to significantly drop the numbers that we see every night, to between 6-10 a night and sometimes lower. But they are still very much here. Especially when it rains :(

I'm truly feeling defeated and at my wits end. Right now, we are stuck between fortifying the house with screen doors and more caulk and removing the mulch out front. Or deciding to move. I could truly use some guidance or some resolutions on how to stop this problem. And to find out why there are so many earwigs upstairs for the most part. Of course, heat rises and with Georgia's humidity, upstairs seems ideal for them. But it appears that they are getting in upstairs somehow. I've found one in my bookbag, my brother found one in his clothes. I just need help please.