Earwig damage to corn

Very icky. In the top one you can see that the anthers have been completely chewed off the top (no pollen no corn!). The other photo shows how the leaves get chewed at one end and sort of wrap into a cocoon that is full of squirming earwigs.

I never really loathed them before, seeing them as harmless detritivores.

Vegetable garden and those earwigs

We started a vegetable garden and had severe earwig issues. I will take a photo of what these lovely critters do to corn, so you can understand our frustration. I think this year we will have corn about 3 feet high at best...but it is setting ears, finally.

You don't really expect to have to battle so strenuously when you do home gardening. It is even more difficult when you are trying to do it all without petroleum based pesticides, and organically.

It is really hard sometimes to be PC