Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Cultivation => Cultivation Problems => Topic started by: newstart on August 11, 2010, 03:26:55 PM
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Is this photo I have taken a picture of a pest?
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It's an earwig. We get lots of these, particularly in wet years... not so bad this year. They often get into the house.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earwig
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McMarks wikipedia link tells you just about everything about earwigs, David.
They are harmless to humans but can be a nuisance if they infest flowers..... Dahlia and Chrysanthmum growers get very ratty about the damage they can do to exhibition blooms. If you see a bamboo cane in a flower bed with an little pot upturned on it, the pot will probably be full of straw or shredded paper... it's being used as an earwig trap.
In Scotland earwigs have two terrific common names ....
forky-tails or hornygolochs 8)
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McMarks wikipedia link tells you just about everything about earwigs, David.
They are harmless to humans but can be a nuisance if they infest flowers..... Dahlia and Chrysanthmum growers get very ratty about the damage they can do to exhibition blooms. If you see a bamboo cane in a flower bed with an little pot upturned on it, the pot will probably be full of straw or shredded paper... it's being used as an earwig trap.
In Scotland earwigs have two terrific common names ....
forky-tails or hornygolochs 8)
Oooh, I like the name "forky-tails", but I'm not even going to comment on that last common name :-X
The earwigs are not a major concern to plants in my garden. Lifting up an old piece or wood or bark, there might be hundreds of these things in hiding (they like moist dark places). The more vexing problem is that they get into the house, can climb walls and even the ceiling, their pincers looking more formidable than they really are, and since they are so squirmy-wiggly, my wife and daughters get freaked out by their occasional presence.
I always connect the word "earwig" with the series The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, the feature character (the late Leonard Rossiter) who when stressed, inadvertently blurts out the word "earwig" for some other word. I own the whole series, brilliant!
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too many people think they can bite
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hornygolochs 8)
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Now that's a name alright.
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hornygolochs 8)
Now that's a name alright.
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Fantastic, isn't it? ;D
Some folk think we Scots are a sombre bunch, but how could you be truly miserable when you've got names like that in your language!! :)
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hornygolochs 8)
Now that's a name alright.
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Are earwigs in Paris called French hornygolochs?
... or if found in those beautiful American mountains Big hornygolochs? :D
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Or if male, just hor.... No, better not go there.
I approve of earwigs because they're good mothers. Well the females are anyway. :D
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I once had a school mate who believed that they get into the ears of people sleeping on the ground, bite through the ear drum and get into the skull and feed on the brain. It was impossible to get him out of that belief. This cute little superstition was spread in those days (1940-1950 probably also earlier)
Göte
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An earwig in the grass will try to hide in any suitable hole. Perhaps once, someone got one trying to hide in the ear.
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I once had a school mate who believed that they get into the ears of people sleeping on the ground, bite through the ear drum and get into the skull and feed on the brain. It was impossible to get him out of that belief. This cute little superstition was spread in those days (1940-1950 probably also earlier)
Göte
PS
An earwig in the grass will try to hide in any suitable hole. Perhaps once, someone got one trying to hide in the ear.
Well thats what I thought when I was a kid so I stood on thousands, ::) ::) ::) :-X
Angie :)
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I must admit hornygolochs is a funny name. Seems I was not paying attention on my childhood school nature trips. They seem pretty harmless to all accounts to alpines which is good. What about vine weevil. i have had that problem occasionally. The biological control completely wipes them out-in fact extremely well to my suprise. i wondered if I should routinely do it in autumn as is recommended. i tend to wait till i see any signs of roots being gnawed off.
Cheers David.
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I have a confession.
Snakes and spiders, frogs & toads I like. I don't mind rodents, enclosed spaces or heights too much.
I can even tolerate children if i'm in a good mood (about two days a year).
But just the picture of an earwig makes my skin crawl....
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I'm with you, Darren.
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I'm with you, Darren.
Crikey! Can this be the same woman that gave us this message:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5874.msg162611#msg162611
:o ;D ;D
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I love this Forum, it's so informative and fun ;D
By the way.....
Are baby earwigs called earwiggles?
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I love this Forum, it's so informative and fun ;D
By the way.....
Are baby earwigs called earwiggles?
I do hope so......otherwise I'm a bit worried about eating what I thought was a box of "twiglets" last week....... :P :-\
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;D ;D ;D Are Twiglets still around? Must look for them 8)
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Maggi, looking at pics and seeing one of those horrors dropping down on your arm is not the same thing at all.
Most insects don't bother me but earwigs and cockies freak me out.
No cockies around here but there are heaps of earwigs that love to eat my clematis flowers grrrrrrrrrr
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Maggi, looking at pics and seeing one of those horrors dropping down on your arm is not the same thing at all.
Most insects don't bother me but earwigs and cockies freak me out.
No cockies around here but there are heaps of earwigs that love to eat my clematis flowers grrrrrrrrrr
I suppose the pictures are different but to see such incredible detail that you never suspected was there...... Yeuww!
I'm with you on the Cockroach horror..... they give me the "heebie-geebies" and no mistake. :o :P
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I share the dislike of cockroaches too. My parents ran pubs when I was growing up and cockroaches were a frequent problem in the cellars. They didn't bother my dad so he would occasionally leave one where the barmaids would find it (e.g in the till). Amazing I grew up normal really.... ;)
Here are some pics of Collembola (the 'springtail mites' we find in the garden) by Steve Hopkin. Some of them could even be called cute!
http://www.stevehopkin.co.uk/collembolagallery/
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Earwigs and I assume also earwiggles were really common here 20 years ago, but I hardly see them any more. I wonder why?
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I have seen what I think must be Folsomia candida (;D) in my garden!