Discover the Unseen World: Top 11 Amazing and Entertaining Earwig Fun Facts!

1. Earwigs' Wet Party Preferences

Those teetotaling earwigs sure know how to throw a wet party: turns out, they're not mad about beer or wine. They do, however, love damp environments, dining upon insects, plants, and sometimes even other small creatures. A fact that gardeners can raise an aphid-free toast to, as earwigs make pretty useful organic pest controllers!
Source => clearfirstpestcontrol.co.uk

2. Supermom Earwigs Clean Their Nests

Ladies and gentlemen, hold onto your antennae because earwig moms are stepping up as the ultimate queens of clean: When lurking pathogens threaten their nests, these doting insect mothers ramp up their parenting game by returning to their nests faster and spending extra time meticulously scrubbing their eggs to ensure their little ones stay infection-free.
Source => entomologytoday.org

Did you know honeybees have an incredible spatial memory, allowing them to recognize and visit specific flowers up to five days later? Discover their amazing flower power skills!

=> Fun Facts about Bees

3. Earwigs: Misunderstood Ear Invaders

Earwigs: professional ear-invaders or misunderstood crawlies? Turns out, even though these insects aren't actually on a mission to set up a secret basecamp inside our ears, they have been caught red-antennaed causing a ruckus in our auditory canals: despite ancient myths being debunked, there are documented instances where earwigs have crawled into the human ear and caused severe discomfort, with a recent study even including a video of this uninvited ear guest in action – but rest assured, they're not interested in wax removal or any other ear services!
Source => ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

4. Male Earwigs' Ruthless Pincer Battles

When male maritime earwigs throw a pincer party, it's all about who's got the best curve and surely not about fair play: In these ritualized battles, larger earwigs and those with more asymmetric pincers tend to win, as the curved side can pierce the opponent's shell, indicating that chivalry takes a backseat to survival of the fittest.
Source => kqed.org

5. Earwigs: Harmless Pincered Helpers

Fear not, mortals, for earwigs are not on a vengeful mission to pinch your ears, and they certainly don't carry tiny knives to sneak in your ear canals at night: Although they possess intimidating pincers, earwigs are harmless to humans, acting as natural pest control by munching on other insects and helping decompose dead plants, but they can be bothersome when they invade greenhouses or damage live plants.
Source => colonialpest.com

6. Earwigs Don't Lay Eggs in Ears

Rest assured, dear slumbering mortals: earwigs are not on a mission to infest your dreams with their tiny, egg-laying exploits. While the occasional adventurous earwig may indulge in some nocturnal spelunking within the caverns of our ears, they have no intention of starting a family therein: In reality, these misunderstood insects enjoy a more earthy lifestyle, choosing to lay their eggs within cozy burrows in the ground rather than the confines of human ear canals.
Source => orkin.com

7. No Ear-Nesting for Earwigs

While we may imagine earwigs hosting sleepovers in our ear canals and delighting in nesting their offspring deep within our skulls, we must bid adieu to such devilish imaginings: Earwigs simply fancy warm, moist places for themselves, and pose no threat to our precious brains, their nocturnal visits rarely causing anything more than fleeting discomfort, with their role as a mere moisture pest vanquished by the grand champions of pest control services.
Source => wittpm.com

8. Earwig House Party: Southern Style

If an earwig were to throw a house party, it would certainly be a Southern Hemisphere soirée – where most of its amazing relatives gather, owing to their intriguing past! The hard truth: Earwigs boast a diverse population primarily residing in the southern hemisphere, thanks to vicariance events like the Gondwana breakup, and obstacles like the Himalayan orogenesis and colder temperatures hindering their move to the north.
Source => mdpi.com

9. Earwigs: Nocturnal Pest-Fighting Knights

Earwigs: the unsung heroes of the insect world, partying it up at night while we sleep and fighting the good fight against aphids and mites by day. Ah, what a life! However, the nightlife isn't all glamour for these little nocturnal creatures: they're actually avid insectivores, chowing down on unwelcome pests like aphids, mites, fleas, and insect eggs, making them a valuable ally in natural pest control. But they also have an appetite for some of your favorite garden plants, such as dahlias, marigolds, lettuce, and hostas, so keep an eye out and treat accordingly if these mini knights in shining armor overstep their boundaries.
Source => pestcontrolri.com

10. "The Late Triassic Show" Starring Earwigs

Imagine if earwigs had a sitcom, it'd be called "The Late Triassic Show": Earwigs may have originated as far back as the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic period, but their evolutionary history remains highly debated due to a scarcity of fossil records. However, recent discoveries of two new earwig genera in Inner Mongolia have provided fresh insights into their elusive origins, revealing that they likely form a new clade at the base of previously defined Eodermaptera and a stem group of (Eodermaptera+Neodermaptera).
Source => bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com

11. Earwig Prime: Insect Transformers

Move over Transformers, Earwig Prime has landed: These tiny critters possess the most remarkable wing-folding mechanism in the insect kingdom, allowing them to shrink their hind wings under minuscule leathery forewings, reducing the surface area by a whopping 10 to 15 times, and inspiring ingenious design methods in aerospace engineering and daily use gadgets.
Source => oumnh.ox.ac.uk