Are earwigs and roly polies wreaking havoc in your garden?

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Earwigs & roly polies are eating everything!!!

I've received quite a few questions about how to manage earwigs and roly polies/sow bugs this past week. These are tough pests to manage for sure. Here are a few tips that will help you manage these pests in your garden. 

  1. First we need to properly identify the pest. Not always easy. Snails, slugs, earwigs and roly polies create similar damage on plants so it's not always easy to identify the correct pest. Upon close inspection I will find the culprit. Be patient and thorough. Right now I am finding earwigs eating the strawberries, chard, lettuces, among others and the roly polies eating the baby plant starts, especially loving the sunflower seedlings and cucumber seedlings, among others. Those punks! They really make me mad!

  2. Find a way to lift the plants up off the soil. This helps, though not always possible. Trim off lower leaves of plants that are touching the soil when possible. This is a good rule of thumb for many of our plants.  

  3. Find a way to create a barrier. You might try a circle of diatomaceous earth (DE) around your plants, avoiding getting the DE on the leaves of your plants. DE is not toxic, however is quite lethal to these crawling insects that like to munch on our plants. As they come in contact with the DE it sticks to them, dehydrating them. A very effect way to manage these pests without a toxic pesticide. However I will share that once it is wet, it doesn't work as well. Best used when watering with irrigation tubing with emitters rather than overhead watering from sprays. 

  4. Apply iron phosphate with spinosad. You can find this eco-pesticide combo under the Monterey label as Sluggo Plus or the Bonide label as Bug & Slug Killer. I am sure there are other brand out there with this active ingredient combination, however these are the two that I see most commonly in the retail stores. This is an OMRI certified pesticide, approved for use around edible crops. Apply according to the directions. It is very effective. 

Hope you find these tips helpful. 
Have a super day and happy gardening!☺️🌿

~Suzanne

Suzanne Bontempo