Earwig: the main fear of childhood. Is it really that dangerous? (5 photos)

Perhaps everyone is happy about the coming of spring... Except for the owners of private houses, because they will again have to face their most severe nightmare - earwigs! This is a creature that can make even hefty men squeal with just its appearance, but is it really that dangerous?





In a protective pose, this monster resembles a real scorpion.

Let's start with a short educational program. People call this horror on legs a two-tailed thing, which is not entirely correct. The fact is that true two-tailed fish belong to the cryptomaxillary species, and earwigs are representatives of the order Leatheroptera. What can I say, the real two-tailed one looks quite pitiful and is unlikely to scare anyone:



This is a japygida, one of the species of true bivosts. Now compare this little thing to the power shown in the first picture.

Why is our pet monster called an earwig? It is popularly believed that an earwig can climb into a sleeping person’s ear and bite it from the inside, damaging the eardrum, but this myth is easy to destroy, at least even from a linguistic point of view.

In English, the word earwig can be translated as earwig, and to be more precise, we got this name by translating the English word, and even the myth about eardrums came with it. It is believed that the word earwig itself could be derived from earwing, which can be translated as “ear-shaped wing,” which clearly indicates the unusual shape of the wings of this insect.





Yes, it also flies, or rather just floats through the air! And yes, these wings really resemble ears.

From a biological point of view, the myth about eardrums and earwigs also looks like some kind of fiction. The fact is that the heroes of this article really like to hide in secluded places, but cases of finding them in the ears were recorded extremely rarely, so rarely that consider that there were almost no such cases at all.

Such a terrible creature cannot be harmless, you will say, and you will be absolutely right! Earwigs have gained a notoriety because they love to damage plants in the garden, leaving holes in their leaves, affecting potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, peas and much more.

She also likes to profit from fruits, but, in fairness, it is worth saying that she mainly chooses either cracked specimens or those that have already been previously damaged by birds.



It’s delicious for me, but the owner of the garden is sad.

For all its terrible appearance and behavior, the earwig also brings benefits. It damages garden crops and in return eats other pests, such as aphids. However, this cannot in any way clear up the reputation of this worm with nippers on her ass, because she causes much more harm.

We have already found out that the insidious insect does not attack the ears, but the two nails at the end of its carcass can still be used against a person, and here people living in private houses will not let me lie - earwigs bite quite noticeably if they feel that they are threatened danger.

For such a bite, sapiens are always ready to unleash all the fury and power of a slipper on the insect. It is rarely possible to kill them the first time; their durable chitinous shell saves them. But when it comes to killing earwigs, people who have been bitten by them show enviable persistence.



Someday I'll come up with a plan to take over the two-legged house, but for now I'll hide in the darkness under the sofa...

To summarize, we can say that the animal cannot cause serious harm to health, but not everyone will like its unusual beauty. Let's be honest - she's not so dangerous that we'd have a fit at the sight of her, we just don't like the way she looks. Well, fellow gardeners have every right to hate this living opener for obvious reasons.