Earwigs often get a bad rap. Their elongated bodies and those prominent pincers at their rear end can trigger feelings of fear and disgust. But here’s a surprising fact: these common garden insects are completely venom-free, meaning they can’t sting. Even those pincer-like cerci, while capable of a slight grasp, are too weak to actually pinch human skin.
And what about the persistent myth of earwigs crawling into ears and laying eggs in brains? It’s entirely false.
Beyond these misconceptions, there are even more surprising aspects to earwigs. Female earwigs are surprisingly caring mothers, diligently guarding their eggs and newly hatched nymphs.
But perhaps the most unexpected truth about earwigs is that they possess wings. It’s understandable if you’re skeptical, as wings are rarely visible on these creatures. Earwigs are masters of disguise, neatly folding their wings under short wing covers, much like origami. When the need arises, these flight mechanisms unfold, ready for action.
Entomologist Dr. Adrian Smith from the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, known for his captivating slow-motion videos of flying insects, has beautifully captured this wing deployment in detail.
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s an… Earwig Flying?
While the fact that earwigs can fly might be surprising, the real story today isn’t about earwigs suddenly taking to the skies en masse. Instead, it revolves around an innovative approach observed by entomologist Aldo Hamel: the first documented release of earwigs via drones.
This isn’t some bizarre sci-fi plot, nor is it designed to intentionally cause alarm. The purpose is far more practical and beneficial. Earwigs are natural predators, particularly effective at consuming soft-bodied insects. This diet includes aphids and psyllids (jumping plant lice), common orchard pests that can devastate apple and pear crops.
By strategically increasing the earwig population in orchards, the aim is to leverage these natural predators to control pest insects, reducing the reliance on harmful and expensive pesticides. This approach, known as “biocontrol,” is a nature-based solution to agricultural pest management.
This concept operates on a simple ecological principle: the predator of a pest becomes an ally in protecting crops.
However, it’s important to note that earwigs aren’t a universal solution. They can also become pests themselves, damaging crops like corn, cherries, and grapes if their populations become too high or uncontrolled. Therefore, earwig biocontrol is not a one-size-fits-all answer.
A key factor in the potential success of earwig biocontrol is their limited flight range. Earwigs rarely utilize their wings for long-distance travel, making them more likely to stay within a targeted orchard area. Hamel and his team are optimistic about their potential as localized guardians of apple and pear trees. In their drone release experiment, they even marked earwigs released by drone and by hand with different colors to track their effectiveness.
The idea of deploying earwigs by drone might sound unconventional, even amusing. However, as Hamel noted, the practical execution isn’t without its challenges. Loading earwigs into drones proved to be a somewhat chaotic task, with the insects proving adept at escaping during the loading process.
Such are the realities of scientific fieldwork – sometimes it’s less about sophisticated technology and more about managing the unpredictable nature of living creatures.
More Animal Science Insights
If you’re interested in more fascinating animal behavior, there are a couple of compelling stories worth exploring.
One involves magpies ingeniously repurposing anti-bird spikes. These birds have been observed removing the spikes from buildings and incorporating them into their nests, creating fortified structures to protect their chicks from crow attacks.
Another intriguing story delves into prehistoric times, revealing a remarkable fossil discovery. Contrary to the typical image of early mammals as small, overshadowed creatures, this fossil showcases a mammal actively preying on a dinosaur, challenging conventional views of early mammal-dinosaur interactions.
