I’ve never seen nor heard of this happening: we have about fifty earwigs living in our mailbox. The mailbox is a cheap one mounted on a wooden post, and when you open the mailbox door, they all scurry out through cracks into the space between the post-arm and the box. But they leave all their frass behind, as they are not especially civilized. It’s disgusting.
What’s the best way to get rid of them? I don’t mind killing them, but I don’t want poison all over our mailbox and mail, and I think the mail carriers might not appreciate it either.
I’ve thought about trying to seal the cracks they get in through, using, I dunno, caulk or something, but I think I’d have to take the box off the post to really get in there, which sounds like a lot of hassle, and it would be messy. (Incidentally I’m not sure whether the box is made of poly or vinyl or some kind of clad metal; I do know it was cheap, and feels fairly plasticky to the touch.)
Will earwigs take bait like roaches or ants? Would diatomaceous earth or borax or something work? We already have some borax and some of those tuna-can-shaped ant traps.
Also, WTF? Why would they take up residence there? It’s gotta be hot and dry in there. I thought they liked cool & damp!
Your main problem is with the cancellation of the Shuttle programme. This decrease in available orbital vehicles is resulting in a sharp increase in payload cost. You could find other ways to take care of things, but you’ll never be sure.
Aha! Thank you. Dish soap it is, then; if that doesn’t work, I’ll try the “medicated body powder” mentioned elsewhere in that link, as I think we’ve got some Gold Bond around the house somewhere.
Any entomologists out there have any insights on why the bloody things are in there at all?
Yeah, I know. But there’s no decaying vegetation in our mailbox, or non-decaying vegetation either, and in fact it’s a 42" vertical hike to plain, regularly-mowed turf. There’s no moisture in the mailbox other than whatever evaporates from the lawn and/or the wooden post. There are no other bugs in there to be hunted or scavenged. There’s nothing to hide under in there, except mail, which is reliably disturbed daily, and is only ever there for about 3 hours out of every 24, not counting Sunday. If it’s sunny, it gets pretty damn hot in there. In fact, other than being mostly dark, there’s nothing to recommend it as earwig habitat. And there are LOTS of other habitats for 'em around the property, as witnessed by their cohorts living there.
bugs wander and find shelter and nest where it works for them.
the wood post is a natural habitat material for them, inches away is a sheltered box for more space.
ants get in mailboxes that are on top of wood posts for the same reason. spiders are in mailboxes because enough bugs wander in. bugs go where they can go, if it feels like home then it’s home.
I emailed my dad, who once upon a time got an undergraduate degree in bugs, and he speculates that they might have moved into the mailbox after we recently moved and stacked elsewhere a cord of loose firewood that had been about 20’ from the mailbox. He recommends pyrethrins. I’ll get some if the soap and powder don’t work.
Dad’s woodpile connection makes sense to me. 'Cause johnpost, I totally see what you’re saying, but I think there have to have been unusual circumstances for them to even consider moving in anywhere as non-earwig-friendly as our mailbox. You know, like a lot of people wouldn’t live in a FIMA trailer by choice, but might if their house got flooded and they didn’t have many options.
I suspect they like the cozy crevices of the wood post. Condensation there only helps their life. I also don’t like to use any poisons commonly used. I have had good luck against bugs in general by using WD-40 on the surfaces and crevices. It really works well with ants. So I would spray the post and all crevices. I would also spray inside the box and then wipe off any residue so the mail does not get wet from it.
But they must be crawling up the post to get into the mailbox, so why not coat the underside of the mailbox and the foot or so of post below it with poison? That should get the poison to the earwigs, but not mail carriers or pets.
If soap and powder don’t work and I go for pyrethrins, I’ll probably go this route. We do have a just-learning-to-walk-and-still-hanging-on-to-everything toddler, though, so I’m not excited about the idea. The mailbox is within the part of the yard where we spend a lot of time with him.
If you physically remove the existing earwigs, and put a barrier (a 1"-high ring of Vaseline) on the post to prevent new earwigs climbing up, your mailbox should remain blessedly earwig-free, without the risk of poisoning your mail or your mail-deliverer.
I deliver newspapers to mailboxes here in Finland and I was just wondering about why there’s so many earwigs in several of the mailboxes I deliver to. So if it makes you feel any better you aren’t the only one suffering from this affliction.
IIRC, they are going in there to hide from the heat of the summer day and well…get stuck indoors. Flush them out and spray the surrounding area with some kind of pesticide.
It’s a joke relating the recent Shuttle program cancellation to a quote from Aliens that is commonly used on this board:
“Nuke [them] from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
ETA: I believe the first sentence in the original quote is “I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit.” But it often gets rendered as “Nuke it from orbit.”
