earwigs

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peteinwilts

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Hi Guys

I am in the process of putting a few swarm box's and spare brood, NUC and super boxes into storage (a spare stable!), and they are very popular with earwigs.

quite a mountain of earwig poo is building up in places!

should I try and keep them away, or let them stay as they are predators and probably eat smaller, less noticable bugs?

Cheers
Pete
 
When you say boxes, you mean frames as well?

If earwigs are getting in easily, you are likely to lose your wax over the winter.

RAB
 
all wax removed.

particularly supers, when the flow was going strong, i was building supers frames with foundation ready to deploy and then suddenly... it stopped.

I have de-foundationed the frames and put the wax into airtight bags in the house.
 
all the supers with drawn frames is another story (not extracted yet!)

... not sure what I am going to do with those... buy an old freezer maybe.
 
try freecycle, people are always giving them away, down here anyway.
 
Is it just me in Suffolk but are there more flippin earwigs this year? Not in the supers but just living under the roof. No bother just irritating.:toetap05:
I seem to be inundated with wasps and earwigs, more than I can remember ever seeing. I'm waiting for locusts.
Cazza:toetap05:
 
I think there are more earwigs this year than ever before. They live in the door of the chicken run and the hens wait for me to open the door everyday as there's always a deluge of earwigs which they think is a very tasty delicacy!
 
Is it just me in Suffolk but are there more flippin earwigs this year? Not in the supers but just living under the roof. No bother just irritating.:toetap05:
I seem to be inundated with wasps and earwigs, more than I can remember ever seeing. I'm waiting for locusts.
Cazza:toetap05:

I've beaten you to the Locusts!
Painted my 'honey for sale' sign up today. Left it on the outside table drying, a damn great grasshopper goes and jumps onto the wet 'O' of Honey, I trashed the sign trying to get it off, had to repaint!
 
Yep, All hives have earwigs in the lids-aaahhh! - will the bees mind- will they cause them a problem??
 
Is it just me in Suffolk but are there more flippin earwigs this year? Not in the supers but just living under the roof. No bother just irritating.:toetap05:
I seem to be inundated with wasps and earwigs, more than I can remember ever seeing. I'm waiting for locusts.
Cazza:toetap05:

my first year keeping bees, but I am surprised at how many earwigs I find on the crown board. some thing I didnt expect.
 
No-one gives any bee keeping stuff away up here on free cycle......heard loads of people say they got their stuff that way. If I was any cop at wood work, I'm make my own stuff. Maybe I'm running before I can walk. Got until spring to save up. :)
 
Earwigs

I'm also inundated with earwigs! The honey stores are really low in the hives that contain earwigs so I think they're robbing stores - any ideas on how to get rid of them but not upsetting the bees at the same time?
 
Someone on here has used Certan successsfully to get rid of earwigs. I thought earwigs were carnivores, so apart from the poo, not sure they are doing any harm.

I haven't got earwigs under the rooves, but I have got spiders and lots of woodlice. Are either of them bad news?
 
I thought earwigs were carnivores, so apart from the poo, not sure they are doing any harm.

As a gardener I'd have to disagree, earwigs seem to eat everything and anything - I'm quite sure they're going for the honey, they eat nectar and pollen after all.

What's Certan? If possible I'd like a chemical free solution to getting rid of the earwigs.
 
Certan is a bacillus that interferes with the larval stage of waxmoth. People sometimes use it to spray on combs before Winter storage to protect from waxmoth. It seems possible that it may also interfere wiht larval development of earwigs. You can buy it from good bee supply shops.
 
No-one gives any bee keeping stuff away up here on free cycle......heard loads of people say they got their stuff that way. If I was any cop at wood work, I'm make my own stuff. Maybe I'm running before I can walk. Got until spring to save up. :)

Hi Kazmcc, just noticed this bit, we don't get any beekeeping stuff offered, that iv' seen anyway, dead freezers, yes.

Cheersiz, Di.
 
I used to live on the outskirts of London and had lots of earwigs in the garden, they where a problem, BUT, you can set earwig traps, eg, small plant pot on a stick fill with grass or such. The earwigs go up for shelter and you can then destroy them, bit like the wasp traps.
Steven
 
Do they travel in from the legs up...:eek: Would the dishes of vaseline stop them as it does ants. I opened someones hive today and there must have been 50 on the top of the cover board.
 

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