University of California
The California Backyard Orchard
Earwigs are numerous in wraps of young trees
I recently started getting serious about studying earwigs in San Joaquin Valley citrus. It seems my timing is great (well, great for research anyway), because there are very high numbers in young tree wraps right now (April). The general cycle for earwigs is they overwinter as adults, lay eggs, eggs hatch and nymphs mature, then right about now they move up into the trees. Earwigs can clearly damage young tree flush. We are screening pesticides to develop a treatment program for young trees. We are also going to study how much damage they do to fruit in mature trees and how much they act as predators of pests. They may be as much of a benefit as a pest. More on this subject later.
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