Talk:Earwig
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Article Grading: Maybe something should be said about parental care, which is exhibited by the mother in some species of earwigs? It is a remarquably rare behaviour for invertebrates. IronChris | (talk) 22:27, 16 November 2006 (UTC) |
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Don't you think that the OED have just been taken in by the myth about crawling in ears? Perhaps the myth simply stems from the name, together with most people never seeing them with their wings out. Billlion 14:26, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
- The OED is about as authoritative as one can find - it would take a recent article in a leading peer-reviewed journal to justify spreading any doubts about etymology. Stan 16:48, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I have actually experienced having an earwig in my ear and have felt nothing as painful as it in my entire life. My friend's mum is a nurse and had no idea what was wrong (no one saw anything at all, I just fell to the floor screaming at the pain) and after about 20 minutes of her trying to arrange an ambulance an inch long ear wig fell out of my ear. Supposedly something similar happened to my step dad previously as well but I hadn't heard of it before. 82.3.50.60 04:22, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
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[edit] What do earwigs eat?
In the last few months I have seen more earwigs than the rest of my life. These have almost all been when going through boxes of books. Do earwigs eat paper or can they in any way harm books? --Anon
- Maybe you saw the silverfish, which look somewhat like earwig and do feast on paper? Earwigs don't eat paper, as far as I know. I don't even know if they can survive in cardboard boxes. They'd probably just dry out/starve. --Menchi 09:18, 23 July 2005 (UTC)
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- Added info on their diet... Ray Trygstad 05:52, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] legitimate ickyness to them?
Other than the wives' tale about earwigs burrowing into peoples' ears, is there any legitimate concern to be ickied out by them? Their color really is reminiscient of that of a cockroach's color, so the first thing I think of is they carry disease. Of course, this is probably an association fallacy, but this is why I am asking anyway. --70.134.217.129 08:46, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
- Added info on this; not known to carry disease nor to ham human beings. They're mosly just icky. Ray Trygstad 05:54, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
Is there an earwig season? I too have been seeing a lot of them, its quite disturbing. Also, what about controlling their population?
[edit] WTF?
WTF happened? Compact Flash cards are now the new standard for size comparison? Come on! Only on Slashdot, surely - what happened to a ruler, or something?! For great justice. 18:04, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
Exactly what I was thinking, Even the people on the flash card page know that it's better to use a coin for size comparison than a flash drive! --JKrabbe
- Probably could find nothing at hand at that moment. This happened to me yesterday. Wanted something to compare a Camel-Spider I was shooting but nothing useful was at hand. AshLin 03:07, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Ears?
So is the myth here actually a myth, or do they actually crawl into people's ears? This is what I came to this page to find out, and the info wasn't there...I know what my intuition tells me (NO) but I'm no biologist and I can't be sure...any help here? 24.20.131.214 12:49, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
- As my professor said "Well, not anymore than any other random insect would want to crawl into your ear, I suppose"--Kugamazog 13:22, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
I just wanted to let the "world" know that "Earwigs" can and "DO" crawl into peoples ears! Just this past week I was awakened by such an experience! If U'd like a full account feel Free to contact me, YYs2B4GotN@aol.com
[edit] Number of Species?
So is it 1800 or 900? Contradictory information. The 900 figure does not specify whether it is for any genus or any family or any other part of the order.AshLin 03:02, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
- According to [1] there are about 2,200 species of earwigs, which would seem to lend credence to the upper number currently on the Wikipedia page. Mikya 03:14, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] "Entymological"
Some joker at User:160.39.165.194 renamed the section "Entymological etymology". Of course, there's no such word as entymological. Derek Balsam 14:47, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
- Or maybe it's a misspelling of entomological, as entomology is the scientific study of insects. --Ekaiyu 03:59, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
- Yes, I am sure that was the intended meaning of the joke. But either way jokes don't belong as section headings. Derek Balsam 13:20, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Biting/Stinging
I would just like to go on record as stating that these buggers sting, bite, whatever, with those pincers. I just got tagged pretty good by one I was getting off my leg while I was half-asleep. Holes on my finger tip went deep enough to draw blood, and in pretty serious drops when I squeezed it. Hurt, too. Clotted quickly, though- no diameter, of course. Like being stabbed by a pair of thumbtacks. -- JS
- OMG :P -- Obradović Goran (talk 22:07, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
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- That's what I said. -- JS
[edit] change of sex?
I've heard a rumor about they change sex from male to female. Is that true? Kewangji 12:58, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Earwigs and the ear
Someone had vandalised the article with this:
- "Insert: – — … ° ≈ ± − × ÷ ← → · § Sign your name: Glb310 08:03, 1 October 2006 (UTC) *** Myth Buster. One day I felt a painful pinching feeling and dull “cloudy” sound (from movement of its feet) and applied a heating pad and then went to bed. When I turned over my girlfriend, who was watching over me, saw a bug exit my left ear and caught it inside of a jar. We later identified it as an earwig. We believe it entered my ear something during the day while riding in a convertible. Thank you."
I removed the vandalism. Obviously this guy thinks he's good to have a convertible.
Anyway, I thought I'd put the claims in here as a test.
I just wanted to let the "world" know that "Earwigs" can and "DO" crawl into peoples ears! Just this past week I was awakened by such an experience! If U'd like a full account feel Free to contact me, YYs2B4GotN@aol.com
[edit] tip on getting rid of them
"Putting vegetable oil in a pie tin and burying it up to the rim of the tin is an effective way of capturing them. The oil can then be reused in the tin after disposing of the earwigs."
Um, is this really sanitary? The reusing the oil part. Should that even be included? This is an encyclopedia, not a guide on how to be miserly. Robin Chen 07:36, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
- I think what they mean is you can reuse the oil to catch more earwigs. --Kmsiever 16:28, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Live without food?
How long can a earwig resist without food. I caught one in one of my books and kept it in a bottle. Today, it's a week since then, and it's still alive and kickin'. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 89.165.146.90 (talk) 08:06, 16 December 2006 (UTC).
It's been 8 days since I trapped it in the bottle. I think it's dead: no move whatsoever. Should I assume they can live about a week without food or water?
I was wrong. It's not dead. It's alive, I guess. Those cercis are still moving. However, the rest of the body does not appear to be alive. Could this be some kind of reflex?
- Please read Wikipedia's policy on original research. You can conclude what you like, but any results of your experiments cannot be included in Wikipedia unless and until they are published. --Stemonitis 15:36, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
