Back on the 18th March we came across the following…
An earwig jammed into a hollow stem within the meadow area. What was not immediately clear was whether it was there by its own volition, or whether something more sinister was at play.
So we sat and watched to try and figure out what was going on and filmed the following, which looked to us as if the individual was a) still alive and b) being pulled into the stem.
We know Earwigs are predominantly nocturnal, so thought perhaps it was looking for shelter, but this seemed such an unlikely place. The following day and the little fella was still in the stem, only now much further in and much more tightly stuck it seemed.
You’ll have to look closely, you can just about see its pincers, curved inwards which suggests this is a male. So much for the nocturnal idea we thought.
We did wonder if this was a potential nesting situation but of course this is a male, and whilst earwigs do look after their young, this is primarily a female activity. Also, mating tends to occur during the autumn, with males apparently leaving the nest early the following year. So in truth we were stuck, and not knowing what was going on (knowing little about earwigs) we promptly forgot about it. Then exactly one month later we spotted exactly the same thing again…
We are now back to favouring the simplest of answers, that this is just a good place for earwigs to hide until night time.
DC: 20.04.2024
Wildlife Garden 