Horror of Earwigs

TheScribbler

I wonder if anyone else suffers from earwig phobia? I have often heard it said that to overcome a phobia it is often helpful to confront the affliction. Well I have tried and while I treat their presence with measured tolerance it doesn't prevent me panicing when I find one crawling on my clothing. The problem is that I know the cause. As a small child I was stung (those back pincers) when I picked one up off the floor.

I should be more concerned about spiders because I have no fear of them at all but should have. While living in California some years ago I was bitten by a venomous spider and ever since then the slightest spider bite will bring on a swelling of the skin and blisters.

Noffles

I was opening a fresh bag of bagels the other week and an earwig was on the top of the 1st one... bit pissed off to be honest as I fancied a bagel!

Don't mind them really, just dopey little things that die easy, unlike spiders that are far too quick and clever and will get us all in the end!

geuro

Don't want to make you even more uneasy about earwigs, but i can confirm that the 'old wives tale' about them going into peoples ears is true. A number of years ago I woke in the middle of the night to feel something tickling my hair just above my forehead. Half asleep, I brushed it with my finger, whereupon it ran down my face and into my ear. I freaked out and just managed to grab the end of whatever it was going into my ear. I turned on the light beside my bed to see a disgusting long earwig twisting it's horrible body between my fingers. It was a weird looking sort of a black earwig with whitish-grey legs and long black pincers. I panicked and jumped out of bed, letting the earwig fall back into my bed. Took me a good 20 seconds or so of looking before i found the little bugger again. Suffice to say I'll be a lot more careful taking in my sheets from the clothes line in the future!

TheScribbler

Noffles you have my sympathy. I guess like all such insects we wouldn't eat anything that they have crawled over. The solution is buy your bagels in packs of two!

Medievalist

Jebus...I hate earwigs. Give me a huge ugly spider anyday, once it's not an earwig. I had three gross encounters of the earwig kind when I was younger. Scarred me for life. Once I poured cereal into my bowl and about 6 or 7 earwigs came flowing out along with my Rice Krispies. Not exactly the kind of free surprise you want in your cereal as a kid.

geuro

Medievalist wrote: »

Jebus...I hate earwigs. Give me a huge ugly spider anyday, once it's not an earwig. I had three gross encounters of the earwig kind when I was younger. Scarred me for life. Once I poured cereal into my bowl and about 6 or 7 earwigs came flowing out along with my Rice Krispies. Not exactly the kind of free surprise you want in your cereal as a kid.

That happened me with a moth. Perfectly camouflaged in my muesli, until it flew off my spoon.

TheScribbler

Geuro you have my profoundest sympathy. I have had flies enter my ear or go up my nose adn I can tell you they taste horrible too. I even got a wasp in my ear once - ironically it didn't sting me but it damned near deafened me. But the earwig urghhh! I wouldn't just change the sheets, I'd change beds!

Having said all that I enjoyed your story

bananabunch

:eek::eek::eek:

OMG Wish I hadn't opened this. I am seriously scared of earwigs, have always been told that they don't actually crawl inside your ears but after reading the horror story above I am convinced my phobia is justified.

pawrick

woke up one morning and rubbed my eyes as i thought I felt sleep in one of them - was a dead earwig, must have died on my face during the night!

not too worried about them though - butterflies on the other hand I hate, actually anything which flies at you. fecking school trip to a butterfly farm in Kilkenny(?) scared me for life with huge ones landing on my head!

TheScribbler

To add to the horror, a couple of summers ago (you remember what they were! They were the days that it didn't rain) I was cleaning out the gutters on the side of my garage when I disturbed a nest of them and they migrated up the arm of my track suit. I nearly fell off the ladder and must have looked a spectacle as I wripped off my top while still descending. However it was when I ripped of the track bottoms that I reckoned that I had over reacted a tad. The neighbours just stood there with mouths open. My wife put it all in perspective when she muttered at me to 'grow up.' But then, her thing is mice......

Medievalist

TheScribbler wrote: »

To add to the horror, a couple of summers ago (you remember what they were! They were the days that it didn't rain) I was cleaning out the gutters on the side of my garage when I disturbed a nest of them and they migrated up the arm of my track suit. I nearly fell off the ladder and must have looked a spectacle as I wripped off my top while still descending. However it was when I ripped of the track bottoms that I reckoned that I had over reacted a tad. The neighbours just stood there with mouths open. My wife put it all in perspective when she muttered at me to 'grow up.' But then, her thing is mice......

That's traumatic :eek:! I came across a nest too! I was about 6, and when I picked up a kiddie chair in the back garden an entire nest of earwigs just scattered everywhere! Over my feet and everything. Eugh! The most horrible part was there was one big white earwig in the middle of it all that I've had nightmares about since. I also had an encounter while I was happily filling a bird feeder with seeds, teddy in one hand, pigtails blowing in the breeze...when a swarm of earwigs came out of the feeder and went right up my arm! The birds never got fed again after that!

TheScribbler

The poor birds, what did they do to suffer such ill attention. Did teddy sympathise? They usually did

TheScribbler

I'm not sure if the attached link will give comfort to earwig haters or not, but enjoy the read: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080906190003AAaZ0gQ

Medievalist

TheScribbler wrote: »

I'm not sure if the attached link will give comfort to earwig haters or not, but enjoy the read: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080906190003AAaZ0gQ

I do love that there is a US Government site about earwigs! Not quite sure I'd ever regain my sanity if I found one up my nose or in my ear.


Teddy was a source of great comfort that day!

TheScribbler

Not wishing to digress from this desperately important and heartfelt topic but Medievalist's Teddy reference reminded me that when I was a kid I had a friend (male cub) that had a phobia about Teddies. He was terrified of them and felt they were out to get him. His mother resolved the problem by buying him a doll dressed up in boys clothing. He still has it. His wife never refers to it!

argosy2006

while sitting at pc other day i felt something in my boot,moved my toes when i felt a pinch,had boot and sock off in a milli second,out poped a earwig,ahhhhh! i check my socks now !

TheScribbler

It only proves that you don't have to be big to get noticed. Nice to learn that you survived to tell the tale

TheScribbler

More earwig stuff. A quick google turns up some amazing websites. Only our American cousins would have a blog site dedicated to earwigs like this one, entitled 'I Love Earwigs.' The mind boggles. Love them? I would prefer to force genocide on them!

http://www.experienceproject.com/groups/Love-Earwigs/72547

Anyone esle want to share their horror stories of the little beasties?

tracert

argosy2006 wrote: »

while sitting at pc other day i felt something in my boot,moved my toes when i felt a pinch,had boot and sock off in a milli second,out poped a earwig,ahhhhh! i check my socks now !

Happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Foot was itchy, but I thought it was nothing. Anyway, stupidly kept my boot on. Two hours later, out comes one of those sick little bastárds. Eugh.

TheScribbler

I gort an earwig story from a neighbour of mine who told me that his wife bought a box of custard tarts from a well know supermarket chain and when they were opened three or four earwigs crawled out over the top of the tarts. She cringed and he said take them back and kick up a fuss.

Thus with great effort she scooped up a couple of the beasties, borrowed her husband's car and took the box back which they replaced (without recompense for discomfort). However on the way back she was so preoccupied with thinking about earwings crawling everywhere that she failed to notice that her husband had closed the gate after she left and she damaged the front bumper of 'his' car as the gate buckled.

Accounts for the day. Purchase of custard tarts £1.50 - modest. Petrol used in journey £1.00 - reasonable. Repairs to gate £300 - harsh. Repairs to car £500 - appaling. I should add that the tarts were crap and I'm tempted to throw in the line the '....for everything else there was Mastercard!'

Rasmus

Earwigs are horrific. Back gardens seem to be a common theme. Luckily I haven't had any traumatic experiences since I was a kid, but once I was 'trapped' in a tent pitched in a garden - (old-style one with no groundsheet). I wrapped myself around the centre pole, as hundreds of earwigs were flowing through the grass exiting the tent. I think someone must have pitched the tent on a nest or something, totally disgusting. I don't remember what happened next, I guess I must have blocked it out! Another time I ate an earwig which was in my flask of milk. It tasted very sour. That was horrendous. I'll never forget it - I was furious with my parents who happened to be away at the time. (If they were at home this would of course have never happened! ; ) )

TheScribbler

I get scared putting my dustbins out for collection in the dark. Before you know it the motion has set the little beasties on the march up the arm of your shirt. Arrrghhhh!