Earwigs infestation

I haven’t seen one for years. I do hate them but this can’t be a good thing.

Apparently they eat aphids, so they can do some good,but my plants are a sickening, seething mass of them once its dark out.

Nightmare?

Horrible !
I've noticed there seems to be a big increase in various insect pests lately, maybe due to climate change.
My big hate is mosquitoes - hope we don't get more of them.

My father used to make traps, which worked well. Not sure what he did with the earwigs after trapping, he probably used a bucket of water rather than letting them go on waste land.
www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-make-earwig-traps/

I remember years ago mum's dahlias used to be covered in earwigs and she could never cut any and bring them indoors.
It's snails with me, eating the insides of the carnations before they've even flowered.

I thinned 3 apple trees today and there were masses of earwigs hiding within clusters of apples. Never seen so many

My mother used to grow dahlias and always used earwig traps like shysal has given link for. Wood shavings were put in the traps, rather than straw. She would go out every day with a bucket of boiling water, and carefully remove the shavings over the bucket, shaking out the earwigs. She kept a count and I remember about 80 being caught in a day!

I'm scared to make a trap because I can't bear to have to empty it.
A tuna can with some oil left in it will apparently attract them and they fall in..

I'm off outside to have a look at them munching away on my plants in a minute.

No solution Miss A but we have the same problem. The leaves on lovely rhododendrons are eaten away by earwigs. We have emptied 3 large pots today and there were hundreds of earwigs in and around the soil and even more in the saucers. Not sure what to do but would welcome a solution. We are in the North East btw.

I'm not sure on the spelling, but dusting the plant with diatomaceous earth (know that's not right!) can help.
Also smearing Vaseline on the stems; some of my tricks.

Its so disheartening.

I looked this up on the internet, and I haven't tried it but it might help......use a vacuum to hoover them up! Maybe get someone else who is brave to empty it though!! Apparently keep doing it until it has improved and then set rolled up newspaper traps (and other types if they work) to encourage them to leave the plant alone.

I quite like the idea of hoovering them up, it feels more like 'cleaning' and not like killing

The neighbours will think I've gone mad!

Here is another tip I've yet to try - smash up lots of earwigs into a kind of paste, and smear it around. The earwigs will not go near it (can't say I blame them!)

Wow!! Sounds a bit like a mafia type of solution!

Well, good luck I hope something works.

I bet next year there will be an infestation of ladybirds or some such predator based on this years numbers!