Are earwigs living in your chicken coop?

Ya'll...I found earwigs in my chicken coop! Here's how it happened: I don't often go out to the coop and kick around the litter at midnight, but I did yesterday. I happened to go down to check on some babies who's mama decided they were are all grown up at 3 weeks old. I wanted to get them off the floor and with the other mama for bedtime. 

When I entered the coop I noticed the bedding had gotten piled up in front of the door a little so I kicked it back and that's when I saw them. Earwigs. Lots of them!

Creepy, right? Is it a problem though? As gross as it might be, if you have red mites, earwigs might be the answer to your prayers! Earwigs will eat red mites and love to hang out in the crevices and cracks of wood, which is exactly where the red mites live. 

That's a whole other post though, for now let's talk about earwigs alone.

Earwigs in the chicken coop

Some random facts:
1) Earwigs are arthropods, they have an exoskeleton.
2) They are nocturnal. During the day they like to hide in crevices of wood and under things like floor mats or rocks.
3) Earwigs have wings and can fly but rarely do. 
4) They are omnivorous. They eat other arthropods, plants, ripe fruit and decaying animal matter.
5) Males have curved pincer's, females have straight ones.
6) They hang out around moisture like under rocks and around bathroom sinks. 
7) The only native species of earwig in the northern states is the Spine-Tailed earwig. (the ones in the picture) 
8) They are not poisonous or hazardous to chickens, in fact they are a good source of protein. 

What does this mean to your coop? 

• Since earwigs hide in crevices and seams between wood, you're probably not going to be able to fill in all their hiding places. 

• Because they are omnivorous, you could keep the coop as clean as your house, and there will still be something in there for them to eat. 

• They are arthropods which means they have an exoskeleton so you can control them with Diatomaceous Earth.

The question I want to ask you is: Do you really want to get rid of them? I personally don't see a reason to wage war on them. It's not like I had rodents in the coop! They're just bugs, and chickens like bugs! 

I do dust the floor of my coops with DE and that will kill off the ones that come in contact with it. I don't go hunting them out by dusting every crack and crevice but if they really freak you out, that would be an effective way of killing them. 

Simply get a pest control duster, fill with diatomaceous earth and dust it in every crack between boards, in nest boxes, around and behind nest boxes, and even up in the ceiling rafters. Use one of the duster tips to get in between the boards. 

You might want to wear a mask for that! 

Also, earwigs are a bug and chickens love to eat bugs so the chickens will naturally help you control the population a bit. If you want to let the chickens have more access to the earwigs, leaving a small light on for awhile at night will allow them to see the earwigs when they come out. 

As creepy as they look, earwigs are a harmless little bug and there really is no harm in having them in your coop. Of course I draw the line with spiders! Here is how I get rid of spiders in the chicken coop.

~L

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