Anyone who has ever seen the old Star Trek movie “The Wrath of Khan” will remember the famous scene where Khan (Ricardo Montalban) inserts his pets that look like earwigs into Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Terrell’s (Paul Winfield) hearing canals in order to get them to talk.

Many people back here on Terra Firma still follow the old wife’s tale, mistakenly thinking that these insects crawl into your ears and eat your brains while you sleep. Sorry to bust the bubble folks. It just ain’t so. They look pretty threatening with their tail-end clampers. No worries, though. There’s never been a lick of evidence that earwigs do that.

Matter of fact, these little creatures don’t spread diseases. They’re pretty harmless unless they start doing a number on your plants.

Here’s the Down Low

The reason they got their names is because of the brain-eating myth. Those clippers on their butts are called its “long cerci.” But wait, there’s more:

• You’ll generally find ’em around the garden and flower beds. Occasionally they’ll stumble into your house.
• You won’t see them during the daytime. That’s when they hide. But at night they come out and eat mold, other insects, fruits, leaves and flowers.
• To prevent an invasion, don’t collect piles of mulch, vegetation or leaves around the property. That’s where they generally go to unwind. As for your house, seal-up cracks and any other points-of-entry.
• The earwigs are community-oriented. In other words, when you find one outside chances are there’s a bunch out-of-site. Nearby.

Go Natural

Here are some Earth-friendly ways to get rid of earwigs that might be feasting in your garden or flower beds:

• Take an old garden hose and cut-up one-foot segments. Put the pieces near the base of your plants. In the morning, grab a bucket of water and empty out any earwigs that crawled inside over night into the H2O. Blub, blub.
• Toads and birds love to eat earwigs. Have the kids go to a creek and catch some toads, leaving the amphibians loose in your greenery. If you have dogs, this may not be a good idea. Toads can make your pup sick if they devour one. Keep your toads happy by getting some bricks and lay a few boards across the bricks. That way the little hoppers will have a place to go to get out of the sun. Put some plants atop the boards. When you water them, the toads will have a place to moisten-up.
• If you’ve got some shallow aluminum cans — like the size of cat food tins — scatter them around your veggies and flowers. Fill them halfway with vegetable oil. It attracts the earwigs and when they amble to get a taste, they drown.

By the way, in the Trek flick these “earwigs” were called Ceti eels. The rest of the story goes like this:

“In 2285, Khan used Ceti eels to gain the cooperation of Captain Clark Terrell and Commander Pavel Chekov of the USS Reliant. Chekov’s eel inexplicably left his body after a time, while Terrell fought the effects of his eel, and ended up killing himself instead of Admiral James T. Kirk (as Khan had ordered him to do). Chekov, seemingly stronger-willed than Terrell, collapsed shortly after, forcing the eel out of his ear, where it was quickly vaporized by Kirk.”

Go Captain Kirk, go!

Original Source: https://www.vulcantermite.com/garden-pest-control/star-trek-and-earwigs