Joyce wrote in message ...
Last summer my butterfly bush was under invasion by pesky earwigs. I
filled a tuna can with vegetable oil. I put it out about 10 p.m. and by
morning I had probably 200 dead earwigs in the oil. I was stunned that
this worked so well. I saw very few earwigs the rest of the summer on
my plant. I've never seen anything work so immediately - maybe it was
the kind of oil - I don't really know. I would definitely try it again
using vegetable oil.

Joyce

Timothy wrote:
On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 12:08:10 -0700, Fleemo wrote:


My Butterfly Bush is under an attack by earwigs. At night I go out with a
flashlight to find nearly every single leaf being munched on by a
marauding earwig. Looking for organic retalliation, I read here that a
tuna can of cooking oil will lure the earwigs to their death. I tried this
remedy with Peanut oil, yet not one single earwig has taken the nosedive
o' death in the pool of oil. Does peanut oil just not work? Should I be
using corn oil instead, or seek another solution?


Two organic methods that I know work are these:

1 take a newspaper and loosly roll it up. Secure it with a rubber band.
Get it wet with the hose/ bucket. Try not to soak it too much, your
looking for moist. Leave these at the base of the buddlea and remove them
every afternoon to the trash can.

2 get old rags, pantyhose or even duct tape and some tangle foot from the
garden center. Tie the rags, pantyhose, tape to the base of the shrub.
Smear the tangle foot on the rags..ect, and do use a good deal of it. When
the insects attempt to climb the shrub, they will get traped. Remove the
rags..ect when full.
Btw (by the way..), if you find the tangle foot is not easy to get out of
it's container or it's not easy to spread, then microwave it for a couple
of seconds. It will be a bit thinner to spread.

Good luck

Thanks for the input here folks. Perhaps I'll try a combination of
vegetable oil and cardboard. A double whammy!

-Fleemo