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March 28, 2024, 11:07:35 PM

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Earwigs: Do they still exist?

Started by Rev+, January 10, 2022, 11:56:54 PM

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Rev+

It must be a clear couple of decades since I saw one of the snippy little sods.  It's not like you'd be tripping over the things but they were never a particularly unusual sight.  These days:  nowt.

Bookworms pretty much died out to a change in what was used to bind books, so their food source was removed.  I've never been at all clear about what earwigs wanted from us other than a bit of a confrontation, but maybe something has changed to make them either less arsed or more dead.  Or maybe there's loads knocking around where you live.

Would appreciate replies by 7am, thesis due at 9.

Steven88

I still see a few, usually when a planter is moved in the garden.

mothman


JesusAndYourBush

One came into the kitchen last year by crawling under the door.  I put my hand near it and said "out you go" and it turned round and exited the way it came.

Captain Z

Those ear cleaning syringes have wiped out all their natural habitats.

Johnny Yesno

It's all ear implants these days, gramps.

Mister Six

What did bookworms eat before books? Were they the namby-pamby evolutionary descendents of claytabletworms?

imitationleather

I didn't even realise bookworm referred to an actual worm that would eat books. Where have I been all these years?!

Mister Six

Boringly - pun intended - it's a general name for any wood-eating insect that might nibble its way through a wooden shelf and into a delicious book thereupon. No actual worms, but some larvae if it helps.

Pink Gregory

They like hanging out in gone-over rose blooms. 

pigamus


The Mollusk


You don't see silverfish any more either. This country.

buttgammon

Quote from: Voltan (Man of Steel) on January 11, 2022, 08:28:05 AMYou don't see silverfish any more either. This country.

I wish this was true but there's loads of them in the communal areas of my building and there was often one or two in my bathroom, but I haven't seen one in my flat for a while thankfully.

dissolute ocelot

They live in damp crevices so central heating and modern insulated houses got rid of a lot of the cunts. They're still lurking just outside the door. Speaking of nostalgia, don't people pick up stones and logs any more? Used to be one of my regular childhood activities.
QuoteThe St Helena Giant earwig (Labidura herculeana) was the world's biggest earwig, reaching lengths of 8cm. However, this creature was declared officially extinct by the IUCN in 2014. It is thought that predation by mice and rats, and the removal of stones from its habitat for construction, caused its decline. There are more than 1,000 species of earwig worldwide, but only four are native to the UK.

Butchers Blind

Isn't this something you say when you spot someone wearing a toupee?

gilbertharding

I read somewhere that pubic lice (what they used to call crabs) are pretty much extinct in The West too, due to *cough* deforestation.

Although as they're the same species as the very much not extinct headlice, I don't think we need bother Chris Packham etc about it.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: gilbertharding on January 11, 2022, 10:57:22 AMI read somewhere that pubic lice (what they used to call crabs) are pretty much extinct in The West too, due to *cough* deforestation.

Although as they're the same species as the very much not extinct headlice, I don't think we need bother Chris Packham etc about it.

My Mum once boasted about having pubic lice in her twenties, god knows why she thought her children would want to know, but she's mentioned it a few times over the years, and I can only presume it's because she wished us to know how slutty she used to be.

ZoyzaSorris

I have thought the same, as used to see them a lot as a kid and haven't seen one round here since I moved here 11 years ago. I still spend plenty of time rooting around in the earth and herbiage so it isn't just sampling bias. Apparently they are quite slow to recolonise areas where they have been wiped out (eg by insecticide over-use), as although they do actually have impressive and rather beautiful wings they are rather reticent to use them - perhaps understandable given the faff it must be to fold the things up under their tiny little wing cases.

beanheadmcginty

Wrath of Khan gave them such terrible publicity they've been struggling to recover from it ever since.

thenoise

Who remembers old-fashioned trousers?

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: gilbertharding on January 11, 2022, 10:57:22 AMI read somewhere that pubic lice (what they used to call crabs) are pretty much extinct in The West too, due to *cough* deforestation.

Although as they're the same species as the very much not extinct headlice, I don't think we need bother Chris Packham etc about it.

QI said they were were a different species, with the assembled cast surmising something to the effect of maybe they might meet halfway down the chest, shake hands and go back the way they came.

Quote from: ZoyzaSorris on January 11, 2022, 01:21:29 PM...although they do actually have impressive and rather beautiful wings they are rather reticent to use them - perhaps understandable given the faff it must be to fold the things up under their tiny little wing cases.

I the 80's I remember being told "Although earwigs have wings, nobody has ever seen one fly" which without the ability to just go on the internet it wasn't possible to verify so you just took it at face value.  Having a look now it is kindof true, in that although there are species that do fly, most species are very reluctant to fly, if at all.

Video Game Fan 2000

Quote from: thenoise on January 11, 2022, 02:38:25 PMWho remembers old-fashioned trousers?

With a third leg just for shitting?

Those were the days.

I've had a few devil's coach horses farting their way around my kitchen if that's any use to you.

Ferris


gilbertharding

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on January 11, 2022, 02:48:11 PMQI said they were were a different species, with the assembled cast surmising something to the effect of maybe they might meet halfway down the chest, shake hands and go back the way they came.

Yeah, I've just found that out too. Except that the pubic lice can (and do) live in chest, beard and (apparently) eyebrow hairs - most people's head hairs are too fine for them to grip. And apparently the whole idea of them becoming extinct due to habitat loss was based on flawed science anyway.

idunnosomename

Quote from: Ferris on January 11, 2022, 02:52:47 PMThis fucker from western India!


bloody hell that looks handy. Imagine you need a spanner and that little fella scuttles in. Even has an LED so you can see him in the dark.

Ferris

Cant tell if its under a microscope or 8 feet long.

madhair60


Captain Z

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on January 11, 2022, 02:48:11 PMI the 80's I remember being told "Although earwigs have wings, nobody has ever seen one fly" which without the ability to just go on the internet it wasn't possible to verify so you just took it at face value.  Having a look now it is kindof true, in that although there are species that do fly, most species are very reluctant to fly, if at all.

It's like the opposite of bees, nobody has told the earwigs that they are supposed to fly.