How to Get Rid of Earwigs in the House (and Why They're Inside Now)

Quick answer: Earwigs move into Ontario homes in September because the ground outside is drying and cooling while your basement, crawlspace and under-sink cabinets stay damp. They do not crawl into ears, they do not burrow into brains, and those pincers cannot hurt you. Get rid of them in this order: dry the inside with a dehumidifier, seal the ground-level gaps they walk through, and pull mulch and leaf litter back from the foundation. If you are finding earwigs daily in more than one room, the earwigs are not really the problem — the moisture is, and that is worth a professional look.

First, the myth that brought most people here

Earwigs do not go into ears. There is no species that lays eggs in a human brain, no documented medical risk, and no reason to lose sleep over one in the bathroom. The name is a leftover from Old English folklore that somehow outlived every fact that contradicts it.

The pincers at the back end — properly called cerci — are used for defence against other insects, for grappling with rivals, and for folding their own wings. A large earwig can give a determined finger a pinch you would notice. It does not break skin, it does not inject anything, and it is not venomous.

What earwigs actually do is eat decaying plant matter, algae, and other small insects. Outdoors they are close to neutral. Indoors they are a nuisance — and, more usefully, a reading on your home’s moisture. If you want to confirm what you are looking at, our earwig identification guide covers the markings and life cycle.

Why earwigs are coming inside right now

Through July and August, earwigs live outside under mulch, in leaf litter, beneath patio stones, in downspout splash zones and under the boards of a deck. All of those places hold moisture, and moisture is the entire basis of earwig survival. They dry out and die quickly without it.

September changes both halves of that equation at once. Nights drop into single digits across Richmond Hill, Etobicoke and up through Innisfil, and the top layer of soil and mulch begins drying out between rains. The earwig’s outdoor habitat gets colder and drier in the same few weeks.

Meanwhile the gap under your basement door, the unsealed sill plate, and the window well beside the foundation all lead somewhere that is still damp and still warm. They are not invading. They are walking the moisture gradient, and it points at your house.

This is the same seasonal driver behind house centipedes showing up in the same weeks, which is why homes that get one often get both. If you saw a burst of earwigs outdoors earlier in the season, that is a different event with the same root cause — we covered the June earwig surge in Ontario separately.

Where they are actually living in your house

Earwigs are not nesting in your walls the way ants or mice do. They are sheltering in the dampest accessible spots, almost always at ground level:

• Under the sink, behind the vanity, and in the cabinet base where a slow supply-line drip has gone unnoticed
• Unfinished basement floors, especially in the corner nearest the exterior grade
• Crawlspaces without a proper vapour barrier
• Laundry rooms, floor drains, and the space behind the washer
• Between the boards of a basement stair tread, in stacked cardboard, and under anything sitting flat on concrete

If you are finding them upstairs, check the bathroom first. A tub or toilet with a failing seal is the most common reason earwigs appear on a second floor.

How to get rid of earwigs in the house, in the order that works

The sequence matters more than the products. Most people start at step four, get a week of relief, and see the same numbers again.

1. Dry the inside

A dehumidifier in the basement set to about 50% relative humidity does more to end an earwig problem than any spray. Run it continuously for two weeks and watch the numbers fall on their own — a dried-out basement is not a place an earwig can survive.

While it runs, fix what made the space damp. Check under every sink for a slow drip. Make sure the dryer vents outside and not into the crawlspace. Confirm downspouts discharge at least six feet from the foundation rather than dumping against it.

2. Close the walking routes

Earwigs walk in at ground level. Seal accordingly:

• Fit door sweeps on the garage service door, the basement walkout and any door that shows daylight at the bottom
• Caulk the sill plate where the frame meets the foundation
• Screen or cover window wells, and clear the leaves out of them
• Seal the gaps around hose bibs, dryer vents, AC line sets and cable entries

Anything a business card fits under is a door. This work also pays off against spiders, centipedes and mice, which is why we fold it into every residential pest control visit rather than treating it as an add-on.

3. Change the first six inches around the foundation

Pull mulch, leaf litter and garden soil back so there is a clear, dry band against the foundation wall. Move firewood, patio stone stacks and planters off the wall. Trim ground cover that sits against the siding.

That dry band is the single most effective outdoor measure, because it removes the staging area earwigs use before they find a gap.

4. Only then consider a treatment

A targeted exterior application at the foundation line and entry points is genuinely useful — but as the last step, not the first. Applied to a house that is still damp inside with mulch piled against the wall, it buys you a few weeks and nothing more. That is why one-off sprays have such a poor reputation for this pest: they were usually the only thing done.

For the earwigs already indoors, vacuum them up and empty the canister outside. No trap, bait or home remedy outperforms a vacuum and a dehumidifier running together.

What a lot of earwigs is actually telling you

One earwig in the bathroom in September is ordinary. Finding them every day, in more than one room, or upstairs, is a different message.

At that volume the earwigs have stopped being the story. Something is holding water where it should not be — a failed seal, a grading problem sending runoff at the foundation, a crawlspace without a vapour barrier, or a leak you have not located. Earwigs simply found it before you did. The same conditions invite carpenter ants and wood-boring insects, which cost considerably more to resolve than a dehumidifier would have.

That is the case for having someone look rather than spray. A technician tracing moisture through a basement is diagnosing the building, not just the bug.

When to call, and what it costs

Every Sani IQ service starts with a $95 professional inspection, credited in full when you book the treatment. For an earwig problem that means a technician walks the exterior grade, the foundation line, the basement and the crawlspace and tells you which of those four steps your house actually needs.

The honest recommendation: treat the one-time visit as the entry point, not the answer. Earwigs come back every year for the same reason they came this year — the moisture gradient reverses every September, and your foundation still has the same gaps. A single treatment resolves this fall. It does not change what happens next fall.

Our General Insect Control annual plan at $845/year covers earwigs alongside the spiders, centipedes, ants and the rest of the seasonal nuisance group, with scheduled visits timed to the seasons that actually matter rather than the one month you happened to call. For most homes that is the difference between managing the same problem every autumn and not having it.

If you would rather start with a single visit, General Insect Control runs from $395 exterior or $475 interior and exterior, with a 60-day guarantee. Compare the options on our plans and pricing page, or call (705) 302-1887 and we will tell you plainly which one your situation calls for.

Sani IQ is BBB Accredited, carries $5M liability coverage, is licensed under the Ontario Pesticides Act and registered with the MECP, and holds a 5.0 rating across 126 Google reviews. Our technicians are employed, licensed and background-checked — never subcontracted — and we use reduced-risk products applied by people trained to place them precisely.

Frequently asked questions

Are earwigs dangerous to people or pets? No. They do not bite in any meaningful sense, do not sting, carry no known disease of concern to humans, and are not toxic if a pet eats one. The pinch from the cerci is startling rather than harmful.

Do earwigs mean my house is dirty? No. They respond to moisture, not to housekeeping. Spotless homes with a damp crawlspace get earwigs; cluttered dry homes usually do not.

Will they damage my house? Not structurally. Earwigs do not chew wood, wiring or fabric. Their real cost is as an indicator — the moisture drawing them in is what damages houses, through rot, mould and the wood-destroying insects that follow it.

Why do I find them dead in the bathtub and sink? They walk in looking for water, cannot climb the smooth porcelain back out, and die there. A tub full of dead earwigs usually means they are entering nearby and finding the room drier than expected.

Do home remedies work? Soapy-water traps and rolled damp newspaper do catch some earwigs, and they are harmless to try. Neither addresses the humidity or the entry points, so numbers return within days. A dehumidifier is the remedy that actually changes the outcome.

How long until they are gone? With the dehumidifier running and entry points sealed, most homes see a clear drop within two weeks and very few by the third. If numbers hold steady after three weeks of dry conditions, there is a water source still active that has not been found — that is the point to have it inspected.

Is autumn too late to do anything? No. September and October are the right window. The exterior work done now determines how many get in before the first hard frost, and the interior drying takes effect immediately.

Sources referenced: University of Minnesota Extension — Earwigs and Ohio State University Extension — Earwigs (HYG-2068).