Earwig Facts for Kids

17 Earwig Facts For Kids

1. Earwig is the common name for a large group of elongated insects in the Dermaptera order.
2. You can easily identify an earwig by their elongated bodies with pincers on one end that look like forceps.
3. You can typically find earwigs living in small crevices, under fallen logs, bark, and under rocks.
4. Earwigs and their ancestors first appeared around 208 million years ago.
5. Earwigs are widely distributed throughout the world, except for in Antarctica.
6. Earwigs prefer an environment that is warm, damp, and contains lots of dead or decaying organic matter.
7. Earwigs are omnivorous and will scavenger pretty much whatever food they can find.
8. Earwigs are nocturnal and are only active at night when in search of food or a mate.
9. The body of an earwig is divided into three parts: head, thorax, and abdomen.
10. An earwig can flatten its body, allow it to get into tight spaces and tiny crevices.
11. There are around 2,000 known earwig species across 12 different families.
12. Earwig species come in several different colors, including but not limited to black, brown, reddish, tan, and yellow.
13. The smallest living earwig species is the ringlegged earwig (Euborellia annulipes) with a length of only 0.4 inches
14. The largest living earwig species is the Australian Titanolabis colossea which a length up to 2 inches.
15. The Saint Helena earwig (Labidura herculeana) was the largest earwig species in the world with a length of 3.3 inches until it was declared extinct in 2014 by the IUCN.
16. The average earwig lifespan is around 12 months.
17. A common myth about earwigs is they will climb in your ear while you are asleep and lay their eggs in your brain. They do not seek out the human ear canal and are no more likely to go into a human ear than any other insect.

Earwig Pictures

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the below images will be helpful for your research on earwigs. Below are three pictures of various earwig species. These pictures should help you better understand the different types of earwigs found around the world.

A picture close up of a earwig.

A picture of an earwig in the dirt.

A picture of an earwig on a tree.