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Good morning @fascinatinginsects I hope you're all having a wonderful time. You've probably noticed I've been posting a few insect posts in the group lately. I'm a current curator for @dna.org predominantly on the @featheredfriends account but since fascinating insects has come across to dna.org I have been scrolling through and selecting posts for dna.org curation. So please keep providing the awesome content for curation and if you find something you believe is valuable feel free to tag me into it. 

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Today I am writing about ear wigs, I'm not a big fan of these bugs. Mainly because I seem to find them eating my art work. I try to apply natural pest deterrents as I don't like causing harm to the environment as everything has its place. 

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But as you can see from my images, last night I noticed I had an infestation of ear wigs in my art work. Typically these bugs do not eat wood. However they are natures cleaners. They feast on decaying organic material. Decomposing wood. So this indicates the product I used to secure the wood I used in my art didn't seep deep enough into my wood and didn't last long enough. As the ear wigs have begin burrowing inside it and eating it. 

This is a major problem for me as their colonies will continue to grow and eventually I will be left with hollow wood that will fall apart destroying my art work. 

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Despite looking scary these insects are not really harmful to humans, their pincers look painful but I find an ant bite to carry alot more power and pain. Ear wigs won't really bite humans. They use their pincers for defence against other insects and predators. 

These little bugs appear all over the globe except for Antarctica. Some have pincers some do not but all exhibit a rare characteristic not witnessed with other insects. 

Mother's will care for their young right from lave to second life cycle where the young shed their skin and become adults. 

An interesting insect no doubt and there is debate about if they are beneficial to crops as they eat both decaying crops and other insects. 

In popular culture these creatures received a bad report as they were once believed to crawl in the ears of humans and lay eggs in human brains causing psychological disorders. This is unfounded and has been disapproved, however it hasn't prevented old wife tales and poems as well as stories being written about people carrying out assassinations with ear wigs. 

Which is where their name is deprived from. 

They have not been proven to lay eggs or burrow into human bodies. Phew! Or I'd have bigger concerns than my art work. 

Happy Monday everyone!