5 replies to this topic

[Studio]

I remember seeing a post on another forum where someone was raising an earwig colony. Did you know they're actually caring towards their young and they can be kept communally to a certain extent? I never even considered keeping these as I didn't know they were easy to breed in captivity and I didn't know that you can raise them in a colony.

Here is the link: http://www.insectboa...ig-journal#1274

 

I saw one crawling across the ground one day and I thought I would try it out. I put it in a jar a glass jar and wanted to see if it would eat anything. I was looking for fish food until I saw a tiny little grub on the kitchen counter.

 

I dropped it in to see what would happen. Did you guys know that earwigs are merciless predators? Once it caught wind of the grub, she bit into it and curved her tail over to pinch and cripple it with her pincers almost like a scorpion's sting.

When she wasn't eating it, she would hold on with her pincers and drag it around, it's really interesting.

This is a female, you can easily determine the sex of earwigs across multiple species because males have curved sickle shaped pincers while females have straight pincers.

As you can see here: https://apterobittac...alevsfemale.gif

 

I looked around to see if I could find more grubs and ended up finding a dew pupae in the utility drawers. I'm assuming these are pantry moth larvae and pupae because we have those flying around our house sometimes so I fed them off.

These creatures have a ravenous appetite, she ate all of the pupae and larvae! The next day I added a piece of apple and fish pellets and she ate them until she got fat. They'll eat anything but they seem to especially love live prey. I read that feeding them insects is essential for them when it comes to breeding.

 

The next day I went out to my yard and lifted a brick to find 2 more earwigs. One male and one very large female. They ended up fighting when I put them all in the jar with the largest female being the victor, she especially hated the male. I added a small layer of soil for them to hide in so they wouldn't fight so much. I found some pantry moths and fed them off and they were taken down with vigor! The biggest female would also bully the other female of her moth. They're getting so fat! 

 

I checked up on them the day after and the male was being eaten by the largest female. The other guy who kept them on the separate forum kept a bunch of adults together just fine. I'm thinking social tolerance can vary from species to species. The ones I have don't seem to be friendly to each other at all even when there's plenty of food to go around.

 

EGGS!

After about 1 week the largest female laid eggs. What I found interesting about earwigs is that they're very caring parents. Mothers would diligently lick and turn the eggs to make sure they're clean and free of mold and fungi. After the eggs have hatched, the mother will continue to groom and care for their young by bringing them food. 

Unfortunately, after about 3 days the eggs were gone. I'm assuming she ate them from stress because when I would check up on her she would become frantic. Another possibility is that the other female ate her eggs. When females nest near each other, females can bully other female and eat their eggs or sneak their way into the nest while the other female has her back turned.

 

The smaller female also happened to lay some eggs but they were gone 2 days after. The females continued to eat a bunch of moths again and the largest one eventually laid eggs again. I'm not sure if earwigs have to mate again after their first batch of eggs to be fertile again or if 1 mating is enough to last a couple clutches. It's a waiting game now, only time can tell. 
 

 

I'll post more updates if anything happens. These guys are pretty easy to bait, you can get a piece of cardboard and put some olive/vegetable oil on it. Find or create a moist area on the ground, place the bait under an object and just wait a day. I've tried this with a piece of apple and it worked, but I didn't produce high yields, maybe about 5 or 6 earwigs and mostly some isopods. Honestly 5 or 6 earwigs is pretty much good enough to start a colony because they can be territorial if not given enough space.

Edited by Studio, August 25 2017 - 4:41 PM.

[AntsMaryland]

wow, that is really neat. good luck. I am going to try that.

[T.C.]

Small world. I'm the one who made that thread. Still have a few culures of them as well. Also made a caresheet on them a while back.

http://www.insectboa...keeping-earwigs

Got any questions shoot me a PM.

[Studio]

Small world. I'm the one who made that thread. Still have a few culures of them as well. Also made a caresheet on them a while back.

http://www.insectboa...keeping-earwigs

Got any questions shoot me a PM.

 

Wow it's the man himself!   lol

I actually have a few questions, but I'll post them here just in case anyone else wants to keep these. I think it would help everyone out. 

 

1. How long does it take for their eggs to hatch?

2. How do I get them to be more communal?

It may just be the species that I have, but they're really aggressive toward each other.

EDIT: I just discovered that the species I have is the Ring Legged Earwig (Euborellia annulipes). A fairly small species.

Edited by Studio, August 25 2017 - 4:42 PM.

[T.C.]

Small world. I'm the one who made that thread. Still have a few culures of them as well. Also made a caresheet on them a while back.http://www.insectboa...keeping-earwigs
Got any questions shoot me a PM.

 
Wow it's the man himself!   lol
I actually have a few questions, but I'll post them here just in case anyone else wants to keep these. I think it would help everyone out. 
 
1. How long does it take for their eggs to hatch?
2. How do I get them to be more communal?
It may just be the species that I have, but they're really aggressive toward each other.
EDIT: I just discovered that the species I have is the Ring Legged Earwig (Euborellia annulipes). A fairly small species.

Depends on temperature for the most part and on the species. However on average, about a month. Keeping them at room temperature is fine.

Getting them to not kill each other was the most difficult. Although you will still have some issues with agression, I definetly found a way to lower cannibalism rates in my culture. The males are most aggressive, not generally towards the females, but towards other males. Keeping 1 male with every few females work best. I assumed males where aggressive towards each other more for mating reasons. With more females and less males it minimized this issue.

Females are agressive, when they feel their nymphs or eggs are threatened. (They generally will keep their eyes on their nymphs until the first or second molts.) However I found they will respect each others space, so be sure they have plenty of room. Offer sticks, and leaves for them to climb on and hide under. They will claim certain parts of a container as there's until they are done with the raising of their nymphs. Also be sure they are always well fed. If hungry they won't hesitate to eat each other.

Once nymphs are older and leave their mother, they are in great danger of being eaten by other adults. So seperated all the nymphs from the adults is key. And once those mature, you have to seperate most of the males and offer them the same environment as their parents to avoid the same issues.

Here's a few pictures of my older culture. You can see while their territorial, they are generally pretty respectable of others space. No one wants to be pinched with those pinchers!

[Studio]

Ok so I checked up on the earwig a few hours ago and the eggs were gone again. Turns out that the female actually buries them and covers them in debris before she leaves in search of food. 

Unfortunately, the other female was poking her head nearby in an underground tunnel near the nest. The large female left her nest after covering her eggs and poked her way into the other female's burrow (maybe in search of eggs). Little did she know the other female was waiting for her to leave. At first I thought it was the mother that was just trying to bury her eggs. I was able to record her scrounging her nest. I wasn't sure how many eggs were already gone so I left it as is. I'm definitely going to have to separate them so that their eggs can actually hatch!

Here is a video of the other female eating the large females eggs. I thought it was originally the mother trying to bury the eggs. You can see the leaf that she used to hide her eggs. It was nice watching the mother bury her eggs and places various debris over it to hide them, but alas...