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5 the
same year, Tillyard told of the serious
damage to fruit in New Zealand where they were eating peaches, nectarines and
apricots. In his list of some unusual
insect fruit pests in North America, Theobald in 1926 included the European
earwig. Also, in the same year he noted that earwigs seriously affected hops in the Northwest. One hundred per cent
injury to five acres of corn was reported by Coyne (1928) in Washington. In the following year, Hear1e (1929)
observed injury to corn in British Columbia by the earwigs' feeding on silks.
Injury to barley, rye and wheat and especially to corn was noted by Eckstein
of Baden, Germany in 1931. Knowlton regarded the European earwig as an
invader of Utah in 1940. Crumb, Eide
and Bonn (1941) recorded serious damage to garden flowers by the feeding of
this insect on petals or by its devouring pollen and thus interfering with
pollination. It was reported as a,
serious pest in Merced fig and peach orchards in California by Warner in
1953. Guppy (1946) indicates that although carrots, beets, rhubarb, legumes
and potatoes are readily eaten by earwigs, they seem
never to harm lettuce. Cascara (Rhamnus
purshiana) is one tree whose foliage is readily attacked by these insects
as was also recorded by Guppy. There are no reports of
earwigs transmitting a pathogen or causing a human disease. There are a few notes in the
literature pertaining to good qualities of the earwigs. They were deemed beneficial by destroying
larvae and pupae of Cochylis ambiguella (Van Rossum, 1899). Von Schilling in 1887 states that the
earwig was beneficial to apple trees by killing other insect pests
thereon. Littler in 1918 found that
the pupae of codling moths were eaten by earwigs in Tasmania. They were found
to be predators of the "Lucerne Flea" (Smynthurus viridis
Linn.) by Mac1a.gan in 1932; and Crumb (1941) presents evidence of aphids
being wiped out by earwigs |