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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 |