Earwigs

• WHAT YOU SEE

A dark, shiny bug with a pair of pincers at the tail end, usually found by accident: lifting a doormat, moving a bag of mulch, picking up a flowerpot that's been sitting on damp ground. The pincers look worse than they are; earwigs don't sting and rarely pinch hard enough to matter. Most sightings are outside, in a group, rather than a single bug indoors.

• WHAT WE SEE

Despite the name, earwigs have nothing to do with actual ears. They live in damp, dark spots close to the ground, mulch beds, under doormats, stacked firewood, and come inside mainly when it turns dry or gets cold outside and the ground they're living in stops working for them. A cluster under a mat or a planter at the foundation is normal; an earwig indoors usually followed a door left open or came in on something carried in from outside. They eat decaying plant matter and the occasional soft-bodied insect, and they don't damage a house.

• HOW WE FIX IT

The quarterly perimeter barrier covers the foundation line where earwigs live and travel. Pulling mulch and stored items back from the siding removes the damp habitat they need close to the house. Door sweeps handle the rest, since earwigs mostly come in at ground level through a gap under a door rather than anywhere higher. It's rarely a heavy treatment; mostly exclusion and keeping the foundation line dry and clear.

• WHEN THEY SHOW UP

Earwigs are most active in spring and summer, when the ground near the foundation stays damp enough to support them. They move indoors more in a dry spell or as it cools into fall, looking for the moisture the yard stopped providing. The foundation is where the population lives; that's the room we check first regardless of season.

• WHAT THE PROS KNOW

Earwigs do not go near ears. They live under mulch and doormats and come in when it gets dry or cold outside.