Got earwigs?
Literally the first insect I took with my MP-E 65 was a dead earwig that I found on our carpet. A few days ago, my wife freaked while laying on the couch and I knew she had found something interesting. Sure enough, there was an earwig crawling on the carpet. I took the opportunity to take out a piece of white velvet that I use for isolation shots and I set up a little basin to trap it in. Although they don’t look the part, earwigs can move quite quickly when they are freaked out. After some time it calmed down and let me get some shots.
Earwigs, of course, get there name from a habit where they supposedly climb into people’s ears. My wife unfortunately was aware of this rumor as our neighbor had once discussed it happening to him. Personally I always thought that this was a myth, but it does make some sense. They do tend to like nooks and crannies and they are small enough to fit in an ear. However, I seriously doubt that they crave our ears. It’s probably more like one happens to be walking around and sees a nice cozy spot to hide – “hey! that looks like a great spot!”. To you, obviously, your ear is not a convenient spot to hide and you’d rather it didn’t.
To finalize this discussion, my neighbor was the first person I have actually met who claims an earwig once climbed into his ear. I have known a number of people to get spiders in their ears, so retrospectively earwigs mean little harm.
To many people, earwigs can be a pest because they tend to eat flowers and vegetables in the garden. They are basically omnivores – eating anything they can get a hold of. The following is a closer shot of it.
I rather like photographing earwigs and always try to get a shot each time I see one. They are rather common but when I find them in the backyard they usually escape quickly. This one, since it crawled into the house, didn’t have that luxury. Still, I think I still prefer photographing them in their natural environment to this studio-like environment. Supposedly around now the female earwigs may be found with offspring, as earwig mothers look after the baby earwigs for several weeks before leaving them on their own. Perhaps with some additional searching I may be able to find one.
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Tags: earwig, insect, macro, photography
They are really interesting little creatures – they almost look like they’re made up of spare parts from an ant, cricket and something scorpion-like. I don’t often see them in the house – that’s probably because they’re out (in hordes) eating the hostas in my garden!
You are right it is a myth, earwigs do not your ears. They are actually harmless to humans and feed on soft bellied insects.