Earwig in the house
An earwig in the house is a night wanderer looking for damp, despite the old story that it creeps into ears. Female earwigs are devoted mothers, which can make you rethink reputations, theirs and other people's.
What it may mean
Few insects have a worse name than the earwig. The Old English word behind it means "ear creature," and the story that it crawls into sleepers' ears has followed it for centuries, though earwigs have no special interest in ears. The truth is gentler. A female earwig is one of the most devoted mothers among insects: she guards her eggs in a small burrow through the cold months, cleans them to keep mold away, and watches over the young after they hatch. The pincers that look so threatening are used chiefly for defense and, in males, for sparring. Finding one in the bathroom or under a damp mat, you might think about the people in your life whose reputations are scarier than they are. The gruffest-looking are often careful guardians. Irish lore held a related black insect unlucky indoors.
Depending on how you saw it
An earwig in the bathroom
Earwigs come indoors looking for damp, dark gaps, so they turn up under bath mats, in sinks and around drains. They leave once things dry out. What damp, forgotten corner of your home, or your week, needs some air?
Earwigs in cut flowers or fruit
Earwigs love to hide in the folds of dahlias, sunflowers and soft fruit, and they ride indoors in bouquets and baskets. The surprise comes at the kitchen counter. What unexpected guest came in with something you brought home?
An earwig raising its pincers
A cornered earwig lifts its rear end and opens its pincers, a bluff that may end in a mild pinch at most. It is defending a very small life. When do you put on a fierce face to protect something small?
Earwigs in the garden at night
In the garden, earwigs eat aphids and decaying matter, and also nibble seedlings and petals. They are part helper, part pest. Which visitor in your life does both good and a little damage?
Why it happens in nature
Earwigs hide by day in damp, dark gaps and emerge at night to eat decaying plant matter, small insects and soft plant parts. They wander indoors in very dry or very wet spells, and the pincers at the tail end are used for defense, handling prey and, in males, sparring; the belief that they enter ears is a myth.
What folk beliefs say
Ireland
In Ireland, a 1903 collection says, it was bad luck to see the "black devil," an insect it groups with the earwigs, in the house.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 626. View the page
To reflect on
Whose reputation around you hides how carefully they look after others?