Despite the fact that they have never done me any harm, I have always had a strong dislike of earwigs. Their large pincers are threatening enough without the suggestion that they could be brought into my ears. My insect field guide asserts that though earwigs do seek refuge in enclosed spaces, those spaces do not include human ears.
A European earwig (Forficula auricularia) deep inside a hollyhock (Alcea rosea) flower.
Whether earwigs really do crawl into ears is not something I am willing to test for myself. However, I was willing to test how much of a pinch the pincers can give -- as long as I wasn't the one getting pinched. Watch the video below to find out what happened.
* To see this video in high definition (1080p), you may
need to (1) click "YouTube" to watch on the YouTube website and (2)
change the settings at the bottom of the video screen.
I was somewhat disappointed with the response of this European earwig (Forficula auricularia). Although the earwig did use its pincers to grapple with the grass stem, it did not seem to do any serious pinching. What was more impressive was that the earwig barely paused chewing on the hollyhock (Alcea rosea) leaf as it fended off the attack.
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