These appendages vary between species and from male to female. Adult earwigs also have a short, leathery pair of wings. A second pair of membranous wings may be folded underneath the first pair. Because of this, the adults are sometimes confused with short-winged beetles, particularly rove beetles. However, the appendages of rove beetles are segmented, shorter and much softer.
Earwigs have chewing mouth parts which they use to catch and eat insects.
They feed on both dead and living insects as well as on mosses, lichens, algae, fungi and occasionally some growing plants. Indoors, their food consists of house plants or sweet, oily or greasy foods. Earwigs develop with a gradual metamorphosis from egg to nymph to adult. The immature forms look much like the adult but lack the wings and the large sized forceps. Females lay from 20 to 300 eggs, usually in a chamber in the soil.