The female guards her white, spherical-shaped clutch of eggs after she lays them in a protected depression in the soil. Egg clutches number from 20 to 300 eggs. Earwigs can enter homes or buildings through the tiniest of cracks. Adults tend to aggregate at sites. Homeowners may suddenly discover a population in their basement, garage, or other structure.
Earwigs prefer high-moisture conditions.
They will migrate indoors during periods of prolonged heat or drought to seek cool, moist hiding places. During the winter, they burrow into the ground or seek shelter deep in leaf litter or beneath structures on the ground. They forage at night, and sometimes large congregations of earwigs can be seen under a strong light. Earwigs have chewing mouthparts. Scavengers, they feed on both living and dead insects as well as on mosses, lichens, and algae.