It's just a myth that earwigs purposely crawl into the ears of sleeping people and bore into their brains to cause fever and insanity, but these insects still suffer from a bad reputation, probably because of their intimidating appearance. However, they can emit a foul-smelling, yellowish brown liquid from special glands when threatened. It is an elongated, flat insect, reddish-brown to black in color, and to 1 inches in length. The forceps-like appendages at the end of its abdomen are used primarily for defense and during courtship.
Females have straight-sided forceps while male forceps are strongly curved and larger.
If wings are present, the first pair is hard and short, with a second membranous, fan-shaped pair folded under them, often with the tips protruding. Females lay 50-90 shiny white eggs in a chamber in the ground in the fall. Earwigs may dig as deep as six feet below ground to escape the cold temperatures. They hibernate through the winter in this nest and in the spring attend the first instar nymphs, providing them with food. The young earwigs resemble their parents, but are lighter in color, lack wings and have tiny pinchers.