Double-tailed: how to get rid of it, why it is dangerous for humans, description with photo

When a person encounters a double-tailed dog, he immediately develops associations with painful bites and other negative phenomena. And this is not surprising, since the insect has a very formidable appearance. The pest is identified by characteristic elements such as long mustaches, as well as abdominal appendages in the form of a stove grip.

Having seen such an insect in their apartment or house, the owners try to get rid of it immediately. To do this, it is enough to use bait, homemade traps or chemicals. In any case, it is possible to take advantage of useful advice from experts.

Reasons for appearance

These insects thrive in conditions with high humidity. Mainly because of this, this interesting insect with a terrifying appearance is found in the apartment. As a rule, it appears on the lower floors, as it moves into a person’s home from the basement. If there is a wetland or a river flowing next to a private house, then this insect may be a frequent visitor.

Sometimes it happens that an earwig appears in an apartment or house as a result of purchasing fruits or vegetables. This insect can easily hide in bunches of grapes, in a net with apples or pears, as well as among greenery, such as lettuce, for example.

Factors that influence the appearance of an insect:

Increased humidity in a person's home.
The presence of wet, unwrung rags on the floor in the bathroom.
Excessive watering of indoor plants, as well as a large number of them.
The presence of holes around the pipes of water supply and sewerage systems.
Presence of cracks in the floor and around the baseboards.
The presence of leaks in water supply and sewerage systems, as well as the presence of condensation, which leads to excess humidity.

Prevention

Knowing the development characteristics of insects and their favorite habitats, you can prepare for an encounter with fork-tails and pay attention to prevention. The fight against double-tailed insects involves the use of insecticides. Help against this insect:

" Phenaxin " is a drug in powder form that is suitable for killing insects in the house,
“ Raptor ” – repels insects, recommended for treating their nests with adults and eggs,
“ Mashenka ” is a preparation for treating walls and furniture, active against various pests.

Features of the double tail

The life activity of arthropod insects has a number of features, for example:

The earwig prefers places with high humidity for its habitat, so it can be found in basements, within drains, and also in places where wet rags lie.
In nature, this insect can easily be found near bodies of water, where it hides under stones, under snags, under the trunks of fallen trees, etc.
It shows its activity exclusively in the dark, going out to hunt, and during the day it hides in a shelter.

On a note! A female earwig can lay up to 50 eggs at a time. The insect lives for about 1 year. When a female appears in the house, offspring can soon be expected. To prevent this from happening, it is better to immediately take measures to remove it from the house. One earwig is not a problem to deal with.

How to recognize an insect?

The two-tailed insect is easy to distinguish from other insects by a number of characteristic features, for example:

The main symptom is the presence of growths on the abdominal cavity, which look like a kind of pitchfork. The insect defends itself with these grips.
The body consists of separate segments, but tightly connected together. The body is brown in color, with a slight yellowish-orange tint.
The head is clearly defined, with long whiskers.
Most individuals grow up to 2 cm in length, although there are specimens up to 6 cm in length.

What does it eat?

As a rule, the doubletail feeds on small insects, both living and dead. If she gets into an apartment, she can eat fruits, vegetables, bread crumbs, etc.

Harm and benefits of earwigs

these small insects cause considerable damage to gardens, orchards, and apiaries, feeding on plants, fruits, berries and flower petals (roses and dahlias especially suffer from them). Destroy bees in hives. If there is a large concentration on the site, young seedlings can be completely chewed off.

IMPORTANT! When fertilizing the soil in the greenhouse with humus, be careful not to introduce earwigs with it, you may lose the entire harvest.

During dry seasons, doubletails cause serious damage to fruit trees, gnawing off the tips of leaves and undermining their roots.

But there are benefits from two-way. Eating fallen fruits and berries, the remains of small insects, earwigs act as orderlies in garden plots, cleaning them from rot. By feeding on spider mites and aphids, they help plants suffering from these parasites survive.

Not only earwigs and other insects can cause irreparable damage to your plantings. On our website you can find useful information about other garden pests. Read all about wild rats, shrews, moles, bats and mice, gophers, wild hamsters. And also about ways to combat wireworms, locusts, whiteflies, sawflies and carrot flies.

Why is it dangerous for humans?

The appearance of a double-tail makes a person panic, especially if he does not have truthful information.

As a rule, there are rumors that this living creature climbs into a person’s ear at night, bites through the eardrum and penetrates the brain. This statement is far from reality, since the insect practically does not attack a person, and can bite only for the purpose of protection.

Even if, somehow, an insect gets into a person’s ear, there will be no harm from it and it won’t just gnaw on the eardrum. The human brain is not the earwig's target.

Out of ignorance, people are afraid that this insect will sting painfully with its powerful appendages. But you shouldn’t worry or panic, despite the terrifying appearance. The bite of the doubletail can be problematic for people prone to allergies. For people whose body responds adequately to the bites of various insects, a forktail bite does not pose any danger.

A Bashkir pensioner has been living with two tails in his head since September 2016

Treatment

The double-tailed fish can be dangerous if it becomes infected when bitten.
Then the treatment is delayed, and the help of local and systemic antimicrobial drugs is required. If after two-tails the bite is slightly inflamed, then they use antiseptics - chlorhexidine, hydrogen peroxide, iodine, and apply healing agents - Fenistil Gel, Bepanten, Akriderm. No specific treatment is required. At home, you can treat a bite with calendula and chamomile lotions. To speed up healing and disinfection, use a soda solution. It helps relieve swelling, soothes inflamed skin, and prevents complications from the bite. Take 1 tsp per glass of boiled water. soda, stir and use for irrigation, lotions, and washing the bite wound.

How to get rid of double-east

Naturally, in the natural environment this insect brings only benefits by destroying harmful insects. The appearance of a double-tailed bird in an apartment or private house will not bring joy to the residents, since its appearance can easily frighten children, or even adults. It's best to get rid of the earwig right away before it starts to multiply.

At the first stage, you will have to address the factors that led to the appearance of the insect in a person’s home, for example:

Avoid high humidity in your home.
Always ensure that there are no wet rags in the bathroom.
Monitor the condition of water supply and sewerage systems, preventing leaks.
Do not water indoor plants beyond the norm, as this leads to increased humidity. In addition, indoor plants themselves suffer from excess moisture.

At the second stage, you should choose a method of getting rid of the insect. If there are few of them, then this is not a problem, but if there are many, then you will have to use either folk remedies to scare them away or traps. In extreme cases, you can resort to toxic drugs, which is undesirable.

On a note! Naturally, the use of insecticides will give quick and effective results, but they cannot always be used in residential areas. The use of such funds is limited by a number of conditions. If the family has small children, pregnant women, allergy sufferers or frail family members, then their use is contraindicated.

Folk remedies

Few residents are interested in using insecticides, except in extreme cases, when insects cannot be gotten rid of using folk remedies or mechanically. As a rule, the double-tailed plant rarely appears in a person’s home, so here you can get by with folk remedies that are practically non-toxic to humans and do not cause allergies.

Proven means include:

Decoctions based on aromatic plants . To prepare the current solution, just take 1 liter of hot water and add 1 tbsp to it. a spoonful of herbs such as yarrow, lavender, lovage, wormwood, etc. After this, the product is boiled for 10 minutes and infused for about half an hour. The broth is filtered and 50 ml of detergent is added to it. With this product, using a brush or sponge, various surfaces are treated. Basically, this is the floor, the baseboard area, hard-to-reach places, etc., where two-tailed bugs can appear. You can also spray the product using a spray bottle.
Infusion of onion and garlic . To do this, take the onion and head of garlic and peel them. After this, they are crushed and placed in 1 liter of boiling water. The product is infused for 12 hours. The liquid is filtered and placed in a spray bottle, after which it is sprayed on problem areas.
Product based on boric acid . With the help of this product it is possible to get rid of many insects. The preparation is as follows: a hard-boiled egg, after which the yolk and white are separated. Then take the yolk and knead it, adding boric acid and a little water. After this, the balls are rolled and placed in problem areas.

"Apimil" - bait for earwigs

Chemicals

The earwig's nest may be in a hard-to-reach place, so getting rid of it is not so easy. Sometimes aerosol-based insecticides help, which penetrate into various crevices after spraying.

As a rule, the following chemicals are widely popular:

Anti-bug, in the form of a solution
Dichlorvos, in aerosol form.
Raptor, in aerosol form.
Masha, toxic chalk.
Raid, in the form of a spray.
Karbofos, in the form of water-dispersible granules.
Clean home, in gel form.
Phenaxin, in powder form.

Note to residents! Working with toxic drugs requires the use of protective clothing, as well as compliance with the instructions for use of the drug. In this way, poisoning will be avoided.

Our dacha. Down with Two-East!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Homemade trap

The trap is quite simple and does not require any investment of money or time. This effective trap is a simple wet rag.

Procedure:

A good option is an old terry towel, which will have to be well wetted.
In the evening, such a trap is placed in the bathroom.
You can get up at night and check the trap for insects.
If lovers of high humidity are detected, the towel is rolled up, boiling water is poured over it, and the insects are taken outside.

First aid for bites

As soon as the symptoms of a double-tailed bite are noticed, the victim must be provided with timely treatment:

The wound should be washed with running water and blotted with a sterile cloth.
Wipe the bite site with an alcohol-containing composition (brilliant paint, cologne); a weak solution of potassium permanganate is also suitable.
It is recommended to apply an adhesive plaster to the treated wound.
To prevent an allergic reaction, the bitten person is given any antihistamine to drink.
If the bite is very painful, the victim should take painkillers or apply ice or a bottle of cold water to the affected area.

Why is a double-tailed bite dangerous? Arthropods feed mainly on rotten plants, and less often on insects, so the wound formed after an arthropod bite must be treated as quickly as possible. If this is not done, there is a risk of penetration of pathogenic microflora, which will subsequently lead to an inflammatory process and suppuration.

Photos of the symptoms of the consequences of a double-tailed bite.

Preventive actions

To prevent uninvited guests from appearing in a person’s home, it is enough to follow a number of recommendations. For example:

Avoid excessive humidity in the apartment or house.
Do not leave wet rags on the floor.
Promptly get rid of leaks in water supply and sewerage systems.
Do not overwater houseplants.
Timely seal cracks in the floor, window frames, baseboards, window sills, etc.
Do not dry clothes in the house or apartment. This leads to increased humidity.
Avoid dampness in the house or apartment.
Regularly monitor the microclimate in the apartment.

If a double tail appears in your home, this is a reason for a serious analysis of living conditions. Surely, this insect was attracted by suitable conditions for existence. Such suitable conditions are high humidity. This factor not only affects the appearance of insects in the apartment, but also negatively affects human health, since high humidity leads to mold in the apartment, and mold leads to various allergic manifestations and ailments. Such consequences are much more dangerous than the appearance of two-tailed insects in a person’s home.

Habitat

The earwig is a two-tailed species that is widespread almost everywhere. Loves hard-to-reach damp habitats. But it does not like an environment that is too humid; the earwig is most active in warm weather.

Prefers the dark. Night is the time when the two-tailed insect leaves its shelter and goes in search of food. Earwigs can be called omnivores.

They eat small and sedentary insects (aphids, mites) and their larvae. They also feed on the pulp of fruits (cherries, apples, black currants, etc.), while overripe berries and fruits with burst skins are preferred by the pest, since they do not bite thick skins on their own.

With a large population, the consequences of their vital activity are also noticeable on garden crops.

Earwig on a dried leaf

They make holes in the leaves of legumes, cabbage, beets and other vegetables, eating away the greens, causing serious harm to the growth and development of plants.

They also cause damage to beekeepers. These pests are able to penetrate hives, where they happily eat honey. They are so picky in their diet that they do not disdain the remains of invertebrates.

They like to spend the winter in residential areas, entering them through cracks in the walls and cracks in the floor. They feed and reproduce near humans, which is why they are often considered domestic insects.

What to do if an earwig bites you?

What does a doubletail bite look like? Forktails bite only in self-defense when the insect's life is in danger. If the earwig is left undisturbed, it will usually go away. In frequent cases, it is young children who become victims of forktail attacks. Because of his curiosity, the child tries to catch the insect, as a result of which the earwig has to defend itself. It is easy to recognize a double-tailed insect bite (see Insect bites), you just need to pay attention to the following symptoms:

at the site of the bite, two small holes left by the insect’s tail are clearly visible;
the affected area turns red, swells a little, and feels painful;
after some time, a bubble filled with liquid may form on the wound, which subsequently bursts;
The bitten area of the body is very itchy.

In some cases, after a double-tailed bite, unbearable pain and burning are felt, and red spots appear on the skin. All this indicates an allergic reaction from insect saliva entering the wound (see Allergy to bites). If first aid does not give positive results and the allergy does not go away, you should immediately consult a doctor.