Eeewww!!! Bugs Everywhere!!!

Hi M.,
I enjoy gardening as well - and I love find new ways to combat the normal bug and disease problems with gardening. Have you tried using any Jerry Baker remedies? One that I use often is a combo of the following:

Tabacco - brewed like a tea in a gallon jug
1/2 cup -Mouth wash with antiseptic
1/2 cup -Dish soap
(I do this about once a week until the bugs are one, and then about every two weeks or so just to keep them clean.

Mix equal parts mouth wash and dish soap in a gallon of brewed tabacco juice. You then can use this mixture in a hose dispense and spray all of your plants. It will make the bugs go running. This also works great to spray around your house for other bugs, and it doesn't hurt the animals or children.

I went away earlier this year for about six weeks and when I came back my cabbage and lettuce was being overtaken by worms. I sprayed the mixture and with in two days all the bugs were gone with no return!

Jerry Baker has other amazing remedies, for specific problems, so it may be worth your while to look his books up.

I hope you find a solution and can keep some of your corn!

Yours truly,
M.

2 moms found this helpful

Scrub the corn lightly with a vegetable brush. It is definitely edible.

Here is a website dedicated to getting rid of pests:

http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-earwigs.htm

A.

1 mom found this helpful

Really you can just leave them alone they won't hurt the corn and are actually good at keeping aphids(ap?) and a few other types of bugs out of the garden, You could put little cans with some beer around the base of the corn, it will trap and drown them if they are really bothering you, otherwise just shuck them outside and enjoy! They are quite harmless...just ugly.

1 mom found this helpful

It's totally fine. Storebought corn frequently has earwig. Hence the name EARwig. Anyway, they're gross and I don't like them either. I don't know of any way to get rid of them. But it is fine to eat corn that has had earwigs on it because you are boiling it.

1 mom found this helpful

if it's not rotten, it's edible. spray with vinegar water and soap

1 mom found this helpful

Hi,
The trick I've learned is to put mineral oil drops down top when the silk starts coming out the top, it's probably to late now unless you have staggard your growing times. And yes you can still eat corn that have been touch/munched by earrwigs, just wash 'em good. D.

1 mom found this helpful

When we had a garden, we would lay out sheets of newspaper and then roll it into loose tubes and then get it moist. Lay the tubes in the garden and the earwigs go where it is moist and dark and don't want to come out. All you do is throw out the newspaper. Ta da! no more earwigs.

1 mom found this helpful

M.,
a) it's totally edible!
b) in olden times, we used to keep the ashes from the stove for the safest way of getting rid of all the bugs on plants. As you probably have no stoves, the campfire would do. Put the ashes that are leftover :), into a bucket.plastic bag/any container, go to the garden, and 'dust' all the plants over with the ashes,
a little will do: I saved thus all the strawberries, for instance: bugs do not like ash, it tastes nasty to them, but we just wash all the good food and this is it!
Of course, after every rain, the procedure should be repeated,
but it is safe and simple: no chemicals,
all as organic as can be!
happy gardening to you, M.!

1 mom found this helpful

M.,

Of course your corn is still edible! The earwigs (a) don't make it inedible, except for what they eat themselves, and (b) are just extra protein if you end up eating them. :-)

You can try an organic method of spraying your corn with a mixture of soap and water. This will generally get rid of aphids and comparable pests. It may work for earwigs. If this does not work, check out you local home and garden center for an insecticide that can be put on vegetables. Not all insecticides can be put on vegetables, so be careful about doing this.

Good luck.

1 mom found this helpful

Ack! I want to know too! Though they may be harmless, they've eaten thru a bunch of my flowers. They seem to especially like my salvia and black-eyed-susan varieties. I'm pretty sure they like to eat thru wood also so perhaps they are attracted to mulch?