THE INCREASE OF EARWIG POPULATION IN KARAMAN

INTRODUCTION OF EARWIGS It is a comman urban legend that earwigs crawl into the human ear and lay eggs in the brain. Most earwigs are flattened with an elongated body generally 7–50 mm long. A female earwig can lay up to 50 eggs at one time.

During winters they go 6 to 7 feet underground to survive the dryness. Earwigs often hide among petals or leaves of garden plants or inside damaged fruit. They hide inside shrubs, along fences, in woodpiles and around bases of trees.

They like small, moisty crevices. They hide themselves during the day and are active at night.

Earwigs feed on plants typically include Lettuce Cauliflower Sunflowers

They also feed on ripe fruit StrawberriesPeach Grape Plum

Earwigs are considered helpful when they eat aphids and other plant pests. Aphids Plant pests

Activities carried out during the project There were a lot of earwigs in the summer vocation. In our houses, gardens, under barks, in short, they were everywhere. They were so many that we felt as if our houses were invaded by them.

Our aim was to investigate the reasons for the increase of this population in KARAMAN. For this reason we collected some earwigs and started to feed them in a fanus at the laboratory.

In order to learn the reasons for the increase of this population we went to the agricultural department (of a city) and made an interview with the competent authorities. We learned that: Earwigs get numb below -1(°C) and above 35(°C) They prefer to live between +10(°C) /+35(°C)

According to increasing of seasonal temperature in 2010, population of earwigs also increased. We also learned that the warm winters of the recent years increased the amount of reproductive of the earwigs.

As shown in the chart below, as general, in 2010 seasonal temperature values were increased. The average temperature in Turkey in general TEMPERATURE (°C)

We can also see the increase in the amount of rainfall in previous years (from 1970 to 2009) in Karaman. RAINFALL (mm) YEARS (from 1970 to 2009)

The amount of rainfall in the Middle Anatolia Region RAINFALL (mm)

The results achieved: As a result, due to global warming, air temperatures have increased in Karaman and earwigs have also increased their breeding. Due to the increase in rainfall, to meet the nutritional needs, plant varieties have also increased. These two factors increased the earwig population.