Whitewig?
Hello,
Love your site! I used it regularly to ID strange bugs in and near my house. The other day while pulling weeds here in San Diego I disturbed this little guy. He was about the size of a regular earwig although his abdomen looked a little longer to me, and obviously, he’s white. I’m curious, is there such a thing as an albino earwig, or do they look like this normally at a subadult stage, or is it possibly something unrelated that just LOOKS earwiggy?
Thanks very much,
Andrea
Hi Andrea,
This is an Earwig. We believe it is a freshly molted specimen that hasn’t darkened. We will check with Eric Eaton to get his opinion. Eric responded: ” The earwig is indeed a freshly-molted specimen. There really is no such thing as an albino insect. There are white phases of some of the sulphur butterflies, but that is about it. Pale-colored specimens of other insects are typical of arid environments.”
I like This
Just found some of these today in a wooden pet hutch and I’m from Australia! Interesting read! 🙂
My heart is still beating fast.
My mom just finished some alterations on my suit pants, so I went to the closet to grab my suit jacket and there was one of these things on it.
scared the hell out of me !!!
dublin, california
Just killed one in my bed. So grossed out now and paranoid 🙁
No need to kill stuff …it was a baby ! ?
I always have a mass of earwigs on the pole of my washing line when I wind it up. And I just spied this anomaly today so I googled it. If it is just a newly molted one, why have I only ever seen one?
Insects are more vulnerable when they have just molted and they are more likely to hide in more secluded places at that time.
Still have chills from seeing one of these earlier on my towel. I thought it was some crazy weird insect and started looking around for more.
Thank you for posting this to calm my worries!
My kids just found one of these guys in our garden in North Wales, they were fascinated by it
Are they rare? Because I found one today in my local school garden.
Earwigs are not rare.
Cool, thanks. I just found one in a Countdown supremarked in Dunedin. I hadn’t seen one before.
We went outsid at night to see what was eating our garden plants. They were all over especially the petunias. They are eating all the leaves from the vegtables. Is there a way to minimize these critters?
White earwigs i mean.
I have just found 2 and I am in Quebec Canada..
http://www.frugalcanadiancouponmom.com
Just found one, crawling on my outdoor table first time. I’ve ever seen a white earwig.
I found one up my trouser leg he had turned white and his brown body skin was next to him, so he must have removed it. I put him safely outside
Seen my 1st one the other day, I took a picture because I’ve seen tens of thousands of earwigs, but never an albino one.
You would be less paranoid if you had put it in a glass and put it safely outside,maybe next time ?
Thanks for this article; I saw one today and don’t remember seeing one before.
How long do they normally stay white/light before they darken to the usual dark brown.
Carmarthen, South Wales.
We suspect they darken quickly, within a few hours after molting.