Enhancing earwig populations in Belgian orchards.

Earwigs are key generalist predators to a variety of orchard pests. However, the once held believe that earwigs damage and spoil fruits led to control strategies and eventually the loss of large earwig populations in Belgian orchards. In recent years, Integrated and Organic fruit growers have tried to re-establish earwig populations, thus far with little success. We started a study linking various components of orchard management and the earwig life history to identify potential periods in which earwigs are vulnerable and management factors hazardous to earwigs. As a first step, detailed knowledge of earwig phenology in orchards is necessary to identify vulnerable stages in the life cycle. Here we describe the first results from organic apple orchards.