Misconceptions

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My mom always told me when I was younger to be careful not to get an earwig in my ear because it will stay there and it wont come out and it will stay there forever. It freaked me out since I didn't know what the bug looked like or how it could possibly get in my ear. I was always really cautious whenever I heard something flying by my ear or something I saw on the ground if I was laying in grass. Every sound of a bug I heard by my ear I would jump and put my hands over my ears. One day I actually had a bug almost fly into my ear because i got tired of covering my ears and I wasn't paying attention. I was terrified when that happened. I thought it was an earwig considering I still didn't know what they looked like and naturally by the name I would assume they always went for the ear. Once I read the book the Earwig's Tail and read the chapter on earwigs I realized it was a misconception and it came from the name of the bug being called an earwig so that's why everyone thought it would come to your ear. It actually goes in your ear the same amount as other bugs would. The most common bug they actually find in peoples ears is a cockroach. A reason people are scared to get them in their ears is because they have a pair of pinchers on their abdomen. The environment they are usually found in it a damp type environment and they are good mothers so they wont go anywhere they cant lay their eggs so they stay in the environment where they can.Earwigs are mostly black and brown and belong to the group dermaptera which means skin winged. So when someone tells you to watch out for earwigs in your ear don't worry about it because they are just as likely to get in your ear as any other insect except cockroaches so look out for those.  

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