that comment was excellent and really informative. i like the idea of the water as that’s no chemicals.

Talcum powder is a neat one, haven’t heard of that before! We have a dog now but he is in the backyard and we are getting the ants and earwigs in the house or front yard.

Where exactly are the ants? Do you have pets?
If you know where the ant nests are that is a great starting point. There are granules you can use that ants carry back to their nests. If they are coming inside the house, if you can find the entry point you can sprinkle ordinary talcum paper. Ants don’t like it as they can’t walk on it with slipping or falling. Another method is to tip turps or boiling water in the nests. Ants attract thrip and aphid to your plants, including vegetables such as tomatoes. They will steal seeds such as carrots out of your soil. We have watched them on a couple of occasions.(we couldn’t work out why very few seeds were germinating one year). Another thing we discovered was they were climbing up our apricot tree and nibbling their way into them making a tiny hole that wasn’t noticable – until you picked one and suddenly your hands and arms are black with ants. We couldn’t risk biting into one. I got caught once, never again. Keep opened jars of jam, chutney pickles containing sugar added into the vinegar in the fridge after opening. I am sure they must be able to detect from a reasonable distance when they find the food they love in a room in the middle of the house. Prior to the talcum powder idea they only way Dad could find of stopping ants entering the house via the windows was to wipe the frame and surrounding bricks with turps applied to a rag. There was some in one bedroom when we moved into the house (it was new- construction not long completed). We even had them go in the garage at one stage in the very hot weather. Maybe they were trying to escape the sun, but it wasn’t cool in there. You can also get ant powder. Inside you can also use Antrid. They climb into it and can’t get out because it is very sticky. I used an old bottle top, It could have been from a medication or soft drink bottle….or a baby’s juice bottle. You used to be able to buy small bottles of baby’s juice. We had some we were given for my baby niece and I save a couple of the lids and washed them thoroughly.

I have never had an earwig infestation and my only suggestion would be to get some information from a garden nursery on natural methods for dealing with earwigs.