The common earwig has a very bad reputation with gardeners, who consider it to be an injurious Insect, but it is probable that the little creature is sometimes made the scapegoat for damage done by other animals; it appears to be fond of sweets, for it often makes its way to the interior of fruits, and it no doubt nibbles the petals, or other delicate parts of flowers and vegetables. Camerano, however, states, _l.c._, that the specimens he kept in confinement preferred dead Insects rather than the fruits he offered them. Rühl considers the earwig to be fond of a carnivorous diet, eating larvae, small snails, etc., and only attacking flowers when these fail.[142] It has a great propensity for concealing {214}itself in places where there is only a small crevice for entry, and it is possible that its presence in fruits is due to this, rather than to any special fondness for the sweets. This habit of concealing itself in chinks and crannies in obscure places makes it an easy matter to trap the Insect by placing pieces of hollow stalks in the situations it affects; inverted flower-pots with a little hay, straw, or paper at the top are also effectual traps. We have remarked that it is very rarely seen on the wing, and though it has been supposed to fly more freely at night there is very little evidence of the fact. Another British species, _Labia minor_, a smaller Insect, is, however, very commonly seen flying. Earwigs have the reputation of being fond of their young, and Camerano describes the female of the common earwig as carefully collecting its eggs when scattered, lifting them with its mandibles and placing them in a heap over which it afterwards brooded. De Geer[143] more than a century ago observed a fondness of the mother for the young. After the eggs were hatched, Camerano's individual, however, evinced no interest in the young. A larger species, _Labidura riparia_ (Fig. 110) is said to move its eggs from place to place, so as to keep them in situations favourable for their development.