Giant earwig
The giant earwig lives in Australia and is the biggest earwig still alive today. It is about 5 centimetres long, as long as your finger. Like all earwigs, it has a pair of pincers at the end of its body.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Giant earwig compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It is the largest earwig that we know for sure is still living.
An even bigger earwig, the Saint Helena earwig, was up to 8.4 centimetres long, but it has not been seen for a long time and has probably died out.
The pincers at the back of its body are called forceps.
Most asked questions about Giant earwig
?How big is the giant earwig?
It is about 5 centimetres long, the biggest living earwig we know.
?Do earwigs crawl into your ears?
No. That is just an old story. Earwigs do not want to go into people's ears.
?Where does the giant earwig live?
In Australia.
Myth buster
Myth: Earwigs crawl into people's ears while they sleep.
Truth: No. That is just an old story. Earwigs do not want to go into people's ears.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Titanolabis colossea
- Group
- Other insects
- Family
- Anisolabididae
- Classification
- Insecta > Dermaptera > Anisolabididae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Australian giant earwig
Where the facts come from
- List of largest insects (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Zyoute. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Common earwig
Silverfish
Chigoe flea
Grannom
Firebrat
Cat flea
Asian needle ant
White-spotted sawyer
Banded alder borer
Red-legged purseweb spider
Banana slug
Common true katydid