But when I looked closer at his arm, it didn’t seem so simple.
There was a red mark that looked like a bite, but not one I recognized. In that moment my mind went straight into panic mode. What bit him? Was it venomous? Was something dangerous hiding in our backyard?
Like a lot of parents probably would, I grabbed my phone, took a photo, and started searching for answers.
I posted it online hoping someone might recognize it.
The responses came fast—and one insect kept getting mentioned over and over: earwigs.
That honestly surprised me.
Earwigs look unsettling with those little pincers at the back, and they’re definitely not something you want to picture crawling around where your kid plays. My sister-in-law even messaged me saying she’d noticed more of them around her place recently too.
Suddenly it felt less like a random bite and more like maybe we had unexpected visitors in the neighborhood.
Once the panic settled a bit, I started reading more from pest experts and comparing advice from other parents.
What I learned helped calm me down.
Earwigs generally aren’t considered dangerous to people. They usually avoid humans and don’t actively bite. But if one gets trapped against the skin or pressed accidentally, it can pinch, which may leave a small irritated mark.
They also tend to gather in damp places—under mulch, leaf piles, wood stacks, garden edges, or anywhere cool and moist.
That made me immediately start looking around our yard differently.
I noticed the usual things we barely think about—wet mulch near the fence, a pile of leaves tucked behind the shed, stacked boards near the side of the house. Perfect hiding places.
We didn’t want to go straight to sprays or harsh chemicals with kids around, so we started simple.
We cut back watering in the wetter corners of the yard, cleared leaf piles, moved some things off the ground, checked gaps near the doors, and cleaned up the areas where moisture tends to collect.
I even tried a simple trap someone recommended using a shallow dish with oil outside in one problem area.
Most importantly… my son was okay.
The redness faded after a few days, and he was back outside playing like nothing happened.
But the whole experience stayed with me longer than the bite itself.
Because parenting can change in seconds.
One minute it’s an ordinary afternoon in the yard.
The next, you’re standing in the kitchen staring at a red mark on your child’s arm while your brain runs through every worst-case scenario imaginable.
What helped most was replacing panic with information—and then taking a few practical steps from there.
The yard still feels like ours.
I just pay a little more attention now to what might be hiding under the mulch.