the.com/earwig

means a small elongated insect with distinctive pincers (cerci) at the rear of its abdomen, often found in damp gardens and under bark.

from From Old English ēarwicga, literally "ear-wiggler" or "ear-insect" — ēare (ear) plus wicga (something that wiggles or moves, a cousin of "wiggle"). The name preserves an ancient and persistent folk belief that these creatures crawl into sleepers' ears and burrow into the brain; the very word is a 1,000-year-old superstition fossilized in English (and echoed in other languages, like the French perce-oreille, "ear-piercer"). The insect is innocent — but the slander stuck.