Earwigs appeared to negatively influence flower survival. In
2009 flowers survived less in control trees than in the other treatments
and there was a significant negative relationship between
earwig abundance and flower survival. In 2010 no differences in
flower survival were observed between treatments, although a
marginally significant negative relationship was found between
earwig abundance and flower survival. As earwig abundance was
much lower in 2010 than in 2009, this factor probably caused these
contrasting results between years. This would imply that the effect
of earwigs on flower survival has a threshold below which damage
to flowers from earwigs is not detectable. Nevertheless, after the
natural drop, very few (1–3%) marked fruitlets were still on the
tree and earwig damage to citrus flowers was no longer observed.
These percentages of flower and fruit survival after abscission,
although low, are higher than those previously published by
Stephenson (1981), who observed that only 0.2–1% of the citrus
flowers matured to fruits.