I opened the hive yesterday to put on the 1st super. Between the top and the inner cover I found 4 or 5 earwigs scurrying for cover. I knocked them off onto the ground.
Are these bugs any cause for worry?
I did not delve deeper looking for more earwigs in the frames. I only had shorts and a Tshirt with sandals. One of the girls got under my shirt and stung my side, another hitchhiked in my pants pocket back into the house.
Whether a hive is maintained by a beekeeper, or a feral colony in a tree, it is a ecosystem unto itself. With mites, roaches, etc. Some are harmless, some beneficial, and some detrimental. The bees will handle (if you have good bees) the ones that are detrimental. The others you can ignore. Like earwigs.... ;) They are harmless.
Think "natural". I have neighbors that keep manicured lawns, wash the car weekly, and are neat freaks about everything in their lives. They tend to make bad beekeepers. Hives, like your backyard, are diverse places,..... or at least it should be. ;)
They just like dark spots, so under the bricks on top of your outer cover, or under the lip of your outer cover are a perfect place for them.
Honeybees are not in their diet, so they're basically harmless.