Earwig mothers make an unusual investment in their offspring, at least in the few species that have been studied to date. Parental care has been found in a both a primitive earwig and an advanced one, suggesting it might occur in most species. In dark, damp refuges, such as under bark or stones, female earwigs either lay eggs or give birth to live young. Egg-laying (oviparous) earwigs may tend the eggs by cleaning them, removing fungi, and warding off predators. After they hatch in a week, young earwigs still benefit from the mother's attention. She regurgitates her meals or may guide them to decayed matter. They stay with her and shelter under her larger body. About halfway through their development, after a couple of months, earwigs graduate from her care. They use the forcep-like structures (cerci) that have developed on their abdomens to capture their own food and defend themselves.

An insect has a brain, connected to bundles of nerves (ganglia) in each of its three body segments. Like us, they have sensory nerves that receive information from their environment and send it to the brain. Information comes from many types of touch receptors. Touch-sensitive hairs all over an insect's body are sensitive enough to detect vibrations in the air, such as from an approaching predator. Insect hairs also do chemical detection (chemoreception). Pores at the end of chemoreceptors on mouthparts or other body parts allow odors to reach the nervous system. Insect antennae may have thousands of chemoreceptors, used to detect chemicals in the air (pheromones) emitted by members of the opposite sex. An insect, like us, has a pair of eyes on its head. But, insect eyes are compound, with hundreds or thousands of lenses, together making an image consisting of spots of light, like pixels. An insect's sound receptors are on its legs.