Keep in mind that the bugs are nocturnal and that is more very quickly, thus you may fail to spot them at once. Only when the signs of infestation become more than evident you can suspect having the unwanted intruders in your premises.
Due to the secretive character of the pests, the fact of infestation and the extent of its severity may be completely unnoticeable in the course of pretty long time periods. Unfortunately this results in quick growth of their population, as the speed of their reproduction is really impressing. Females lay up to fifty eggs at a time, thus once a single insects gets into your home, you’ll have a pot of them in the nearest future if you don’t care to fight them.
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Prevention Measures
These insects are known all over the globe for their destructive habits in feeding. It often happens that as a result of silverfish infestation numerous items in the house such as wallpaper, important documents and even clothing are destroyed.
The crawlers feed themselves on various starchy items, which include glue, hair, and sugar and so on. They feed themselves at night hours, but if the challenging situation occurs, the bugs can easily survive without any food for up to 12 months!
Silverfish prefer moist dark areas in your house and around it, thus infestation primarily can be found in laundry rooms, kitchens, basements, bathrooms and attics. If you suspect your dwelling maybe infested, check the above mentioned location first hand.
Use dehumidifier for silverfish control: it will help sufficiently reduce the moist part of the air, which is vital for silverfish.
There are other dehumidifying methods, however. Among them:
- Running your air conditioner;
- Eliminating standing water in all the part of your home and around it;
- Ventilating your attics and all closed premises in the house;
As the pests tend to consume a great variety of food, special housekeeping practices should be applied in order to limit sufficiently the amount of potential feeding spots for the bugs. Try to remove all food recourses for the insects: store your pantry food in special tight containers.
Still, if you’re already suffering the infestation, the worst you can do is waiting and doing nothing. The crawlers would spread very quickly all over your rooms and you’ll have a real challenge to make them go afterwards.
The best option is to use the help of professional with a customized approach to the popular problem. The method has only one disadvantage – it’s pretty costly. If you want to save your funds and still clean your home from the pests – try doing it with your own forces with the help of special tool and means.
Tools for Fighting Silverfish Infestation
If despite all the prevention measures you still were unlucky to get the problem into your house start fighting the pests ASAP!
Fortunately chemical industry has made a huge step ahead in its progress and nowadays we have all necessary means to control the population of all popular pests infesting our homes. The same applies to silverfish – the choice of tools is really impressing and varies greatly.
What you need to do first hand is to spray your house’s perimeter with a special residual insecticide. Spray your outside foundation wall as well – it will prevent many bugs, not only silverfish, from entering your dwelling. Finally, to provide the 100% result you can scatter some of the insecticide bait in you attic.
Silverfish Control Insecticides
Among the great variety of modern insecticides for controlling pests’ populations it’s important to pick up the ones that will be both effective and easy in use. Pay attention to those insecticides that feature no odor, as it may annoy you and even provoke allergic reactions. You can opt for Terro Perimeter Ant Bait; it will be pretty effective with silverfish as well.
Dusts and Powders
In cases of really severe silverfish infestation, more serious actions will be required. Check insulation and all the stored boxes that you keep in your attic – they present a perfect food source for the crawlers and thus need to be baited or dusted for a better control.
For a maximum effect in killing the insects, you should apply dusts or baits as close to the habitats of the bugs as possible. But don’t forget to make sure that the dusted areas are out of reach of your children and pets.
The obligatory dusting of the following areas is required:
- Electrical outlets;
- Behind your ovens and refrigerators;
- On boxes;
- Underneath the siding;
- Light fixtures;
- Attic insulation.
Baits and Aerosols
Using special insecticide baits or aerosols is another pretty popular method of getting rid the annoying pests in your premises. Most of them work perfectly well against a great variety of various insects such as silverfish and roaches. Sprinkle the baits all over the places you think are infested with the bugs and you’ll forget about them for good pretty soon.
Aerosols can be extremely helpful for fighting the insects that hide in deep narrow crevices or cracks. Just spray some of it inside and be sure there is none of the survivals there. Terro aerosols are among the most effective and reliable ones. Check for these and you wave farewell to your unwelcomed guests pretty soon and for good.
Traps
Special traps used for controlling such insects as ants, crickets, scorpions and so on can be equally successfully used for fighting silverfish as well. Try Insect Magnet Traps from Victor or opt for Silverfish and Spiders Traps from Springstar.
Other Tools
Apart from the above mentioned popular means and tools for controlling silverfish invasion in your home, there are others that are also very effective and can become your salvation in case of infestation problem. Among the most spread are:
- Ultrasonic Pest These are very functional tools that are used for fighting a wide range of pests as well as mice or rats. Safe, effective, reliable – the advantage list can be prolonged endlessly. These items are really well priced and provide great results. The things are small enough to be used in the smallest cabinets. Check the power of your repeller and the area it protects in the specifications section of the device. Thus you’ll be able to provide the maximum protection and achieve desirable results.
- Tablets. Used to protect your clothes and other items from various insects pests including silverfish. You just need to arrange as many of those in pests’ hiding locations as you can afford and wait until the things make their job. After this you just clean away the dead bodies of the tiny crawlers.
To make your fighting with the annoying bugs even more effective combine several different methods and do not forget to repeat your actions to eliminate the silverfish infestation fully and for good. Remember, that prevention measures will be required even after the last insect is exterminated.