Family home has silverfish

shtpEdthePlum

We keep it spotlessly clean but today I noticed a silverfish under a drawer in the bathroom. I killed it, and pulled the drawer out expecting an infestation but thankfully nothing nightmarish was underneath.

The house is very old (mid 1900s and has carpets in most rooms.)

I've heard silverfish spread like wildfire. In a year we haven't seen any and this was just the one so it could be a new development. There is a chance some came home from the office with me recently as I move files from place to place and my home office is upstairs across from the bathroom where I found the one I saw.

My skin is crawling now, carpets in a house is gross but this is next level shyte, I presume they're happy to live wherever it's dark.

So two choices: move house or burn the place down and move house?

Any option C?

beachhead

Sounds like serious overreaction.But kill kill.Kill Bill

...Ghost...

Ignore the hype. I find a couple around the house every year, never more than the fingers on my hand. Most houses have a small number of them. Infestations are uncommon.

cefh17

Diatomaceous earth ... even has the letter C in it

wench

Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure

shtpEdthePlum

...Ghost... wrote: »

Ignore the hype. I find a couple around the house every year, never more than the fingers on my hand. Most houses have a small number of them. Infestations are uncommon.

Really? Are you sure it's not just that they live in the walls and places we can't see them?

Do any of the "scents" that deter them work, cinnamon or cedar etc?

jester77

I spotted a few around our house recently. You can get a water based spray that will kill them almost instantly, cleaning up the dead ones is a bit gross, but it did the job. I was surprised how many appeared after I sprayed, they seem to hide themselves very well. Spray around door frames and along floorboards/carpets and come back in 30 mins and clean up. You would need to spray again in around 4 weeks to kill the ones that have hatched in the mean time.

...Ghost...

shtpEdthePlum wrote: »

Really? Are you sure it's not just that they live in the walls and places we can't see them?

Do any of the "scents" that deter them work, cinnamon or cedar etc?

The bathroom or kitchen is almost certainly where they will be found, but usually in small numbers hidden in cracks and crevices. When remodeling the kitchen, I found 2 as I removed the tiles and both were low down near the sink area. I don't know about the scents, but I wouldn't go peppering my house with cinnamon after a single sighting.

punisher5112

They love the dark and dampness.....

We have them going across the 2 bathrooms upstairs, never seen them before we bought this house, there is definitely a few and most you will never see....

mugsymugsy

It's strange never seen them before this year. Thought we had got rid here and spotted one last night. As others have said damp and dark they like.

Calahonda52

Yeah they can be a pain,
I found this idea on Y tube effective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQDy-5IQvuU

Fighting Tao

Lived in an apartment in Dublin. The block was infested. Used ant killer powder around the bottom of walls, and sealed up ant little holes I could find in grout, around pipes etc. It reduced the number greatly. Moved into an 80’s house a few months ago. We have seen maybe 10-12 in total here. Initially we thought we brought them with us when we moved, but these look a bit different and are much lighter in colour. If you have an infestation you’ll know. If it’s just an odd one then you are lucky.

Zaney

We had a few in a bathroom - never a swarm, but enough to be uncomfortable. The floor tiles were cracked and the grout was flaky. We replaced the floor tiles and haven’t seen them since. Wasn’t any sign of major infestation when we lifted the old tiles.

FlubberJones

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Yeah they can be a pain,
I found this idea on Y tube effective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQDy-5IQvuU

I had to watch the whole scene... man it looks class still

Caranica

Zaney wrote: »

We had a few in a bathroom - never a swarm, but enough to be uncomfortable. The floor tiles were cracked and the grout was flaky. We replaced the floor tiles and haven’t seen them since. Wasn’t any sign of major infestation when we lifted the old tiles.

This happened to us in the main bathroom. Next to none since tiles were replaced, less than a handful per year.

The scariest was one day a few years ago I poured a glass of something and put it on the kitchen table and turned around to get lunch. Sat down at the table and there was a large silverfish in the glass. Hadn't spotted one in the glass (have never seen any in that press) or in the kitchen so it really freaked me out. I did have the windows open beside the table but I've never seen them outdoors. Never repeated thankfully.

JimmyVik

All houses have them.
You only ever see the odd one at night when you turn on the light and look down.
I find a dehumidifier seems to keep the numbers down.
Probably see one a month now instead of one a week.

As for those false widow spiders though. They seem to be everywhere this year

ps:
I have a friend whos wife insisted on getting rentokill out after spotting a silver fish one night.
Cost them €120 and all they did was spray some chemical under the skirting boards he said and said to get them back in 3 months for another dose (probably another €120).

I told him of some great advise i got years ago from a guy who worked for rentokil.
He said "If you have pests, its cheaper to burn your house down to get rid of them than to call rentokill".

...Ghost...

JimmyVik wrote: »

As for those false widow spiders though. They seem to be everywhere this year

I know, right? I've killed loads of the little b@stards. They have taken over my shed/filter-house and I occasionally catch a big one in the back garden. Wouldn't want the kids getting a nip from one of them.

JimmyVik

...Ghost... wrote: »

I know, right? I've killed loads of the little b@stards. They have taken over my shed/filter-house and I occasionally catch a big one in the back garden. Wouldn't want the kids getting a nip from one of them.

We had them in the shed and garden last year.
Found 3 in the house in the last week now.

Eire Go Brach

jester77 wrote: »

I spotted a few around our house recently. You can get a water based spray that will kill them almost instantly, cleaning up the dead ones is a bit gross, but it did the job. I was surprised how many appeared after I sprayed, they seem to hide themselves very well. Spray around door frames and along floorboards/carpets and come back in 30 mins and clean up. You would need to spray again in around 4 weeks to kill the ones that have hatched in the mean time.

What’s the name of the spray? Where could I buy it?

We have loads. See them most in bedroom. The spiders don’t bother me. Silverfish make my skin crawl. I know they are harmless.

jester77

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

What’s the name of the spray? Where could I buy it?

We have loads. See them most in bedroom. The spiders don’t bother me. Silverfish make my skin crawl. I know they are harmless.

I use this one from a brand called Envira, don't know if you can get it in Ireland, but there should be similar products available that would work the same.
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Silberfisch-vermin-Effect-Spray-500-ml/dp/B009W1QXFE/

SupaCat95

Go to the chemist get Borax and mix it with powdered sugar in low concentrations. Completely harmless to humans but lethal over time to insects.

houseyhouse

SupaCat95 wrote: »

Go to the chemist get Borax and mix it with powdered sugar in low concentrations. Completely harmless to humans but lethal over time to insects.

:eek::eek:

Do not use Borax if you have young kids!!! Especially mixed with sugar. If it tastes good, they'll keep eating it. It's toxic. Even 5g can be fatal to a small child.

JimmyVik

SupaCat95 wrote: »

Go to the chemist get Borax and mix it with powdered sugar in low concentrations. Completely harmless to humans but lethal over time to insects.

Jesus

Salt is supposed to attract and kill them through dehydration. Fill a small container and leave it in a corner of the bathroom?

SupaCat95

JimmyVik wrote: »

Jesus

http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/boricgen.html#:~:text=Boric%20acid%20is%20low%20in,%2C%20stomach%20aches%2C%20and%20diarrhea.

"Boric acid can absorb rapidly into the body if eaten. It is absorbed poorly by skin contact unless the skin is damaged. Studies with workers and rats showed that boric acid can also be absorbed if inhaled. However, it is not clear how much is directly absorbed in the lungs and how much is cleared from the lungs and swallowed. Once inside, boric acid generally moves evenly throughout the body. However, it can be stored in bone and is generally found at lower levels in fatty tissues. There is no evidence that boric acid is broken down in the body. The majority of boric acid in the body is eliminated in the urine within four days."

Also read "in low concentrations"

SupaCat95

houseyhouse wrote: »

:eek::eek:

Do not use Borax if you have young kids!!! Especially mixed with sugar. If it tastes good, they'll keep eating it. It's toxic. Even 5g can be fatal to a small child.

Its not that toxic.

Mike3549

Our whole estate is full of them, ant killer powder works, but this is best (see attached). I moved a fridge one day and it looked like a carpet of dead silverfish. Actualy i dont remember the last time i saw one alive.

tscul32

I had them every now and then in my bedroom as a teen. I just sprayed them with hair spray and that killed them.

RacoonQueen

They're pretty harmless they're just awful looking things.

In the apartment I'm in now, here four years I see them often. I just kill them. Only ever really see them in the bathroom or kitchen (once found a dead one in a oven dish in the press that was very rarely used, bothered me for a while but I never see them in the press or have never found other dead ones in cups or anything).
Sometimes see them in the hallway between bedroom and bathroom or hotpress and a couple of times when putting clean bedclothes on I'd shake out the clean ones and a silverfish would scutter out. They give you the shivers a bit but they're no harm really. Can see numerous ones in one evening/night and then not see any for days.

I'd guess this apartment block I'm in has loads of them as I'd never actually seen one in my life before I moved here!

Fast little buggers though if you are trying to get rid of them humanely

Hoover does a good job on them.

houseyhouse

SupaCat95 wrote: »

Its not that toxic.

https://www.healthline.com/health/is-borax-safe#safety

It is quite toxic when ingested. Small children have a habit of eating everything they come across. Hence my comment, don’t use if you have young children.

SupaCat95

houseyhouse wrote: »

https://www.healthline.com/health/is-borax-safe#safety

It is quite toxic when ingested. Small children have a habit of eating everything they come across. Hence my comment, don’t use if you have young children.

Then just use it in small doses of 1g in 50g of powdered sugar. Hence my comment in small doses. No one suggest feeding it to the children.

xalot

We had an infestation of them last year, this stuff did the trick, put it EVERYWHERE https://www.woodies.ie/nippon-woodlice-killer-150g-792129 . We'd get up to in the morning and find up 30 dead across the floor after using it. Havent had an issue since.

They're so fast so they can be hard to catch, I even found them in my suitcase when I went away for a weekend.

irlirishkev

shtpEdthePlum wrote: »

carpets in a house is gross

What?

Re the Silverfish, we have a few in our apartment bathroom. You see one or two scatter when you put the light on at night. Nothing major. They freaked me out at first, but I'm used to them now.
Just don't look any magnified pictures of them. Bluech :pac:

RacoonQueen

xalot wrote: »

We had an infestation of them last year, this stuff did the trick, put it EVERYWHERE https://www.woodies.ie/nippon-woodlice-killer-150g-792129 . We'd get up to in the morning and find up 30 dead across the floor after using it. Havent had an issue since.

They're so fast so they can be hard to catch, I even found them in my suitcase when I went away for a weekend.

What do you do with that spray it on the floor and kills them if they pass through it?

LittleMissRed

Deleted User wrote: »

Salt is supposed to attract and kill them through dehydration. Fill a small container and leave it in a corner of the bathroom?

I hate the little b@$tards and they are everywhere in our house at the moment!
The other day I was baking and opened the little lid on the salt container to pour it into a measuring spoon. As I poured, one came tumbling out... I gagged and just flung the whole thing into the bin. I wish salt killed them. My house would look like a winter wonderland if it did!

jester77

RacoonQueen wrote: »

What do you do with that spray it on the floor and kills them if they pass through it?

I use a similar spray, it lasts a few months. Although it seems to weaken a bit over time, I've noticed that they are still alive and moving around a small bit as the spray wears off. Still good enough for catching them.

cupcake queen

xalot wrote: »

We had an infestation of them last year, this stuff did the trick, put it EVERYWHERE https://www.woodies.ie/nippon-woodlice-killer-150g-792129 . We'd get up to in the morning and find up 30 dead across the floor after using it. Havent had an issue since.

They're so fast so they can be hard to catch, I even found them in my suitcase when I went away for a weekend.

I used this too. Really effective. It's a powder that you put down on the floor around the bath or wherever they are appearing from. Leave it overnight and in the morning hoover it up (along with any dead bodies). We had them when we moved into our current house and I couldn't bear them. Would see one or two every night when I turned on the light in the bathroom and they really creeped me out. They were emerging from under the bath and I had a terrible fear that there were loads of them under there. Anyway, I sprinkled this stuff along the side of the bath and floor tiles and never saw a single one ever again...

shtpEdthePlum

That stuff sounds fantastic, I've ordered it. I also firmly believe they're under the bath in massive quantities.

They're probably not, but the mind just immediately jumps to the worst case scenario.

irlirishkev wrote: »

What?

Carpets which have been in a house for thirty some years (more?) and gathered who knows how many people's dead skin cells and microscopic hairs and faecal particles from outside and are, as a rule, gross.

We shampooed all the carpets when we arrived and we hoover literally twice a day some days and never wear outdoor shoes in the house, but who knows what lurks underneath or inside in them.

We're going to do a job in the summer taking them up and restoring the timber floors. You can always put a nice disposable rug on lovely washable wood.

About 12 + years ago in our family home my dad gave up lighting fires as central heating had been installed, so he blocked up the fireplaces, by placing a sheet of timber in front of them.

Our sitting room always had a load of silverfish in it. You'd come in at night, when it's dark, and turn the light on, and they'd be scattering all over the place. When I say a load, I mean you'd see maybe a dozen at a time. I was never bothered by them and got well used to them over the years.

Anyway, about 2 years ago I decided to spend a few euro and renovate the sitting room, take everything out and start from scratch. New plaster, new floors, yada yada.. when I unblocked the sitting room fireplace, I found out that my dad, in his sheer laziness, never actually cleaned the fireplace out before blocking it. I must have carried the equivalent of 4 small black bags of ash out of it. But that's where the silverfish were living. Big pile of ash, which presumably had some level of dampness or humidity to it. Once I'd cleaned it out, and had the whole room cleared, floor lifted etc. I wandered in the first night to see was there much silverfish activity with the ash gone.

There was a handful of them roaming around (wondering where their ash house had gone, no doubt). For about 3-4 days, whilst waiting for my laminate floor to acclimate, i walked around the sitting room twice a day (morning and night) spraying some cheapo tesco disinfectant spray, mixed with bleach, all over the place. After the 4 days there was no sign of them anymore.

Laid the new floor, re-plastered the ceiling/walls, fitted new units etc. and no sign of a little fishy ever since.



For what it's worth, we had laminate flooring in our sitting room, and fabric suite of furniture. Despite the decade of silverfish, they never actually did any harm to anything. People say they eat fabric and that, but i never noticed anything (unless they were eating the ash, perhaps).


About a year prior to the sitting room renovation we extended the house and put a small bathroom in on the ground floor (only ever had one upstairs before this). I find we get a couple of, what I can only describe as 'carpet beetle larvae' in here, on the ceiling. I've seen maybe 1 silverfish a year, on average in the bathroom. Much like the fish, the carpet beetle larvae aren't very sexy too look at, but ultimately they don't really do any harm, so I tend to take the "live and let live" approach.

Cazale

shtpEdthePlum wrote:

That stuff sounds fantastic, I've ordered it. I also firmly believe they're under the bath in massive quantities.

We had some in the bathroom and used this. Get a paintbrush and brush it into every crack in floor tiles, skirting boards and under the bath etc. You can leave it in place then. We did this and it got rid of them.

sf_killer

Had to register just to give some advice here that hopefully saves people from burning down their own house. We had a massive infestation, tried everything you could get in Ireland and nothing worked long term. Diatomaceous earth kept them at bay for a while. Luckily, I came across this from the Norwegian Institute of Health,
fhi.no/en/el/insects-and-pests/insects/eksempler-pa-atebekjempelse-av-skjeggkre-i-ulike-lokaler/
They even published a paper on it,
mdpi.com/2075-4450/11/3/170
And a video!
youtube.com/watch?v=Gb3yQdEsIhI

They were using Advion with Indoxacarb. The only place I could find it was US Amazon. Was well worth the extra you have to pay in customs instead of buying 15 different products.
amazon.com/gp/product/B00TXFE4RI/

Takes a while to have effect but haven't had any for a few months now. Can't believe they don't sell this stuff in Europe! can't post links so had to edit.