How bad is it to have silverfish in your home? When you see one of these wiggly little silver pests on the floor of your bathroom is it cause for concern? Maybe. It depends on a few factors. Join us today as we walk through everything you need to know about silverfish. We’ll tell you how to identify a silverfish, what they do when they crawl around in your home, simple steps you can take to deter them, the , and how you can track your problem so that you can know for sure they’re gone. If you’d like to speak with someone directly, remember that your Green Home Pest Control service team is here to provide advice and service options. We are your Chandler pest experts, offering advanced eco-friendly pest solutions and professional . Use our Contact Page to get connected.
Why Are Silverfish Called Silverfish?
The first step in any pest control plan is to properly identify the pest you’re hoping to control. What does a silverfish bug look like? A lot of information regarding this pest’s appearance is available in the name. They look like silver fish. When you look down at a silverfish, it has a similar shape and shiny fish-like coloration. It also has an armored appearance that, in the right light, can look like fish scales. What’s more, these insects even move like fish. As they wriggle across the floor, they move in a swerving and darting pattern that makes it look like they are bending like a fish.
While a silverfish looks like a fish in many ways, make no mistake, it isn’t a fish. These insects are land animals. They have six legs, two antennae, and three appendages at the tip of the abdomen. When they get into your home, they aren’t going to live in sources of water, but they will live close to them. A silverfish has a high moisture requirement. It isn’t going to want to live in a dry home.
When attempting to identify an insect pest, identification is often made complicated because pests look different when they are in earlier stages of development. Some insects begin life as larvae, which are often not insects at all. Flies larvae are maggots. Beetle larvae are grubs. Butterfly larvae are caterpillars. Some insects hatch from their eggs as nymphs. These nymphs look like the adult insects in shape and features but often have a different color. For example, German cockroach nymphs are entirely black, while the adults are primarily tan, with only two black stripes on their backs. Silverfish are the easiest of all insects to recognize because the nymphs look almost exactly like the adults. They’re just smaller. While an adult is about ¾ of an inch long, a nymph can measure as little as ¼ of an inch. So, if you see a little, shiny speck wiggle across your bathroom floor, you’ve got yourself a silverfish infestation. That tiny nymph is letting you know that a silverfish has laid eggs in your home. Each female silverfish is able to lay one to three eggs each day, so you’ll want to get on top of this problem quickly.
Destruction And Hazards Silverfish Can Pose In Homes They Infest
Now we get to the meat and potatoes of our discussion. How bad is it to have silverfish in your house? It depends on what you have in your home and how well your belongings are protected. Silverfish feed on many things you might not expect. As they feed, they can cause damage to your belongings. Here are some examples to consider.
- Silverfish can eat a hole in an important document. They consume paper. While you may not care too much about an old newspaper, there is sure to be important paperwork in your home as well. If it’s not protected, a silverfish infestation could result in lasting damage.
- Silverfish can literally deface a photograph. As they chew on photos, they scrape the surface off.
- Silverfish can put holes in valuable keepsakes. Perhaps the best example is a wedding dress passed down from generation to generation. Items like this are irreplaceable.
- Silverfish can damage your sheets and bedding if given the right conditions.
- Silverfish can eat through newspapers or pages in books. You may get to find out how your novel ends or find yourself unable to finish a crossword puzzle.
- Silverfish can damage wallpaper and leave spots that mark their appearance. Wallpaper is especially attractive to these pests because they eat both the paper and the glue.
- Silverfish can get into certain pantry foods and contaminate your food supply. For this reason, they are often clumped together with pantry pests.
- Silverfish sometimes eat carpets if they’re made of the right materials and when moisture or humidity is present.
How much of a threat they present to your property is dependent on a few factors. Silverfish can’t get into pantry foods that are protected inside sealed containers. They can’t damage items in storage if they’re kept in sealed plastic totes. They’ll have a harder time damaging clothing and linen that is stored in a dry location.
The more silverfish you have in your home, the greater their ability to cause damage or infest your food. You can mitigate the threat by taking steps to deter them. We covered a few of these techniques, but let’s drill deeper and examine the entire pest control issue.
What Can I Do To Deter Silverfish?
The first step in is to protect your stuff. Obviously, you don’t want your things to get damaged. But protecting your things does more than keep them free of silverfish damage; doing so will deprive silverfish of a food source. Once you’ve taken steps to seal items in protective containers and store items in high, dry areas, use the following tips to manage your problem and drive silverfish out.
- Vacuum your rugs and clean your floors to remove dust, which is mostly dead skin. Silverfish feed on dead skin.
- Address any indoor pest issues to further reduce food sources. Silverfish eat dead insects.
- Repair any leaks. A leaking faucet or showerhead can increase humidity and offer droplets of water for silverfish to drink.
- Take showers well before bedtime to prevent moisture from clinging to your shower or tub into the night.
- Use the vent in your bathroom during showers or baths to remove the humidity and reduce air moisture to make the environment less comfortable for silverfish.
- Consider the humidity in your home. If you have humid areas, install a dehumidifier to bring the air moisture level down.
- Patch potential routes silverfish may use to move about in your home. While they feed on your belongings, they don’t tunnel through wood. They need gaps, holes, and cracks to travel. Applying caulking or expanding foam will block access and potentially seal these insects inside your walls. They may even decide to go back outside, where they belong.
- Once you’ve worked to drive them out and block their travel routes, wait a few days and then begin sealing exterior entry points. Use a caulking gun or expanding foam for this task as well. Seal gaps around pipes, exterior windows and doors, and wooden timbers. Fill in structural voids. Repair screens and weatherstripping and patch cracks in your foundation wall.
- Remove preferable silverfish habitats next to your home, such as leaf litter, stacked branches, organic debris, scrap wood, etc.
- Pick up objects next to your home so silverfish can’t hide underneath where it is dark and damp.
- Address moisture problems around your exterior, such as clogged gutters, gutter breaks, and dense landscape plants. All of these increase ground saturation next to your home and make things nice and moist for silverfish.
- Remove grass from your landscaping and trim grass near your home. Grass can trap moisture and increase humidity.
- Consider how much you water your landscaping and only give your plants the required amount. Damp landscaping is ideal for silverfish habitation.
These all-natural steps target the ability of silverfish to live in or near your home and grow a population. When you reduce food options, control humidity, and remove hiding places, you make it hard for silverfish to survive.
It is possible to get greater control by having a licensed pest management professional apply routine treatments and pest management around the exterior of your home. The liquid crack and crevice barrier treatments we apply as a part of your ongoing pest control service plan make it hard for insects to live near your home or survive the journey inside. If you’re in Chandler, contact Green Home Pest Control to set up a customized plan for your home. We help you find the right service options to meet your specific needs and give you general coverage for many insects that attempt to invade your home through tiny, hidden entry points in your exterior. The products we use are pet and child friendly, so you can have peace of mind. Contact us by phone or email for advice or service today.
How To Tell If Your Home Has A Silverfish Problem
Knowing how to detect silverfish is helpful in many ways. If you see a silverfish in your home, you can use detection to tell where they might be hiding and how bad your infestation may be. If you apply steps to get rid of silverfish, you can use detection to tell whether your efforts were a success (or not). If you hire a pest control service provider, you can use detection to check their work. So, how can you tell if your home has (or still has) a silverfish problem?
- Use a flashlight to check damp, dark environments in your home and look for the presence of adult silverfish or nymphs crawling around in these spaces. Your basement and boiler room are two good places to start looking. Other places to look include every accessible void in your bathroom.
- Check your home for black fecal matter left by silverfish. Check first in areas you might expect them to explore, such as humid, undisturbed zones where a food source is present. Also, take a peek in your food cabinets. They may leave droppings on your shelves as they explore your packaged foods.
- Check your belongings for damage. If you have an item that is already damaged, use some method to mark the damage so that, when more damage occurs, you can tell. Also, inspect paper and cardboard packages in your pantry and kitchen. If an item has damage, mark it with a black marker.
- Place sticky traps in key areas to capture silverfish as they crawl around on your floors. There are many traps available for this purpose. You can also use duct tape or some other kind of sticky tape to get the job done.
Remember that you are never alone when addressing a pest problem. Your Green Home Pest Control technicians are happy to inspect your home and show you where we’re finding evidence of continued infestation. Your technician will also point out conducive conditions, potential routes, and entry points if you wish. We want to make sure you have all of the facts you need to track the success of your pest control.
Are you in Chandler, Arizona? If so, you’re in our service area. Contact Green Home Pest Control for a thorough inspection or to get in touch with a silverfish exterminator near you. There are many reasons to choose Green Home Pest Control. We are committed to responsible pest control, applying botanically or organically derived products that are as effective as more traditional products. We customize your treatment plan to meet your specific needs. Our team is an Angie’s List Super Service Award winner and has earned the Best of Home Advisor designation. You can trust our team to provide you with the highest level of pest control and treat your family like our family.
Jump to our contact page and drop us a line for advice or to schedule a time to meet with one of our highly trained professionals. We look forward to meeting and exceeding your expectations.
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