How long does silverfish live

Another of the key weaknesses of boric acid is that it becomes useless when excessively wet. Given the nature of silverfish dens, it may not always do the job but it usually will. Consider using boric acid in remote, little-used areas and supplementing it with diatomaceous earth in more lived-in areas.

Diatomaceous earth is a peculiar, non-toxic form of silverfish control. A recurrent theme in this guide has been the importance of moisture to silverfish: they need it to live, and constantly seek out water. When they head to dry areas to seek out food, they only survive thanks to a waxy outer coating. This enables their body to hold in moisture during these journeys. Contact with diatomaceous earth immediately dissolves this coating, which causes rapid moisture loss and death.

This high rate of effectiveness combined with its non-toxicity makes for a perfect silverfish killer. Sprinkling a thin line of diatomaceous earth along bookshelves, cupboards, and wardrobes can kill silverfish before they begin eating your belongings.

After a few days to a week of successful, well-placed application of this substance, you should see considerable results. There are many all-natural, organic, and non-toxic compounds that repel silverfish. The oils and aroma of bay leaves make them a useful way to get rid of silverfish in certain areas. Crush the leaves into small pieces or a powder, then place these pieces in the paths they frequent.

Essential oils work in much the same way. Lavender, citrus, and many other essential oils will repel silverfish thanks to their overwhelming aroma. Compared to diatomaceous earth and other effective silverfish killers, bay leaves and essential oils might seem useless.

However, they work excellently in combination with traps. This means that you have several ways to go about trapping them and getting rid of them, even non-lethally if you care to. For instance, you might spritz some water onto a newspaper with a spray bottle. Then, wrap up the newspaper and place it in an area where you know that the silverfish gather. It will draw silverfish thanks to the fact it serves as a shelter, as well as a food source.

After a few days, pick up the newspaper and quickly toss it in a bag. Ideally, you should do this in the middle of the day when the bugs are inactive. Another way to trap silverfish involves masking tape, a mason jar, and a piece of bread. You can use this against them by wrapping a mason jar with masking tape and placing a piece of bread inside it. While entering the jar will be rather easy, escaping it will be completely impossible.

Placing many of these traps around the areas that silverfish often find food, such as your pantry and bookshelf will make the trap more effective. One of the easiest options for how to get rid of silverfish is using a set of storebought traps.

Numerous manufacturers produce and sell custom-made traps that lure and poison them. Typically, their active ingredient is boric acid, and its strengths and pitfalls are mostly present in traps. Kids and animals can still get into the poison just as easily, so caution is still necessary. There are a few advantages to boric acid traps vs boric acid itself, however. For one, the poison is better sheltered from the elements.

As a result, it will retain its usefulness better in highly damp areas than boric acid from a spray bottle. Over time, the acid will remain dry and catch more bugs as they walk by and wander into the trap. A few well-placed traps can go a long way towards exterminating your silverfish infestation.

If you can find where the silverfish are coming from, then you might be able to deprive them of the moisture they need to live. Seal any leaking pipes or faucets, cover any cracks where water seeps in from, and otherwise minimize water exposure. Finally, purchase a dehumidifier and use it to sap the moisture from the air. As the moisture in the air dips, the environment will become increasingly unlivable for the silverfish.

Not to mention, this has the tremendous benefit of treating the root of the problem. While killing part or even the entire silverfish population minimizes and delays the problem, denying them a place to stay in your home also prevents their return. In addition to eliminating your silverfish infestation, it will reduce moisture-related risks such as mold growth.

Silverfish bugs often enter and traverse the home through tiny cracks, crevices, and other areas. In many cases, silverfish and other bugs enter homes and apartments via air vents. However, you can cover them with a mesh screen that allows for proper airflow while also keeping silverfish out of your home. The exact approach and options for how to get rid of silverfish vary depending on the area of infestation.

Your options also vary depending on where you live, such as in a house or an apartment. If you have a severe silverfish infestation in a standalone property that you own, there are virtually no restrictions to your options. You also have free reign to modify the property as needed, which is another benefit.

Working in a property within a complex is more difficult. Fumigation will be difficult or impossible to arrange, and the source of the infestation may be inaccessible to you. Combine this approach with repellants and physical covers over possible entry points, and you may be able to solve your infestation problem.

Eliminate clutter, trash, and piled-up paper or towels and examine the corners and secluded spaces of the room. Denying silverfish secluded, dark corners to hide may be enough to drive out a bathroom infestation, but using a dehumidifier is also a good touch.

Using boric acid in the bathroom is a bad idea if you have children or pets, but traps and natural repellants are still good choices in this case. Some of the details vary in a basement infestation vs an attic infestation. For instance, basements tend to be warmer, more humid, and may have cracks and exposure to the earth. Both attics and basements tend to be dark, dusty, secluded spaces that homeowners use for storage purposes. Not to mention, the precious keepsakes, photographs, journals, or other items that people often store in them are practically a buffet for one thousand silverfish.

However, the remoteness of attics and basements means that you can generally have a field day with boric acid. With luck, that will be the end of your silverfish woes. Using essential oils to get rid of silverish on clothes is a good choice since the aroma will prevent them from attacking your clothes with no ill effects.

Sprinkling a few drops of essential oils around articles of clothing and the wardrobe should create a potent repellant effect that will drive the silverfish elsewhere. However, the traces a silverfish leaves behind are quite hard to notice when their numbers are small. In this case, you may or may not be able to tackle it on your own.

On the other hand, uprooting a deep, severe infestation is going to be deeply time-consuming. Buying traps and a dehumidifier can already grow expensive, not to mention the time commitment of handling silverfish extermination on your own. Hiring an expert to handle your silverfish infestation is often the best choice. Safe, careful application of the latest pesticides and traps will eliminate the infestation.

From there, a pest control expert will also be able to inform you as to why the infestation occurred and help you prevent it from happening again. Nextgen Pest Solutions is one of the top exterminators in the South. Customers throughout Georgia and Florida put their faith in Nextgen Pest Solutions because they know that this company always gets the job done right.

We also serve the Birmingham , Alabama area of Jefferson County. Pest control coupons apply to recurring service only. Exact matches only. Search in title. Search in content. Search in excerpt. Pay Your Bill. Learning Center. Freshly laid concrete and green lumber supply humidity, while wallpaper paste provides food. Adults of both species are slender, wingless, soft-bodied insects with 2 long, slender antennae Figure 1. Their bodies taper gradually from front to rear to 3 long, thin, taillike appendages.

If you see scales around or beneath damaged items, it is a good indication that these pests are the culprits. The scales are delicate, dustlike, and slightly incandescent in the light, and they stick to most surfaces. The females lay the eggs in crevices, on cloth, or buried in food or dust. The average clutch contains 50 eggs, but this can vary from 1 to Firebrat eggs hatch in about 14 days and silverfish eggs in about 19 to 32 days.

In colder environments eggs can remain dormant for up to 6 weeks, hatching as soon as the temperature rises. They acquire their scales about 12 days after their fourth molt; at that point the firebrat and silverfish look like smaller versions of the adults and gradually grow in size until they reach maturity Figure 2.

Unlike other insects, firebrats and silverfish molt continuously throughout their life, passing through 45 to 60 instars or development stages. Firebrats live about 2 years and silverfish about 3 years.

Adults have an interesting courtship in which males attract females with a mating dance that includes antennae contact and head wagging, after which the male deposits a protected capsule containing sperm for the female to pick up.

To keep the capsule from drying out, males often will lay it on a moist surface, so it is common to see adult insects clustered around damp areas when mating. Firebrats and silverfish tend to crowd together in a central hiding place during the day to rest, and it is here where the females often lay their eggs.

Both sexes produce pheromones, or chemicals, that initiate these aggregations, and when these insects crowd together, it helps regulate the temperature and humidity around the eggs and young nymphs.

You can find them around ovens, heating units, fireplaces, hot water pipes, attics during the summer, and the furnace during winter. In apartments and homes, this insect crawls along pipelines and through openings in walls or floors from one level to another. Firebrats and silverfish have very weak mandibles, or jaws, which causes them to scrape, instead of bite, the surface of paper Figure 3. Page discoloration often occurs because of the fungi associated with their feeding damage.

On paper and fabrics feeding usually begins in one area and spreads as unconnected, irregularly shaped holes. To detect and monitor infestations, use cockroach sticky traps. You also can use small, glass jars covered on the outside with masking tape. Place these traps or jars in corners and along edges where foraging is likely. Because these insects can travel long distances while looking for food, it can be difficult to pinpoint the infestation source. To prevent silverfish and firebrat infestations, keep basements, laundry rooms, and bathrooms—especially shower stalls—clean and dry.

Household dust and debris are important sources of food, so routine cleaning will help provide effective control. In addition, periodically clean out closets, cabinets, and storage containers. Patch holes or spaces around pipes and conduits, and repair leaks and drips in plumbing.

Silverfish require a lot of moisture, so using dehumidifiers in closed spaces can help discourage these pests. Ventilation from fans can reduce relative humidity to a point that is intolerable to silverfish. Because collections of magazines, papers, and books provide food and harborage, occasionally move these items around in your bookcase.

Keep food in containers with tight lids, especially dry, processed items. Silverfish and firebrats are flightless insects, with flattened tapering bodies covered in scales. They have long antennae, reduced eyes, one long tail and two smaller side tails. Silverfish and firebrats are fast running and move their bodies in a 'fish'-like way. The Silverfish Lepisma saccharina is a species common in buildings in Britain. Silverfish have flattened bodies of up to 12mm in length; they are covered in scales and are a grey blue colour.

They have long antennae and biting jaws. Silverfish live in habitats of high humidity such as in damp leaf litter, in urban areas they will live in bathrooms and kitchens, but are no risk to humans. Their flattened bodies enable them to hide in crevices. Eggs of the Silverfish take several weeks to hatch, nymphs moult several times and mature at around three months old. Adults continue to moult through their lifetime and can live for up to 8 years.