How To Get Rid Of Silver Fish?

Silverfish or fish moth are small insects that live on starchy foods, for example: textiles, books and similar stuff with carbohydrates in it. Their scientific name is lepisma saccharina. They come in different colors: from silvery light to blue colors. Their fish like appearance gave them their English language name. Listed below are some easy but effective ways to get rid of these tiny devourers of books! It is common among folks to confuse ‘silverfish’ with ‘firebrats’. To make certain that we are not committing the same mistake, here are some facts that will help us distinguish between the two:

Silverfish: Firebrats

From gray to green: white or black

80 F is their preferred temperature: 100 F is preferred

Ways to get rid of silverfish:

(1)Silverfish love to live in moist areas and they thrive in books, bookshelves, water heaters, stoves and laundry rooms. In simple words, they live in areas were moisture or humidity is high. Therefore the first step should be to make sure that the humidity levels inside the house are low. Desiccants and humidifiers can be used for this purpose. Silverfish cannot survive in dry environments. If there are some already infected areas, block them with silicone caulks.

(2)If there are holes, notches to be found in books or stains on your clothes, there is a very high probability that the silverfish are at work. Silverfish are also found near food, sugars, synthetic fibers, silk etc. and if you happen to come across any such infected part, immediately clean it thoroughly. It would stop their spread.

(3)Insecticides or poisons can also be used to bring silverfish under control. Use them on crawlspaces and inside the walls, and at places, where may act as possible thriving places for the silverfish. Make sure that you are applying your insecticide on leaks and cracks too.

(4)If the silverfish are already inside your books and are eating them up then here is what you can do: enclose your books in a bag along with a desiccant and leave in the freezer for three days. Silverfish would a thing of the past.

(5)But this method would be useless if silverfish were to attack your bookcase. In this case a small amount of diatomaceous earth is to be applied to the bookcase. It brings down the moisture level.

Additional tools:

(1)If the problem is getting out of hands then the first suggestion would be to immediately purchase a roach trap. They are special traps and one can find them in local hardware stores.

(2)If purchasing a roach trap seems like an expensive measure then you can build one yourself and this thing is called a jar trap. Find a canning jar, clean it thoroughly and cover the outer portion using the masking tape. Place that in an infected area of your house. The masking tape will help the silverfish climb onto the jar. Later they will fall into the jar and because there is no masking tape inside, they will not be able to come out.

(3)If you don’t even have an idea of where the infected areas are, you can use this method. It will make the silverfish come out of their hideouts and then they can be trapped. It goes like this:

Make some paste with flour and water and it should be as sticky as thin paint. Now, apply this paste to the two sides of index cards, let them dry and put them where silverfish appear frequently. If the index cards are found to be eaten after a few days or if there are signs of feeding on the paper, place either a roach trap or a jar trap there.

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