How to Get Rid of Silverfish

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What Are Silverfish? If you've ever seen a skittering silver insect running across your tub and diving into the drain after you've turned on the bathroom light, you've seen a silverfish.
But what are silverfish? And everyone who has had to deal with them has wanted to know how to get rid of silverfish.
To learn how to get rid of silverfish you have to first learn "what are silverfish?" Silverfish are small, wingless creatures that have been known to wreak havoc on books and other paper objects as well as cereals and pastes.
While the silverfish are in no way a parasite (as in they do not feed from the humans they may have interaction with) the presence of the silverfish can pose a definite sense of revulsion for the home owner who discovers them.
Silverfish have been known to destroy property.
Books left too long in the dark may become victims of a silverfish infestation.
Silverfish are largely nocturnal.
They have two compound eyes compared to other members of their genus who are eyeless.
Silverfish also live between two and eight years if left unchecked.
This leaves a lot of time for them to breed and create more.
The silverfish moves in a fish like motion and when they are fully grown they have the silver tint to their exoskeletons.
Silverfish tend to eat a lot of starchy foods.
Their scientific name (Lepisma saccharina) even lends it to the notion of eating sugar based starchy foods.
These foods are high in carbohydrates and proteins.
This explains the silverfish's tendency to seek out kitchen areas and cereal foods or their occasion to be found in the garbage disposal taking care of the last remnants of your sloppy joe.
Silverfish have been known to contaminate food, but they have not been proven to transmit any diseases.
Silverfish can live for up to a year without food, but they are quite willing to eat nearly anything including their own molted exoskeletons.
Silverfish have been found in many metropolitan areas, they need 75% to 95% relative humidity to properly survive and they often are found in kitchens, bathrooms, garages, closets and attics.
Silverfish Prevention Prevention is almost always the best medicine.
This is something you should remember for your health and for the sanctity of your home.
This adage also goes along with your mission to find out how to get rid of silverfish.
Silverfish prevention is the best way to get rid of them.
But how do you prevent silverfish from getting into your home? Silverfish cannot fly.
However they are small enough they can fit through even the smallest of cracks in the mortar around your house.
Silverfish are commonly found in showers and tubs, garages, closets and attics, the idea here is to make these spots less hospitable for the insects.
Silverfish flourish in a cool, dark and moist area.
If you put a silverfish in a situation where they can't get somewhere moist they dry up quickly and die.
Silverfish can live for up to a year without food, but with the quickness to which they can move, they can often find new sources of food, so drying out areas is the key to prevention.
If you can reduce the amounts of moisture in your home before the silverfish inhabit you have a higher chance of silverfish prevention.
If you keep your attics and basements well ventilated they are less likely to attract and draw in moisture.
Also for highly humid areas, a dehumidifier is a good choice to reduce humidity.
Silverfish feed regularly on starchy items.
So adding starch to your clothes is a bad idea if you want to prevent the infestation of silverfish.
If you can keep your areas cooler than 50 degrees or so, this can help to prevent the arrival of silverfish, they prefer temperatures between 70 and 80 in general.
A very hot and humid area in your home is your shower.
To aid in silverfish prevention, after showers immediately close your shower door and run the ventilation fans to get the moist air out of the room.
With regards to storage, make sure not to stack your boxes directly on the floor and keep them away from the walls of your storage area.
This will help you in your attempt at silverfish prevention.
How To Get Rid Of Silverfish Knowledge is your best method on how to get rid of silverfish.
The more knowledge you have of silverfish the better you will know how to eradicate them.
In a matter of a few months your house can be infested with Silverfish.
In the right conditions you could even have the insects crawling over you in your sleep.
This does not sound like a good experience to have.
You need a way to get rid of them and fast before they are carrying your children away in their sleep! The first thing to remember about silverfish is that they thrive in moist areas.
Your garage, your shower, your attic and your basement are prime areas for silverfish infestation.
Silverfish are going to be laying eggs all over these areas.
Silverfish have been known to lay as many as 300 eggs at a time.
This does not bode well for the sanctity of your storage areas.
Not even professional exterminators can get rid of all of the silverfish in your home.
Sometimes you need your own personal touch to rid yourself of the insects.
You also need a solution that is chemical free, especially if you want to keep your family away from any harmful chemicals that might otherwise be used to get rid of the silverfish.
Silverfish will not go away by themselves.
They are not migratory and they tend to live between two and eight years per individual.
Certainly you can crush any you see underfoot, but there will always be more until you take action against them.
They won't transmit disease to you, but they can make their way into your food supply contaminating it with a whole host of unseemly germs and bacteria that could make you and your family very sick.
Just because Silverfish don't bite doesn't mean they can't harm you.
Unfortunately we all too often kill many of their more common predators like earwigs, house centipedes and spiders.
Since we kill the natural predators it is up to use to learn how to get rid of silverfish ourselves.
The best way to do this is to increase our knowledge of this silver pest.
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