The One Way Not to Kill Silver Fish Insects
The little silvery, scaly bugs known as silver fish insects naturally live outdoors.
But if the conditions are right and they find an easy way in, they can sometimes set up residence in your home.
And when they have arrived, they are hard to get rid of! But if you follow a certain series of steps you should be able to solve this problem without too much difficulty.
Unfortunately, the first thing most people do is often the wrong way to truly get rid of silver fish insects in the long run.
So first, here is the wrong way to exterminate your silver fish bug infestation.
The Wrong Way Don't run out to your local DIY store and buy a lot of poison and traps, then lay them all around your home and expect that to be that.
If you do only this don't be too surprised when the little insects begin appearing once more a month later.
The Right Way Run out to your local DIY store and buy a bunch of silver fish insect traps and poison.
But don't use them...
yet.
First, you need to deal with the heart of the problem.
The conditions in your home must be changed so that it is not easy for these creatures to live there, and you must break their breeding cycle to win this little battle in the long run.
You see the thing with silver fish insects is they live far longer than most insects - up to 2 or 3 years - and during that period they lay a lot of eggs all over the place.
An adult female will give birth to literally hundreds of offspring in her lifetime.
When you try to poison them, you will probably kill lots of the adults, maybe even all of them.
But the eggs hidden everywhere in the cracks and crevices will soon hatch, and as you haven't done anything to make it hard for them to live there, the next generation of silver fish will soon be breeding themselves.
Also, there's nothing to stop more from coming in from the outside.
So the best way to kill silver fish is to firstly, make it hard for them to live there by removing their food source, then making the place dryer, and also closing their entrance.
Remove their food source Silver fish eat many different types of things around the average home.
This includes cereals and bread in your kitchen.
House plant leaves, the glue in your book-bindings, even the clothes you leave lying on the floor.
Try to seal off as much of this as possible.
Basically do everything you can to make it hard for a silver fish in your home to get a good meal.
It is a lot of work but it's only for the week while you get rid of them.
It's a good idea to research in more depth what exactly silver fish eat, so you can be as thorough as possible.
Remove their ideal living conditions For this step, firstly find and fill in as many cracks as you can - these are the ideal egg-laying locations.
And remember that silver fish insects love moisture and dampness.
So you want to try and dry out any such areas around your home.
Close the entrance To stop more from coming in, try to find where they are entering your home from.
It might be a crack somewhere under a door, or the hole in your bathroom ventilation.
Do what you can to seal it.
And with these three steps complete you are now truly ready to lay about with your poison and traps! Once the adults are mostly dead, any more will soon leave to look for a better place to live.
But if the conditions are right and they find an easy way in, they can sometimes set up residence in your home.
And when they have arrived, they are hard to get rid of! But if you follow a certain series of steps you should be able to solve this problem without too much difficulty.
Unfortunately, the first thing most people do is often the wrong way to truly get rid of silver fish insects in the long run.
So first, here is the wrong way to exterminate your silver fish bug infestation.
The Wrong Way Don't run out to your local DIY store and buy a lot of poison and traps, then lay them all around your home and expect that to be that.
If you do only this don't be too surprised when the little insects begin appearing once more a month later.
The Right Way Run out to your local DIY store and buy a bunch of silver fish insect traps and poison.
But don't use them...
yet.
First, you need to deal with the heart of the problem.
The conditions in your home must be changed so that it is not easy for these creatures to live there, and you must break their breeding cycle to win this little battle in the long run.
You see the thing with silver fish insects is they live far longer than most insects - up to 2 or 3 years - and during that period they lay a lot of eggs all over the place.
An adult female will give birth to literally hundreds of offspring in her lifetime.
When you try to poison them, you will probably kill lots of the adults, maybe even all of them.
But the eggs hidden everywhere in the cracks and crevices will soon hatch, and as you haven't done anything to make it hard for them to live there, the next generation of silver fish will soon be breeding themselves.
Also, there's nothing to stop more from coming in from the outside.
So the best way to kill silver fish is to firstly, make it hard for them to live there by removing their food source, then making the place dryer, and also closing their entrance.
Remove their food source Silver fish eat many different types of things around the average home.
This includes cereals and bread in your kitchen.
House plant leaves, the glue in your book-bindings, even the clothes you leave lying on the floor.
Try to seal off as much of this as possible.
Basically do everything you can to make it hard for a silver fish in your home to get a good meal.
It is a lot of work but it's only for the week while you get rid of them.
It's a good idea to research in more depth what exactly silver fish eat, so you can be as thorough as possible.
Remove their ideal living conditions For this step, firstly find and fill in as many cracks as you can - these are the ideal egg-laying locations.
And remember that silver fish insects love moisture and dampness.
So you want to try and dry out any such areas around your home.
Close the entrance To stop more from coming in, try to find where they are entering your home from.
It might be a crack somewhere under a door, or the hole in your bathroom ventilation.
Do what you can to seal it.
And with these three steps complete you are now truly ready to lay about with your poison and traps! Once the adults are mostly dead, any more will soon leave to look for a better place to live.
