The Popular Kitchen Spice Silverfish Can't Stand

Silverfish are gross. Even if you're not put off by bugs in general, seeing the tiny, slithering, alien bodies of silverfish scooting across your floor, under your moldings, or anywhere else in your home is pure nightmare fuel. They're also a bad portent of potential mold because silverfish thrive in extremely humid environments, like bathrooms, where it's most likely to grow. If you spot a silverfish in your home, your initial reaction may be to scream (even though they're not harmful to humans), but immediately after, you'll want to know how to repel them so that a single silverfish doesn't become a whole colony. 

Enter cinnamon, the common kitchen spice that also helps to keep fungus out of your garden. It's antimicrobial, meaning cinnamon actively inhibits the ability of mold to grow. Its intense odor also repels insects in general and silverfish in particular. In short, cinnamon creates an inhospitable habitat for silverfish to thrive. It won't kill silverfish, so if they've already made your house their home, you'll need to resort to more extreme, permanent measures to eliminate all these pests and their eggs. However, as a preventative measure, cinnamon is very effective, making it an inexpensive and organic option.

Silverfish eat starch. Not only does this include mold and organic grains, but it can also take in everything from paper to dust. Cinnamon keeps them away, which is great. However, while you can certainly sprinkle ground cinnamon through your books or hide cinnamon sticks on your shelves, you might not be keen to have that additional dirty appearance around your home. Instead, consider using a cinnamon essential oil to spread the scent throughout your home and wherever silverfish have previously been spotted.

Another method of using cinnamon against silverfish is to dab cinnamon oil into dark corners where they typically hide. You can use a cotton swab, Q-tip, makeup round, or even a paper towel soaked in some cinnamon oil to spread it around. Likewise, you can also get cinnamon into your silverfish-prone areas by mixing the oil with your cleaning agent. The tantalizing scent will waft throughout your rooms, and your surfaces will be rid of mold and mildew as well. All that and keeping away silverfish too? It's a win-win-win.