Mistakes Everyone Makes When Dealing With A Silverfish Infestation

Silverfish don't rank high on the list of hazardous household pests, but can anyone blame you for making them a big deal anyway? Getting past the undeniable "ick" factor that warrants their extermination alone, these shiny, soft-bodied bugs can cause their fair amount of trouble. Although they won't bite you, silverfish are still chewing insects, setting their sights on starchy or sugary foods and materials like paper, fabric, glue, and other consumables. Over time, they steadily cause damage to books, wallpaper, linens, and other belongings. They moult and leave feces stains wherever they go, and in the worst instances, they'll even cause allergic reactions!

Being quick to reproduce and expand their territory, silverfish demand urgent attention at the first sight of an infestation. Of course, jumping into a frantic extermination effort leaves plenty of room for mistakes. While you may work diligently to remove the pests, there's often some aspect of your prevention or eradication approach that's leaving the door open for more bugs to invade the home. You need a thoughtful strategy covering every base to ensure you keep silverfish away for good, and that means consciously avoiding common missteps. These include forgetting to target gaps and crevices, mismanaging the home environment, using treatments incorrectly, and over-relying on chemical insecticides. 

Silverfish stay active around cracks and crevices where they can lay their eggs and keep safe in their preferred dark environment. That's why omitting small gaps around the home in your prevention and extermination methods is a big mistake. From a prevention standpoint, cracks and crevices should be closed off to keep the pests from migrating into the house. Seal cracks around baseboards, wood and door trim, utility line entry points, and household ports like dryer vents with caulk or, if the gaps are large, cement.

After sealing up all the cracks and gaps around the house that you can, clean and maintain those that can't be sealed. Frequent vacuuming with a powerful HEPA vacuum around bookshelves, closets, storage areas, and fixtures can reduce debris that contributes to a favorable habitat for reproduction. You can also spray various desiccant dusts to help kill nearby silverfish and slow their spread. Diatomaceous earth, amorphous silica gel, and boric acid are popular options, often acting as the active ingredient in many commercial pesticides. Ensure the area is dry for powders to remain effective. Be careful using treatments like these around children and pets, as they may be irritating if inhaled or ingested.

Silverfish exclusively choose moist, dark environments. Failing to eliminate moisture and humidity is a grave error in the fight against these insects. While there are myriad hacks to keep insects out of the house, you can start with dehumidifying and maintaining proper ventilation. Run a dehumidifier in the basement and other moist areas. Keep hot spots like bathrooms, kitchen sinks, mudrooms, and laundry rooms clean and dry. By keeping the humidity significantly below 70%, you'll make the environment inhospitable for silverfish and discourage mold growth that may give the pests a food source.

You'll typically have to broaden your scope to the rest of the property if you want to keep silverfish out of the house completely. Clutter in the yard and overgrown vegetation that might serve as safe harbor or water sources will attract bugs. We've seen how crucial mulch mistakes can lead to silverfish problems in the house, making practices like installing fast-draining gravel around the home a smart way to remove water sources. But you can't forget basic maintenance that protects your home from damage. Keep your gutters clean, pressure-wash your house, and create adequate drainage around the property. With proper monthly and annual upkeep, you'll reduce the moisture and mold issues that support silverfish infestations.

It might seem obvious, but it's worth highlighting that misusing sprays and other treatments is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when dealing with a silverfish infestation. You can get it wrong for several reasons. Part of it involves accurately identifying the pest. Is it a silverfish or a firebrat? Though similar, these pests have slightly different tolerances and environmental preferences. As a result, some treatments may be more effective in baiting or killing one over the other.

Applying the treatments is another aspect that's easy to mess up. Even if you follow the instructions when applying, you may forget to reapply powder if it gets wet from a rainstorm or use them unsafely. Children and pets may expose themselves to hazardous chemicals, or you may unwittingly use a flammable spray around a heat source. Foggers are particularly dangerous. But they're also ineffective to use for a silverfish infestation, so you shouldn't be using them anyway. The point is to read the labels and accurately identify the pests before using any kind of commercial or DIY pesticide. If you use them correctly, you should see the infestation decrease within a couple of weeks.

It's easy to lean on commercial sprays, powders, and other pesticides when you notice silverfish around the house. Poisons like pyrethrin provide quick knockdown. Others, such as chlorfenapyr and indoxacarb, are long-lasting and highly effective at spreading poison throughout a colony, helping exterminate infestations down to their roots. In an integrated control approach, they certainly have their place for dealing with large numbers of pests. If you're only noticing the initial phases of a burgeoning issue, though, resorting to pesticides is a mistake.

Controlling the environment is the first step in managing silverfish. If you don't cut out the water and food sources, they'll just keep coming back and leave you wondering why your treatments aren't working. Only after you seal entry points, reduce the humidity, fix leaks and drainage issues, and place your pantry items into airtight containers can you expect to make noticeable gains with your removal efforts. First comes prevention, then comes extermination. And when you're ready for that, use a combination of sprays that kill on contact and have residual effectiveness, long-lasting powders and baits, and even the random household essential to solve your silverfish problem once and for all.