It can be irksome to find out how to eliminate silverfish bugs in your home; this is because they tend to crawl around during the night and are fast to hide when you switch on the lights. Many times people don’t even know they have Silverfish bugs until they see small holes in clothing or a book with its pages half-eaten.
With the above in mind, you would have to be alert 24/7 to get rid of the silverfish bugs in your home. These small tenebrous pests are devious and will crawl into different areas of your home, including your bathroom, your bedroom, and your kitchen. If you’re wondering how you can get rid of the silverfish bugs in your home, then you’re in luck. There are some proven natural ways to get rid of these tiny pests, which are discussed in this silverfish bugs removal guide.
How to Get Rid of Silverfish Bugs Naturally
Bed bugs seem to get all the attention today. However, silverfish bugs are equally problematic. While they are not as innocuous as bed bugs, silverfish bugs are absolutely hideous and can make puke at first sight. You wouldn’t want them anywhere near your burgers, sandwiches, turkeys, etc. if you don’t want to see your perfectly planned backyard lunch with your family ruined.
Another reason to keep them out of your home is to protect your clothing, books, bedsheets, towels, etc. from getting ruined. Silverfish bugs prefer and enjoy gathering in the dark, chilly, and waterlogged places in your home, such as your basement or the area underneath the sink in your bathroom. If you have recently noticed one of these ugly creatures crawling in your home, then you can get rid of the silverfish bugs in your home naturally by using the following 9 methods.
Seal It Up
Blocking points of entry is a huge step towards stopping silverfish bugs from entering your home in the first place. Close all gaps and openings, door handle breaks, service access points, wall cracks (wailing holes), etc. Basically, seal any place from where the silverfish bugs could get in.
Seal up Food
Not only do you need to seal the entry points into your home, but you also need to seal up jars and containers that house potential food sources for silverfish bugs. If these bugs find food sources in your home, then they are more likely to stick around. Additionally, they will invite other silverfish bugs into your home as well.
You wouldn’t want to splash out a bucket of your preferred cereal just to discover that these slithering pests are frolicking in it. That would be disgusting. So, what should you be doing to prevent this? Penn State suggests securing dry goods such as sugar, cereals, flour, pet food, pasta, quinoa, and rice into robust, sealed containers to deter silverfish from entering such enticing food sources.
Use a Mason Jar to Trap The Silverfish
You have to establish where the pests are residing for any silverfish traps you use to be successful. Because these insects are tenebrous, you might not encounter them during the day. However, due to the things they leave behind, you will certainly know about their presence in your home.
Search for them in watery, gloomy, high moisture places, and look for tiny areas of feces that appear like black pepper. After you’ve identified the place where the silverfish reside in your home, you can begin setting up homemade traps.
Use a quarter-sized mason jar or another glass container; using masking tape, fasten the glass jar’s outside. Position a slice of toast at the jar’s bottom. Keep the jar in the place you believe the silverfish live in.
Lower Humidity
Silverfish flourish in warm, damp conditions. Eliminate their preferred environments by using a dehumidifier in a waterlogged basement, enclosing leaky pipes, and ensuring well-insulated bathrooms. According to Penn State, you must also look to prevent the ideal weather conditions in your home for these pests by closing the outside cracks with the sealant and ensuring that the drains and sewage pipes are clear so that water can go down and away.
Trim Vegetation and Minimize Exterior Clutter
Silverfish and other insects can enter your home from the area just outside your homes such as your backyard or front lawn. Therefore, when you’re looking to close the entry points into your house, make sure to remove shelter areas from the areas around your home, particularly from weeping holes, including fallen leaves and debris. Start cutting plants an inch or so away from the sides of your home, so that roots and leaves do not reach the walls outer area. This will serve you well.
Use Newspaper to Trap the Silverfish
Because the preferred meals for silverfish contain carbohydrates with a lot of starch, such as rolled oats, glue, flour, and paper, utilizing a newspaper to lure them out of your home would be a good idea. Slide up a newspaper and put rubber bands on top of the ends.
Soak the newspaper roll and place it where you can find leaves of silverfish before going to sleep. You should find the following morning that the silverfish have devoured their way into the paper. Toss the paper out, or put it on fire, without unwrapping it. Keep performing the procedure every evening till no more silverfish bugs remain in your house.
Use Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous Earth is a fine powder produced from decomposed marine organisms remains. When silverfish bugs come in contact with it, the powder dries out the pests, which eventually kills them. You can easily purchase the product from a gardening store. Moreover, for the best results, use diatomaceous earth in conditions that are relatively damp and gloomy. This will help you achieve the desire outcomes i.e. get rid of the silverfish bugs in your home. It is also recommended to use DE during the night because silverfish bugs generally come out during the night as they are tenebrous pests.
Use Boric Acid
Another natural way to get rid of silverfish and its eggs is by using boric acid. You can scatter it across the floorboards in your house, right beneath the shower, and any other place where you see indications of an infestation of silverfish.
Take the required protective measures when using boric acid to avoid inhaling the drug since this can be incredibly dangerous for the lungs. Additionally, make sure you don’t apply boric acid in areas where your pets frequently wander.
Eliminate the Clutter in Your Home
This is the most basic but also the most effective way of getting rid of the silverfish bugs in your home. Silverfish bugs love to hide in, and to feed on, old journals, books, and newspapers. Therefore, if you prefer to save every bit of paper that goes through your work station, then you may need to perform some cleaning to get rid of the clutter.
Get rid of things that you haven’t even glanced at for a long time, and keep things that you do not wish to store in enclosed bins, particularly if they are documents that are to be kept in the attic or basement. This will help to reduce the clutter in your home, which in turn will allow you to eliminate the silverfish bugs infestation in your home.
Summary
In this article, we discussed the ways you can get rid of silverfish bugs naturally. We looked at 9 natural methods to get rid of these bugs keeping in mind their nature and tendency to crawl out during nighttime. Some of the methods we discussed in the article for naturally getting rid of silverfish bugs included sealing the entry points into your home, keeping the food sources for these pests in your home sealed up and hidden, lowering humidity inside your home, using traps, boric acid, and Diatomaceous Earth to eliminate the bugs from your home, and eliminate the clutter in your home to keep them away.
Using the information provided above, you can understand silverfish bugs better and then use this to your advantage i.e. find out the best ways to get rid of them. Additionally, the information provided above will serve as a good starting point to eliminate the silverfish bugs infestation in your home or keep them away from entering it. In short, following this guide to get rid of silverfish bugs will serve you well.
Related Questions
What Are The Signs Of Silverfish Bugs Infestation In My Home?
You need to look for the following signs of silverfish bugs infestation in your home:
- Small feces in the bathroom
- Tiny holes in clothing
- Fabric material with holes
- Garments with yellow stains
- Cardboard with holes
- Wallpaper with holes
- Cereal boxes with holes
If you notice most or all of these things in your home, you likely have a silverfish bugs infestation in your home.