I emailed you once last summer. this article was extremely helpful. Where I live it is winter time and so relieved due to psocids. We got one warm day which was abt 45 degrees. I am already seeing them. We had Orkin come in to try and resolve this problem. No luck with Orkin. So I am taking this matter into my own hands with the help of your article. I do have a question. I am noticing alot of this annoying bugs in our patio which I have turned into a play room for my son. I have plastic bins of toys, Books and even a play table made out of wood. How would I control the humidity in that room. It faces towards the street, entry is thru the patio to get to our front door. I do not have any curtains up. would it help with heat if I put some up. If I decided to move every thing out of there until I deal with the bugs. If I take this items to a differ room will it start an infestation to the room I store them in???????????? For instance if I seal off the plastic bins and there happens to be one of those bugs inside and I seal it in will they hatch more eggs inside and things could get worst???????? If my husband and I start this process how long till we stop seeing the action of this stupid bugs???? I am also having problems sealing off our basement. There are cracks all over. I am sure we can not find every crack. HELP PLEASE…..D.
First, reducing the amount of humidity will in general help to reduce most any insect population. This is particularly true with psocids. The easiest way to accomplish this would be to get a small dehumidifier. They’re easy to use and maintain and most certainly will help the problem. I recommend one for the patio for starters.
Second, removing everything will not cause them to relocate unless the room where you move all the toys is equally as humid and you successfully migrate some adults which is actually not so easy to do. Psocids are mushy, vulnerable and not easily handled let alone moved. And they’re easy to see so when relocating anything from the room it would be easy to note if there were any of them hitching a ride. But if the room you’re moving everything too is extra “moist”, I’d say installing a dehumidifier there would be smart too.
Third, as our PSOCID ARTICLE explains, this pest is easy to kill. A good cleaning with the ROUGH’N READY will remove their food. Follow this up with some CYKICK and you should be able to knock them out immediately. And if you treat once a month, you should be able to keep them away for good.
Lastly, I do feel I should make mention of another pest which some people readily confuse with psocids. Just to make sure we’re talking about the same pest; are the bugs you’re seeing white, somewhat oval in shape and crawling around in a circular fashion? That would most likely be a psocid. These little guys will avoid the light and when you turn over items on the ground or pull open a closed window, you can many times see them scurrying away once exposed to the light.
But another common pest that can infest homes to extreme levels is what we call a SPRINGTAIL. They’re black, resemble a flea, and will migrate inside by the thousands. These guys can “hop” which is why they’re many times mistaken for a flea. They thrive in moisture ridden areas and rely on a lot of humidity to live. This time of year they’ll invade homes as they migrate up and out of the soil following the turn of winter to spring. I mention them just to make sure these aren’t what you’re seeing because the treatment for this pest is a lot more “chemical intensive” and involves going outside to reduce the local population. Review the article to see what I’m talking about. As you’ll see, compared to psocids, springtails would involve 5-10 times as much work and aggravation!
Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:
Psocid Control: http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page1219.html
Rough N’Ready: http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page2118.html
Cykick: http://www.bugspray.com/item/pt_cykick.html
Springtails: http://www.bugspray.com/article/springtail.html
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