Hello,
I was searching Silverfish on yahoo & came across your article.
My family & I have just moved into a new home. It was built in 2004 & the owner has taken really good care of it. We have a finished basement that my daughter has made her living area. We sprayed for spiders when we moved in a month ago and are now finding dead silverfish along the baseboards & occasionally a live one. Mostly we’re seeing the dead bodies of them and in groups. One or two at a time but dead?? Today I found a live one when I picked up her laundry under her basket. I have a few questions hopefully you can answer…My first question is how are they dying if I’ve not sprayed for them or is the spider spray that I used killing them? I used Home Defense. Second question is do I have an infestation if all I’m finding are dead ones & do I need to treat for them?? Third & final question is I noticed this morning a crack in the base board that I’d not seen before, can they create cracks??
Any information you can give me would be greatly appreciated since I can’t seem to find the answers to these three questions anywhere on the Internet!
Thanks so much, S.G.
First question.. no doubt the spider spray you applied has a residual which is affecting the bugs you’re finding and is one of the reasons spraying baseboards is a good idea when doing most any kind of pest control. But as our SILVERFISH CONTROL ARTICLE explains, they don’t live in just this area so you’ll need to do a lot more before the population expands into other parts of the home. More on that shortly…
Second question.. you most definitely have an active infestation and will need to do more treating to get rid of them for good.
Third question.. no, silverfish can’t create cracks or cause structural damage to your home. As our article explains, they can and will eat various items in the home like paper, linen, clothing and carpets so in most every structure there is a wide range of food available for them but again, they won’t cause damage to the home in the form of structural cracks or depreciation like termites or carpenter ants. The only “damage” they can do is what we’d consider to be cosmetic.
At this time I would recommend you review our online article. In the reading you’ll find several products mentioned a long with detailed directions how to use them. No doubt you need some SILVERFISH TRAPS set up around the home to start monitoring the situation. They will alert you to areas you’ll need to treat. In the end, I’m pretty sure you’ll have to treat the rest of the home with some of the ESFENVALERATE we have listed. It’s odorless and highly effective on both silverfish and spiders as well as other pests. But again, even as good as Esfenvalerate is, treating the baseboards alone won’t solve this kind of problem.
I’m pretty sure in the end you’ll come to find out that you have them living in some voids like wall spaces, ceilings and possibly the attic. For these locations, you’ll need to apply some NIBAN. It will do a good job of getting them as they forage for food and in the end could be the best option since it’s both easy to apply and can cover a large area without making a mess like liquid treating. Silverfish really love the stuff and once they eat some, they’ll soon die.
One other product worth mentioning is the PT PHANTOM AEROSOL. It too is odorless and because of it’s unique “dry” spray on property, it’s a good option for use inside if you have a lot of sensitive areas you want to spray but are hesistant because you don’t want liquid all over. Phantom goes on dry when used right and it only takes a little bit to get an area treated so it’s good for these areas. I use it on my baseboards throughout most of my home since I have hardwood floors and spraying liquids is difficult unless my sprayer is set to really fine. Even then it tends to make a mess so I have gone to the Phantom which works well.
Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:
Silverfish Control Article: http://www.bugspray.com/articles98/silverfish.html
Silverfish Traps: http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page658.html
Esfenvalerate: http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page225.html
Niban: http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page228.html
Phantom Aerosol: http://www.bugspray.com/item/phantom_aerosol.html
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