Hi there,
I am writing to you in regards to our huge springtail problem. We built and moved into our house in the fall of 2005. In the May/June of 2006 we began noticing springtails in our basement and then in other rooms of our house. We had a major pest control company out to look at them. No one seemed to know what these insects even were at the time. After a lot of searching online I figured it out. This company tried everything they could think of to get rid of them with no success. Here we are 4 years later and we are still dealing with the springtails every spring and summer. The only thing we have found to help control them is to line the perimeter of our basement with glue boards. It is so frustrating to have a new house and a problem like this. We have tried so many things suggested to us over the years. Basically I was told today that using glue boards was probably the only thing we could do to control them.
I found your website tonight and watched your video on how to get rid of springtails. Would we be able to apply your product now that our house was treated by an exterminator. They were just here today. Also, we have a lot of landscaping around the house now, are you spraying right over the plants when you applied your product? I want to make sure we would not be harming our grass, plants, and flowers. Any help you could give us would be greatly appreciated. It seems like in our area no one seems to know how to treat them. I have even had exterminators not call me back when they found out what our problem was. I hope you can find the time to help us.
Sincerely, M.P.
First, I suggest you read through our SPRINGTAIL CONTROL ARTICLE which details the life cycle of this pest. As you’ll learn, they live out in the yard and seem to thrive in gardens, moist landscaping, pine islands, under wood chips, under weed guard and in flower beds. From these locations they will readily migrate into the home if left untreated. This is especially true if the area is one that receives a lot of water and fertilizer which tends to create a perfect springtail breeding ground. Based on the information you provided, it doesn’t sound like anything is being done in these key areas and if it is, clearly not enough product is being applied. And for the record; the use of GLUEBOARDS is not a control measure. No doubt they’ll help reduce the numbers you see in the home but they won’t do anything to control the local population that’s breeding and making the new springtails. In fact, all the ones making their way into the home would just die since they can’t live long above and outside of their natural environment: the dirt. Only dealing with the nest and nest locations directly will get the results you want and that means going after them in the soil where they’re living.
With this being understood, you should now understand that to keep them from invading your basement, you’ll need to get them outside. This will be around the home and deep down in the soil across your entire lot. To achieve this goal, you’ll need to start using the BIFEN GRANULES applied monthly along with the CYONARA RTS sprayed over the top. This combination will eventually knock them down enough in the yard so you don’t have them constantly migrating inside. And realize it’s paramount to treat as much of the yard as possible; in other words, don’t just treat against the foundation. You must treat the entire lot as springtails will readily migrate 10-25 feet through treated soil without dying so unless you get a large buffer zone of springtail free soil, they’ll keep coming inside regardless of the fact they’ll be dying from their effort.
Lastly, the use of the two products mentioned above won’t pose any hazard to people, pets or plants and can be used as needed to solve the problem. Detailed safety videos reside on all the product pages explaining all the “do’s and dont’s” when using them so I suggest you review the video’s to fully understand just how to store and use the products safely.
Here are direct links to the products and information mentioned above:
Springtail Control: http://www.bugspray.com/article/springtail.html
Glue Traps: http://www.bugspray.com/item/mouse_glueboard.html
Bifen Granules: http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page719.html
Cyonara RTS: http://www.bugspray.com/item/cyonara_rts.html
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