Silverfish: Causes and Helpful Home Remedies

Nobody likes silverfish in the kitchen, bathroom and cellar. Where they come from and how to get rid of them, you can find out here.

What are silverfish?

Silverfish (sugar guest) are silver-coloured insects with six legs and five antennae. Silverfish are about one centimeter in size. They are shy of light, nocturnal and love warm and humid climates. Due to a high room temperature and high humidity they prefer to stay in kitchens, bathrooms and cellars.

Their hiding places are joints, loose wallpaper and any cracks. The silverfish particularly like to feed on starchy materials, but also on synthetic fibres, cotton, skin flakes, paper, house dust mites, moulds and dead insects. Even if they do not belong to the pests, we do not like to have the silverfish in our four walls.

Causes for silverfish infestation

• House dust mites, moulds, hair and skin scales in the home are the perfect food source for silverfish.
• Silverfish feel particularly well at a room temperature of 20-30 degrees Celsius and a high humidity of 80 to 90 percent.
• One or two silverfish can also get into the apartment through defective pipes or leaking joints.

Fighting silverfish

Even if silverfish are not dangerous or harmful, we don’t want the little insects to be in our books, between our food and in crevices in the joints, always surprising us. Before we hire an exterminator, we can take steps to eliminate them ourselves. These home remedies help against silverfish infestation:

• A true all-rounder among the household remedies: Baking soda. Mix with a little sugar and use as an attractant.
• Fill affected rooms with a bowl of lemon, vinegar or lavender. The silverfish do not like these smells at all.
• Sticky traps help against the silverfish. Put a paper with honey on the floor overnight. The next morning, discard the trap and the insects. Or you can get glue traps from the drugstore.
• Another silverfish trap: potatoes. They’re also good bait to fight the silverfish. Put a sliced potato on an open plastic bag at night and the next day you can release the fish in the bag.

Preventing silverfish

• In order not to offer the silverfish a comfortable climate in the first place, regular ventilation should be provided. What you have to pay attention to, proper ventilation.
• The heat in the home should be properly regulated. Therefore, it is also important to heat properly.
• Remove places of retreat by fixing loose wallpaper and closing all cracks in floors and joints.
• Do not leave any food open.
• Remove hair in the bathroom regularly.
• Rinse drains regularly.
• Treat mould (you can find out which home remedies help here: cleaning tiles).