# Silverfish



## Vancouver Mommy (Aug 15, 2007)

OK, three and a half weeks ago we moved into a really cute little 80-some odd year old house in a cute neighbourhood with a cute little back yard with a cute little playhouse, across the street from a cute little playground. Cute cute cute. Everything is cute except the silverfish. We moved into an infested house and as a result I have pretty much had a complete mental breakdown. Seriously. I have never experienced this kind of anxiety in my entire life. I have spread diamotaceous earth throughout the house along all the baseboards and in any of the cracks and crevices that I could reach. I run the dehumidifier 24/7 set to 40%, which I'm sure helps, but not enough. It's an old house and I know they come in from the outside. I feel like it's a losing battle.

The owners of the house are out of the country and claim that they were never a big problem before (this is their family home, not a long-term rental property), although they were present. I am meticulous about dishes and leftover food and vacuuming and keeping the bathroom clean and leaving nothing on the floor. And when I say meticulous, I mean obsessive in a not-so-healthy sort of way. I am afraid to move from room to room at night, and I have full-blown panic attacks when I see them.

Recently I've found them in the kitchen under a wooden backsplash that is impossible to keep dry. Who installs a wood backsplash for heaven's sake? And in my cupboards. All my food is now in plastic or glass containers but still it icks me out. They are also in my bedroom. The owners have offered to hire a pest control company, but I don't know what sort of success they would have without addressing the way these devil-bugs are getting into the house in the first place. My big fear is that we will be taking them with us when we move in a couple of years (we plan to build or buy a new house).

Does anybody have any success stories they could share with me? Should I continue trying to manage it naturally or should I go with the pest control company? I actually start counseling next week for the anxiety (I am hanging on by a thread, actually). If it were just me I would break the lease, pay the penalty and get the hell out of here, but the move was pretty tough on the kids and I wouldn't do that to them again after just a few weeks. I feel trapped.


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## reducereuserecycle (Jan 16, 2007)

i have no solutions but i can understand why this is bothering you so much...i would feel the same way!

if you pack up and move, you may end up with another problem at the next place...and it could be worse...so moving really may not even help...there is always something to deal with. i have lived places with those crazy jumping spiders (they call them sprickets--like a cross between spiders and crickets) and they were really, really bad....and where i am now we have moths really bad.

i just hope that you can find a solution that will give you some peace.


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## weliveintheforest (Sep 3, 2005)

DO you have any ideas about where they may be getting in? Maybe if you spread diatomaceous earth around the outside of the windows and if you have a basement...? Maybe the pest control company can do a consultation with you and tell you whether they can help or not.


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## orangatan (Aug 12, 2009)

Urgh- we have them too. And I experience(d) so much anxiety too.

We bought a townhome and a week into it we saw the first one. I researched google like a mad woman staying up till late hours reading the same advice from different sites on how to get rid of them. We have no excessive moisture or any leaks. I spoke with the people who live around me and 3 out of the 4 units around us have them too. The guys beside us went through 3 cans of Raid in one night and even that didn't work long term-within a week or two he saw them again. Because of the toxic grossness of raid we went the D. earth and borax route. I read that it takes up to 14 days for them to die from the DE and borax but I've never seen dead ones.







We called 4 different pest control companies (even one that advertised as "green") and the suggestions were to either fumigate our place or treat everything, ie walls, floors, ect with a spray similiar to raid. They did say though that unless all the units around us got the same treatment that the silverfish would eventually come back. So that was not an option for us, both because of the toxic nature of it (I was 37-28 weeks pregnant!) and because it was admittedly a short term solution.
After I saw one crawling on the countertop while I was preparing food I freaked out. Then I saw one on my couch and I lost it. During the last few weeks of pregnancy I would not go pee alone for fear of seeing one. DH would go into the bathroom first, kill any he saw (about 2?) and then I would go in. Then I started seeing them everywhere-not real ones-but I would think I saw one. So frustrating- I thought I was losing my sanity because of these gross little bugs. So I hear you.
We ended up buying several sticky traps from Canadian Tire that are meant for small bugs and placing them around the house. I don't look in them, Dh only tells me about it if I ask. But I can tell you that the traps have cut down on how many we see skidding around (I get the heebie jeebies just typing that). Also we now know where in the house they are the most/least and can monitor somewhat if the number of them is more/less. Some things that have helped me tremendously with the anxiety part is to remember that 1. They don't bite-they won't hurt me or my babies. 2. They don't spread disease. 3. It could be way worse- we could have mice or rats. Or cockroaches or spiders. For all it's worth I read somewhere that there are less in winter, don't know if it's true but I'll take it. Sorry, I know my post is more me comiserating as opposed to helping but at least your not alone.


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## phatchristy (Jul 6, 2005)

We got them about 7 years ago. I seriously regret buying used books, but I went to a booksale with mom and she bought a few books and one of them had them in there.







Books are a real hot spot for them, apparently they live on the binding gel.

They're very difficult to kill too.

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/de...cks-p-204.html

This is what you can get--it's boric acid saturated cardboard squares. You can throw them in drawers, etc. where you've seen them. They LOVE the paper bait, will eat it up, dehydrate and die.

However, likely the guys have made it into the attic, or they may have even come up from the attic. Apparently they like to live off of some of the stuff up there (insulation I believe). So, likely they would have to have stuff blown in there. They generally blow boric acid up in the attic over here, which takes care of a lot of pests!


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## Vancouver Mommy (Aug 15, 2007)

Orangatan - thank you so much. I'm really happy to hear that I am not alone in my insanity. Although I'm getting so tired of scanning every flat surface of every room I walk into. I have dreams, hallucinations and obsessive thoughts constantly and I'm so sick of feeling like I've lost it. I'm beginning to think of Burnaby as the land of silverfish and dead skunks.


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## texmama (Jun 4, 2005)

We had a lot silverfish when we first moved into our current home - in fact we still see an occasional one, though I only see one in a great while (fortunately, not a sense of phobia for me, though I can imagine how you feel) The one thing we did that helped immensely was to get rid of ALL cardboard boxes - all of them, even in the attic - we now use rubbermaid instead. They make their homes in the cardboard.


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## Vancouver Mommy (Aug 15, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *texmama* 
We had a lot silverfish when we first moved into our current home - in fact we still see an occasional one, though I only see one in a great while (fortunately, not a sense of phobia for me, though I can imagine how you feel) The one thing we did that helped immensely was to get rid of ALL cardboard boxes - all of them, even in the attic - we now use rubbermaid instead. They make their homes in the cardboard.

Yeah, that's my next goal. Unfortunately my dh has about 30+ boxes of books in the basement. We need to do another book cull and then find a plastic storage solution. I was thinking about enclosing the boxes in heavy duty plastic bags, but I'm not sure that would work. They are all on shelves off the ground and away from the wall, encircled with a ring of d. earth. It's like a bizarre little fortress down there.


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## noobmom (Jan 19, 2008)

I'm sort of curious what you are calling an infestation. In the last week I've seen maybe 3 or 4 silverfish in my house. I even stepped on one in barefoot (noticed something tickling my foot--ick!) In a normal week I don't see any. It's been raining a lot here, so I chalk it up to that. But I'm wondering how many you're seeing that it's giving you anxiety?


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## Vancouver Mommy (Aug 15, 2007)

I was killing about five a day. It's down to one or two a day now, so I'm hoping the d. earth is having an effect. In my mind, there's millions of them, but my mind is a pretty scary place right now.


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## Jackies Ladybug (Jun 19, 2008)

i am wondering why people are freaking out about silverfish? we have them around our house and they cause us no grief or harm.
i mean, they do very little damage, dont bite, dont make noise and are totally afraid of people, so why worry about them? especially just a few?

i dont know, i guess i'm just weird, my father was a pest control agent for many years so i take issue with destructive insects but silverfish are pretty minor in the grand scheme, you know?


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## Chamomile Girl (Nov 4, 2008)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Jackies Ladybug* 
i am wondering why people are freaking out about silverfish? we have them around our house and they cause us no grief or harm.
i mean, they do very little damage, dont bite, dont make noise and are totally afraid of people, so why worry about them? especially just a few?

i dont know, i guess i'm just weird, my father was a pest control agent for many years so i take issue with destructive insects but silverfish are pretty minor in the grand scheme, you know?

Yeah, but see...they're UGLY little beasties. They oog me out more than almost ant other bug (except ants...shudder...).

ETA: Hah, freudian slip!


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## reducereuserecycle (Jan 16, 2007)

i also agree with the creepiness of silverfish.

i don't mind many insects but silverfish do freak me out.

i have killed maybe one per year in the place where i live now and that was enough for me.

i would be really freaked out if i was seeing 3 or 5 a day.


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## Jackies Ladybug (Jun 19, 2008)

oh ok, i guess i just have a different level of freak out.
maybe i can equivalate it to my strange fear of mosquito hawks, which are also totally harmless, but i totally freak when i see them.

if its like that then yeah, good luck, silverfish are pretty much impossible to get rid of unless you want to get rid of all of your paper, clothing, cardboard, fiberglass insulation, water, wood and dirt.

those guys can live off of anything, which i personally think is pretty cool, but i dont find them gross.


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## ihatesilverfish (6 mo ago)

i know this is a bit of a necro thread, but the info on silverfish these days are the same everywhere and none of it really pertains to me because my situation is slightly different. whoever was the original poster of this thread im having as much anxiety and a mental breakdown as they are right now and i just need to vent my problem somewhere

i bought a 120 yr old home exactly a year ago. its a fixer upper. previous owners had taken great care of it, but the past 10+ years the last owners did absolutely nothing. if this house wasnt so well built and invested into years ago, it prob would of collapsed by now

so the past year i been patching everything. everything in ahouse that you can imagine needs patched or fixed. there has been no maintence at all.

now my silverfish journey. about 2 weeks or so ago i kicked a hole in the top of mybasement steps. i had noticed the wood since i moved in was deteriated. said ill patch that one day its not important right now. to my surprise my foot went right through it. while inspecting the wood i realized it was termite damage. i recalled seeing a termite tag in the ceiling. i looked at it and it was from 1981. the termite damage made me go into a complete paranoid frenzy.

i started inspecting every inch of the house looking for termite. i didnt really find anymore damage in the house besides pinholes, old i assume. but in my garage (carriage house which is the size of a small home) i found more old termite damage. even when i replacing some loose trim i pulled it off to caulk it and inside half a beam was ate

it was through my compulsive obsession of seeing if i had termites i noticed a silverfish. on the outside wood of my garage. i said thats weird what was that. looked like a fast slug. a few days later i saw 2 more. uh oh i better look this up. uh oh they are silver fish. which eat everything, live 9 years, can survive for a year with no food. and multiply by laying 3 eggs a day that can hatch anywhere from 20 days to 3 months.....

my carriage house had a bird infestation when i moved in. i had to become a expert on starlings and sparrows. these particular birds have destroyed all the fascia and soffits under my garage roof. started living in my garage attic and crapping all over the place. im talking 30-40 birds that i just could not get out. they start burrowing nests in my insulation and crapping in there. so i decided to start sealing my entire soffit/fascia around the entire enormous agarage myself. i bought $400 worth of tin. i got the majority of it done and now the birds are down to 2. 

back to the silverfish. i started seeing more on the outside of the garage.before all this happened my original plan was scrape the house and garage and repaint everything. i got most of the garage scraped and figured i need to get these birds out before painting because they crap down the sides of the garage wall. there is layers of bird crap on every single ledge inside my garage. and when i would try to do a cleanup for a hour or 2 and get the floor swept up, in a week it was filled with crap and nests again. finally i tarped my entire garage floor which is just wood. my garage attic is unfinished. someone got as far as putting insulation up and building the wall frames.

so now i find silverfish all over the attic. usually near the windows. the only thing in the way between the inside and outside is 120 year old boards that all have gaps in them. and insulation. 2 of my boards were warped and i saw bees going in them. so i ripped the insulation off to take the boards off. when i did that silverfish went scurrying everywhere. i replaced the boards, sealed the gaps till i ran out of caulk and so far have not seen anymore silverfish in that particular spot

my garage, is a breeding ground for these things it seems. my windows are all prob 100 yrs old and need replaced. all the trim around it gets moisture when it rains. one window was even missing a piece which i just replaced a few days ago and recaulked it. checked it last night and about 30 silverfish were on the outsidearound the window not the inside.

the past 3-4 days i been really freaking out over silverfish. they arent in my main house but if they get in there i dont know what i will do. this is my biggest fear. i keep thinking about how much stuff i brought into my home form the garage over the year i lived here. and now i wont bring a single thing in without a full inspection and cleaning. 

my garage has gaps between almost all the boards which silverfish love, my roof is leaking which silverfish love, at least 5+ windows gather moisture which silverfish love, i have a never ending amount of bird crap and dust and dirt they can eat that i need to do a deep clean, i have old insulation they can eat for centuries that i now need to fully tear all of it out and see whats behind it. i cannot afford a new roof and windows on my garage. my main house still needs work.


last night i looked at some of the areas that i usually see one or 2. the back window very high in the air about 20 feet up, and then on the opposite side of the garage a loose board that kind of bevels out. i took some ant spray which can also be used against silverfish and started spraying the upper window, and the back crack and silverfish came floating out like the police were chasing them. i used a entire can killing close to 50 silverfish. i then remembered i had 2 very old fogger bombs laying around since i lived in a apartment over a decade ago. i felt like i was in a war movie cracking those open and throwing them in the attic. i doubt theyll do anything.

the odd thing with my problem is, they arent in my house eating starches, books, and food. they are mainly on the outside boards of my garage. they are also inside the garage but i dont see them as much. it has been very humid the past few days and raining so maybe thats why they are outside. if they are inside the garage im sure they are hiding, and in my mind hiding in the hundreds. 

i have no clue what to do at this point. i have so much cleaning to do and renovation to do before i can even kill them off. and i cant afford windows and a roof. so the moisture will always be there. from what i read them multiplying is what really triggers me. and the fact you cant kill their colony. you literally have to kill them one by one. i had alot of boric acid powder so i did puff that around some of the walls. 

winter comes fast. i am only one person. i def am losing this battle right now. i defeated a squirrel in my attic, a racoon in my attic, carpenter ants upstairs in my bedroom and downstairs in my kitchen, ive almost defeated the sparrows. and now the silverfish are the first bug ive encountered that im worried about. i actually saw a thousand leggar in mygarage attic last night. usually i kill those things but i sat there and looked at him and said legger, today you are my ally, i shall leave you be. hopefully he eats a few silverfish lol. im so exhausted and defeated. i havent read any stories of people having them on the outside wood of their garage. and if i spray the garage will they venture towards my home. ughhh. they were even all over the corner section of my fence by the window. i sprayed my fence and about 20 were on it. the fence connect to the corner of the garage as a small gate. who knows if they ventire down the fence and end up at my house.

i had tons of dreams of finishing this attic one day and making it a livable area. i thought maybe i could have my mom live there instead of a nursing home if it ever got to that point. i thought maybe in the meantime i can make it into my very own entertainment room with just some games like a pool table, maybe throw a movie projector in there and a couch, maybe have it as a guest house for my friends to stay in who live out of state. yah, thats all down the drain now. now i see this as nothing but a nuisance that i could ever trust putting anything in.


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