Help! Centipedes in my bathroom!

joebloggs69

Hi, hope your all having a bug free day!

I realise that this post might not belong on this site, let alone this board, but I've come to rely on MSE for so much advice I don't know who else to ask!

My girlfriend and I are living in a horrible damp flat, which we are slowly de-damping one step at a time. We've fought off the mould problem, but now we've got centipedes in the bathroom! Lots of them, they keep coming out of a night time and according to a quick google search they thrive in damp, dark area - which is exactly what my bathroom is! (Unfortunately, there are huge gaps behind the bath tub and under the shower cubicle that we haven't covered up yet.)

The trouble is all my internet searches seem to bring up ideas on how to avoid getting them, too late now! Has anyone else had this problem? I don't really want to use pesticides, but I also don't want to share my bath with a centipede - to make matters worse the bathroom leads into the bedroom - eeuuurrrgghhh!

tim_n

Easy, get out your hoover = )

Then do your best to discover the source of the damp. If you're in a first floor check the guttering as it can leak onto the walls and soak through! (happened to me)

Meantime give everything a liberal dosing in bleach (depending on the surfaces!!!) and a damn good scrub. Get yourself some lockable window catches that'll hold the window open a good way without allowing a burglar in to dry it out.

joebloggs69

A hoover, now why didn't I think of that.

I think the source of damp is condensation, since the place is quite drafty so it can't be ventilation We've got really old rotting single glazed windows, and the room is absolutely freezing in the winter. (We can actually see our breath) Last winter, every morning we would find a puddle of water on the window sill! So over the course of the year we've got a de-humidifier, and we've demoulded and glossed everything we can. Plus a convection heater just to take the chill off the room, and we are hoping to get secondary glazing since we can't afford new windows.

Thanks for the advice.

P.S. Since it's a kind of renting for nothing from a relation type deal, I can't get the landlord to do anthing!