Silverfish help!

fannyannie_2

We have got them in the kitchen. We noticed a couple last week but didnt know what they were and just killed them. Then last night i put the light on in the kitchen and see a few scuttle away. I sprayed fly spray in the corners and under the skirting board that they crawled away under and now this morning theres about 11 of them on the floor, not dead but unable to crawl away (i'm assuming thats because of the fly spray)

Would this be classed as an infestation? I dont want to ring the councils pest control to come out if we can deal with it ourselves because we really cant afford it.

The skirting boards they went under is near our fridge :eek: Obviously we will moving that out when OH gets back from work tonight.

In the room next to wear we found them is an old dark toilet in an outbuilding i'm assuming we have got them because of that. IMO it all needs knocking down but this is a council house and they wont do it.

Any suggestions what we can do? I'm a bit freaked out and feel like my house is dirty :mad:

Oh and ps we have only lived here 4 months, would this have been a problem with the old tenants?

savemoney

If they are getting under skirting why not put some flexible filler along the gaps

savemoney

Like they damp conditions

http://www.pestcontrol-uk.org/news/2010/dealing-with-silverfish

Silverfish Control

The primary control tactic for a widespread silverfish infestation is to dry out all infested areas so that the silverfish are unable to reproduce and develop successfully. Unfortunately, there is no immediate fix: the drying process can take months or even longer. You can however, suppress silverfish populations in critical areas:

• Remove and discard old stacks of newspapers, magazines, papers, boxes of clothes for donations, etc. Clothing in infested wardrobes, dressers or boxes should be washed or dry cleaned.
• Infested books and other items can be placed in a large freezer at 0°F for four to seven days. The books should first be wrapped tightly in plastic, and the plastic should be left on during the thawing process to prevent condensation damage.
• Apply a baseboard insecticide spray around the perimeter of a room as a barrier to intercept silverfish moving from the wall voids and going under the baseboard into the room.
• Apply dust into infested voids in ceilings and walls. Because silverfish move long distances through voids and pipe runs, it is probably not practical, or even possible, to treat every void in the floors, walls and ceilings where silverfish could be located, so you'll have to be selective.
• Treat cracks and crevices in infested rooms with a residual as though you were treating for Brown-Banded cockroaches.
• Pest-proofing critical rooms can also reduce silverfish infiltration to some extent. Caulk any obvious openings and cracks, and consider pulling up the edge of wall-to-wall carpeting to caulk under the baseboard.
• Where you have a ceiling access panel in a room with heavy silverfish pressure, consider installing a light in the ceiling void.

Silverfish do not like bright light, and there has been some success moving silverfish out of restricted areas with this technique.
It is important that you understand that it is unlikely that you will see results overnight. Control of a widespread outbreak of silverfish is a long-term project, requiring moisture problems to be corrected and the building dried out. Until that happens, control actions are just temporary.

fannyannie_2

Thanks, thats a big help :j

MaggieBaking

I had a few in a previous property - Raid Bug Spray (red one) is great stuff. In a fit of over-zealousness I sprayed it all over the floor and walls where I saw them and around all the skirting in all the rooms. I didn't see another after that. Perhaps it meant they just didn't venture out into the rooms but lived in the walls but I'm happy with that - as long as I can't see them!! We weren't there for long so I can't answer as to a long term solution, which savemoney appears to have answered anyway.

LandyAndy

Years ago, when I was a lad, they were commonplace and no one thought twice about seeing them.

Houses now are just that bit drier with the widepread use of central heating. and so they are rarely seen.

We get the occassional one in our kitchen sink. I swill it away.