Tired of those slimy, disgusting bugs known as Silverfish in your apartment or house? Would you like to learn how to get rid of silverfish without using chemicals or harsh pesticides that can potentially harm your pets and children? In order to rid your place of an infestation, you have to understand the living and breeding patterns of these creepy puny arthropods.
Like cockroaches, silverfish have an exoskeleton, a tough outer shell that holds all their parts together and protects them from attack. They like to live in tight, warm places, preferably with lot of moisture. Places like the bathroom and laundry room are favorites of silverfish.
When you see one silverfish, you are actually only looking the tip of the iceberg. One silverfish means that there are many more silverfish that you don't see: living in your walls, in cracks of caulking in bathtubs, in in the middle of the pages of your books. Yes, silverfish love living in books! The tightness in the middle of the pages provides a great place to live and breed, and the glue that binds the pages together is (believe it or not) tasty to these quick, creepy insects. If you a box of old books in your leaky old basement, chances are it has come to be the new living quarters of a silverfish colony.
One of the best ways to kill off silverfish for good is to understand their living and breeding patterns. By taking the time to understand them, you are empowering yourself with knowledge that can be used to free your home from silverfish. Just squishing the ones that you come across in your bathroom or cutlery drawers may feel like you're doing something, but you're not. Remember, one silverfish means that there are many more that you don't see so even if you kill one, there are a dozen or so more babies ready to take its spot.
When mating, silverfish engage in a long courting ceremony that can last up to half an hour. The male and female silverfish touch antennae, then chase each other around. Finally, the male drops a spermatophore (an organic capsule that holds his genetic code) and the female take it into her body and fertilizes her eggs. When they hatch, young silverfish are small and white in colour, but otherwise look just adult silverfish, with the creepy triple antennae-like tail, and all their shifting exoskeletal plates.
Despite their creepy appearance and unlike cockroaches, silverfish do not gift any severe health concern to humans in our homes. They can, however, cause damage to things such as books, silk, linen, cotton and some artificial fibers and they prefer dark places, so the clothes hanging in your closet may be targeted. They have been known to eat soaps and shampoos, and of procedure would love to graze on crumbs that have been left on your kitchen counter.
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