Oust unwanted visitors from your bathroom and basement with homemade silverfish traps. Small, soft-bodied silverfish, or Lepisma saccharina, resemble tiny shrimp. They are wingless, blue-gray insects with protruding antennae. Silverfish feast on dead skin cells, books, wallpaper paste, several types of clothing, and starchy foods, including bread and pasta.
They prefer to reside in damp, dark places such as basements, restrooms, and under sinks. Silverfish are not dangerous because they don’t bite or carry disease, but a silverfish problem is disgusting and unpleasant. Finding the ideal DIY silverfish trap may require a few different approaches. There are many tips on how to trap silverfish, but locating their gathering place is the first step.
Be on the lookout for damp patches with tiny black pepper-like flecks of silverfish feces. Set up your DIY silverfish trap in these places with high activity to have the best chance at catching lots of silverfish and lowering the population in your home.
How to Trap Silverfish at Home
When you see a silver insect scuttle across the bathroom, the first thing you ask is, are silverfish harmful? Fortunately, silverfish are not harmful to humans as they don’t bite or sting, yet they are destructive to property.
Knowing how to trap silverfish in homemade silverfish traps saves you money on store bought pest control and lets you use what you already have to eliminate the bugs. Decide on a trap based on your supplies and whether you’d rather use a natural or chemical option.
What is the Best Bait for a Silverfish Trap?
Traps are a clever way to catch a silverfish naturally. The most intuitive way to trap an insect is to use conditions they are drawn to as lures. Silverfish love a food source, making food bait an ideal way to attract silverfish into your trap naturally.
While most food works, silverfish favor high-starch products like bread or pasta and enjoy the glue from book bindings. Use what you have to bait your trap when getting rid of silverfish bugs to ensure you engage as much of the silverfish population as possible.
Be mindful of whether you have silverfish indoors or outdoors. Since silverfish are crawling insects, it’s prudent to set your trap on the floor or a surface you are confident they can access. Some traps become less effective when exposed to the weather, and bait may need to be added more frequently to account for other outdoor pests taking it before silverfish.
Homemade Silverfish Traps with Newspapers
Adult silverfish, particularly female silverfish, search for an ideal environment to feed and reproduce. Silverfish bugs love newspaper and moisture – a straightforward trap is effortless to construct if you have an old newspaper.
Thoroughly spritz your old newspaper with water, roll it up, and secure it with the elastic band. Set the damp, rolled newspaper in areas of silverfish activity. The food source and moist environment attract silverfish to move into the roll, making it easy for you to pick it up a few days later and place it in a sealed bag or airtight container until you can dispose of it outside your home.
DIY Silverfish Trap with a Glass
There are various inexpensive methods to trap silverfish; a drinking glass from the kitchen doubles as both a trap and a pest monitoring system. Catching lots of silverfish indicates a significant infestation, and catching less as your pest control progresses means it’s working.
Cover the whole exterior of a drinking glass or another glass container, such as a Mason jar, with masking tape, and place a piece of bread in the bottom. As they climb to the top and enter the jar, the silverfish’s feet get traction on the texture of the masking tape.
Once they tumble inside, they can’t get back out because the glass is too slippery, making this the most effective silverfish trap. Place the glass in a contaminated area, remove the dead bug population and replace the bread bait as necessary.
This is a great way to stop silverfish in your bathroom and shower area. Put the jar behind the toilet, the back of a cabinet, or another location where pets and children can’t access it for safety.
Catch Silverfish in Sticky Traps
Sticky traps are available in the hardware store with cockroach control products. Use a glue board or a sticky trap to control or eliminate silverfish or make simple pantry bug traps with a sticky mixture and some cardboard. These boards work well for any crawling insect, including silverfish.
Glue boards are effective at catching silverfish and killing house centipedes but can harm kids, animals, and people. To reduce accidents, put sticky traps in cardboard boxes with small openings. Place a small chunk of bread or some other starchy item in the center of the adherent layer as bait.
Nearby silverfish are drawn to the bait and become trapped in the adhesive on the silverfish sticky traps. Throw away the trap after it is full of dead insect pests.
Other Remedies for Trapping Silverfish
If you don’t want to use traps, kill silverfish naturally using boric acid. Sprinkle a thin layer of the boric acid powder in problem rooms, and periodically sweep it and the dead insects and replenish until the invasion is eradicated.
A bread and boric acid ball makes a great homemade ant bait, too, as well as drawing in roaches and other pests.
Cedarwood essential oil is a silverfish repellent that smells good and is safe to use around your house to repel silverfish. For one of the natural ways to keep silverfish away, combine cedar oil spray with traps to double your pest control and prevent silverfish.
Add the liquids to the sprayer and mix a simple silverfish deterrent to spritz wherever the bugs are a problem.
Whether you prefer to pick up a commercial pest control solution for your silverfish infestation or use DIY techniques, stay consistent and combine multiple ideas to remove the bugs quickly.
Crafting a DIY silverfish trap is a clever way to take care of this household pest. Silverfish are an inconvenience like dust mites, bed bugs, and fruit flies.
Begin silverfish control as soon as you observe silverfish activity to keep females from laying silverfish egg clusters and increasing the population. Choose from natural remedies like essential oils or commercial products such as Dekko Silverfish Paks and take back your home.
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