Silverfish Bug

Silverfish, or as called in Latin, Lepisma Saccharina is an insect that can be no less than a nightmare for homeowners. The silverfish is known as fishmoth due to the fish like movements that it makes when it is running. The silvery scaly color of their patches gives them the name silverfish bug. Mostly found in white, grayish brown and silvery bluish color, silverfish bugs are near about one inch in length.

Silverfish Bug Life Cycle
There are dominantly three stages in the life cycle of the silverfish bug, viz, egg, nymph and the adult stage. The female silverfish lays hundreds of eggs in cervices and cracks in the backyard or the walls of the rooms. Within weeks, the silverfish lays various batches of eggs and all hatch in one month's time if they find optimum temperature. The eggs are small, oval and white. After the eggs hatch, nymphs, that can be regarded as the stage before adults, emerge. The nymphs take nearly three months to develop into an adult. A fully grown silverfish bug lives for about two to three years.

What do Silverfish Bugs Eat?
Silverfish love feeding on carbohydrates, sugars and starches. Since they are prevalent in the house backyard, they find a variety of food sources to feed on, particularly shampoos, book glues, clothing material (linen, silk) and various dead insects. If silverfish infest a house, then you can rest assured that you've to keep your damp clothes and paper items quite safe as these bugs have a fascination for moist clothes and paper. The reason behind this is that silverfish drink water and that is why they are mostly found in the damp clothes and other moist places of the house. The silverfish bug is considered by experts to be the most destructive pest for stored food items.

How to Get Rid of Silverfish Bugs?
Silverfish bugs can be annoying pests for any home owner and eliminating them involves a series of steps. The first step is the identification of these bugs, that can be done with the help of following process. Mix a thick paste of flour and water and spread it on a cardboard. Keep the cardboard in an area where you suspect the presence of infestation. The signs of stretches and typical insect eating ways will tell you that the bugs are present in that vicinity. Even a glue board is a good idea to catch these notorious insects. When the silverfish bugs are about to mate, they perform love dances! Once you know the areas that have been infested by the the bugs, go for a hunt and just clean all the places that are susceptible to them. Cleaning, vacuuming, steam cleaning and altering the temperature are some of the best techniques that can help you to get rid of the problems of silverfish bug. Silverfish thrive in the warm temperatures so changing the temperature can affect their survival. Many things like old books and clothing can be kept in the freezer for some time to kill the silverfish bugs. Laying bread in bottles to attract the silverfish is a good idea. You can use masking tapes as silverfish can't slide on plain surfaces.

The captured silverfish bugs can be put in buckets full of soap water to kill them. In case, all these physical measures are not effective, then you can contact an expert pest control team and take their advice on removing these bugs from your home. Their infestations can be controlled by proper care and remedial measures. Spiders and centipedes are some insects that feed on silverfish. If not controlled in time, these bugs can wreak havoc in your house, so getting rid of this little pest is a task that should never be put off to another day.