Silverfish

Where it lives

Bathrooms, kitchens, cellars, wardrobes, bookshelves, behind wallpaper and skirting, and in damp storage areas. Needs high humidity to survive.

Signs

• Silvery insects moving rapidly across floors and in baths and basins
• Irregular holes and surface grazing on paper, wallpaper and book covers
• Yellow staining and fine scales on stored paper and fabric
• Small black pepper-like droppings in cupboards and drawers

Risks

• Damages books, documents, photographs, artwork and wallpaper
• Feeds on natural fibres in stored clothing
• Indicates a damp problem that may cause other issues

Prevention

• Reduce humidity with ventilation or a dehumidifier. That is the control that actually works
• Repair leaks and improve bathroom extraction
• Store documents and photographs in sealed plastic boxes, not cardboard
• Keep books off external walls and allow air to circulate

Treatment

We apply an insecticidal dust and residual treatment to cracks, skirting voids, shelf edges and pipe runs, set monitoring traps to measure the population, and, most importantly, advise on the humidity control that prevents recurrence. Without addressing damp, silverfish will always return.