Silverfish

[Gareth Hughes]

Biff, these monsters are winning. I've been down just now and estimate there are about 100 per flag, so many it looks like the floor is moving! Mostly they're babies, but a fair few adults too and a few centipedes, millipedes and black beetles marching about with them.

It' going to have to be chemical warfare I'm afraid.

As long as they carry you to the wine cellar and back, what's the problem?

 

[Pford75]

Joce - I sympathise.

Whilst we don't have silverfish problems....we have had our share of various other beasties. I think most people find natures creations interesting and wonderful things...until they reach a threshold. Agreed, people have different thresholds...but I think everyone has one.

For me, it's pigeons. We've tried every possible solution to stop them roosting in the gullys between roof sections, but have not succeeded. This means that every 6 weeks, the gutters are full (and I mean full) with guano. Since accessing this section of roof is a scaffold job, this can become quite tiresome. We've tried spikes, netting, sonic deterrents and even 'bird control'. Yet nothing seems to be as effective as picking them off with an air rifle.

Mrs F (head gardener) feels similarly about the local mole & rabbit population and has transformed from animal-lover to mole-hunter in the time we have been living here.

 

[Lime]

Biff, these monsters are winning. I've been down just now and estimate there are about 100 per flag, so many it looks like the floor is moving! Mostly they're babies, but a fair few adults too and a few centipedes, millipedes and black beetles marching about with them.

It' going to have to be chemical warfare I'm afraid.

In my house if I see silverfish upstairs I know I have something to repair.
They are a wonderful indicator of the slightest damp no matter how hidden.
However centipedes and beetles mean some serious damp and food for them all to eat.
Is there no way for you to reduce the damp or food source?
One of the advantages of having, leaving and keeping spiders in the house is that they do keep the population of other crawly things down too.
It is not often understood by fearful people that if you have a resident giant spider he/she has a large menu to choose from in the house and you have a problem... and it is not the spider.
Big spiders exist because they have a big food source near by.
One of my biggest beefs about "builders" is that their finish behind large items often has a lot to be desired.
Leaving access to the outside for insects and other living things to enter is on of them.
Beetles and centipedes in the house suggests an insect corridor to the outside world.

 

[Lime]

Joce - I sympathise.

Whilst we don't have silverfish problems....we have had our share of various other beasties. I think most people find natures creations interesting and wonderful things...until they reach a threshold. Agreed, people have different thresholds...but I think everyone has one.

For me, it's pigeons. We've tried every possible solution to stop them roosting in the gullys between roof sections, but have not succeeded. This means that every 6 weeks, the gutters are full (and I mean full) with guano. Since accessing this section of roof is a scaffold job, this can become quite tiresome. We've tried spikes, netting, sonic deterrents and even 'bird control'. Yet nothing seems to be as effective as picking them off with an air rifle.

Mrs F (head gardener) feels similarly about the local mole & rabbit population and has transformed from animal-lover to mole-hunter in the time we have been living here.

Years ago pigeons were a good source of food.
There seems to be a glut of them (pigeons, ringed doves wood pigeons)in my area over the last decade.
Their numbers are such that they easily outnumber other birds in the garden now.
They will roost anywhere even directly on top of telegraph poles.
One of the reasons some people have problems with droppings is that they roost nearby a food source.
Does anyone feed the birds or is there a food source nearby?
Do they have any "better" acommodation nearby or is your house the only thing they can infest?
Perhaps keeping a cat on the roof is a solution, even a cat ladder to help access.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Lovelyn house JoceandChris. Don't worry abouth the silver fish, we have loads of silk soft furnishings around the house and I have never found a silver fish amongst the fabrics. They have kept themselves to themselves around the rubbly bits behind the sink units---- why oh why do the plumbers never clear up around that area----- :roll:

 

[yamin]

Lovely house! And heres another vote for the Silverfish. I am pathetically anti insect/arachnoid, but I grew up with silverfish all round my mum and dads aga, and really can't find it in my heart to condemn them! They went with the lamb (live!) in the bottom oven and the family fruitcake in the top (no, I don't mean my mad granny!!!!)

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks to all for your reponse, it is rather reassuring to read that a lot of you are infested with some kind of creature. The silverfish around the Aga thing is something you never see in their glossy ads!

In my house if I see silverfish upstairs I know I have something to repair.
They are a wonderful indicator of the slightest damp no matter how hidden.
However centipedes and beetles mean some serious damp and food for them all to eat.
Is there no way for you to reduce the damp or food source?

As usual you are spot on, there is serious damp and they seem very happy eating eachother and cat food. I really don't know how to resolve the damp as this area is completely/partially sunk. I don't really want to lift the flags and put down a polythene membrane, that's been done in one section of the kitchen to no good effect. Anti-mould paint has been applied in the passageway and in places you can see the damp "blowing" this finish off. An old photo shows this passageway, which was tunnelled through earth, to be black and green wth mould.

I'm also a bit reluctant to seal all the thousands of gaps, holes and crannies where the creatures live as they are so characterful. This stone staircase is where the beetles live; when I get the vacuum in the cracks I see them being sucked up. Some have advised me to smooth the steps with c****t as they are terribly uneven and treacherous, but surely to pour anything over them would be wrong?

As for spiders, I don't mind them but cobwebs everywhere is not the look I want!

I'm thinking of the following temporary solution:

1) choose fine, warm day and open all doors and windows
2) Put heat gun on medium setting and blow dry all cracks, gaps, floors, brickwork.
3) Use wire brush to remove efflorescence.
4) Vacuum and use tiny brush to apply insecticide in gaps, holes, crannies.

What do you think?

I do really worry about the insecticide though. If my cat ate a spider that had walked through insecticide would he be OK?

Thank you all for thoughts and ideas.

 

[biffvernon]

Would you eat meat from an animal that had died from poisoning?

 

[Flyfisher]

Depends on the poison. I doubt that CO2 (or CO) poisoning would cause much of a problem for the next predator in the chain.

As for cats and insecticide, it will depend on the dose. Enough to kill a spider would, I'd guess, be pretty harmless to a cat many thousand of times larger.

Having said that, chemical warfare as a mean of controlling insect populations is not something I'd encourage, although I realise that's easily said by anyone who doesn't mind spiders in the house.

 

[Feltwell]

Joce - you mention the house is "underground up to the point of the window sill" - assuming that simply lowering the ground level against the external walls is not an option, have you looked at putting in French drains? Put that in the search facility on this forum and you'll find plenty of old posts on how to do this. Could help you to dry the walls out.

 

[Lime]

Depends on the poison. I doubt that CO2 (or CO) poisoning would cause much of a problem for the next predator in the chain.
As for cats and insecticide, it will depend on the dose. Enough to kill a spider would, I'd guess, be pretty harmless to a cat many thousand of times larger.
Having said that, chemical warfare as a mean of controlling insect populations is not something I'd encourage, although I realise that's easily said by anyone who doesn't mind spiders in the house.

I wouldn't encourage a general chemical war either.
Carbon dioxide is said to kill insects promptly and old fashioned dab-it-off was often used in killing bottles.

Flyfisher I don't agree with your comment

Enough to kill a spider would, I'd guess, be pretty harmless to a cat many thousand of times larger

Poisons don't always work like that across the species otherwise the funnel web spider would be harmless to man as it is to a wide range of animals, including dogs, cats and rabbits.

I'd go easy on the hot air blower too.
Too much heat and something could crack or catch fire.
Besides I don't think the stone steps would warm sufficiently to dry out the nooks and crannies anyway.

Perhaps regularly hoovering/dysoning out the cracks would be a better treatment?

 

[biffvernon]

As religions go, Jainism has a good deal to offer from the Silverfish's point of view.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Joce - you mention the house is "underground up to the point of the window sill" - assuming that simply lowering the ground level against the external walls is not an option, have you looked at putting in French drains? Put that in the search facility on this forum and you'll find plenty of old posts on how to do this. Could help you to dry the walls out.

Hmmm- not sure, but thanks very much for the suggestion. If the ground level was lowered against the external walls surely that would really compromise the structure? That's something I'd like to look into in the future ( if we can get onto mains water and I can have the rainwater tank removed.)

The house is built into a hill. On the east side the undercroft is almost completely sunk, if that make sense. On the west side, which is pictured, the earth only reaches the window sill. The dampest section is the east side. But possibly French drains might help the west side.

What's really going to help is to get that b***** cement render off.

I also hope that the £2000 worth of heat (aaaagh just got the electricity bill -£750 for a quarter!!!) we've chucked at the house is going to help it; it's never had that before!

I'd go easy on the hot air blower too.
Too much heat and something could crack or catch fire.
Besides I don't think the stone steps would warm sufficiently to dry out the nooks and crannies anyway.

Perhaps regularly hoovering/dysoning out the cracks would be a better treatment?

I hear what you're saying. Just hoovered again, and found where the millipedes are breeding in the scullery.

Interestingly the silverfish babies have virtually all gone. Either they die and just crumble to dust, or the adults ate them, or they are all hiding en masse under the Aga and will emerge as a fully fledged army in a few weeks' time.

You have all put me off chemical warfare.

 

[biffvernon]

Mmmmmwwwwwwaahhhhhhh

 

[Flyfisher]

Flyfisher I don't agree with your comment

Enough to kill a spider would, I'd guess, be pretty harmless to a cat many thousand of times larger

Poisons don't always work like that across the species otherwise the funnel web spider would be harmless to man as it is to a wide range of animals, including dogs, cats and rabbits.

Good point. Now you mention it, I don't agree with my comment either.

I was thinking just of the relative dosage, but you're quite right about the different toxicity across different species.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Mmmmmwwwwwwaahhhhhhh

That was a nice, big kiss Biff. I hope you won't hate me when I tell you we murdered a bunny and ate it today.

 

[JoceAndChris]

What is this? Efflorescence? Or mould? It looks like cotton wool.

It's on the wall just in front of the blue dustpan. Lord Rochester wanted to be in this one.

This is another wall in the scullery:

and this is where all the creatures come in.

Can I win the prize for the dampest scullery?

 

[biffvernon]

I hope you won't hate me when I tell you we murdered a bunny and ate it today.

Bunnies? Nasty evil critters that keep breaking through the fences to get at my veg. I eat them when I catch them. Jainism has it's limits.

 

[Lime]

Secondary efflorescence is the problem and will continue to be until the water source dries up.

Another method of treatment of the cracks and *****s would be to use what I was using yesterday to blow out leaves from under my summer-house, a high pressure air line.
Perhaps you have one in the garage maybe?
If not, a little compressor would not be expensive (under £100) and could be used alongside the vacuum cleaner specially for this job.
http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Power+Tools/Pneumatic+Workshop/Compressor+Kit+1500w+230v/d40/sd2791/p42215
Comes complete with all that is required... can do lots of other jobs too.
(You may need a longer air hose so that the compressor can be kept out of the house as they are noisy.)
Combined with suction, slowly but surely (slow, regular but sure) the majority of the insect problem would be sorted.

 

[JoceAndChris]

a high pressure air line.
Perhaps you have one in the garage maybe?
If not, a little compressor would not be expensive (under £100) and could be used alongside the vacuum cleaner specially for this job.

That's a wonderful idea, thank you.