Our story in the house overrun by long-tailed silverfish, part 2
This is where the long-tailed silverfish extermination operation continues. That is, as a primer for those who haven’t read part 1 yet. Our family moved to a new detached house and to our dismay we discovered that the house was overrun by long-tailed silverfish. This started a new kind of experience and, inspired by it, I decided that people might have a great need to hear about the extermination of long-tailed silverfish, because there is not so much information available yet. I have also lived in an apartment where there were silverfish and I got rid of them all by myself. Silverfish are much easier to get rid of than long-tailed silverfish.
Our move was on Friday, and for the following Wednesday I had already made an agreement with a company specializing in pest control, that they would come the following Wednesday to apply the poisoning for the first time.
Here are some good traps and poisons to get from Amazon:
The first poisoning of long-tailed silverfish took place with the power of sprayed poison. The poison was put on all the edges of the floorboards and thresholds. Some frames where long-tailed silverfish had been seen were also poisoned, but this was separately hoped for. The pest controller said that traces of the substance can be left on surfaces, e.g. wallpapers. It was not such an important point for us, because our intention would be to renew the surfaces anyway.
Poison was also put in small crevices, at the bottom of closets and chests of drawers. Before the poisoning, we were instructed to remove all the items from the walls so that the poison could be properly placed next to the moldings. The lower shelves and shelves of cupboards and drawers also had to be emptied. Food had to be carefully protected because of the aerosols in the air. In the children’s rooms, we moved all the furniture and things to the middle of the floor and covered them with fabrics. In the kitchen, we also removed the plinths completely out of the way, so that we could certainly get the ingredients to the right place. We also collected all the mats off the floors.
During poisoning, you must not be in the premises and after poisoning you must leave the premises for several hours (3-5 hours). It is recommended to ventilate the space carefully before staying there. After this, it is also safe for children and pets to be in the space, because the poison is no longer a danger to mammals after it dries. The poisoning should be done at least a second time exactly one month later.
When the poisoning was over for the pest control, then our cleaning work began. The dead long-tailed silverfish had to be collected and the protections etc. removed and the structures we had removed put back in place. Yes, that was enough work. We carefully vacuum all places and wet wipe all levels, windowsills and contact surfaces in general. You could wash the floors, BUT NOTE! Areas of poisoning, i.e. adjacent to the wall, must not be wiped with a damp cloth, so that the poisons do not get cleaned.
At that time, after the first poisoning, there were dozens of dead long-tailed silverfish in the apartment. In the following days, dead long-tailed silverfish appeared at a steady pace, and also suffocating, almost dead long-tailed silverfish appeared every now and then. After the first poisoning, quite a lot of completely healthy long-tailed silverfish appeared, to our dismay. At this point, I would like to remind you that we had a very large population of long-tailed silverfish to begin with, so there was still a lot of work to be done.
So many of these little fellows were seen alive and well during the first month that we already had time to question the effectiveness of the poisoning. In addition, the emotional pain was really great because it was the dream home that we had just bought. We also have two small children, whose normal life and movement we had to limit quite a lot. Even if the poison is harmless, according to common sense, children should still not walk on it or stay in contact with them. So the “no edges” or “away from the edges” commands became very familiar.
Every now and then we tested the apartment with a poison that we had used before, and even those long-tailed silverfish still drove a lot. It didn’t really help but being really patient with the long-tailed silverfish situation. Then it didn’t seem to be quite successful, but by correcting my own attitude, I got a lot of energy to carry on again. Things don’t always go perfectly, but the comforting thing here too is that there is always a turn for the better, even if that silverfish-free life is still quite far on the horizon.
As the next poisoning time came closer, a new hope began to rise again in our minds. We had also discovered a new place for long-tailed silverfish to appear, which means that there were long-tailed silverfish in the technical space leading to the outside of our house and it should also be treated next time. Our property includes a warehouse and an office there, where the long-tailed silverfish had also spread. There is also a separate small storage booth in the warehouse.
Here are some good traps and poisons to get from Amazon:
The day of the poisoning was a little over month before Christmas, and we hoped that by Christmas we would be able to destroy all long-tailed silverfish. In addition to our living quarters, our warehouse with its separate premises was also involved in the poisoning. We waited with excitement to see what was to come. More on the consequences of poisoning in the next article.