If you happen to live in a place where there are frosty winters, the question that sometimes comes to your mind is: will the long-tailed silverfish die in the frost? The answer is, they will! The vital functions of the long-tailed silverfish slow down already at 11 degrees Celsius, and in frost they die.
If you have this problematic pest found in your home, then it is worth taking advantage of the frosty air and take some things outside for a while. Here are a few tips on how to conveniently enhance other cleaning and long-tailed silverfish disposal in your home.
- Empty your wardrobe into garbage bags or plastic boxes and take them out into the frost for several hours. This will kill the long-tailed silverfish and their eggs.
- In the meantime, carefully clean your wardrobe, first with vacuum cleaner and then with a damp detergent mixture.
- Bring back the contents of your wardrobe after you’ve kept them outside long enough. You can visually squeeze the clothes and check if see anything.
- After this, you could add pieces of cedar wood here and there to the interior of the cabinets, because neither long-tailed silverfish nor silverfish like its smell. For a people, the smell of cedar wood is pleasant and fresh. Amazon
- All carpets can also be taken outside to freeze. They should also be allowed to be there for several hours. At home, we are used to take all the carpets on a clean snow to freshen them up and clean in the winter . Wool especially likes snow and is already a self-cleaning material in itself, but snow still does it especially good.
- It can also be a good idea to take stacks of paper and books and everything else made of paper outside to freeze. It is a good idea to pack paper and other things that suffer from moisture in tight plastic boxes so that they do not get wet from snow or rain, or air moisture can reach them.
- If you live in a country where there are no frosty winters, you can try to put some things in the freezer. Understandably, this is also quite laborious, so you can just follow the other instructions and skip the freezing.
If you have a sauna at home, it is also a great way to eradicate long-tailed silverfish and their eggs. The sauna also works well for silverfish and many other home pests. The long-tailed silverfish cannot withstand temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, and at 60 degrees Celsius they die in a few hours. It’s worth taking fabrics and materials that are heat resistant to sauna.
How to prevent pests from entering your home?
Pests usually make their way into your home from somewhere else. Good examples are goods and furniture purchased at a flea market. They should always be washed and at least ventilated and kept outside before use, preferably in frost. It is advisable to let the furniture be outdoors and also clean them there carefully.
It is also a good idea to keep your suitcases and items that you have with you on the trip outside in frost or to leave them in sauna properly. Heat often works better than cold, depending on the pest. For example, mold, fungal spores and bacteria do not die in frost. Cockroaches should lie for two weeks in frost below -10 degrees Celsius in order for them to die.
It is not always even necessary to resort to poisons. Checking items that are entering the house outside, cleaning and shaking them outside is often enough.
Some people think that they could ventilate their entire house so cold that the pests have time to die. In reality, even if you ventilate at -30 degrees Celsius, it is so short-lived that the structures of the house do not have time to get cold enough and thus the desired effect is not obtained. It would also be very risky to let the house get colder because of the structural damage to your home could bring nasty extra costs.
If you have problems with pests in your home, it is worth resorting to a professional and, as an addition, using good cleaning techniques and poisons available in stores. When you combine these things, there’s no reason why you can’t get rid of long-tailed silverfish, silverfish, or other uninvited little guests at home.