Thread: silverfish
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Old 04-04-2005, 01:33 AM
Stephen Henning
 
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(paghat) wrote:

Silverfish eat paper that is already damp & decaying, not otherwise.


Silverfish love newspaper in our basement. The basement is damp in the
summer, but the paper doesn't decay on its own. We have a dehumidifier
in the basement. They seem to keep nibbling at the edges until big
sections are missing.

One trick that helps is to moisten a newspaper (so that it was damp but
not soaking) roll up the newspaper and tie it with an elastic. Do this
at night and the next morning slowly open up the newspaper (it should be
full of silverfish) next either burn the newspaper or empty into a
garbage can outside the house. Do this every night until the newspaper
no longer has any silverfish in it.

Actually the common term silverfish includes:
Silverfish - Lepisma saccharina L.
Four-Lined Silverfish - Ctenolepisma quadriseriata
Long-Tailed or Gray Silverfish - Ctenolepisma longicaudata Esch.
Firebrat - Thermobia domestica

According to the Ohio State University, silverfish and firebrats eat:
glue, wallpaper paste, bookbindings, paper, photographs, starch in
clothing, cotton, linen, rayon fabrics, wheat flour, cereals, dried
meats, leather and even dead insects.

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Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
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