House insects

T

TitanTim

Elite
Just wandered if anyone suffers from any particular household insects lol. We tend to get Silverfish on a regular basis in one of the bedrooms and occasionally in the bathroom, however the house doesn't suffer from damp which is what I understand they like as well as wallpaper and dark conditions. They're harmless but not pleasant if your bare foot We bought a powered dehumidifier last year to help reduce internal condensation on double glazed windows which helped greatly but also the Silverfish population declined so I'm guessing the dryer atmosphere has helped eliminate them. Just strange how they suddenly appear in numbers. We now seem to be suffering from carpet moth larvae, I notice the little white larvae husks dotted around here and there and just hoover them up. However today I was hoovering under a chest of drawers and noticed quite a few larvae husks and around 5 live moths under there. Hoovered them all up. Never noticed these in previous years and wandered if anyone get them and how to banish them. I've read that diluted lavender oil sprayed on the carpet deters the moths.

Understand you get various insects from time to time but any tips on keeping the above out would be good.

Tim.
 
Ladybirds, moths, bluebottles..

Its a 1911 house and my family tend to leave the windows open alot!

The ladybirds live in the window cavities so come in every year :headbang:
 
Cedar is supposed to be the best moth deterrent - you can buy cedar balls - usually to put with your cashmere

Moths also like a bit of moisture so I wonder if the carpet is slightly damp? - I guess it's also wool (they have expensive tastes) - they also don't like to be disturbed so I would recommend moving the chest of drawers and hoovering that patch vigorously. I would also lift the carpet and see if you can actually see the larvae - years ago we rented a house with a bad infestation and when I pulled the carpet back i could see them all wriggling :cry:

You can also buy moth traps - although they seem to have mixed reviews - I think they are meant to attract the males and kill them so no more breeding
 
+1 for cedar balls - we also use cedar wood strips (link) in the wardrobes etc. and don't have a moth problem. Dehumidifier will work with the silverfish (damp is definitely the root cause for them). This time of the year, for us thunderbugs/blackflies are the issue as crops are being harvested.

Living in the country, I've come to accept that i'll always be sharing the house with some insects - luckily we have a dog that seems partial to the taste of flies and spiders (she's pretty good at catching flies out of the air!)
 
The only 'insect' we get are slugs. They come out at night and finish off the dogs food. But a good handful of slug pellets keeps them at bay for another year.
 
:) we have a group of hedgehogs in our garden (they live under the woodpile). They have a prodigious appetite for slugs - only downside is you have to put up with some noisy hedgehog sex going on in the garden in the wee small hours... :D
 
Last year we had hundreds of ants make their way into our dining room under one of the skirting boards.
We only noticed at first because the cats were sitting watching them.
They seemed to be lost as all they were doing was coming in going round in a circle a few inches from the entry point and then going back under the skirting again.
Things got worse when the larger ants with wings appeared.
Sat with the hoover for an hour as I didnt want the buggers all over the house.
We got one of those ant stop things and after a day they never came back.
 
in the winter months my house gets the odd woodlouse. dont know where the buggers come from as the house isnt damp at all. i usually hoover them up or they die after a few days as they need moisture to live. doesnt bother me too much plus ive just accepted an offer on the house and it will be sold soon. my next house is going to be an old victorian house, hopefully that doesnt have anything :?
 
Thanks for the replies :thumbsup: I looked at some carpet sprays today but have ended up ordering some cedar strips, thanks for the link Mark and will see if they do the trick. I'm not keen on chemical sprays especially in the bedroom. Its not an infestation or anything but don't want the problem getting any worse as I've just forked out 1200 quid on two rugs and don't want the blighters munching their way through them.

All the carpet and walls are perfectly dry as I've checked under the carpets etc so don't know why the Silverfish appear, although haven't seen any for a while.

Talking of ants we had a flying ants nest last year inside an internal cavity wall with a nice route into the airing cupboard so we had the things crawling amongst the clothes. There were literally hundreds, so overnight I left the cupboard door open and most flew out and congregated into an ant ball at the top of the living room window, just a case then of hoovering them all up :)

The only things that do freak me out are May Bugs :o especially in the house.




Tim.
 
Yeah...may bugs. Forgot about those things - they used to freak my sister out, as they can get stuck in long hair....
 
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