Tuesday, November 5, 2013

What do silverfish eat? If you have silverfish in your home you need to know the answers to that question. If you don’t know what silverfish bugs eat it will be more difficult to get rid of them.

In this article we will cover some of the surprising items in your home that silverfish consider food.  Food and environment are what keeps the silverfish bug in your home. Control their food source and you have made a big step towards eliminating the silverfish from your house.

Some people make the mistake of thinking that all you have to do is use a little silverfish spray and the bugs will be all gone. A little insecticide around the house or simply calling pest control for silverfish may not be enough.

Silverfish bugs are one the oldest species of insects in existence today. Their species have been around for millions of years. The fact that they have survived and even thrived all these years gives some idea how tough they are to get rid of.

One of the best ways to control silverfish bugs is to remove the foods sources in your house. To do this you must know what they eat and where do silverfish live in homes. Their voracious appetite and taste for items in your home is what causes damage to belongings.

What humans consider food is not necessarily what silverfish see as food. You might be surprised to learn all the things that silverfish will eat in your home.

What do silverfish eat? a big reason why knowing what they consider food is so important is that there are so many choices for them and you must know what it is to keep them from getting it. They will eat just about anything that contains starches, carbohydrate, sugars as well as some forms of protein.

This can include destruction of photos, books clothing wallpaper and much more.

First let take a look in your closet. Do you have clothing that contains starch such as shirts and cuffs on shirts? Clothing containing silk, rayon, or cotton are on their diet. There may be other items in your closet such as leathers and furs that they might find and damage too. Damage to clothing may take the form of little irregular holes or yellow stains.

If you want to know more about what do silverfish eat read on about other item in your home they find attractive and can damage in their attempt to feed. They are known to eat items containing wool as well as animal hair. They can be harmful to carpeting and furniture depending on the material they are made from.

They do damage by eating holes in items or scratching surfaces of items. Needless to say it takes a little effort to control what silverfish eat inside a home

Do silverfish eat books? Silverfish are fond of eating the binding in books held together by glue and sometimes leather. They eat the glue in book binding’s causing book spines to become slack and pages to become loose.

Let’s not forget about wallpaper. If your have a silverfish infestation you might find tiny holds in wallpaper or wallpaper peeling off of the wall because silverfish are eating the glue.

In case your think we have covered everything that silverfish will eat, let me say that we have not. As a matter of fact the list is too long to cover everything but we have discussed some of the most common ways that silverfish do damage.

Before we forget there are a few more items that silverfish cause damage to that we should note:

•    Silverfish will eat dust mites from a dusty home and dead insect parts.

•    We have saved for last what many people see as disgusting. Silverfish will eat your food, especially items high carbohydrates such as cereal, flour and other high starch foods. Beside being in your food silverfish leave body parts, feces and eggs in your food. How disgusting is that?.


Although silverfish are not known to carry diseases harmful to humans like some other insects they do create additional problems. They attract predators like spiders and centipedes into your home to feed on the silverfish. If you have a silverfish infestation in your home you could very likely see more spiders and centipedes as well.

So what do you do?

First you need to take steps to get rid of the silverfish by removing old papers and cardboard boxes from your home. Make an extra effort to keep your house clean and free from spills and dust.

•    Vacuum often. Be sure to vacuum in cracks and wallboards where you will likely suck up a few silverfish and their eggs.

•    Since silverfish like high humidity or moisture fix leaks. Locate sources of moisture in the home and correct them.

This article attempts to cover some of the questions on what do silverfish eat. If you are interested in getting rid of silverfish and want and in depth guide on how to get rid of them fast visit kill silverfish.org.