anyone ever have a problem with silverfish??

I am seeing more and more of the damned things!

any ideas how to get rid of them?

I have been seeing a couple of them in my place recently. I swear they are eating holes in my best polo shirts. I just squash them when I see them. Don't know where they are coming from, but I expect it's the bathroom plumbing.

^ They do eat cotton, linen, and silk, so I'd be careful with your clothes.

I thought I saw one in my apartment the other day, but they're supposed to be fast little scurriers, and this one just sat there and let me execute it. So, either it was sick from poisoning, or it was just some random thing that flew in from the hallway because some numbnuts likes to leave the windows open out there.

It's the dude across the hall with all the birds, who's always burning his dinner and airing out the fumes. I know it.

So I called my management company and told them about the problem. They said they would send an exterminator over.

But I guess what they were actually telling me was, 'go fuck yourself'. I haven't seen any change at all in the number of silverfish that are appearing.

And google has really been no help at all. From everything that I've read about them, my place should not be an attractive home for silverfish. I keep it immaculately clean, I have very little food in my home, I keep it cold, I don't have any leaky pipes (as far as I know) and I don't live in a basement. I take out trash and vacuum regularly.

And these silverfish don't respond at all how they are suppose to. I never see them in damp areas like the bathroom and kitchen. I always see them on the walls, far away from damp areas. And I only see one at a time.

If I see one, I'll kill it (it makes very little effort to escape when I squash it) and I'll look around the apartment meticulously for anymore... but won't turn up any until I see another one the next day. Can't figure out where they are coming from or why they are attacking my place.

I'm guess I'm just gonna have to pick up some heavy duty chemicals. Luckily i have no pets or small kids, so I can be pretty liberal with the poisons.

Are you very quite sure that they're silverfish, and not another similar-looking species?

I've wondered that. They certainly look like silverfish. Next time I'll see one, I'll try snap a picture and upload it here.

Not sure what else they could be....

As far as pests go, is a silverfish every couple days really that bad? Imagine if you had hippies.

Well, fuck me.

The problem seems to be getting worse. I spoke to the management company about it. And they assured me that an exterminator would come through every once in a while to spray for insects.

So far, it hasn't seem to have made a bit of difference. I'm seeing them more frequently now, I'm probably just going to have to contact my own exterminator.

I'm also gonna buy a fuck-ton of boric acid and just pour it out everywhere I can. I don't have any pets, so no concerns there.

I've also considered a wild idea which might actually work. I read somewhere that spiders are predators of silverfish. I wonder if I could introduce spiders into my apartment and set them loose to kill off the silverfish.

I'd have to resist the urge to squish the spiders, in fact I'd probably want to bottle one up and then release in close vicinity to a silverfish so that they get the taste for them.

I'd be exchanging one problem for another. But I think I'd much rather have spiders than silverfish. The webbing is a nuisance but not really a huge problem. And they don't eat through books and clothing like silverfish.

Anyway, this is getting ridiculous. I can barely sleep at night now. I'm up all night scanning the walls...

I may also trap the silverfish in something and leave one silverfish at the management office every day until they get the hint and do something more substantial about this.

Oh, and they could also be firebrats. It's hard to tell. Firebrats apparently prefer warmer temperatures, but I've keeping my apartment really cool... so they must be silverfish. But my place isn't really filled with a lot of moisture or humidity, so I'm not sure why I'm seeing so many.

Hmm. So exterminators are actually quite expensive....

I went to Home Depot and picked up a caulking gun and some boric acid powder. One of the employees pointed me towards an insecticide fogger.

Has anyone ever tried one of these before? Apparently, it is somewhat like an 'insect bomb'. It is extremely dangerous to use, but he tells me it is highly effective.

So, I figured I'd buy a pack of these things. It was only seven bucks. I have six cans, and I can use one every 2 weeks, so that should be 3 months of freedom from the horrid things.

Of course, it is a bit inconvenient to use. I have to leave the place for two hours immediately after I set off the fogger and when I return I have to open up all the windows and doors, and turn on the fans and vacate the premise again for another half hour.

Of course, during this time more insects could enter while the doors and windows are wide open.

But I'm gonna give it a shot tomorrow. I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to use one of these things in an apartment complex, but I think if all the vents are sealed up it shouldn't cause problems for anyone else...

For added protection, I'll probably go ahead and apply the boric acid powder along all the walls and crevices, although the Home Depot guy told me that was overkill and not necessary.

Any advice on using this stuff? What sort of results can I expect? Ideally, it will kill all the insect eggs too. After using the fogger, I'll probably go back over the entire carpet with my vacuum to scoop up any dead critters or their hellspawn

Do you have a gas range? If so--and if it is anything like the flea fogger that is sitting in my closet--turn off the pilot light and unplug any electrics. I'd make sure I read the instructions thoroughly before lighting 'er up.

I think everything is electric, including the stove, refrigerator and washer + dryer. I suppose if I had a gas range, I would know it...



Any way for me to check and be sure?

If there is a flame coming out of the burners, it is gas. If it is a black metal spiral that glows red when you turn it up it is electric. Or if it is just a smooth range top with no openings for burners, that would also be electric.

So it begins.

I set off the 'bug bomb' today. Made sure I closed up all the vents and windows and tried to place it as centrally as possible so that it would cover every room in my apartment. I even emptied out my bookshelf and stacked all my books within close proximity to the fogger, suspecting that some of my recently purchased used books were the cause of all these problems.

I clicked the switch and ran out of there! Then, I began to get worried. What if some of that stuff got through the air vents and killed my neighbor's dog or cat? Or what if someone else had an open flame going in my apartment building and it caused a huge ass explosion? I guess I probably should have notified my neighbors first.

But I couldn't go back to check up on it, so I just waited outside my building to make sure there were no explosions and no neighbors were getting the fumes. After about an hour, I figured it would have all settled down so I took off and came back two hours later.

I admit I was pretty disappointed when I returned. I wasn't expecting to see a bunch of dead bugs writhing in agony everywhere, but I was at least expecting some whitish residue to coat everything in the apartment. But everything looked the same as when I left. I didn't see any bugs, dead or alive. But I usually only see them at night anyway.

So I aired out the apartment, wiped off the surfaces in my kitchen and bathroom and spent the rest of the night caulking cracks in the floor and spreading boric acid powder. I guess the real test will come over the next few nights.

I'll be really disappointed if I see more silverfish tonight. I guess my only alternative is to keep using the fogger every few weeks and hope I drive them out enough so that they'll all end up outside during the winter and freeze to death.

And then perhaps the nightmare will end... ?

Very possible. But it is also possible I caused the problem myself. I've been buying up a lot of used books recently and its possible I brought some of those things home with me.

But, yeah, I'm definitely going to keep up with the foggers. I'm not really sure if it is penetrating my whole apartment though. It says one can covers 2000 sq. ft. and my apartment is about 900 sq. ft... but if I put the fogger in one room, will it spread to the other rooms or do I have to use a separate one for each room?

Did you know that silverfish can live for years?

i kinda like the idea of catching them in jars and bringing them to management every day until they either fix the problem or let you leave.

Well, I did see one this morning...

I'm not sure how it managed to escape the apocalypse I rained down upon its brethren.

But I think I am gonna have to keep up with this and maybe even switch up foggers and try a couple different brands out.

But I think if I keep this up every two weeks I'll eventually get rid of the problem. I only plan to live in this apartment another seven months anyway. Just got to hold them at bay till then...

Sail on Silverfiiish,
Sail on byy
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way

Where do you think they are coming in from? Is it a vent, a crack in the bedroom door, the windows, etc? If you want a good night's sleep, why not just try and block every single vent into the room and see if that keeps them out. And how big are these? Are they hatching IN your room and then crawling around the walls, or are they coming from outside?

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.


So I went on vacation for a couple days, just got back this evening. I saw six silverfish hanging out on my walls, all in different spots around my apartment.

And these seemed even bigger than the ones I'd seen before. This is after fogging my apartment less than two weeks ago.

This is getting ridiculous now. This weekend, I'm gonna open up two cans of fogger. And I'm gonna do that every weekend. If that doesn't work, I don't know what else to do...

I have all my vents closed up and I've caulked all the visible cracks in my floor. So I'm now starting to suspect that they are coming from the ceiling. I live on the top floor of the apartment complex. There might be a whole boatload of 'em corrupting the roof top and invading my apartment through holes in the ceiling. I don't how something like this would happen, but it's my best guess at this point.

If they are that big, chances are they aren't growing IN your apartment, but as you say, most likely coming in from an outside source.

What I would do if I were you is take some pictures of them, and then make flyers, posting them around the apartment complex with a Facebook link to a group called "No More Silverfish please!" or something similar. Get people to sign up for it, and talk about the problem there. See how many people are experiencing the same thing.

When the group gets big enough, contact the media and get the story on the news.

Also, plug up all the holes in your ceiling and see if that stops them.

I should do something like that!

I've been thinking about this. Silverfish are supposed to like moisture. So I was expecting to see them near my bathroom and kitchen pipes, mostly.

But over half the silverfish I see are nowhere near those areas, most of seem to be stuck on or near the ceiling. So maybe there is some sort of water damage on the rooftop? It might have happened during the last big storm that passed through. And I've examined my ceiling and I am seeing areas that look like water damage, parts of the ceiling are peeling off and there is a sort of brownish color to the walls in that area...

I'll talk to my neighbors and see if they are having the same issue.

You are living in Oklahoma (right?) how are you having a silverfish problem in this drought.

I can't complain to much as we are on the line between bad and horrific.....but still it's bad over here. Glad it's better on that side of I-35.

True, they are more prevalent around there. What do you want to do? We had good friends who lived/grew up there. And we still have contacts around there.

Just an update for those of you who are interested.

I used two foggers last Sunday. And I didn't see any all week until just yesterday. I saw one in the kitchen (on top of the stove, where I had never seen one before) and one on the opposite end of the apartment.

So I'm not really sure if the foggers are doing anything or if the sudden change in weather might be affecting the silverfish. And I'm still not sure where they are coming from. It can't be from inside the apartment... or can it? But I can't figure out where they might be entering the apartment since I always see them in wildly different spots.

I'm going to vacuum today and I'm gonna set off two more foggers tomorrow. And then I am going to look for some more powerful fogger brands. There is not much else I can do at this point...



















(Except burn the apartment complex down)

In the next issue of Penthouse Letters...