HOW TO GET RID OF SILVERFISH
Even though silverfishes are not a source of danger to human health, they do bring in unhygienic conditions and a sense of fright and disgust to whoever sees it. One of the best ways to get rid of these insects is the use of organic chemicals.
Diatomaceous Earth works wonders in this case. Often, certain homeowners repel the idea of using pesticides or insecticides to get rid of these species.
Hence the recommendation to use diatomaceous earth which is essentially a white powder that kills and dehydrates these insects once they come in contact with it. Diatomaceous earth does not pose any threat to human or animal health even though they are highly lethal for silverfish.
The other most common way of removing silverfish is to call in the experts. Local exterminators are specialized in the task of removing any kind of pests from a household.
Since sometimes it’s difficult to understand an infestation as these are nocturnal insects that prefer to do their activity in secret, you would not even be able to notice the source of their habitation unless they decided to play a little peek-a-boo!
Hence the exterminators would be able to understand the actual root cause of the infestation, remove all the traces of this pest from your household and take measures which ensure that it does not relapse in the near future. All this just to keep your house spick and span!
LIFE CYCLE OF SILVERFISH
Just as humans go through the entire ordeal beginning with dating an individual to joining in holy matrimony, Silverfishes carry out a similar procedure with their opposite sex (though it does not last as long as the human’s do).
The entire dating process is divided into three ritualistic phases. First, the male and the female silverfish have a stand-off face to face by quivering their antenna and moving back and forth only to return to the original position.
In the second phase, the man plays hard to get and flees from that position only to be chased by the female. In the third and final phase, the male silverfish lays his specimen capsule which the female silverfish insert it into her body in order to start the process of reproduction.
The female silverfish lay less than 60 eggs at once and wait for a period of between 2 weeks and 2 months to hatch. The babies appear white in color until they undergo their first molt which transforms them into grown adults within a period of 3 months to 3 years.
Silverfishes go through almost 17 to 66 molts in their lifetime and these are one of the very few insects which go through this process of molting even after reaching adulthood.
