How to Get Rid of Silverfish in Florida (Start With the Damp, Not the Spray)

To get rid of silverfish in Florida, take away the two things they need: damp air and something starchy to eat. Dry out the bathroom, the closet and the garage, clear the paper and cardboard, and seal the cracks they hide in. In Brevard County that fixes most cases before any treatment is needed.

TL;DR

• Silverfish are small, silver gray, carrot shaped bugs with three tails. They come out at night.
• They need damp air. Florida gives them plenty, so the fix starts with moisture.
• They eat paper, cardboard, glue and starchy food. Less clutter means less food.
• They are a nuisance, not a danger. A few is a moisture problem, not an emergency.
• If they keep showing up after you dry things out, a regular general pest service handles them.

What a silverfish is, and why Florida homes get them

A silverfish is about a third of an inch long, silver or pearl gray, with two long antennas up front and three thin tails at the back. It has no wings. It moves fast and hides from light, so most people see one when they flip on the bathroom light at night or lift an old box.

UF/IFAS Extension says silverfish do best at about 72 to 81 degrees with high humidity. That is a Florida house most of the year. They live in bathrooms, attics and other damp, closed spaces, and they come out at night to feed.

They are also patient. UF/IFAS notes a silverfish can live up to four years and can go up to a year without food. One female lays clutches of seven to twelve eggs, and the young take about a year to grow up. So they build up slowly, and they do not leave on their own.

What silverfish eat in your house

Silverfish eat things high in starch, glue and cellulose. In a normal home that means:

• Paper, books, labels and old mail
• Cardboard boxes, especially ones stored in a damp garage
• The glue behind wallpaper and in book bindings
• Cereal, flour and other dry starchy food
• Linens, cotton and silk now and then

The damage is small holes, ragged edges on paper and yellow marks. It is rarely more than that. The real reason to deal with them is that they tell you a spot in the house is staying damp.

How to get rid of silverfish in Florida for good

The order matters. Do the moisture and the clutter first, because a spray on a damp, cluttered closet only buys a few weeks.

Dry it out. Run the bathroom fan during and after every shower. Fix the drip under the sink. Keep the AC running when you are away so the house does not soak up summer air. The EPA says to keep indoor humidity below 60 percent, ideally between 30 and 50.

Take away the food. Move papers and old magazines out of the closet floor and the bathroom cabinet. Put stored things in plastic bins with tight lids instead of cardboard. Keep flour and cereal in sealed containers.

Close the hiding spots. Caulk the gaps along baseboards, around pipes under the sinks and at the edge of the tub. Silverfish hide in cracks during the day.

Vacuum the edges. Run the vacuum along baseboards, closet floors and shelves. That picks up the eggs and the shed skins along with the bugs.

Freeze what you want to keep. UF/IFAS recommends freezing infested items. A box of old photos or a stack of books can go in a sealed bag in the freezer.

UF/IFAS says chemical control is for heavy infestations only. For most homes the steps above do the job.

What we see in Brevard

Beachside homes from Satellite Beach to Indialantic get salt air, damp and a lot of silverfish. Inland, look at the garage first. A Florida garage in summer is damp, and it is where the cardboard boxes live. The same goes for stored holiday decorations, which we wrote about in keeping pests out of stored decorations. Swap the cardboard for plastic bins and most of the silverfish go with it.

What to do now

1. Check where you saw them. Bathroom, closet, garage or a box of papers tells you where the damp is.
2. Fix the moisture first: the fan, the drip, the AC.
3. Clear paper and cardboard off the floor and out of damp spots.
4. Caulk the cracks along baseboards and around the pipes.
5. Vacuum the edges once a week for a month and see if the numbers drop.

When to call somebody

If you have dried things out and cleared the clutter and they still show up every night, they have settled into the walls or the cabinets. Silverfish are part of our general pest control, along with ants, roaches, spiders and earwigs. The pricing page lists the plans, and there are no contracts. Call and tell us where you are seeing them.

Sources

• UF/IFAS Extension: Silverfish, Lepisma saccharina
• EPA: A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home

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