White bugs in the bathroom: 4 effective ways to fight them

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Have white bugs appeared in the bathroom? Find out exactly what they are called and what methods can be used to combat them.

Prevention

Strange white creatures in the apartment, reasons for their appearance

It seems surprising that insects appear in an apartment, because human housing does not belong to their habitat. However, people often notice strange small moving creatures in the toilet or bathroom that quickly run away when a person appears.

The main reason for the presence of insects is dampness; they live where there is moisture and food.

Under what conditions do uninvited guests appear in the bathroom:

Poor condition of plumbing equipment, leaking pipes and condensation provide a sufficient level of humidity, creating optimal conditions for their habitat and reproduction.
Ineffective ventilation, the presence of water containers, wet washcloths and constant drying of laundry.
Lack of sanitary conditions: accumulation of dirty laundry, garbage, wet rags left behind.

Decaying organic matter is the main food source for many insects, so the dirt and disorder that reigns in the apartment provides food for whole hordes of domestic parasites.

Attention! When the home is located on the ground floor, insects enter through the basement. From bottom to top, single specimens move through ventilation holes; when baited, migration becomes widespread.

Preventive measures

Not a single room is insured against the appearance of woodlice or silverfish. But some preventative measures reduce this risk many times over. Order and cleanliness in the bathroom can make these bugs choose another apartment:

The bathroom should maintain a relatively low level of humidity. To do this, you need to do general cleaning once a week, ventilate and dry the room. Use products that contain bleach.
Check your kitchen supplies from time to time. Clean up crumbs and spilled grains. When cleaning cabinets, add: essential oils of lavender, citrus fruits or ammonia.
Reduce the humidity level in the apartment. Special devices will help you cope with this task. Their price is not very high.
Make cosmetic repairs. Eliminate all possible cracks in the walls, between the slabs in the floor. Repair taps and avoid water accumulation.
Throw away unnecessary things, boxes, do not accumulate large amounts of garbage.
When cleaning, it is best to use products that do not have a negative effect on humans - laundry soap, lemon, baking soda or soda ash.
As a preventive measure, it is recommended to pour a mixture of boric acid and chalk under the furniture in a proportional ratio of 1:4. To enhance this effect, you can lay out bunches of medicinal plants, which will scare away uninvited guests with their smell. The most suitable for this are tansy, wormwood, rosemary, lavender and cloves of unpeeled garlic.

It would also be a good idea to ask your neighbors about their situation with the spread of bugs. Since this is a common problem in high-rise buildings. In turn, the insect invasion will spread to all apartments. In order to prevent it, we need to act together.

Types of white insects in the bathroom and toilet + photo

Most often the following types of inhabitants are found in the bathroom:

Silverfish . The body length of the wingless insect is 0.7-2 cm; there are 2 long antennae on the head. The body is flat, tapering towards the end, covered with small scales. The tail is represented by three thin threads extending in different directions. There are yellowish, greenish, transparent and silvery specimens. They move quickly with short stops and become active at night. Silverfish eat foods that contain starch and polysaccharides: wallpaper glue, paper, natural fabrics.
Woodlice . They belong to the suborder of crustaceans, have an oval jointed body with 7 pairs of legs, 2 pairs of small antennae, one of which is underdeveloped, and externally resemble light beetles. They feed on decaying organic matter of plant origin. They live in damp places, hide during the day, and come out at night to look for food.
Butterflies . Mosquitoes up to 4 mm long, similar to small moths. The larvae lay in dirty, damp areas and feed on organic debris.

Be sure to read:

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Mosquitoes, ants, midges, spiders and even cockroaches can live in the bathroom. But these creatures are known to everyone, it is difficult to confuse them, everyone knows by what means they can be easily destroyed.

Types of bugs from the bathroom

Most often, insects living in dark areas of the bathroom are nocturnal and quickly scatter around when the light is turned on. They have an extremely unpleasant appearance - many legs, an elongated body, antennae. A dense horny growth in the form of scales or shells protects these creatures from drying out, so they thrive not only in wet but also in dry environments.

To understand how to get rid of silverfish, woodlice or centipedes, you need to understand who exactly you are dealing with, since a specific parasite has its own means of control. The most common types are familiar to us. These are the insects listed above.

If you see a parasite with an elongated body, up to 10 mm, with three hairs at the end and 12 pairs of legs, then this is a silverfish, so named by analogy with the body covering. They have a light gray, almost silver color, and if you see a white color, this means that the silverfish has shed its old skin and acquired a white, almost transparent body. It feeds on leftover food, damp paper, mold, wallpaper paste, and each other. They are not carriers of diseases and do not bite people. At the same time, they multiply for a long time, so it’s easy to get rid of them.

Woodlice can also turn white when they molt, but the rest of the time their shell color is gray. These bugs are a type of crustacean. In general, they are safe for human health and do not bite, but if they crawl over your body, their paws can cause irritation on the skin. But with organic matter, they are less ceremonious - they spoil fruits and vegetables, and feed on plant residues. They reproduce quickly - after 25 days 100 new individuals appear.

Other insects, such as midges, mosquitoes, centipedes, cockroaches, spiders and ants, enter the bathroom through the ventilation, but they do not cause a panicky desire to urgently get rid of them, and the methods of dealing with them have long been known and accessible to everyone.

Danger and harm to humans

Important! Studies have shown that the nocturnal inhabitants of the bathroom, although unsightly, are not dangerous to people.

The bugs do not bite, do not contaminate food, and do not transmit disease. But if they spread strongly, they can harm people.

Silverfish feed on plant foods rich in protein, sugar and starch, and digest cellulose. They multiply quickly, the female reproduces 70 eggs per clutch, the young individuals, having spread throughout the apartment, settle in the trays of pots of domestic flowers and eat the leaves.

At risk are books, wallpaper, photographs, documents, and excrement can also be seen in food.

Woodlice eat living and decaying plants, and with frequent watering and constant moist soil, they move into flower pots. Here, crustaceans are capable of destroying an indoor flower in 2 weeks, eating the leaves, burrowing into the soil and damaging the root system.

Ways to combat woodlice and silverfish

To remove unwanted neighbors from your apartment, you can use several methods:

apply physical force,
use traps and bait,
resort to pesticides.

Everyone chooses the most convenient option based on living conditions, safety and effectiveness of the product.

Attention! Before starting work, it is necessary to carry out a general cleaning of the room, otherwise the work will not bring a positive result. In dirt and unsanitary conditions, it will not be possible to destroy all the individuals; they will multiply and again become an annoyance with their presence.

Physical

The method of physical impact is not an effective option, but if there are few insects and there is no desire to use insecticides, you can try to get rid of silverfish and woodlice using:

Vacuum cleaner . Remove the brush from the device and go through all the corners and nooks, trying to suck in the parasites and destroy the nests.
Boiling water . Water is boiled in a kettle and poured from the spout, trying to get to the accumulation of pests.
Cold . By lowering the temperature in the home as much as possible, the inhabitants of the damp corners are frozen out by the cold.

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The disadvantage of this method is that insects can hide in cracks, sensing an invasion from the outside, or temporarily escape to another place.

Insecticidal

To exterminate insects that appear in the apartment, the store offers a large selection of toxic substances in the form of aerosols or suspensions:

"Dichlorvos" . A universal drug, suitable for all types of crawling and flying arthropods, crustaceans and arachnids. Available in the form of sprays or solution, which is applied dropwise to hard-to-reach places.
"Clean house" . Aerosol with a wide range of effects. The advantage of the product is its narrowly directed jet, which allows you to treat cracks and crevices.
"Taran" . Aqueous concentrate of prolonged action, distributed by spraying, odorless. A single spraying on the surface is enough for one and a half months.
"Lambda Zone". New generation concentrated suspension, safe for pets. The drug is diluted with water, which allows it to be used over large areas. After spraying, it remains toxic for up to 2 months.

When using poisonous substances against insects in an apartment, do not forget about the safety of yourself and your loved ones.

All manipulations are carried out without the presence of children and animals, spraying must be carried out with gloves, after treatment it is not recommended to enter the room for 3 hours.

Lures and traps

Insects can be eliminated using traps. There are different ways to lure and destroy prey.

The bathroom contains:

paper, greased with special glue, placed along the path of parasites or along the perimeter of the bathroom:
structures with poisoned baits.

The methods are easy to use, but the struggle can drag on for a long time.

Important! Silverfish are lured with sugar, it is placed in a glass jar, and the container is left overnight, laid on its side. Those with a sweet tooth will definitely get into it. In the morning the insects are destroyed.

Folk remedies

Moistened birch brooms or rolls of toilet paper are used as traps; moisture will attract woodlice, and soft cellulose will attract silverfish. In the evening they are laid out in corners, thrown away or burned in the morning.

Another method is based on the poisonous properties of boric acid for insects. The powder is scattered under the bathtub or mixed with puree, made into small balls, and placed in secluded corners of the room.

Be sure to read:

How to fight moths in an apartment, where they come from, folk remedies and chemistry

How to get rid of small flies

Sometimes small (a couple of millimeters long) black or dark brown flies appear in the bathroom. They have large wings compared to the body. The body and wings are shaggy, which is why the fly sometimes appears larger than its actual size. The name of these flies is butterflies. They start in rooms with high humidity and penetrate into houses and apartments through windows, doors, ventilation ducts, and sewers.

Females lay eggs in water; after two to three weeks, larvae hatch from them, which after some time turn into winged insects. These bathroom bugs will disappear if there is no opportunity to lay eggs in a moist environment. Therefore, we carefully seal all joints and cracks, wipe off the water, and take measures to reduce humidity. In addition, the following methods help:

Thoroughly treat the floor and all habitats of flies with tar or laundry soap, leave overnight, and wash with water in the morning.
Wash the floor with a bleach solution, treat bathtub and sink drains. Wipe all surfaces with diluted vinegar.
Butterfly and its larvae (highly enlarged)

Spread out bunches of wormwood and citrus peels help repel insects. But at the same time, it is necessary to ensure that they do not rot, otherwise the population will only increase, and new inhabitants may also appear - wood lice. The easiest way to get rid of them is mechanical destruction. They are small, but usually there are not many of them in an apartment and it is not difficult to squash a few individuals. But if you do not treat all wet areas, after a while they will appear again.

They can also appear in flower pots. In this case, the use of chemicals is unacceptable. Then the following remedy can help: add 15-20 drops of tea tree oil to 500 ml of water. Pour this product into a spray bottle and spray plants, pots, soil, and all surrounding areas. the flies disappear quickly.

Centipedes: nods and flycatchers. Insect repellents

Sometimes long, multi-legged, repulsive-looking creatures appear on the floor or walls in an apartment. Usually these are flycatchers or flycatchers - the closest relatives of insects belonging to the class of animals. There is no need to be afraid of them, the creatures are harmless, only in case of danger, the flycatchers emit a pungent odor, and the flycatcher can bite if you pick it up.

Animals live on moist soil, centipedes enter the room by accident or climb into the winter, stay in it for a long time and reproduce if there is moisture, and most importantly, food - cockroaches, flies, butterflies, mosquitoes and silverfish.

To combat invertebrates, physical methods of influence are used; this is enough if the individual appeared in the home by accident. When the population increases, the food source is eliminated: insects living in the apartment. Boric acid or any insecticides are also used.

Attention! Centipedes are afraid of red peppers. It is scattered in powder form indoors.

Woodlice

Wood lice often appear in the bathroom and toilet. They are mistakenly called insects, although they belong to the class of crustaceans. It’s just that the relatives of crayfish have adapted to life on land, although they look for places with high humidity. They are easy to distinguish by their appearance - they have an oval body, convex at the top, divided into segments and covered with hard plates. The body may be light, with a slight yellowish tint, or dark brown or gray. Another distinctive feature is their behavior: in case of danger, woodlice curl up into a ball.

These insects are frequent guests in the bathroom. They are called wood lice

Woodlice feed on rotting organic matter. Spoiled vegetables, fruits, herbs are from the diet. Fungi that develop in damp areas are also suitable for them to feed on. Therefore, in addition to the bath and toilet, they can be found in the kitchen, and brought in with spoiled food. It also finds them in rooms if apartment dwellers or pets have a habit of leaving food under beds or sofas.

You can get rid of wood lice in the bathroom and toilet only by thoroughly drying the room, removing all possible sources of food. In addition to the measures described above (prevent water from getting on the floor, walls, improve ventilation), it is necessary to carry out thorough cleaning and disinfection. You can use a solution of bleach, Domestos, and other similar products for these purposes.

Preventing insects from appearing in the bathroom

Preventative measures will help reduce the likelihood of various insects infesting the bathroom.

To comply with hygiene requirements and reduce humidity, it is recommended to carry out the following measures:

keep the bathroom clean using disinfectants,
remove unnecessary things, regularly take out the trash,
check the operation of the hood, if it is necessary to clean the ventilation hole,
ventilate the room after washing and water procedures,
install a heated towel rail in the bathroom,
periodically check the pipes for leaks, if problems are detected, immediately call a plumber,
carry out renovations in the apartment, seal cracks in the walls and baseboards,
Store sugar and flour products in containers or tight bags, and immediately remove spilled crumbs.

To repel insects, pour a powder consisting of 4 parts chalk and 1 part boric acid under furniture and bathtubs. Pests are afraid of the aromas of fragrant plants: lavender, tansy, rosemary, wormwood.

Important! In the fight against parasites, you cannot cope alone; you need to involve your neighbors: then you have a better chance of getting rid of unpleasant creatures in the house for a long time.