Silverfish Eating Train Boxes ?

How to Help Prevent Silverfish

Prevention is key to avoiding many infestations. The best way to control a silverfish population and limit future infestations is to develop a prevention plan. The Entomology Department at Penn State Department of Agricultural Sciences recommends the following steps:

• Reduce food sources. Keep cereals, flour, meal, pastas, pet foods, and pet treats in airtight containers. Vacuum carpets, flooring, and upholstered furniture regularly.
• Reduce water sources. Use dehumidifiers in damp basements. Install plastic sheeting on the ground in dirt crawl spaces and ridge vents in roofs let humid air escape. Keep exterior areas caulked and well painted, gutters and downspouts free of debris, and landscaping graded to allow water to drain away from your home.
• Reduce harborages. Seamless interior walls limit access to sites such as wall interiors and spaces between ceilings and walls. Bristletails can gain access to these harborages through crevices and cracks under and behind baseboards, windows, and door trim and holes in walls and floors where pipes pass. Use caulking, spackle, or expandable foam to eliminate these openings.

I have several Tomcat glue boards in my basement at all times.  A pack of four runs about $3 at Walmart.  They work great on creepy crawlies, especially crickets.

Boric acid paper packs (Dekko brand from Amazon) can work but may not be a good idea if small children or pets are roaming around.

Just bought a box of 72 for less than $30.00 on the bay.  Much cheaper and with the camel cricket population in  my basement they go fast. We had silverfish in my parents house when I was a kid. What a PITA to control. All of the above advice from JEFF T is spot on.

Listen carefully.  Napping in the den one day and awoke to a faint chewing sound.  Followed my ear to a picture hanging over the fireplace mantle.  Removed the picture and found a silverfish starting on the paper backing.  Apparently entered through space between the brass/glass enclosure and the brick of the rarely-used fireplace but caught it (and smashed it) before noticeable damage ensued.

A regular pest control program, DIY or professional, will keep most insects and arachnids at bay. 

What, me worry?  

Sure it was insects? Looks like maybe the end of the box was against a painted wall and some of the paper/cardboard may have stuck to the paint.

Sticky pads and a night light work great. Just tell the critters to go to the light when you leave the basement for the night. They will also catch critters that like to feed on the dead.

Times like this I like Michigan, and winters. Less creepies crawling period.(don't feed the bears, and moose don't want an apple )(they want your a** )

  I don't think I've ever seen a silverfish outside of rotting timber.

...or this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PgjAMVruL8

I got rid of our silverfish with Suspend SC insecticide bought on eBay.  It is the best household insecticide for most bugs including silverfish.  It it sold locally here by professional insect removal companies but for twice the price verses eBay.

Suspend SC is a solid insecticide suspended in water and best of all has no odor.  It will not harm rugs or floors and will kill most all house hold bugs which we have lots of here in Louisiana. Use it around baseboards, in attics and in basements, and outside around foundations.

You will get a pint bottle with measuring top and be sure to store it in the house away from freezing and heat.  .75 ounce will usually do per one treatment and one pint will last several years.

Charlie

My 2 cents on camel crickets, Ortho Home Defense purchased at your favorite big box store will last a long time.  Spray along the basement walls and around door and window frames. Works both inside and outside.  It lasts at least 6 months.  Anything and everything on 6 or 8 legs will die within hours.  Of course humidity control is very important as well but this stuff kills the new arrivals.

I've had train boxes stored in the attic for years, and have seen silverfish up there over that time, but have never had any box damage. I've never heard of silverfish eating cardboard, and I very much doubt they had anything to do with the box damage you have pictured.

Some of you guys have icky bugs in your spaces.

I have seen silverfish eat pretty much anything made of cardboard or paper - including sheetrock.  They're in my attic and there's really not much I can do about it.  They were here before I was.  Pretty much store stuff with silica packs and in plastic to keep it dry. 

My question about that shelf you had the box on: Was it open backed to a concrete wall?

Fred

OK - I live on the Gulf Coast, the northern-most coast of the Caribbean, some say, so bugs we know. I'm always amused by these "house hunters" shows that present houses in SoCal (for example) or Europe with no screens on the windows. Really? "Letting the outside in" around here in the summer will also let in 6- and 8-legged things that dare you to talk back to them. The sub-tropics - buggy. 

After all that - I control insects and spiders with common grocery-store bug bombs, such as those by HotShot (not a plug). They will kill everything. I do a treatment in the Spring and in mid-August. Two in the house (living room and bedroom) and one in the attic (I have no basement). A larger house will require more bombs, of course. I don't have to wash everything because nothing is left out.

I do not have kids or (any longer) a pet, but that's not a big complication.

Set the bombs, leave for 2 hours (a leisurely lunch), come back, open the windows and let the house air out - my attic fan helps me do that quickly (30 min). Easy, safe, cheap, very effective. Change brands every  so often. No need for exterminators or pads. 

Also - arachnids are tougher than insects, I have observed.

D500 posted:

Also - arachnids are tougher than insects, I have observed.

So I've noticed

I used an unusual amount of bug killer on a larger than normal specimen. I say unusual because after said specimen finally expired, I had occasion to return to the basement and much to my dismay found a fog of vapor hanging in the air just above the floor I like to think I got it aired out before any ignition sources got to it.

By the way, green laser pointers are particularly good at revealing spider webs (even down to single threads) that have yet to make themselves visible by debris, in case the spider responsible is hiding elsewhere. Any dark corners of the basement (i.e. spaces on the shelf where I stick freight-car boxes) get "scanned" this way before I blindly stick my hand in there

---PCJ

I used an unusual amount of bug killer on a larger than normal specimen.

Wasp and Hornet killer is deadly on spiders. We get some big ones around my house each summer and it drops them instantly. The long stream spray let's me get them before they can scurry off of their web into their hiding spot too.

Hey- wait a minute- I thought this was a forum about trains

  It still is. We are talking about insect infestations and damage to train related items, and the area that holds the toy/model ones and their engineers, us. 

It's 3rail saftey next

Here is one for safety; At shows. Watch out. Especially those undertable boxes! (*Recluse bite #1 swap meet box)    Or out of state anything (Recluse bite #2, carpet, #3 dresser #4 freezer from rental storage unit, migration from another storage unit. #5 Hot rod fire wall, pantleg, #6 manhole, pantleg #7 carpet pull pantleg. #8 Building inspection pantleg #9 Laundry mat ankle (dress, sandals)

I only need ant traps and a sneaker to kill spiders bigger than my thumbnail.

Maybe I just need T gauge then I can use the ants?

 Little House Spiders keep any other bugs in check; widows, recluses, and centipedes die by sneaker now. I used to play with spiders and handle them if I knew it was safe. Never got bit while handling them slowly and gently. Bees are worse bites than what's normally here.

  I've only seen Black Widows as pets, but they are here. Brown Recluse is estabished in a few semi-abandoned industrial areas were buildings are empty. They love the indoors and warmth. Maintenance heat is present and a pipline valving system I it hu ground heat. (pressure changes in big feeds can cause outdoor valve freezeovers) There are a lot in the pipes there. Outside the system,..actually near rail bed. ...A temp siding there for the system's construction? Gotta be.

  Anyhow outside is a year round patch of meadow. Green and "awake" even much of the winter, snow melts there. And since the birds split till spring, it gets full of millions of some kind of cannibal spiders...Arachnophobia to the max., 30 square yards, 100 per square ft, 1" average, looks close to the Recluse. The Recluse is VERY aggressive up here and loves to run at you from knooks, esp. wood, from feet away, then up pant legs, or on the hand cause you're too close. You might prefer the Widows fever to a Recluse bite. That is poison that never stops damaging your circulatory system.

I could have brought a baby Recluse home by accident at times.  

   So I started to leave the little harmless spiders to "clean up" any baby spider hitchhikers.