How can I get rid of wood lice in the apartment (or in a private house)

Next you will find out:

• What is the effective integrated approach to get rid of wood lice in the apartment once and for all;
• How can you make your apartment uninhabitable wood lice;
• What should be paid attention first of all in order to reliably block the path of penetration of woodlice into the apartment from the outside;
• What modern insecticidal means most effectively get rid of wood lice in a residential area, and to do it safely for human health and pets;
• What are the important nuances to consider when using insecticidal drugs;
• What is useful to know about folk remedies for woodlice in the house;
• How can you completely destroy woodlice in the hearth of their reproduction - in the attic of a house or in the basement ...

Surprisingly, some people seriously expect to permanently get rid of wood lice in their apartment, simply sprinkling salt in the corners of the room or putting a couple of sticky traps,usually used to catch cockroaches. And someone even simply tries to collect wood lice from the walls by hand, or with a vacuum cleaner - in the hope that one day their endless stream will finally run out. Needless to say, at best, all these half measures will help to destroy only a very small number of pest specimens, while this will have no effect on the number of the main population of wood lice (especially if they enter the room from the attic or from the basement of the house).

So, to reliably get rid of wood lice in the apartment, you need to approach the solution of the problem in a complex:

1. To create in the apartment adverse living conditions for woodlice;
2. Block the path of penetration of wood lice into the room from the outside;
3. Destroy existing pests in the apartment (in the bathroom, toilet, kitchen, rooms);
4. And finally, destroy woodlice in the hearth of their reproduction (usually in the attic or in the basement of the house).

With proper implementation of these points, it will be possible to forget about the invasion of wood lice almost forever, or at least for a very long time.

On a note

It is believed that woodlice are, though unpleasant, but absolutely harmless to humans pests.However, in reality, the situation in this regard is far from being so rosy.

And it's not even that woodlice can damage indoor plants, as well as harm the stocks of potatoes, onions and carrots. The main problem is that, as in the case of cockroaches, when the woodlice appear in the apartment, the sanitary condition of the entire building suffers: imagine that more recently pests were crawling somewhere in the basement next to rat excrement (or in the attic - near the heaps of pigeon droppings), and now the same woodlice snuck into the apartment and attack the kitchen, bathroom and toilet. Moreover, even within the same apartment, wood lice can migrate, for example, from the toilet room to the kitchen - and you will agree, such migration does not promise anything pleasant either.

That is why you should not even try to coexist together with woodlice (they say, these “cute creatures” are absolutely safe) - you should get rid of these pests as soon as possible after their detection.

But before you start an all-out war against woodlice, evaluate again - is it exactly woodlice? Practice shows that for some reason many people call woodlice, for example, the same silverfish.

Below is a photo of the so-called "home" woodlice (which is most often found in a person’s housing):

And the following photo shows a sugar scales:

As you can see, silverfish are very different from woodlice, and it is not entirely clear why they are so often confused.

Next, we will consider situations where woodlice started to build up in the house, and not any other arthropods - getting rid of woodlice has its own important nuances.

 

What the woodlice is afraid of: make the apartment unsuitable for their life

Before considering the ways and means for the destruction of woodlice, one should perhaps note the most important factor that can make your apartment not only a cozy shelter for them, but also literally an incubator for new hordes of pests.

We are talking about high humidity in the apartment or in its individual rooms (usually the toilet, bathroom and kitchen). And speaking figuratively - wood lice, in the first place, are afraid of dry premises.

On a note

It may seem surprising to some, but wood lice are not insects - they belong to crustaceans. Simply put, these are small land crustaceans, which, despite their terrestrial way of life, have preserved their gills and are actively using them: oxygen is absorbed from a thin film of moisture wetting the gills.

Therefore, high humidity and access to water in general are vital for wood lice, and in dry rooms they simply will not survive.

Accordingly, flowing pipes, regularly accumulating splashes next to the sink in the kitchen and bathroom (especially with poor ventilation), wet ground in pots with indoor plants - all this often creates excellent conditions for the existence of woodlice in the apartment.

Therefore, the started (and before that long-delayed) repair of plumbing can be a good start in getting rid of wood lice in an apartment: a dry room will not only be unsuitable for the life of these pests, but also, not least, it will attract much less from the outside - woodlice tend, above all, to where the air is as humid as possible.

 

We block the path of penetration of wood lice into the apartment from the outside

There are situations when the apartment seems to be dry, and all the rooms, including the bathroom and toilet, have already been repeatedly treated with Dichlorvos, and the woodlice thrive on the premises anyway. Some tenants sometimes mistakenly believe that woodlice, like bedbugs or cockroaches, hide somewhere in the apartment in their secluded nests, lay eggs - and so, they say, therefore their ranks are constantly replenished.

In fact, everything is much simpler - new individuals massively get into the apartment from the outside: they can crawl from the attic, from the basement of the house or from their neighbors.

The photo below shows an example:

So, to get rid of wood lice in the apartment, it is important to pay attention to the four main ways of penetration of these pests into the room:

1. Room ventilation system. It is recommended to put a fine mesh on each air vent;
2. Cracks in the ceiling, floor and walls. This is especially true of old buildings - it is necessary to repair all the cracks through which the migration of pests from adjacent rooms is possible (when it comes to the last floor, through the cracks in the ceiling, woodlice can literally get into the apartment from the attic);
3. Holes for pipes of hot and cold water (water supply pipe), as well as a hole for the sewer pipe. Between the pipes themselves and the floor (ceiling) there can often be gaps through which pests migrate. It is advisable to seal these gaps, for example, alabaster or assembly foam;
4. As well as through holes for sockets in the walls, when through these holes, in fact, two adjacent rooms directly communicate, then woodlice can easily penetrate into the apartment from the neighbors.The space behind the socket in this case, it is advisable to close up the same alabaster, or non-combustible mounting foam.

After the indicated paths of woodlice penetration into the apartment will be blocked, it will remain, in fact, only to get rid of the pests already present in the room. But, as practice shows, they treat the apartment here, who are in that much - and what they don’t use: someone sprays a strong salt solution, someone prefers soda, and some tenants are not averse to breathing kerosene, richly spreading it on the walls ( the possibility of kerosene ignition is apparently not taken into account).

So, instead of dubious “grandmother's recipes,” the use of modern insecticidal preparations will be much more effective, the range of which let's consider in more detail ...

 

The main means of destruction of wood lice

Despite the fact that, as noted above, insects are not insects, their belonging to the crustaceans does not prevent them from being poisoned by the same preparations that are successfully used today to get rid of various domestic insects. In some respects, wood lice are even more vulnerable than, for example,bedbugs or fleas, because they willingly eat poisoned baits and die after that (and fleas and bugs feed only on blood, therefore only insecticides of contact action are effective against them).

So, you can get rid of woodlice in the house with insecticidal agents of several types:

• Insecticidal aerosols sold in cans - Combat Superspray, Dichlorvos of different brands (Neo, Eco, Varan and others), Raptor from crawling insects, Pure House aerosol and some others. It is advisable to use aerosol preparations in the case when wood insects are localized in one small room (and this happens most often - pests are usually populated either in the toilet or in the bathroom). But getting rid of wood lice in an entire private house, a large basement or in the cellar using aerosols alone is quite problematic, as it will take a lot of spray cans and, moreover, such preparations mostly do not have a prolonged effect;
• Insecticide concentrates for dilution and spraying as a spray — Get, Delta Zone, Xulat Micro, Cucaracha, Cyfox, Taran, Tetrix, etc.These drugs are not only highly effective (some of them are used by disinsection services), but also economical to use, and they allow to get rid of wood lice at relatively low financial costs over a large area. It is especially important that such means as Get, Xsulat Micro, Delta Zone and Lambda Zone belong to the so-called microencapsulated drugs - they have increased efficacy against crawling insects, prolonged action and adapted for household use (in particular, they have almost no smell and buy they can be in a small package);
• Insecticidal powders, now the old-fashioned way often referred to as dusts (although they have no relation to the prohibited DDT). Powdered insecticides are usually scattered around the perimeter of the bathroom, toilet, kitchen. For example, Phenaxin, Riapan, Neopin, Pure House insect dust, and others are used. The problem is that not all woodlice will crawl on the floor, many of them prefer to huddle on the walls, so insecticide will not work on them. Therefore, the use of powdered insecticides should be considered only as an auxiliary measure - in addition to other drugs. The same applies to powdered boric acid - it really helps to get rid of woodlice, but not all woodlice will die if you just scatter boric acid on the floor;
• Insecticidal pencils (crayons) - are a very good way to deal with wood lice in residential areas. Firstly, in relation to insecticide crayons, wood insects are much more vulnerable than cockroaches, because more venom sticks to the flat segmented bodies of moisture-loving pests. Secondly, it is convenient to use pencils on vertical surfaces. Thirdly, insecticidal pencils can be used as the so-called barrier means - if you draw several lines, for example, around the perimeter of the air vent, even if the woodlice penetrate through this hole into the apartment, almost all of them will die when crossing the drawn "barrier".

Feedback

"The best way to get wood lice in the bathroom is chalk from cockroaches Masha. I have already tried a lot of tools, but this is the best one. From the floor, now only I collect the corpses, in recent months I have already delivered several hundred. Once a month you update on the walls and on the floor and that’s it, then they die ... "

Oleg, St. Petersburg

• Gels from cockroaches and domestic ants. Such gels are quite attractive for woodlice, and therefore also allow them to destroy. In terms of effectiveness, gels are comparable to insecticide crayons, but just like crayons, they do not allow for the rapid removal of wood lice, and the process of extermination of pests can take several weeks;
• Sticky traps, usually used to fight cockroaches and ants - also work against wood lice, but in general this tool is ineffective and more suitable for prevention - that is, for catching individual individuals who have managed to get into the apartment (and especially as a means of prevention I do not want to use "chemistry");
• Poisoned bait - this method is more often used in the fight against cockroaches, but it also makes it possible to get rid of wood lice in the apartment, since they also willingly eat various foods from the human table. The classic version is a mixture of boronic acid and egg yolk. However, it should be borne in mind that a mixture of egg yolk with a concentrated insecticidal drug (Xsulat Micro, Lambda Zone, Delta Zone) will be even more effective.

In addition, woodlice dies almost instantly when they are treated with steam or hot air with a temperature above 70 ° C. If there is an opportunity to use a steam cleaner or a hairdryer, and the wood lice themselves are within reach, then this method can be a good alternative to the use of chemicals. That's just in this case, the long-term preventive protection of the premises will not have to count.

 

We sow insect insects

Above were generally marked by means by which you can get rid of wood lice in the apartment. However, it is one thing to have an idea about such preparations, and quite another to put them into practice as effectively as possible.

And what do you think is important when choosing and using insecticidal drugs? Their effectiveness? Or maybe affordable price? Or ease of use?

So, the most important thing when choosing an insecticidal agent for use in a residential area is its safety for humans and domestic animals. Today it is easy to find the most powerful pesticides on the free market, by applying them in an apartment, you can be sure that nothing living will remain in it after this. But the problem is that it will be problematic for a person to live in such an apartment.Moreover, there are numerous cases of poisoning by toxic insecticidal preparations of people and domestic animals, and, unfortunately, this did not always end well.

Therefore, when getting rid of wood lice in an apartment, it is useful to take into account the following considerations:

• It makes sense to use insecticides indoors only after the pathways for woodlice entering the apartment from the outside have been blocked. Otherwise, it is necessary to poison the pests again and again;
• Do not chase the highest efficacy of the drug. It would be much better to put emphasis on the relative safety for humans and animals, as well as the absence of an unpleasant odor;
• The combination of a fast-acting drug (aerosols, sprays) and products that work slowly but long (insecticidal pencils, gels), in most cases, can give a better effect than if you use one thing;
• All drugs should be used in accordance with the instructions for use. And if it is said that you need to wear a respirator during treatment, then believe it - it is better to do this, since inhalation of the aerosol insecticide will not add any health to you.

 

What is useful to know about folk remedies for woodlice

Sometimes, to get rid of wood pills, it is recommended to use the following popular popular recipe: in 1 liter of water, it is recommended to mix 3 grams of tobacco, red pepper and salt, after which the resulting solution to clean the bathroom, toilet and wet corners in the apartment.

Needless to say, the method is not the most convenient (as, indeed, most of the other popular recipes on this topic) - not only does red pepper and tobacco stick to the surface, so also the persistent tobacco flavor will not add comfort in the apartment. It should be understood that the main damage to moss in this case will cause nicotine contained in the leaves of tobacco and is a highly effective insecticide. With the same success, nicotine can be replaced with modern, insecticidal, odorless drugs (some of them have been noted above).

On a note

As for table salt and alum, found in some popular recipes for getting rid of woodlice - these substances are not insecticides and do not kill the pest. However, on wood surfaces, irrigated with solutions of these substances, wood lice remain avoided.

It is worth noting attempts to use kerosene, gasoline and white spirit against woodlice: yes, these fluids are really capable of destroying wood lice, as well as various insects - in particular, by creating a thin oily film on their surface impervious to oxygen. However, first of all, it should be borne in mind that kerosene, gasoline and white spirit are highly flammable substances. Moreover, a mixture of gasoline and air vapors, when accumulated in a closed room (for example, in a bathroom), may explode from the slightest spark.

As you can see, getting rid of wood lice with the help of folk remedies can potentially not be as safe for health as it may seem at first glance.

It is interesting

In some cases, it is possible to gradually get rid of wood lice at a dacha, in a greenhouse or in an apartment using self-made traps.

• The first option: in the half of a potato tuber, the middle is simply cut and a hole is made near the cutting line. Then this half is laid in a cut on the floor (or in a flower pot, if woodlice harm indoor plants) and left for a day.It will gather in such a “house” where food and water are always present, and it will be possible to shake out the pests every few days;
• The second option: a wet broom is used as an attractive refuge for woodlice. Under the leaves of such a broom, pests also like to gather, and it will only remain periodically to shake it outside.

But it should be well understood that no traps will solve the problem, if, for example, wood lice continue to penetrate dozens into the living room from a raw attic.

 

We get rid of wood lice in the center of their reproduction

In most cases, woodlice penetrate into the apartments either from damp attic rooms, especially when the house has a leaky roof, or from damp basements. The same applies to private homes.

Along with measures to block the pathways for pests to enter residential premises, it is also useful to try to get rid of the main breeding ground of wood lice - that is, destroy them directly in the attic or in the basement. And here can be used two highly effective options:

• You can get rid of wood lice in the classic way - by spraying an insecticidal solution.In particular, a single vial of Delta Zone or Lambda 50 ml bottle is enough to process about 100 square meters. One 100 ml Get bottle is also enough to handle 100 sq. M. One bottle of Xsulat Micro with a volume of 30 ml is enough to process 40 square meters. As examples, means are indicated that have virtually no unpleasant odor and after using which the treated surfaces will long be unfit for life not only woodlice, but also other undesirable living creatures (fleas, ants, cockroaches ...);
• Or you can use a simpler, but no less effective way - to process the attic or basement of the house with the so-called insecticide-repellent smoke bomb. Preference should be given to smoke bombs with permethrin as the active substance - they are very effective and, most importantly, relatively safe for humans. Examples of such bombs are smoke bombs from mosquitoes Silent Evening, City and some others. After their use, all insects in a closed room will die, and a thinnest layer of permethrin will remain on the surfaces, which will provide long-term protection of the room against reproduction of woodlice.

On a note

Instead of insecticidal repellent smoke bombs, sulfur smoke bombs can be used to destroy wood lice (Fas, Climate or others), but the effect in this case will be, firstly, lower, and, secondly, there will be no long-term residual protective effect.

If you have personal experience of getting rid of wood lice in an apartment or private house, be sure to share it by leaving your review at the bottom of this page (in the comments box).

 

Interesting video with an example of the invasion of wood lice on newly built houses

 

Some practical tips to get rid of wood lice in the apartment