Often our home is visited by not the most pleasant guests - insects. Cockroaches, ants, midges, spiders, etc. - this is not the most complete list of illegal occupants. Woodlice often inhabit the kitchen and bathroom. They love places with high humidity and are difficult to get rid of.
An insect such as woodlice belongs to the order of crustaceans. Their body is divided into segments that take an oval shape. Consists of the abdomen, chest and head. Active life is mainly conducted in spring and autumn. Breeding season occurs in summer. The female woodlice carries her eggs in a pouch inside her body and lays them only when she is sure that there are no predators nearby. Woodlice are the most adapted insects of their order for life on land, but they breathe with gills.
Why do wood lice appear?
Woodlice, due to their origin, love places with high humidity. Therefore, most often in apartments they can be found in the bathroom or kitchen. In wooden houses they can be in places where there are areas of damp wood or rotten covering. Woodlice often settle in basements. They can feed on spoiled plants, sometimes fresh flowers. Cacti, orchids, and ferns are at risk of damage. In large numbers, woodlice can cause serious harm. In the wild, their function is to enrich the soil, since by eating spoiled plants, they produce nutrients.
Description and photo of woodlice
Woodlice is an oval-shaped insect whose body is covered with a black shell consisting of segments. There are small notches along the contour of the body, and long antennae are located on the head. An adult reaches a length of 0.2-1.5 cm and moves using 7 pairs of legs. In nature, there are more than 250 species of pests, including white woodlice.
Insects are not dangerous to people and animals; they do not bite or spread infections. However, such guests in the apartment are unlikely to make anyone happy, since wood lice eat indoor plants, destroy food supplies, and also climb onto the table and crawl on food in search of food. Insects are especially active at night.
Knowing what woodlice look like, you can quickly identify insects that have appeared in the house and begin timely fight against them
Bugs enter the apartment from basements or attics through ventilation holes and cracks. In search of food, they easily cover long distances and crawl over thresholds and stairs. They choose places with high humidity to live, so they live under the sink or behind pipes in the toilet and bathroom, near the trash can, in pots or trays with flowers.
How to detect?
Quite often the owner of the home has no idea about the existence of uninvited guests. Woodlice love moist air and hide well. They lead an active lifestyle exclusively at night. Most often they can be found in places where wet rags are stored, dark corners, under tiles or baseboards. If water is constantly dripping from the sewer pipes or your neighbors are flooding you, then wood lice will soon appear.
For the life of these insects, special conditions are required, consisting of high air humidity and lack of light. In such a comfortable environment, they multiply quickly and live well. Afterwards they may give the impression of an insect invasion, but this does not last long.
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Preventative work
To prevent the appearance of wood lice, you need to take care of the cleanliness of your home. Do not leave spoiled vegetables in basements and pantries. Dampness is the main reason for the entry of uninvited guests. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain normal humidity in the rooms. Dampness can arise from a faulty ventilation system.
Note: There is a misconception that dehumidifying the air will save you from dampness. However, dry air is even more harmful to humans.
Stands for flower pots should be washed periodically to prevent the accumulation of stuck soil. The accumulation of dirty dishes and garbage can also provoke the appearance of woodlice. It is necessary to monitor the serviceability of plumbing fixtures. If leaks occur, the problem should be quickly resolved.
Any chemical or traditional method will not be able to cope with the problem if the original cause is not eliminated - contaminated soil in flowers, humidity and clutter. With comprehensive implementation of measures and elimination of the causes of occurrence, you can easily get rid of this insect.
How to get rid of it?
As with other insects, before removing wood lice, it is important to determine the cause of their appearance. Clean your home thoroughly: throw away all wet rags, wash all corners, inspect indoor plants, and clean kitchen cabinets for moldy food.
Carefully inspect the sewer pipes. Are they dripping water? Is there a puddle accumulating somewhere? Is the tap leaking? If you find a leak, call a specialist and fix it.
The first stage of getting rid of woodlice - draining the home - has been completed. Next, it is important to remove existing insects and this is not so easy to do.
Most often, an ant repellent is used to get rid of woodlice. It must be sprayed in habitats. Among folk remedies, the use of alum is popular. They are dissolved in a small amount of water and applied to the places where wood lice appear.
Sometimes insects can appear from neighbors and crawl through the ventilation. In this case, all measures to destroy the guests will be useless. Then you should talk to your neighbors and ask them to take measures to eliminate pests.
Woodlice and chemicals
There are many different means to kill woodlice. They can be divided into:
- Gels;
- Bait traps:
- Crayons;
- Aerosols;
- Dichlorvos:
- Insecticides;
- Poison.
Before using any insect repellent, carefully read the instructions. Follow safety precautions, especially if there are small children or animals in the house. When processing the room, wear gloves on your hands and a protective mask on your face. Afterwards, ventilate the room. It is advisable to leave the house empty at this time and go somewhere for a walk for a couple of hours.
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Folk remedies for woodlice
Many mothers do not risk using household chemicals due to the presence of small children in the house. For such cases there are folk recipes. The simplest way to make safe potato traps is to make tunnels in the fruit and leave them in woodlice habitats. After some time, the potatoes need to be collected and thrown outside.
Another common way to combat woodlice is to dilute tobacco, red pepper and soda in equal proportions in a liter of water. Use the resulting mixture to wash the insect habitats.
Simple remedies are also effective against woodlice. For example, you can buy boric acid at a pharmacy and use it to treat insects. Table salt has the same properties. It needs to be scattered in places where woodlice are located and soon they will disappear.
Priority of means to combat woodlice
Let's consider the tools that are especially popular among the audience:
- Tarax;
- Scabengel bait gel;
- Dichlorvos Varan;
- Get;
- Tetrix.
More about each below.
Tarax
Aimed at combating insects that have appeared in your home or apartment. Simply dissolve the powder in a glass of water and use a syringe or brush to spray it in places where insects accumulate. The product gets onto the feet of insects, and they pass it on to their relatives. Subsequently, the entire genus goes extinct. What insects can be controlled with Tarax? Woodlice, ants, fleas, cockroaches. The reviews are only positive. The price is 80 rubles.
Gel bait Scabengel
The product was made in Germany. Product form: gel bait. A package weighing 30 grams, which is enough to treat not only one of the rooms, but will help you fight insects in a two-room apartment. Just place the drops in places around the apartment. Woodlice will eat them and poison them, which will lead to their complete death. Keep out of the reach of children. The price range varies between 150-300 rubles.
Dichlorvos Varan
A universal drug that will help in the fight against flies, cockroaches, bedbugs, ants and other insects. When sprayed, dichlorvos affects the nervous system of the insect, which causes its paralysis and death. The effect is noticeable after 15 minutes and lasts up to three weeks. If necessary, after a while, you can repeat the procedure.
Get
Aimed at exterminating bedbugs, woodlice, wasps, flies, and ants. The principle of action is similar to that of dichlorvos. It is sold in the form of a liquid concentrate and does not have a strong odor. You will see the results a week after baiting the insects.
Tetrix
This product is used by sanitary services during operations.
If you decide to treat the apartment yourself, be sure to read the instructions and follow all safety precautions. The price range is quite high, since the product specializes as a professional one. !Not recommended!
Postpone the removal of woodlice for a long time. If detected, try to take action immediately so that it is not too late. Woodlice tend to multiply, and over time, removing them will take more time and money.
Saving plants
Woodlice can attack some types of indoor plants. First of all, these are orchids. If rescue measures are not applied, the flower will die in two weeks. The same goes for ferns.
What signs can be used to identify wood lice infestation? The soil in the pot will begin to compact for no apparent reason. Loosen it with a tool and if you see white worms, then that’s it, the flower is infected with woodlice.
It is necessary to loosen the soil of orchids and ferns, otherwise the roots will not receive the required amount of oxygen and will die. Woodlice make the soil dense. Therefore, it is important to take action. To do this, carefully remove the flower from the pot, shake the roots off the ground and wash them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. After the plant needs to be planted in new soil. It is best to throw away the used pot, as it can attract woodlice.
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Damage caused by woodlice
Indoor plants bear the brunt of the blow. When an insect gets into a flower, it begins to actively eat the leaves, which can be noticeable by the eaten leaves. They also provoke compaction of the soil, due to which the necessary oxygen cannot fully reach the plant and it may die.
Note: This applies to a greater extent to tropical plants that love high humidity - cacti, orchids, etc.
Getting woodlice out of the house quickly is not very easy, because they hide in dark places and are very difficult to detect during the day. As a rule, during the day they are in their hiding places, and at night they come out for food. If you begin to feel that your indoor flower, for inexplicable reasons, looks sickly, first make sure there are no woodlice in it. Their favorite spot is usually the potty tray.
They are also detected by eating vegetables stored in a private home. In addition to fresh plant food, they feed on rotten remains of plant food. Woodlice spread dirt, fungus and infections in the house, so if they are detected, it is necessary to immediately take measures to get rid of them.
Prevention of wood lice
The easiest way to combat any pests is to prevent them, rather than eliminate them after they appear. To do this, it is important to keep your home clean and dry. Fix leaks in faucets and sewer pipes in a timely manner. Keep your floor cleaning tools clean and organized.
Some tips:
- It is best to dry things on the balcony;
- Keep your trash can clean - this will not only protect you from woodlice, but will also protect you from unpleasant odors;
- Ventilate the room in a timely manner;
- Dry rags for cleaning the floor, do not leave them wet;
- Keep your kitchen cabinets tidy. Throw away spoiled food;
- Inspect indoor plants and regularly carry out preventive treatment;
- It would be a good idea to install an air conditioner or fan in the room. This will ensure air circulation in the room;
- Don't let fruits and vegetables rot in your pantry. Follow the storage rules, throw away spoiled fruits;
If you have wood lice at home, don’t be alarmed – they are harmless. However, it is possible to get rid of them. To do this, use special means or folk methods. The main rule for preventing the appearance of woodlice is to keep the apartment clean and dry.
Physical methods of struggle
Most often, these methods are quite enough to get rid of woodlice in the house. To create conditions in human housing that are unsuitable for these crustaceans to live in, you need to:
- Improve the ventilation of the bathroom - clean the exits of the ventilation shafts into the apartment, and in case of poor draft, install an exhaust fan.
- Repair leaking pipes, insulate the gap behind the bathtub so that water does not accumulate under it.
- Go through the stored vegetables and throw away any spoiled ones, check the stocks of medicinal herbs, bath brooms and other dry plants.
- Block off all possible ways of entering the apartment - install ventilation nets, seal cracks in the floor and ceiling, fill the risers at the points of entry into the ceilings with acrylic sealant.
- Replant indoor plants in new soil, thoroughly washing the roots with it. Wash plastic pots with detergent, and boil clay pots for 30 minutes.
The above methods will help both get rid of wood lice in the bathroom and improve the sanitary condition of the house, and avoid the appearance of rot and mold in the apartment.
High humidity in an apartment can also occur due to climate conditions, building defects, or if the neighbors above have flooded. In the off-season, it is quite difficult to quickly dry a wet room, so woodlice can literally infest your home in a short time. In this case, electric heaters are used in combination with fans or special air dryers until the air humidity reaches 60%.
Are woodlice dangerous for humans?
Woodlice do not pose a threat to people because they feed on plants, do not bite, and come out only at night. But if we take into account their habitats, we can talk about a violation of the sanitary conditions of the premises. Woodlice can also destroy part of the crop or indoor plants. The risk group includes orchids, spathiphyllums, cacti and ferns.
Favorite places to live are the bathroom, kitchen, basement and toilet. At the dacha, individuals settle in a greenhouse, where it is humid and warm. If you find woodlice in a bathhouse or other place, you should get rid of them immediately. Regardless of whether the apartment, dacha or outbuildings are affected, both professional and folk methods of control can be used. The products are available in a variety of forms and differ in effectiveness, cost and availability.
General recommendations
You can prevent insects from entering your home using preventive measures.
For example:
- Timely cleaning - it is not necessary to clean every tile in the bathroom until it shines to avoid problems. It is enough to wipe the walls and floor after a shower so that moisture does not accumulate on them.
- Timely repairs - you need to whitewash the premises once a year, this will help preserve not only the appearance of the home, but also eliminate problems with insects and their nests.
- Look after the plants in the house. When buying flowers or pots from grandmothers on the street, you should definitely check them for pests.
Compliance with these rules does not require financial investments, only care and labor. However, they are ready to guarantee not only the cleanliness of the space, but also the absence of unwanted guests in the form of insects and fungus.
Causes of insects
It is quite easy to recognize woodlice. They have a brown, brownish, grayish or marble tint. These bugs are tiny in size - approximately from 0.2 to 1 cm. They have a fairly strong shell, which is divided into distinct segments. They have 7 pairs of legs, as well as long antennae. Judging by this description, it is not at all surprising that the mere sight of these harmless insects can terrify a person.
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They are usually found in certain places in the house. For example, this could be a kitchen or bathroom. These insects choose their habitats according to several principles. Firstly, there should be a feeling of dampness there. In order for woodlice to feel comfortable, they need high air humidity, so most often their flocks can be found near a wet bathroom wall or leaking pipes. Secondly, a special nutrient medium is needed. Woodlice feed on rotting fruits and vegetables or decaying plants. If waste and vegetable peelings constantly accumulate in the trash can, then this is where the wood lice will be well fed. If there are a lot of plants in the house, wood lice can settle in pots - there is always enough moisture and nutrients there.
It is better to carry out prevention in advance than to remove wood lice later. It is necessary to thoroughly wipe the floor so that moisture does not stagnate, especially in the kitchen and bathroom. All pipes must be repaired to prevent leaks. Ventilation holes also need to be cleaned. It is necessary to ventilate the rooms every day. Don’t forget about washing floors and hard-to-reach areas where people usually don’t walk. It is recommended to use dehumidifiers. Any breakdowns in the plumbing must be repaired immediately. You should empty the trash bin more often. All cracks in the floors must be eliminated, and the wallpaper must always be glued down. There should be no leftover food in the kitchen. You should not dry clothes in the bathroom, because... this increases air humidity. Trays from flower pots need to be wiped if leaves or soil get on them. These simple steps will help prevent woodlice from appearing.
Many people dream of getting rid of such neighbors, but it is not always easy. However, there are several solutions.
How to remove wood lice from the bathroom
In general, this is a harmless insect that does not pose a serious threat in an isolated case. If there are a lot of woodlice and they are already forming colonies, then the consequences can be different - from the formation of fungal diseases to lichen in household members.
Therefore, it is not worth starting a problem with insects. Here are a large number of life hacks that will help you get rid of unwanted neighbors.
Homemade traps
Homemade traps are simple, unobtrusive and very affordable. It won’t be difficult to organize this, and it will bring benefits, even if not super huge.
No. 15. Bath brooms
The trap can be prepared from bath brooms (birch or oak), but if you find them a problem, then you can use an ordinary household broom and even just damp rags or containers filled with fallen leaves (wet). The brooms must be well moistened and placed in places where land crustaceans most often appeared, and left overnight. And when morning comes, it is necessary to collect traps and destroy living creatures.
No. 16. Potatoes and carrots
Although root traps are a simple option, they can significantly reduce crustacean colonies. Small holes are made in the tubers and the vegetables are left overnight. Woodlice rush to the bait, sensing the smell of juice, get inside, and in the morning you can throw everything away together: both root vegetables and pests.
Folk remedies
Wood lice were also fought in those days when modern means did not yet exist. Most often, folk remedies contain an infusion of tobacco, table salt and pepper. A solution of this product is used to treat rooms with high humidity. The main effect in such a product is provided by nicotine, but after using such a solution, a specific, not very pleasant smell appears in the apartment.
Sometimes gasoline and kerosene are used to kill insects. Indeed, woodlice die from them, but using flammable substances indoors is extremely dangerous. If you treat closed rooms with them, an explosive mixture can form in them, which can explode from the slightest spark. It is enough to turn on the switch for the room to be on fire.
Obviously, folk remedies for getting rid of woodlice are not as safe as you might think.
Chemical treatments
This is the twenty-first century, so there is a huge selection of special products against any insects. When choosing them, you need to remember that they are dangerous for pets. You need to carefully consider how to protect your pets and small children, if any. The apartment must be free of children and animals when treatment is carried out.
The most effective drugs:
- "Mole".
- "Gett."
- Universal dichlorvos "Varan". It is also used against moths.
- "Tarax" is effective against any household pests.
- "Tetrix".
- "Mashenka." A well-known chalk that helped successfully fight cockroaches.
If woodlice has settled in pots with plants, which also sometimes happens, then you need to use the following means:
- "Ideal".
- "Thunder".
- "Aktara".
Products with chemical components should be treated with extreme caution and instructions should be carefully followed.
