All year, worse when damp
Silverfish and fabric pest control in Metro Vancouver
Damp bathrooms and quiet closets. Slow problems that chew through paper, wool and the back of the pantry.
- Visits
- 1 to 2
- Quiet again
- 2 to 3 weeks
- Worst months
- All year
- Root cause
- Humidity
3-month guarantee
Back inside 3 months of treatment and we return and re-treat for nothing.
- LicensingFully licensed
- Guarantee3 months
- Coverage17 cities
Signs
How you know
- Fast silver insects in the bath, sink or basement at night
- Grazed patches and small holes in stored paper, book bindings or wallpaper
- Bare patches in wool carpet under furniture, or damage at the back of a closet
- Webbing and clumped grain in flour, cereal, rice or pet food
Species
What lives here
- Silverfish and firebrats
- They need high humidity. They eat starch, paper, glue and dry goods, in bathrooms, basements and crawlspaces.
- Carpet and dermestid beetles
- The larvae do the damage, to wool, hair, feathers and dry animal protein. Sometimes it traces back to an old bird or wasp nest in a void.
- Indian meal moth and grain beetles
- Pantry pests. They arrive in a bag of flour, birdseed or pet food and spread along the shelf.
Treatment
How we deal with silverfish
Find the moisture or the infested food. Spraying the room fixes neither.
Crack, void and perimeter treatment through the bathrooms, basement and crawlspace.
For pantry pests, pull every dry good, bin what is infested, then treat and monitor with pheromone traps.
For fabric pests, find the protein source. It is often a nest in a void rather than the closet itself.
Prevention
Keeping them out
- Put bathroom fans on a timer and pull crawlspace humidity down
- Move flour, rice, cereal, birdseed and pet food into rigid sealed containers
- Vacuum under furniture, along baseboards and around closet edges
- Keep stored paper and textiles off concrete and out of damp rooms
Questions
Silverfish, asked and answered
Are silverfish harmful?
Not to people. They damage paper, book bindings, wallpaper paste and dry goods. A steady population is a reliable sign the room is too humid.
I only found moths in one bag of flour. Do I need to empty the cupboard?
Yes. Indian meal moth larvae crawl out of the food to pupate in cupboard seams and hinges, so the bag you found is rarely the whole story.
Where we work
Silverfish and fabric pest control across Metro Vancouver
Get your silverfish and fabric pest problem named
A certified applicator confirms which species you actually have. Where it is coming from usually turns out to be the more useful half of that answer.
Same-day response · 24/7 emergency