If wood lice are infested in an apartment, it means that all the conditions for their existence have been created in this room. What do these arthropods prefer? Presence of organic residues. If you don't take out the trash for a few days, woodlice will happily crawl into your house. Old paper and dirt accumulated in the far corners are also considered quite edible food.
However, the main source of woodlice in an apartment is considered to be dampness. Moisture-loving woodlice have very little chance of surviving in a dry, ventilated area. Arthropods feel especially good in the bathroom.
Drying clothes after washing in the bathroom only increases the chances of woodlice breeding.
Also, the existence of woodlice depends on light. They, like cockroaches, have negative phototaxis. In the light, they try to hide in some cracks. The question of their presence will not arise if there are few dark corners and unfilled cracks in the room.
There are many tips for preventing wood lice in your living space. For example, you can sprinkle table salt in the corners or spray a solution of boric acid.
An effective option The following recipe will help you get rid of wood lice in your apartment. Mix a small pinch of soda ash with tobacco dust and ground red pepper. Pour all ingredients with 1 glass of water. Spray all corners of the room with the prepared product. After this, after 5-6 hours, treat all surfaces with a weak solution of bleach. In a day you will notice the absence of woodlice in the apartment.
To deal with annoying woodlice forever, without extra costs and quickly, we can advise chemical method. In the room where woodlice live, quicklime is placed in a small bucket or basin, which must be quickly filled with water. After this, the door closes tightly. It's dangerous to be there. A terrible smell can cause various consequences, such as mild dizziness and poisoning. You can enter the premises in 2-3 days. Woodlice will die from such a chemical attack.
It is worth noting that this method not safe, and not recommended if there are children and pets in the apartment.
If you are unable to deal with woodlice on your own, invite the sanitation station staff to the premises. They will carry out pest control of the apartment. For such
Woodlice can appear in a home under several conditions. These crustaceans do best in damp areas, such as a bathroom or cellar. If pipes are leaking in your bathroom, toilet or kitchen, too wet laundry often dries, or the ventilation is clogged, then wood lice can appear at any moment.
The second reason why these crustaceans can settle in your apartment is rotting vegetables, fruits, plants and garbage. Sometimes, woodlice can enter the house from neighboring rooms through water pipes, cracks in walls or balconies.
How to deal with woodlice?
Woodlice are believed to be harmless and do not pose a threat to humans. But here the opinions of experts differ. Some believe that insects can carry pathogenic bacteria and microbes on their paws. Therefore, as soon as you find woodlice in your apartment, you should get rid of them immediately. The most in a simple way is a thorough treatment of the room with chemicals for cleaning tiles and washing floors, which include chlorine. Such compositions are diluted in water and the premises are treated. The products should not be washed off with water, since chlorine tends to evaporate. If you carry out this treatment at least once a week, then very soon the wood lice will completely disappear.
Dissolve 100 g of alum in 500 ml of water. Spray this solution in the area where insects gather. There is no need to wash it off. There should be no trace of woodlice left.
If it is impossible to get rid of insects on your own, it is better to invite specialists who will not only remove wood lice, but will also give you a guarantee that they will be absent for a certain time after treatment.
How to remove woodlice so that they do not appear again?
Even if you cope with wood lice, but do not remove the cause of their occurrence, they will soon visit you again. To completely get rid of these crustaceans, you should constantly keep the apartment clean, frequently ventilate the room, and prevent the floors and walls from becoming damp. In the absence of humidity, the insects will disappear. Therefore, dry the room thoroughly and make sure that the pipes are not leaking or damp. In order to circulate air in the rooms, it is recommended to install an air conditioner, ventilation or fan. Also, keep an eye on your houseplants, vegetables, and fruits in your pantries. Do not let them spoil, and if they rot, throw them away immediately.
If wood lice have infested indoor flowers, the plants need to be replanted. In this case, their roots should be thoroughly washed in water during transplantation. warm water and treat with a weak solution of potassium permanganate - this will guarantee that more flower will not attract woodlice. It is not recommended to use old pots for replanting even after careful processing.
Woodlice in the apartment: a sentence or a way out?
Imagine, one fine day you go into your bathroom, and there they are - these scary and nasty, although small, wood lice. Many who have encountered the appearance of woodlice in an apartment will agree that they begin to shudder with disgust inside. I don’t even want to go into the bathroom again so as not to accidentally step on them.
Paradoxical as it may seem, woodlice are relatives of lobsters and shrimp. They just adapted to live on land, but in humid places. One thing is good: unlike cockroaches, woodlice do not spread all sorts of infections on their legs and antennae, and do not suck blood like mosquitoes. However, the prospect of neighboring them is not at all encouraging. Is it really impossible to get rid of them? Don't despair, there is always a way out of any situation! And the appearance of woodlice in an apartment is no exception.
Causes of wood lice
And where did they suddenly come from? It is absolutely clear that if there are woodlice in an apartment, it means that there are all conditions for them. So what caused them to appear? Here are some of the most likely reasons:
Presence of cracks or crevices in corners where it is dark. Woodlice, like cockroaches, love the dark;
Presence of dampness. Since wood lice are crustaceans, they therefore breathe with gills. And they can only absorb oxygen from water. They especially love it when wet clothes are dried in the bathroom;
Organic residues. For example, a full trash can that has been standing for a couple of days is an excellent source of food for woodlice.
Don’t want to puzzle yourself with the question of the appearance of wood lice and how to deal with them in your apartment? Do not create conditions for them so as not to see how these insects crawl here and there on the floor, moving their antennae and moving their numerous legs. Agree, it’s not a pleasant sight.
Recipes for removing woodlice from an apartment
So, there is a problem. But there is also a solution to the problem. So how to get rid of woodlice in an apartment? Try the following recipes:
First, dry the room in which woodlice have infested. Ventilate it well. You can use an air conditioner or a fan;
Dilute 100 g of dry kvass in 0.5 liters of boiling water. Spray the resulting solution onto the places where woodlice most often gather;
Dissolve red pepper, calcined salt and tobacco in 1 liter of water (take 3 g of each). Spray the resulting solution in the corners. After 8 hours, rinse the bathroom with chlorinated water;
Use special ready-made mixtures. Apply them to the bathroom floor and leave for a couple of days. Then repeat this procedure after 5 days;
Spray the woodlice locations with a solution of boric acid.
But the most important and effective recipe is to eliminate excess moisture. The very name wood lice suggests that they appear when there is excess humidity. Check all the plumbing in the apartment: in case there is a leak somewhere. Check to see if there are damp corners. If woodlice suddenly appear in your apartment through the basement or attic, then you will have to call specialists from the epidemic control station or a special service that deals with the elimination of all unnecessary insects in apartments. You'll have to spend money. But what to do if the source of their spread is located outside. Bring some out - others will come. It will be a vicious circle.
In getting rid of woodlice, one simple conclusion can be drawn: first of all, you need to fight not the consequences, but the cause. Don’t be lazy once again to wipe up the wet puddle on the bathroom floor or take out the trash. Do not dry wet laundry in the bathroom. Fix leaks in bathroom pipes in a timely manner. It all depends on you and your desire to have a clean and safe bathroom. Everything is in your hands - and then certainly these unpleasant bugs will never bother you!
Exists folk sign: if woodlice appear in a house or apartment, it means there is probably water somewhere in the basement, or a leaking faucet, or insufficient ventilation in the bathtub or toilet. In wildlife, creatures with many limbs prefer to live in the bark of trees and under stones. But the woodlice in the apartment - characteristic features excess moisture in the premises.
This is what woodlice looks like - a constant companion of moisture in the house
Let's get acquainted: woodlice
In the scientific world, the creature that causes a shudder to look at is usually called Oniscidea ( order of isopods). We call it “woodlice”, apparently because it always appears in damp places, but not in water, unlike its relatives (crayfish, lobsters, shrimp). Science knows about 250 species of crustaceans. As a rule, these are gray or brown creatures with a convex shell and seven pairs of legs. On some specimens you can see an ornament: mysterious signs or patterns. Sensing danger, arthropods reflexively hide their abdomen, curling up into a ball.
The woodlice “transports” its body, 1.5-2 cm long, as if assembled from individual scales tightly adjacent to one another, on numerous limbs, abruptly moving from apartment to apartment in search of moisture. The crustacean isopod insect, the woodlice, feels great in the apartment in the dark.
Favorite habitats
- Gaps, tile joints.
- A stack of wet laundry.
- Dark damp corner.
- Condensation on heating pipes.
- The ceiling is damp after being flooded by neighbors.
- Flower pot.
- A rug on the bathroom floor.
Woodlice can be found under the sink or under the bathtub. Loose or loose tile on the floor is also a hiding place for insects. They don’t “walk” far in search of food: a trash can or bin, a piece of food that has rolled under the table, living damaged plant stems, and just dust in the corners can become food for them. Arthropods are brought into the house in soil for flowers.
Remember! Detection of woodlice in the bathroom and kitchen is possible not only due to a violation of microclimatic parameters, but also due to the cluttering of the room with wet garbage.
How can wood lice cause harm?
It is in the damage to living and healthy plants, more precisely, their root system, lies the main harm caused by this creature. It is partial to young shoots of seedlings, newly emerging leaves and their still fragile skin. If the pantry or cellar where vegetables are stored is damp and there are a large number of insects, they can spoil these same vegetables in search of food. There is an assumption that arthropods spread lichen and fungus on their numerous limbs.
In all other respects, they coexist quite peacefully with everyone else. Unless they cause unpleasant aesthetic sensations. Duration life cycle is about 9 to 12 months.
An apartment without woodlice: is it real?
Residents apartment buildings, especially those living above the basement, have to solve the problem of how to deal with woodlice in the apartment. This is not so difficult if you do everything in the sequence presented below.
The apartment should have good waterproofing- this is the only way to prevent the appearance of wood lice
- Eliminate the source of moisture causing dampness: eliminate leaks, inspect taps, mixers, etc. You can buy inexpensive moisture absorbers and distribute them throughout the apartment.
- Putty, seal with satengypsum, cement all cracks. Considered the most effective silicone sealant. It is used most often in bathrooms or toilets, filling gaps between walls and baseboards, as well as cracks in the floor.
- Ensure ventilation of the bathroom, toilet, kitchen.
- Clean exhaust ducts. Inspect the protective nets and, if necessary, replace them with whole and fine-mesh ones.
- If possible, provide additional ventilation.
- Do not dry laundry in the bathroom.
- On cold, slushy days, make sure that the rooms are well heated, that mold does not form, that there is no damp wallpaper, etc.
- After taking a bath or shower, keep the door to the room ajar.
- In case of repairs in rooms with moisture release (bathroom, toilet), provide for laying a waterproofing layer on the floor and ceiling.
- Do not accumulate debris and empty the trash can promptly.
- Woodlice that appear in a colored pot must be removed. Clean the plant from damaged leaves and shoots. Replant into another soil, after washing the roots with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
- Check plant trays. Wipe off excess moisture in them.
How to treat the room
The most affordable and effective remedy against wood lice in the apartment - boric acid. Pharmacies sell it freely, it is inexpensive and easy to apply. You just need to sprinkle it in dark corners, on baseboards and damp places. In addition, processing can be done as follows:
- Powdered dry kvass (0.1 kg) is poured with boiling water (500g) and stirred. This mixture is sprayed onto the areas where wood lice were found.
- Arthropods cannot tolerate the smell of spices. An aqueous solution is prepared in which red pepper, tobacco (shag), and soda ash are mixed. The solution is sprayed in the habitats of woodlice.
- Bleach helps get rid of woodlice in the house. 40 g of a substance with a pungent odor is diluted in a liter of water and wiped down the walls and floor.
- Alum has a “deadly” effect on representatives of crustaceans. It is enough to dissolve one hundred grams of the substance in 0.5 liters of water, and spray the solution into problem areas ready.
But salt scattered in the corners does not kill, but repels woodlice, just like vinegar. Its solution should be wiped as often as possible in darkened areas.
Insecticides in the fight against woodlice
For those who do not want to bother with the problem of how to get rid of wood lice in the apartment, preparing solutions, scattering powders, there are universal chemical agents. Apply quickly and act instantly. But it is dangerous to use them in a room without a mask or gloves. Before application, you need to read the instructions, which, in addition to the dosage, indicate whether it is permissible to leave animals in the apartment or house during disinfestation. The most popular among people is “Dichlorvos”. You can use “Raptor”, “Mole”, “Death to Pests No. 1”.
“Tetrix” and “Tarax” are mainly used by professional disinfectors. The substances are supplied for sale in the form of a concentrate. Before killing woodlice, the preparations are diluted with water: 20-40 ml of product per 1000 ml of water. Potted flower crops are treated with “Thunder” and “Ideal”.
Usually, such treatment is quite enough to remove woodlice from the premises. If there is no time to do this, or the issue needs to be resolved comprehensively, they turn to the services of special services. It is reasonable to do this by cooperating with your neighbors. After all, a common riser, a single system of water supply and sewer pipes, ventilation ducts in the house or entrance there are open paths for the migration of woodlice from the treated apartment to the neighboring one.
For a reasonable fee, quickly and efficiently high quality specialists will carry out disinfestation and clean the premises of all insects in them. If we talk about the problem as a whole, then it is better to prevent woodlice from appearing in the apartment by preventive actions to eliminate dampness and maintain cleanliness.
No matter how prudent the owner of the apartment is, from time to time his place of residence is visited by various problems and the resulting troubles. One of these problems is often the appearance of various insects in the apartment.
It is very difficult to confuse woodlice with cockroaches or bedbugs. If you notice gray insects in your bathroom or kitchen, they are most likely woodlice. For what other reasons? distinctive features Can you recognize the woodlice?
- the color is gray with a bluish tint, brown and marbled woodlice are also found;
- body length from 20 mm to 1 cm, size depends on the age of the insect;
- oval body structure, often confused with silverfish;
- the shell consists of plates, flat;
- curly short mustache;
- 7 pairs of walking legs;
- crawl slower than cockroaches;
- In case of danger, they curl up into a ring.
What woodlice look like - in the photo Reasons for the appearance of woodlice in an apartment
One of the most important reasons for woodlice infestations is dampness. As their name suggests, these insects prefer places where the humidity level is quite high. That is why most often they can be seen in the toilet, or in the kitchen, close to the sink.
Woodlice feed on decaying foods or plant particles. A trash can that is constantly filled with food remains is a very good habitat for woodlice. They also perform this role very well. flower pots, providing insects with food in the form of plant leaves and various remains of living organisms in the soil. Consequently, long-term stagnation of garbage will lead to the appearance of woodlice in the apartment, or they can inadvertently be brought into the house along with a houseplant.
Another reason leading to the appearance of woodlice in the house is the lack of cleanliness. Woodlice are attracted to dirt, stagnant water, clogged pipes, and the like. Thus, long-term neglect of cleaning and basic hygiene rules will eventually lead to the appearance of these small disgusting insects in the apartment.
So, having found out why wood lice appear in the apartment, you can safely begin the fight against them. Cleaning your home of woodlice involves several steps.
Having discovered woodlice in an apartment, the first thing to do is identify places of their entry. This could be cracks in the floor and walls, or soil in the pots of indoor plants. All cracks should be sealed using sealants, and houseplants It is better to dig it up and replant it in another soil. The old soil should be placed in a plastic bag, tied tightly and taken to the trash.
The next step to take is to check thoroughly water pipes, eliminate all faults, clean clogged pipes and repair leaking pipes.
Woodlice already in the house can be destroyed in several ways. The most common and effective is the use chemicals . There are various preparations, usually gel-like, powdery or spray in consistency. They treat all corners, crevices, areas near baseboards and hard to reach places. The effect is achieved in about two days. Among the common and effective drugs: Absolut gel, Phenaxin powder, Dichlorvos spray.
Also used to kill woodlice salt And boric acid solution. They act very quickly and effectively and, unlike funds for chemical basis, their use guarantees complete safety for human health.
If independent attempts do not help in getting rid of insects, you will have to call professional exterminators. They are for a short time They will exterminate not only wood lice, but also all pests existing in the apartment.
After eliminating all woodlice in the apartment, it is time to move on to the next step. This step is to carry out spring cleaning . Eliminating dirt as the root cause will significantly reduce the likelihood of a repeat infestation of woodlice.
Thus, in a few steps you can easily destroy all woodlice in the house. However, it should be remembered that getting rid of it is always much more difficult than preventing its occurrence.
Preventing the appearance of woodlice in the apartment
One of the most necessary and significant preventive measures is eliminating excessive humidity. Dampness in the home not only attracts unwanted insects, but also causes significant harm to human health. To reduce the level of humidity in the room, you can install special devices that absorb moisture. You should also periodically open windows and create drafts to ventilate the rooms.
And of course, it is very important to constantly keeping clean in the house. Cleanliness not only has a positive effect on health and emotional condition, but is also guaranteed to protect against the appearance of such unwanted woodlice and other insects in the house. Therefore, you should not allow dirt to accumulate in the apartment. This is achieved by performing the following simple actions, such as regular cleaning, preventing clogged pipes and stagnant water in the sink, as well as timely removal of garbage.
As you can see, the measures that need to be taken are not particularly complicated, but they will effectively minimize all chances of unwanted insects appearing in the house. As a result, if you follow everything necessary rules, then you can be completely sure that your apartment will be protected from such an unpleasant problem as an invasion of woodlice.
