Woodlice belong to the crustacean family. When they appear in a person’s home, they cause unpleasant sensations, despite their safety towards humans and pets. These insects, in comparison with other representatives of this family, have adapted to life on land. Despite this, they use gills to breathe.
These insects are attracted to warmth and lots of moisture. Such a suitable place in a person’s home is the bathroom. The appearance of woodlice is a real problem, so the owners immediately try to somehow solve it.
Why are there wood lice in the bathroom?
Woodlice belong to the class of crustaceans, order Isopods. It turns out that the small inhabitants of the bathroom are relatives of crabs and crayfish. They are small, have a convex scaly body, on the sides of which there are eyes. The outer antennae of the insect are the same length as the body.
There are many types of woodlice: white, gray and brown insects can be seen indoors. On some of them you can see patterns similar to hieroglyphs on the back. Each segment of the shell has legs. Woodlice are seemingly harmless creatures, but they are insidious. As soon as they feel the slightest danger, they curl up into a ball, pretending to be dead.
They cannot exist without water because they have gills. The female lays up to 70 eggs and carries the babies in numerous folds of the abdomen for 25 days. As soon as the time comes, living individuals hatch from the eggs, which are immediately able to move and explore the surroundings.
The average lifespan of insects is within a year. They adapt well to different living conditions, choosing damp and poorly ventilated areas. In nature, woodlice live in damp places, hide during daylight hours, and go in search of food when it becomes dark. There are about 4,500 species of woodlice in nature, and all of them are able to adapt to different living conditions.
If woodlice appear in the apartment, this indicates that the house has damp basements and attics, since these crustaceans can easily move along the ventilation duct in search of damp corners where they will be comfortable. In the high-risk zone are apartments located on the first and last floors. If you see an insect in the bathroom and you live on the first floor, this means that the house has a damp basement. If they live on the top floor in the bathroom, the roof of the house is leaking. Therefore, first of all, if wood lice appear in the bathroom, it is necessary to inspect the technical premises.
Favorable conditions for reproduction:
- Damp basements.
- Damp attic spaces if the roof is leaking in the house.
- Owners of apartments and houses can themselves bring unwanted guests into the house along with indoor plants and vegetables. If in the summer pots with plants were displayed outside or taken to a summer cottage, it is likely that woodlice have settled in the ground.
- Insects love to settle in sewer tunnels, as well as places where it is humid and damp.
- Insects choose damp and warm rooms, so they often settle in bathrooms and toilets. In addition, they can exist in the trays of flower pots, in baseboards and wall joints.
Woodlice in the bathroom. Photo
How to identify a pest
Woodlice and silverfish are equally unpleasant to look at and equally not parasites of humans. They can be pests, nothing more.
This type of symbiosis between humans and small arthropods is called commensalism, its essence is that a person receives neither harm nor benefit from them, but the “settlers” will always find food next to a person.
Woodlice are small crustaceans, and silverfish are from the class of insects.
Woodlice have an oval and convex body 10-15 mm long; its shell and long mustache are clearly visible.
Their usual habitat is wildlife; in an apartment they have to live in the toilet and bathroom - where there is the most moisture. They mostly feed on plants and decaying organic matter.
Silverfish have an elongated, elongated body. As well as long antennae and several curved tails at the back of the body. Color silver, black, greenish, colorless.
Individuals can grow in size from a few millimeters to 1.3 cm. They feed on organic debris and love cellulose (they can be found on books and near paper wallpaper). They readily eat any fabric and can damage clothing.
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Both of them make you want to get rid of them, no matter how harmless they may seem. And the methods of fighting against both species will be similar.
There are woodlice in the bathroom - is it dangerous?
Apart from the unpleasant fact that woodlice crawl in the bathroom and toilet, they do not pose any threat to people and pets. Some people believe that crustaceans are capable of carrying infection on their thin legs, but this fact has not been proven by scientists.
Wood lice pose a great danger to indoor plants, as they destroy the root system of house flowers. Insects pose a particular danger to orchids; within 2 weeks they can eat the roots, thereby destroying the plant!
It is simply necessary to destroy woodlice in residential areas, even though they do not bite. But, according to some scientists, crustaceans, moving through sewers and apartments, can carry fungus and lichen. But these diseases pose a great danger to domestic animals and people. In addition, the very appearance of insects causes hostility and disgust. And if every time the light turns on, a person encounters woodlice, which become active from the bright light and try to hide in a secluded corner, the person may even have a nervous breakdown! Therefore, you need to get rid of wood lice in the bathroom and toilet as soon as possible.
Damage caused by woodlice
For humans, these insects are practically harmless, since they do not bite or attack. Despite this, they can carry various fungal and infectious diseases on their paws as they move across various surfaces, including in the toilet.
For those who grow houseplants, wood lice can cause harm, although not significantly. With high humidity, moss can grow in pots, where woodlice can breed. These insects compact the soil in the pots of some tropical plants, which is not desirable.
Woodlice fight in the bathroom
Have wood lice appeared in the bathroom? This means that the indoor conditions are favorable for the development of these creatures. It's time to act immediately, without delaying until later, since every day there may be more and more of them.
How to remove woodlice from the bathroom:
- It is necessary to dry the room: put a fan in the room or a heater. Make sure that the door to the bathroom is not constantly closed, especially immediately after water procedures.
- Treating a dry room with woodlice repellent in the bathroom: take 2 parts of bread kvass (dry) and 1 part of just boiled water. The resulting solution should be poured into a container with a spray bottle and sprayed generously into the places where you saw the most woodlice.
- After 8 hours have passed, the entire room must be treated with a chlorine solution. Prepare this way: take 40 g of bleach, dissolve it in 1 liter of water, work with gloves, do not close the door to the bathroom when you process the room.
- In addition to the methods described above, the following remedy helps in the fight against woodlice in the bathroom: add 1 tbsp to 1 liter of water. hot pepper, treat the bathroom with this solution.
- In the kitchen, in the toilet and bathroom, it is necessary to spread table salt, and in places where there is a mass accumulation of crustaceans, spray boric acid dissolved in water (10 g of acid per 500 ml of water).
- Create a place for mass accumulation of white woodlice in the bathroom by deliberately placing wet brooms in the corners. In the morning, all that remains is to collect the individuals, shake them off the brooms into a bucket of chlorine solution or boric acid.
- If indoor plants are damaged: remove the contaminated soil, rinse the roots of the plant thoroughly under running warm water, and dry.
These methods will allow you to get rid of arthropods in residential areas only if you first eliminate the source of moisture.
What if they reappeared due to dampness?
If woodlice reappears in your home, you need to check whether all preventive measures have been followed. If all the measures have been followed, then you should contact professional exterminators; they will definitely destroy the wood lice forever. If not all measures were followed, then it is necessary to eliminate the cause that provoked the reappearance of woodlice and destroy them by any effective method.
If you carefully monitor the cleanliness of the bathroom and toilet, and do not allow the humidity level to increase, then woodlice will definitely not settle in your home.
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How else can you get rid of woodlice in the bath?
Traditional methods of control may not cope with the invasion of woodlice, so it is necessary to use special preparations. But first you need to isolate children and pets for a while in order to treat the room with chemicals.
Effective drugs in the fight against woodlice - insects in the bathroom:
- gel bait “Schabengel” - after destruction, immobilized individuals must be collected and discarded. A universal action product, suitable for the destruction of other types of arthropods living in residential areas;
- universal dichlorvos “Varan”;
- For soil treatment, it is worth purchasing the preparations “Grom” or “Grom-2”, “Ideal”.
To treat the room and soil against woodlice, you must carefully follow the recommendations specified in the instructions, do not exceed the dosage, ventilate the room, and use protective equipment (mask, gloves).
What do they eat and how do they live?
Woodlice prefer to be nocturnal and during the daytime it is almost impossible to see them in the bathroom or toilet. The presented crustaceans live in the darkest corners, can hide under tiles or wet towels, and are placed under damp rubber mats. Therefore, if you need to determine whether wood lice are present in the room, it is first recommended to inspect the listed places.
As for the food of the presented crustaceans, it consists of particles of accumulated dirt, small pieces of soggy paper and soggy soap residues. If the kitchen is not cleared out for a long time, then the woodlice will move from the bathroom to the kitchen and feed on leftover human food.
An integrated approach to wood lice in the bathroom
If, after several treatments, the number of woodlice does not decrease, it is necessary to approach the problem in a comprehensive manner:
- Get rid of moisture completely in the bathroom and toilet room. Throw away any debris that has accumulated under the bathtub.
- Repair the ventilation hole: clean and install a new grille, seal the seams.
- If the bathroom has poor ventilation, install forced ventilation - install a fan and turn it on after water procedures to dry the room faster.
- Check the pipes, if they are leaking, replace these sections. It is advisable to replace metal pipes with plastic ones, since condensation does not accumulate on them.
- Replace faulty plumbing fixtures.
- All cracks in the kitchen, hallway and bathroom must be sealed; small insects can enter the home through them.
There is no 100% guarantee that even if the room is kept perfectly clean and ventilated, woodlice will not appear. Since in an apartment building it is difficult to fight them alone. Therefore, when uninvited guests are first detected, it is necessary to involve neighbors so that measures are taken in each apartment. And in order to clear the basement and attic of arthropods, you will have to seek help from special organizations.
Woodlice: description
The woodlice's body is flat and has a brown or grayish tint. On top are chitinous scutes, which contain calcium. This body shape helps the insect hide in various crevices. The chitinous shell reliably protects the insect and is the support of the entire body. On the head of the insect there are eyes and whiskers, and at the bottom of the head shield there are barely noticeable, small antennae.
Woodlice has 7 large chest shields and 6 tail shields, which are smaller in size.
From the bottom of the woodlice's abdomen you can see several pairs of small branched legs. They contain gills, which represent the main respiratory organ of the insect. The main condition for the normal functioning of these insects is a sufficient amount of moisture. In addition, such rooms receive little sunlight. Once in a human home, they begin to lead an active lifestyle, looking for food for themselves. For this purpose, there is enough of it in the bathroom for woodlice, since they feed on various organic wastes. They will not refuse plaque on tiles, skin residues or paper.
Preventing the appearance of woodlice in the bathroom
We already know why and where insects come into homes, and we know how to fight them. The information will not be superfluous for those who have already gone all the way and got rid of insects. Now it is important to prevent them from appearing again.
What you need to know:
- We keep the bathroom/toilet room clean, as soon as moisture appears, we eliminate it by any means: turn on forced ventilation, open the doors, turn on dehumidifiers or heaters;
- when growing indoor plants, make sure that water does not stagnate in the tray;
- dirty dishes need to be washed on time, and garbage should be taken out as often as possible;
- Immediately take linen and wet towels out onto the balcony and do not dry them in the bathroom;
- The floor in the bathroom should always be dry, pay attention to hard-to-reach places, clean the baseboards so that dust does not accumulate there in a humid environment, creating a breeding ground for uninvited guests.
Remember that it is easier not to fight wood lice in residential areas, but to prevent their appearance.
Appearance
Woodlice are crustaceans and lead a hidden lifestyle. For their favorable existence, the absence of sunlight, high humidity, and the presence of food are required. In nature, insects live near bodies of water, under stones, in damp, abandoned rooms, and sewers. Some species have adapted to parasitize fish in the aquatic environment.
Outwardly, the woodlice looks unattractive and even terrifying. The body is convex, gray or white, divided into segments. There are many legs on the sides, thanks to which the insect moves quickly. There are long mustaches on the head and the body ends with an equally long tail. The remaining parts of the body - the eyes, the mouth - are difficult to see with the naked eye. A photo of woodlice in the bathroom is shown below. Woodlice larvae differ from adult individuals in size and lighter color.
Woodlice in the bathroom
Habitats in the apartment
Only a few rooms in a human home meet the requirements of crustaceans - bathroom, toilet, pantry. These rooms are almost always dark and have access to water. The main condition that attracts insects is the presence of food. Woodlice feed on decaying plants and moldy fungi. If there are any in the toilet or bathroom, the insect will finally settle. Otherwise, he quickly leaves the premises in search of more suitable living conditions.
Where they come from in the apartment is one of the main questions. Insects crawl through cracks, along pipelines, through ventilation grilles. The source of infection may be the basement or a neighboring apartment. An insect can crawl into a private house with the onset of cold weather. It is inevitable that insects will appear in old, damp houses with mold on the walls.
