pest control dilema

[Vancouver Mommy]

I have had silverfish in my rented house since moving in. I have tried boric acid and diatomaceous earth for months to no avail. I no sooner get one room under control when the appear somewhere else. I find several a day, most days. If anybody leaves an article of clothing or a soft toy on the floor, it will be home to a silverfish in the morning. Most mornings I wake up to at least one in my kitchen sink or on my counter or in my cupboard. It causes me quite a lot of stress and am sick of it. I killed five in my living room the other night. I have also begun to notice carpet beetles now. We will be moving in the next six months and I really don't want to take them with us to our new home.

I called Orkin this morning and they use a product called Tempo applied to baseboards. Apparently you have to vacate the house for 8 hours after application as it can cause irritation when inhaled. If we decide to do this we would do so the morning we leave for a week-long vacation to minimize exposure. The product sheets say that it had not been found to be carcinogenic or cause reproductive problems and contains no ingredients included in California's Right to Know legislation (info from the product sheet - we don't actually live in California). But it's still a chemical and I have small kids, so I'm torn. One the one hand I'm feeling like I'm losing my grasp on sanity, but on the other, I try to be responsible for the health of my family and the planet.

[ElaynesMom]

I'm sorry you're dealing with this. I don't have any advice about the pesticide as I'm feeling the same way at the moment. We had a mild carpet beetle problem last year, and even then, I was stressed out about it. Yesterday I saw a few carpet beetles again and was so upset. I haven't tried diatomaceous earth yet, so I'm going to get some and continue doing what I was last year and see how it goes before resorting to a pest control company. We've started aggressively saving in hopes of moving into our own townhouse in a year or two (we rent an apartment now).

I hope you can make a decision you're comfortable with, and good luck getting rid of them.

[Vancouver Mommy]

Thanks for the reply. Here's what I've learned about carpet beetles. Only the larva cause damage but they really only like natural fibres - wool, fur, leather, etc. Chances are they only live in the baseboards and probably won't infest your clothes unless you have lots of unused things lying around. Are you seeing adults or larva? One thing we're in the process of doing is getting rid of all the cardboard in the house and packing clothes and books in rubbermaid bins, which annoys me since I've spent the past two years getting rid of all the plastic in our lives.

[mattemma04]

I would try a bait first before doing the spray.Landlord should pay for it or deduct it from rent.As the article states if not taken care off the house will be(or is) infested from bottom to top. I like the baits since you can dump them.I hated when people spray stuff in the house,but have done that too.Companies will say they will give a warranty and come back to spray,but they neglect to tell you they charge a *service fee* for coming back...spray is free,lol.

http://www.bugspray.com/articles98/silverfish.html

I have bought commercial grade supplies online instead of hiring after very poor service.Good luck to you both!


http://www.bugspray.com/articles98/carpetbeetle.html

[SleeplessMommy]

here is what is in the tempo:
http://www.bugspray.net/msds/tempo_sc_msds.pdf

[ElaynesMom]

Originally Posted by Vancouver Mommy

Thanks for the reply. Here's what I've learned about carpet beetles. Only the larva cause damage but they really only like natural fibres - wool, fur, leather, etc. Chances are they only live in the baseboards and probably won't infest your clothes unless you have lots of unused things lying around. Are you seeing adults or larva? One thing we're in the process of doing is getting rid of all the cardboard in the house and packing clothes and books in rubbermaid bins, which annoys me since I've spent the past two years getting rid of all the plastic in our lives.

Last year we saw both, this year I've seen 2 larva. They are only around the baseboards. We have 2 cats so I imagine they are attracted to their fur that they shed, though I really try to stay on top of brusing the cats and vacuuming. They don't seem to cause any other damage as our carpet is synthetic, and we have no other fur/wool/leather in our home. They just creep me out though.

I'm going to continue vacuuming frequently, as well as spraying all along the baseboards with alcohol to kill the larva, and then removing them myself. I'm also going to try diatomaceous earth around the baseboards.

If they continue to be a problem I may have to call a pest control company for my own sanity however.

I swear the next place I live will have all hard floors, no carpet