Silverfish Bait Traps

A sticky surface, sometimes with a lure, placed on the routes silverfish travel. Silverfish move along edges and under things rather than across open floor, so where you put them matters far more than how many you use.

Hard against skirting boards, in corners, under the bath and basin, behind the toilet, inside airing cupboards, and behind bookcases or under stacked paper. Silverfish want damp and dark, so bathrooms, kitchens, cellars and anywhere with a plumbing leak are the places to start.

They contain no insecticide. The glue is the thing to plan around - place them where a child or pet cannot reach and get stuck to them, which usually means under or behind something rather than in the open. Cooking oil releases the glue if a pet does get stuck.

They reduce numbers and show you where the activity is, but silverfish are a damp problem as much as an insect one, so traps alone rarely finish it. Deal with the moisture - fix the leak, improve ventilation, run the extractor - and use traps alongside a treatment from our silverfish control range.

Until the surface fills with dust or dries out, which in a damp bathroom can be sooner than you expect. Replace them when catches drop off rather than on a fixed schedule.

Not much quickly, but it adds up in the wrong places. They graze on starches and paper: book bindings and pages, wallpaper and the paste behind it, photographs, labels, cardboard, and natural fibres such as cotton, linen and silk. The marks are irregular grazed patches and ragged edges rather than clean holes. They do not bite, do not carry disease and do no structural harm, so a trap behind a bookcase is often worth more than one in the middle of the bathroom.

Only if the traps are well placed. An empty trap in the middle of a floor means very little, since silverfish travel along edges. Move them tight against skirting, under the bath, and behind furniture, then give it a week or two. Several well-sited traps staying empty across two to three weeks is a genuine all-clear.

Silverfish return for as long as the conditions suit them, so trapping alone treats the symptom. Find the moisture: a slow leak under a bath or sink, condensation in an unventilated bathroom, damp in a cellar or behind a cold wall. Reduce that, clear out old paper and cardboard they feed on, and the population falls away. Read our guide to getting rid of silverfish yourself for the full sequence.

Possibly, if the catches keep coming in a room you have already dried out. The common silverfish needs consistently humid conditions. Grey silverfish, sometimes called paperfish, tolerate much drier air, live longer and are spreading in UK buildings, so they carry on in conditions that would see off the common kind. Steady catches over months in a dry room is the pattern to look for.

If catches are still rising after a full treatment cycle and you have already dealt with the damp, if they have spread through several rooms, or if they are getting into stored books, documents or archive material you cannot afford to lose. Look for a qualified pest controller with BPCA membership.