Woodlice Control Products

Woodlice are grey, hard-shelled, oval and slow, with visible body segments, and turn up near doors, air bricks, damp walls and under anything sitting on soil. Silverfish are flat, silver-grey, teardrop-shaped and dart quickly, usually at night in bathrooms. Both mean damp, but the products differ - see our silverfish control range if that sounds closer.

Some sprays give fast knockdown of woodlice you can see. Others are applied to cracks, crevices and entry points and leave a residual deposit that helps reduce repeat activity over time. Powders work by physical action in the gaps a spray runs off, and only while dry. Focus on damp hotspots - around doors, air bricks, pipework and under sinks - and treat only the areas the label lists, keeping children and pets away until treated areas are dry.

Traps contain no insecticide, and the adhesive is the thing to place out of reach. For sprays and powders, follow the label: keep children and pets out until treated surfaces are dry, work powders into cracks rather than across open floor, and do not treat food preparation surfaces. Where you would rather avoid an insecticide indoors, start with traps and a pesticide-free powder.

Often not. Woodlice do not bite, do not damage sound timber and do not carry disease - they feed on decaying plant matter and need damp to survive. Indoors they are usually a signal rather than a problem, telling you there is damp somewhere. Where a few wander in near a door, sealing the gap and drying the area does more than any treatment. Treat where numbers are persistent, or where you are finding them well inside the house.

Vacuum them up and empty the vacuum outside, well away from the base of the wall. It takes seconds, needs no insecticide, and for the usual case - a cluster near a door or in a cellar corner after wet weather - it is the whole job. Emptying the bag or canister outside rather than into a kitchen bin matters, since anything still alive simply walks back.

Because they are coming in for shelter. Woodlice live outdoors year-round in leaf litter, compost and under pots and paving, and move indoors as outdoor conditions turn cold and wet, particularly after heavy rain. Autumn and winter is when most people first notice them, and a mild damp autumn produces the worst of it. The numbers usually fall away again in spring without you doing anything.

Fast knockdown sprays act on what you can see. Residual treatments and physical-action dusts reduce repeat activity around entry points and damp hotspots over the following weeks, provided a dust stays dry. Proofing and drying take longest to show but are what actually stops it.

Almost always because the damp and the route in are both still there. Woodlice live outdoors in leaf litter, compost, under pots and paving, and come in through gaps at the base of doors, air bricks, cracked render and around pipework. Treatment deals with the ones inside; it does nothing about the population outside the wall or the gap they walk through. Seal the gaps, clear leaf litter and pots away from the wall, and reduce the damp.

Reduce dampness by fixing leaks and improving ventilation in cellars, bathrooms and utility rooms. Check the gutters and downpipes while you are at it - a blocked gutter or a leaking downpipe soaks the wall below it, and that wet band at the base of the wall is exactly the strip woodlice gather in before they come inside. Clearing it is often the fix that lasts. Seal gaps around door thresholds, air bricks, window frames and where pipes enter walls - our insect proofing range covers the fittings. Outdoors, move compost, leaf litter, log piles and pots away from the base of the wall.

Two to three weeks with no new sightings indoors. Because woodlice carry on living outside regardless, the realistic goal is not finding them in the house rather than eliminating them from the garden.

If woodlice keep appearing in numbers well inside the house rather than near doors and air bricks, the underlying problem is damp rather than pests, and a damp or timber specialist will usually be more use than a pest controller - they can find the leak, the failed damp course or the blocked gutter that is feeding it. If you do want pest control as well, look for a qualified pest controller with BPCA membership.