Your house is being attacked by woodlice!

Often our home is visited by not the most pleasant guests - insects. Cockroaches, ants, midges, spiders, etc. - this is not the most complete list of illegal occupants. Woodlice often inhabit the kitchen and bathroom. They love places with high humidity and are difficult to get rid of.

An insect such as woodlice belongs to the order of crustaceans. Their body is divided into segments that take an oval shape. Consists of the abdomen, chest and head. Active life is mainly conducted in spring and autumn. Breeding season occurs in summer. The female woodlice carries her eggs in a pouch inside her body and lays them only when she is sure that there are no predators nearby. Woodlice are the most adapted insects of their order for life on land, but they breathe with gills.

Why do wood lice appear?

Woodlice, due to their origin, love places with high humidity. Therefore, most often in apartments they can be found in the bathroom or kitchen. In wooden houses they can be in places where there are areas of damp wood or rotten covering. Woodlice often settle in basements. They can feed on spoiled plants, sometimes fresh flowers. Cacti, orchids, and ferns are at risk of damage. In large numbers, woodlice can cause serious harm. In the wild, their function is to enrich the soil, since by eating spoiled plants, they produce nutrients.

How to detect?

Quite often the owner of the home has no idea about the existence of uninvited guests. Woodlice love moist air and hide well. They lead an active lifestyle exclusively at night. Most often they can be found in places where wet rags are stored, dark corners, under tiles or baseboards. If water is constantly dripping from the sewer pipes or your neighbors are flooding you, then wood lice will soon appear.

For the life of these insects, special conditions are required, consisting of high air humidity and lack of light. In such a comfortable environment, they multiply quickly and live well. Afterwards they may give the impression of an insect invasion, but this does not last long.

Are wood lice dangerous?

Woodlice are not dangerous to humans or animals. They can only harm the garden and some indoor plants. Otherwise they are safe. They have a disgusting appearance and therefore they try to remove them when discovered.

How to get rid of it?

As with other insects, before removing wood lice, it is important to determine the cause of their appearance. Clean your home thoroughly: throw away all wet rags, wash all corners, inspect indoor plants, and clean kitchen cabinets for moldy food.

Carefully inspect the sewer pipes. Are they dripping water? Is there a puddle accumulating somewhere? Is the tap leaking? If you find a leak, call a specialist and fix it.

The first stage of getting rid of woodlice - draining the home - has been completed. Next, it is important to remove existing insects and this is not so easy to do.

Most often, an ant repellent is used to get rid of woodlice.It must be sprayed in habitats. Among folk remedies, the use of alum is popular. They are dissolved in a small amount of water and applied to the places where wood lice appear.

Sometimes insects can appear from neighbors and crawl through the ventilation. In this case, all measures to destroy the guests will be useless. Then you should talk to your neighbors and ask them to take measures to eliminate pests.

Woodlice and chemicals

There are many different means to kill woodlice. They can be divided into:

• Gels;
• Bait traps:
• Crayons;
• Aerosols;
• Dichlorvos:
• Insecticides;
• Poison.

Before using any insect repellent, carefully read the instructions. Follow safety precautions, especially if there are small children or animals in the house. When processing the room, wear gloves on your hands and a protective mask on your face. Afterwards, ventilate the room. It is advisable to leave the house empty at this time and go somewhere for a walk for a couple of hours.

Folk remedies for woodlice

Many mothers do not risk using household chemicals due to the presence of small children in the house. For such cases there are folk recipes. The easiest way to make safe traps from potatoes: to do this, you need to make tunnels in the fruit and leave them in the habitats of woodlice. After some time, the potatoes need to be collected and thrown outside.

Another common way to combat woodlice is to dilute tobacco, red pepper and soda in equal proportions in a liter of water. Use the resulting mixture to wash the insect habitats.

Simple remedies are also effective against woodlice.For example, you can buy boric acid at a pharmacy and use it to treat insects. Table salt has the same properties. It needs to be scattered in places where woodlice are located and soon they will disappear.

Saving plants

Woodlice can attack some types of indoor plants. First of all, these are orchids. If rescue measures are not applied, the flower will die in two weeks. The same goes for ferns.

What signs can be used to identify wood lice infestation? The soil in the pot will begin to compact for no apparent reason. Loosen it with a tool and if you see white worms, then that’s it, the flower is infected with woodlice.

It is necessary to loosen the soil of orchids and ferns, otherwise the roots will not receive the required amount of oxygen and will die. Woodlice make the soil dense. Therefore, it is important to take action. To do this, carefully remove the flower from the pot, shake the roots off the ground and rinse them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. After the plant needs to be planted in new soil. It is best to throw away the used pot, as it can attract woodlice.

Prevention of wood lice

The easiest way to combat any pests is to prevent them, rather than eliminate them after they appear. To do this, it is important to keep your home clean and dry. Fix leaks in faucets and sewer pipes in a timely manner. Keep your floor cleaning tools clean and organized.

Some tips:

• It is best to dry things on the balcony;
• Keep your trash can clean - this will not only protect you from woodlice, but will also protect you from unpleasant odors;
• Ventilate the room in a timely manner;
• Dry rags for cleaning the floor, do not leave them wet;
• Keep your kitchen cabinets tidy. Throw away spoiled food;
• Inspect indoor plants and regularly carry out preventive treatment;
• It would be a good idea to install an air conditioner or fan in the room. This will ensure air circulation in the room;
• Don't let fruits and vegetables rot in your pantry. Follow the storage rules, throw away spoiled fruits;

If you have wood lice at home, don’t be alarmed – they are harmless. However, it is possible to get rid of them. To do this, use special means or folk methods. The main rule for preventing the appearance of woodlice is to keep the apartment clean and dry.