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Pest Library
Size & Characteristics: |
Silverfish and bristletail adults are about 1/2-3/4
in (12-19 mm) long, not including tails. Bristletails and silverfish
are wingless, with flattened bodies tapered from head to rear, covered
with scales. They have 3 long bristle type appendages on the end.
Antennae are long, threadlike. Compound eyes are small, widely separated.
Silverfish, 1/2 in (12-13 mm), fourlined silverfish, 5/8 in (16 mm)
and gray silverfish, 3/4 in (19 mm) are representative species found
in the U.S., including southern California. |
Color: |
Silvery to gun metal colored, one species with dark lines along
length of body. |
Geographic Range: |
Throughout the United States and the world. |
Comparison with other species: |
Firebrats are not silvery, usually mottled in color. Jumping bristletails
have large compound eyes that touch each other; they jump when disturbed.
Springtails lack the 3 appendages ("tails") but have a forked
appendage at end of their bodies, and short antennae. Larvae and wingless
adults of insects with complete metamorphosis do not have the 3 bristlelike
appendages. |
Habitat: |
Anywhere in houses, commercial buildings; can breed in a variety
of places, such as wall voids, floors, attics. They thrive at room
temperature and in high humidity.
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Food: |
Depends on species, but all can survive for weeks without food
or water. They roam to search for food, but stay close to it once
they find it. Silverfish (Lepisma saccharina) prefer protein to carbohydrates,
are cannibalistic, and pests of paper. Gray silverfish feed on wheat
flour and beef extract, especially in wallpaper paste, preferring
papers with high chemical pulp content, such as cellophane, tissue,
onion skin (instead of newsprint, cardboard, brown wrapping paper);
they also eat linen, rayon, cotton (not wools or natural silk). Fourlined
silverfish, not so limited by temperature and moisture, live and feed
indoors and outdoors, can digest cellulose, are sometimes found in
attics near wooden shingle roofs, or under bark of Eucalyptus trees
in California. |
Biology: |
Varies with the different species. Eggs are laid in cracks. Nymphs
molt a number of times. Silverfish and bristletails breed in a variety
of places, in almost any room of the house, as well as in commercial
structures. Some species can digest cellulose. |
Invasion: |
Silverfish and bristletails enter buildings in cardboard cartons
of books and papers. |
Damage: |
These are nuisance pests, which leave surface etchings in paper,
especially glazed paper, wallpaper, books. |
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