Who is silverfish and what is its life cycle characterized by?

A silverfish is an insect with incomplete transformation, that is, larvae that look very much like adults are coming out of the egg masonry. Millions of years ago, they existed in the wild, populating forest litter, fern thickets and other moist places. Algae, rotting remains of land plants and tree bark served as a food source for them. And since then, silverfish have practically not changed - they still prefer places with high humidity, both under the open sky and in civilization.

Description

Lepisma saccharina, or common silverfish, or sugar silverfish, is a wingless insect that, in addition to wildlife conditions, often appears in homes, buildings and warehouses. Its ancestors lived on Earth in the Paleozoic era - about 300 million years ago!

Silverfish belong to the family of bristles, which is eloquently indicated by the processes located at the end of their triangular body. The insect's body length is from 0.8 to 1.9 cm, it is flat and when the larva reaches puberty, it is completely covered with scales.

On a note! Thanks to these flakes, the parasite has earned its name!

The bristles at the end of the body extend in different directions - one to the right, the second to the left and the third back. On the head is a pair of long antennae that look forward.

Sugar shellfish, once in a person’s home, is looking for warm and humid places. If a dry microclimate is constantly maintained in your house and at the same time it is light in it, then such conditions for this insect will turn out to be inappropriate and it probably will not stay for long, having slipped away to less clean neighbors. This parasite for normal life requires the following conditions:

• air temperature within + 21 ... 26 ° C;
• humidity from 75 to 97%.

And such conditions, as you know, are created in the bathroom and in the bathroom, therefore it is there that silverfish are found most often. They show activity at dusk and at night. And with a sharp appearance of light, they try to leave the open territory as soon as possible. These insects run quite quickly and make short stops from time to time when moving across the surface.

Life cycle

Since silverfish reproduce rather slowly, for a good set of numbers their “family” should initially consist of no less than ten individuals. In this case, the offspring will appear with high frequency and occupy other rooms in your house.

The development of these insects is as follows:

• In one egg laying there can be up to 70 eggs. They are oval in shape and painted white. The egg size is small and is no more than 1 mm. During the incubation period, the eggs darken and gradually acquire a brown color. The optimum air temperature for normal egg maturation is considered to be a mark of + 30 ° C, and if this condition is met, then the silverfish larva will appear after 25 days.When the temperature drops to + 20 ° С, it will take about 40 days to develop.
• A young insect that has just emerged from an egg does not have scales on its body. They begin to form only after the second molt. During the period of its development, the larva changes the skin cover up to 5 times. But even upon reaching maturity, the silverfish may remain white, without “dressing” in a silver shell.
• After the fifth molt, the insect turns into an adult, which during its life also sometimes changes the old cover to a new one.

A full cycle of development at temperature fluctuations within + 18 ... 20 ° C takes several months, and at a mark of + 37 ° C this figure decreases markedly and the development time is reduced to 11 weeks. If insects live in a heated room, then the development of one generation will take no more than a year, in the absence of heating, this process takes about 3 years. Without food, they can last no more than 300 days, and when the temperature drops to + 4C °, insects fall into a cold numbness.

When the number of these insects is small, then the fight against them will not take you much time - a folded newspaper in most cases is enough. But if there are silverfish in the bathroom and you notice that their development is intense, then in this case it will be necessary to resort to the help of various poisons and chemicals.

Is silverfish dangerous?

It is difficult to find people for whom the movement of small elongated triangles around the apartment would be pleasant. But silverfish is not dangerous for humans, since it is not a carrier of any infections. However, at the same time, this insect can cause certain harm, which is associated with the specifics of its life cycle and nutritional characteristics.

It would seem that this little parasite can do this if it lives exclusively in humid rooms, which are the bathroom and the bathroom. But such places are the original habitat. But what does the silverfish eat? The main sources are plant substances, starchy products and polysaccharides. And in the conditions of human dwelling “daily bread” for her are:

• printing products;
• glue;
• sugar;
• flour;
• potatoes;
• starched tissue;
• toilet paper;
• paper napkins;
• wallpaper;
• Photo.

On a note! Silverfish can appear in large numbers in warehouses, from where, together with the products they eat, they go to stores, and from there you often bring them to your home!

Thus, for the health of the person and pets, the silverfish does not pose any danger, but it is quite capable of ruining a new repair and spoiling your family photos.