You can probably handle it if
You see a few silverfish now and then, mostly in one bathroom or one corner of the basement. Drying the room out, sealing gaps, using sticky traps and storing paper in bins often keeps things under control.
Silverfish & firebrats · Orange County, NY
Silverfish Exterminators Serving Orange County, New York
Silverfish have been living in old Hudson Valley houses about as long as there have been old Hudson Valley houses. They are harmless to people, but they will work through stored books, wallpaper paste, photos and cardboard boxes in a damp basement or attic. A local pro can find where they are breeding and knock them back.
- Basements & bathrooms
- Books, papers & boxes
- Humidity fixes
Silverfish at a glance
- Size
- About half an inch, sometimes a bit more
- Shape
- Flat, teardrop or carrot shaped, tapering toward the tail
- Color
- Silvery gray with a metallic sheen from tiny scales
- Tell-tale feature
- Three long, thin bristles at the tail and long antennae
- Movement
- Fast, wriggling, fish-like dash. They don't fly or jump
- Active
- At night, hiding in cracks and voids by day
- Likes
- Humidity roughly 75 percent or higher and moderate temperatures
- Eats
- Starches, sugars and proteins: paper, glue, paste, cereal, fabric sizing
Silverfish are slow breeders but long-lived, and they can go a long time without food. That is why a modest problem in an old house can quietly persist for years.
Old houses, damp cellars and the silverfish connection
Orange County's housing stock is a big part of the story. The 1800s farmhouses around Montgomery and Goshen, the brick rowhouses in Newburgh and the Victorian homes in Cornwall-on-Hudson were built with fieldstone or rubble foundations, plaster walls and lots of hollow voids. That gives silverfish dark, sheltered space with a steady supply of moisture coming up through the cellar.
Houses close to water have it worse. Along the Hudson, the Wallkill and the Delaware, basements often sit near the water table and stay humid all summer. Plenty of older homes in the Port Jervis and Upper Delaware area have cellars that only feel dry in January. Lake cottages around Greenwood Lake that are closed up for months can turn into silverfish colonies, too, because nothing is circulating the air.
Newer houses aren't immune. A finished basement with carpet over a concrete slab, a bathroom fan that vents into the attic instead of outdoors, or a crawlspace without a vapor barrier can all push humidity into the range silverfish need. Their cousins the firebrats go the other direction and gather in hot spots around boilers, furnaces and water heaters.
Signs and damage to watch for
- Silverfish trapped in sinks and tubs overnight
- Irregular holes or scraped surfaces on book pages and paper
- Chewed edges on cardboard boxes in storage
- Notched or thinned spots on wallpaper, especially near seams
- Damage to photographs, old documents and book bindings
- Small yellowish stains on fabric or paper
- Tiny pepper-like droppings in drawers and on shelves
- Shed silvery scales or skins in closets and storage areas
Silverfish versus the look-alikes
| Insect | How to recognize it | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Silverfish | Uniform silvery gray, smooth and shiny | Cool to moderate, humid areas: basements, bathrooms, attics, closets |
| Firebrat | Same shape, but mottled brown and gray | Hot spots near boilers, furnaces, ovens and chimneys |
| Jumping bristletail | Humped back, brownish, jumps when disturbed | Mostly outdoors under leaf litter and bark, occasionally wanders in |
| House centipede (predator) | Much longer legs all down the body, very fast | Damp basements, where it hunts silverfish. See centipede control |
| Earwig | Pincers at the rear instead of tail bristles | Mulch and damp spots outside, wanders in. See earwig control |
What a professional silverfish treatment looks like
A good technician starts by finding where the silverfish actually live, which isn't always where you see them. They check the basement, attic, bathrooms, closets and storage areas, look at humidity levels, and pay attention to boxes of paper and books, wall voids and the gaps around pipes and baseboards.
Treatment usually centers on dusts and residual crack-and-crevice products placed in wall voids, behind baseboards, under sinks, around plumbing penetrations and in attic spaces. Dusts are especially useful in old homes because they stay effective in hollow walls for a long time. Baits labeled for silverfish may be placed in storage areas.
Because silverfish are long-lived and breed slowly, results build over a few weeks rather than overnight, and a follow-up visit is common. The bigger long-term win is moisture control, which a good pro will talk you through.
Make the house less silverfish-friendly
- Run a dehumidifier in the basement and keep humidity near 50 percent
- Make sure bath fans vent outside and run them for 20 minutes after showers
- Fix dripping pipes, sweating cold water lines and leaky fittings
- Move books, papers and photos out of cardboard and into sealed plastic bins
- Get stored items off the basement floor and away from outside walls
- Seal cracks along baseboards, around pipes and at window and door trim
- Add a vapor barrier to dirt or gravel crawlspaces
- Keep dry food like cereal, flour and pet food in sealed containers
Silverfish questions from local homeowners
Do silverfish bite or carry disease?
No. They don't bite, sting or spread disease. The harm is to paper, books, photos, wallpaper and some fabrics, plus the unpleasantness of finding them.
Why do I see more after a renovation?
Opening walls and moving stored boxes disturbs their hiding spots, so they scatter. Fresh drywall compound and paper-faced materials can also be a food source while the house is still damp from construction.
Will a dehumidifier alone get rid of them?
It helps a lot over time, because silverfish struggle when humidity stays low. But it works slowly, and an established population in wall voids or an attic may need treatment to bring numbers down faster.
DIY or professional: an honest comparison
Call a pro if
You are seeing them in several rooms, finding damage to books, documents or wallpaper, or still catching them weeks after drying the space out. Old houses with hollow plaster walls and attics are hard to reach without professional dusts and equipment.
Bundle it if
Silverfish, camel crickets, millipedes and spiders tend to share damp basements. A single visit that covers all of them is usually more efficient than tackling each one separately.
Silverfish exterminator near me in Orange County
Silverfish don't usually rate an emergency call, but when you are pulling ruined family photos out of a basement box, "silverfish exterminator near me" starts to feel urgent. We connect homeowners across Orange County with local, independent pest control companies who know what old stone foundations and damp river-valley basements are like.
Call from Middletown, Washingtonville, Port Jervis or anywhere else in the county. Tell us where you are seeing them and whether anything has been damaged, and we will put you in touch with someone who works your area.
Common searches before calling
- Silverfish removal near me
- Pest control near me for old houses
- Centipedes in the basement near me
- Clothes moth exterminator near me
- Cricket exterminator near me
- Cockroach exterminator near me
What goes into the price
Silverfish quotes depend mostly on how much of the house is involved. A single bathroom or basement corner is a short visit. A population spread through plaster walls, the attic and several closets in a big old farmhouse takes more time and more material.
Access matters too. Attics with blown-in insulation, crawlspaces and finished basements with drop ceilings all take longer to inspect and treat. Expect a follow-up visit on heavier jobs, and ask whether it is included. Some homeowners roll silverfish into a quarterly general pest plan, which can make sense in a house that also gets ants, spiders and crickets.
Silverfish help across Orange County's seven regions
Old village centers, river towns, lake communities and newer subdivisions all have local pros we can connect you with.
Newburgh & the Hudson Riverfront
- Newburgh
- Town of Newburgh
- Balmville
- Gardnertown
- Orange Lake
- New Windsor
- Vails Gate
- Rock Tavern
- Cornwall
- Cornwall-on-Hudson
- Mountainville
- Highland Falls
- Fort Montgomery
Middletown & the Town of Wallkill
- Middletown
- Town of Wallkill
- Scotchtown
- Circleville
- Mechanicstown
- Howells
- Wawayanda
- Slate Hill
- New Hampton
- Mount Hope
- Otisville
Montgomery, Walden & Pine Bush
- Montgomery
- Town of Montgomery
- Walden
- Maybrook
- Pine Bush
- Crawford
- Bullville
- Thompson Ridge
- Campbell Hall
- Hamptonburgh
Goshen, Chester & Blooming Grove
- Goshen
- Chester
- Sugar Loaf
- Washingtonville
- Blooming Grove
- Salisbury Mills
- South Blooming Grove
Monroe, Woodbury & Tuxedo
- Monroe
- Harriman
- Central Valley
- Highland Mills
- Woodbury
- Kiryas Joel
- Tuxedo
- Tuxedo Park
- Southfields
Warwick Valley & the Black Dirt Region
- Warwick
- Greenwood Lake
- Florida
- Pine Island
- Bellvale
- New Milford
- Minisink
- Westtown
- Unionville
- Johnson
Port Jervis & the Upper Delaware
- Port Jervis
- Deerpark
- Huguenot
- Cuddebackville
- Sparrowbush
- Westbrookville
- Greenville
Protect the books, photos and paperwork.
Call to talk with a local exterminator who knows how to find silverfish in an old house.