apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

They love dust and dark. Getting rid of dust bunnies under beds and the like will help, although it might not be enough.

Sprinkling Borax in areas where you see them sounds like a good idea. We had a house with fleas that lived in our old wood floors. I didn't think that was possible! We left Borax on the floors for three days, then vaccuumed, and poof, our flea problem disappeared. Borax is less toxic than other treatments (though I am no expert).

Find out where they're coming from (probably under your sink and/or the bathroom, since they love dark wet places). You may find they're coming in and out through tiny, tiny cracks in the flooring or wall. Grab some caulk and seal everything. Use more than you think you're going to need, since silverfish can get through remarkably small spaces. Within about two weeks you should at least see a drastically reduced number of them.

Borax is indeed safe and useful, but my veterinarian recommends against using it around dogs or cats, so we went with the caulk-everything-in-sight route.

Good luck!

Thanks for all these suggestions!! I will give it a go...

I live in a brand new apartment building and I have silverfish too. The homeowner's association says that they can come in the wood used for framing the structure, and there's no way to completely get rid of them! I'm all for the solutions listed here, but I wonder if one can completely eradicate the little buggers....

They LOVE the damp, think about getting portable dehumidifier and humidity gauge to keep it under control.

I think that's what I have, thankfully I don't get more than one or two per month, if that in my bathroom, usually in the mornings and I live in a 1960 vintage concrete slab apartment building.

They may be in the carpet that's right outside the bathroom door but who knows but I've seen them appear to come from there so perhaps the borax treatment may well be in my future too. I don't have pets so no worries there.

I don't know how closely related these are to earwigs but I had a massive earwig problem in a bottom floor garage apartment (built on a slab). It was an unseasonably wet fall and we tried everything including eventually ripping up the carpet and putting down tile, sealing everything and exterminating (exterminating did absolutely nothing). I had a dehumidifier, I was scary neat, with nothing on the floor (obviously). The only thing that finally seemed to get rid of them was winter and less rain. The tenants after me have had no problems.