Fight basement lice in the house and apartment

The ideal habitat for the woodlice is to be found wherever it is damp but not wet. At the same time, there must be enough nutrients for them. This includes, for example, wood, food such as potatoes or fruit, which are already a bit moldy, but also earth, grass and also flakes of skin. Ideal living spaces for the basement louse are indoors or outdoors:

• Bathroom and basement
• damp foliage
• under a stone

Both indoors and outdoors, wood lice find enough nutrients and sufficient moisture. In the garden there is always rotting wood or leaves that fit perfectly into the menu of the cellar isopods.

prevention

In order to prevent a possible infestation by wood lice in advance, it is advisable to generally avoid moisture in the rooms. Of course, this is easier said than done. But a few tips can help to create an improved indoor climate for people, which makes it difficult for the basement rascal to assert itself.

Correct ventilation is essential. A cellar window is often left open permanently. This allows moisture to penetrate and settle on the walls and floors. Brief ventilation over a certain period of time is much more effective. Intermittent ventilation is not only recommended in basement rooms. In the cooler months of the year in particular, it should be avoided as much as possible to keep the windows open all the time. Be sure to check your water pipes. Sometimes moisture is a logical consequence of defective pipes or condensation water that runs down the pipes and collects on the floor and in cracks. If you lay a heating pipe that is not covered at the level of the floor, you will keep the basement woodlice off with this heat. However, this is only recommended if heating pipes have to be laid anyway, because you can then think about this positioning right from the start. Otherwise it would drive up the heating costs too much. An insulating plaster creates better insulation, both externally and internally. The result will be that less moisture penetrates. Outside, it is advisable not to place balcony tubs directly on the stone slabs, but rather to lay gravel under them. This means that light also gets under the plants. Since wood lice are shy of light, they are prevented from settling there. Bathrooms should be well ventilated after every shower or bath. Cracks on the walls or on the floor that water could penetrate should definitely be sealed, preferably with silicone. It is also advisable to remove the water from the shower wall with a squeegee, so the moisture can escape faster. Fly screens that are attached to the respective windows can block cellar lobsters from entering the house. The less residues there are on the ground, the fewer nutrients the wood lice find and are accordingly less attracted. You should also avoid drying laundry in closed basement rooms. This in turn favors the formation of moisture. If you are not in the house for a long time, it is advisable not to keep the individual rooms closed, but rather open to the hallway, for example, so that air can circulate. The less nutrients the wood lice find and are accordingly less attracted. You should also avoid drying laundry in closed basement rooms. This in turn favors the formation of moisture. If you are not in the house for a long time, it is advisable not to keep the individual rooms closed, but rather open to the hallway, for example, so that air can circulate. The less nutrients the wood lice find and are accordingly less attracted. You should also avoid drying laundry in closed basement rooms. This in turn favors the formation of moisture. If you are not in the house for a long time, it is advisable not to keep the individual rooms closed, but rather open to the hallway, for example, so that air can circulate.

In short, one can speak of the following preventive measures:

• good ventilation
• Reducing the humidity in the rooms
• good insulation
• Elimination of any damage

Combating the basement louse the natural way

Not everyone likes to grab the chemical club right away. Especially when the animals to be controlled are not pests, but actually only annoying roommates who cannot cause diseases in humans or other animals. Vacuuming away the woodlice with a vacuum cleaner is not recommended, as there are enough nutrients in the dust bag to provide the woodlice with plenty of food. In this way they can reproduce steadily even in the bag. Therefore, first of all, possible, natural remedies will be discussed in the following.

If you’re looking for an effective remedy for outdoor woodlice and don’t want to do much about it, then, if space allows, you should keep a toad in your garden. Because these are among the natural enemies.

As soon as the animals get caught on it, they can be easily disposed of by peeling off the adhesive strip. If there is a larger colony of wood lice, a damp towel that is laid out on the floor can help. After a while you can bring the cellar lobsters underneath with the towel outside. An old and proven home remedy is alcohol. For this you need:

• an empty bottle
• or a bowl
• some spirit

This small amount of alcohol is then distributed in a bottle by turning it back and forth so that the entire inner wall is covered. If you place it with the opening facing the point where most of the wood lice are, they will crawl into it and you can easily get rid of the bottle together with the wood lice. You can also try the same with a shallow bowl. In addition, it has proven useful to attract basement woodlice with feeding traps. For this you either need:

• Potatoes that are hollowed out
• a shallow bowl with:
• old fruit
• damp foliage
• damp earth

You can then easily sweep them together and dispose of them from the basement or another room.

The smell of sage is difficult for basement woodlice to tolerate. Therefore, you can also specifically lay out sage leaves that will drive away the animals. In the meantime there are also biological decoy traps for wood lice. There are roundworms in these traps. These so-called nematodes are only 0.1 mm in size and immediately attack the wood lice, which are lured into the trap by special attractants. As soon as they are in the animal, the roundworms can secrete bacteria that will kill the wood lice in a very short time.

An old but not necessarily confirmed home remedy is adding baking soda. However, it is not always taken up by the basement woodlice, but quickly overcome as a small obstacle. Much more helpful, on the other hand, is a self-mixed mineral powder made from diatoms. It is very fine, but sharp-edged. This destroys the quinine shell of the wood lice. If this is cracked, the animals dry out. However, you should make sure that you do not inhale the powder yourself.

Chemical agents against wood lice

In the end, however, it is not always the case that wood lice can only be combated with natural means. Then there are also a few chemical traps and remedies that can help you to remove the basement woodlice from your rooms, at least for a longer period of time.
The following text deals with the following means:

• Adhesive tape
• Preparations in powder or liquid form
• Bait boxes
• Sprays

If the conventional adhesive strip is not enough, there are also specially designed adhesive traps. of course, they work just like normal adhesive tape, but attract the cellar lobsters with special attractants. These strips are harmless to both other pets and humans. A wide variety of chemical preparations that are available in liquid or powder form are not entirely harmless, but highly effective. These funds are then either sprinkled directly on the woodlice or on the cracks and crevices in which the woodlice hide. Since these chemical substances can also be dangerous to humans, you should definitely inquire beforehand with the dealer which rooms they are suitable for. For living spaces, baits that are in cans are more recommended. The poison distributed in it kills the wood lice within a very short time and they can be disposed of together with the bait cans. If the infestation is rather low, you can also use insect sprays. These should contain special active ingredients that are extracted from chrysanthemums. If nothing really helps, there is still the last chance to call the exterminator, who will kill the wood lice with highly effective poison.

Conclusion
All in all, you should definitely consider the extent to which you really see basement woodlice as a pest infestation or perhaps just as a sign that the humidity in your own four walls is too high. Woodlouse infestation often goes hand in hand with mold infestation. It would therefore be advisable to get to the bottom of exactly these causes first, for example repairing leaky pipes, ventilating properly, removing damage from a broken roof or removing residues from the apartment. This is the only way to protect yourself permanently against infestation by woodlice