The hotel
Silverfish in a suite become a review. They eat wallpaper paste and the book in the drawer. An unmarked white unit on the bathroom skirting is not something a guest photographs.
IG-SF, grey or white or gold
Silverfish and firebrat monitor
For silverfish and firebrats, the insects that rasp paper, glue, wallpaper and bindings. Grey as standard. Gold where the room is a gallery. White where it is a suite.
A quiet insect in rooms that cannot afford the damage
Silverfish and firebrats are crawling insects with a taste for starch and glue. The housing does not change; the lure and the detection threshold do. The case is hotels with damaged wallpaper, and collections that cannot place a sticky card beside a vitrine.
Lepisma saccharina favours cool damp. The grey silverfish, Ctenolepisma longicaudatum, is less particular and has become a collections pest across Europe. Firebrats, Thermobia domestica, take the warm side: boiler rooms, behind kitchens, plant rooms.
Damage is slow and permanent: rasped paper, eaten labels, wallpaper lifting at the skirting. A count in the stack is far cheaper than conservation treatment.
| Species | Lepisma, Ctenolepisma, Thermobia |
|---|---|
| Lure | Silverfish and firebrat blend, twelve months |
| Placement | Skirting, stack ends, bathrooms, plant rooms, behind furniture |
| Density | Bathrooms and stores in hotels; stack ends and plant in collections |
| Housing | Grey as standard. White for hotels, gold for heritage rooms. No markings. |
| Buyers | Hotels, museums, archives, libraries, historic houses |
Four rooms that care
The museum
Integrated pest management already runs a trap grid. This monitor adds a number that arrives without opening a store. Conservators keep doing identification. The count tells them which aisle to walk.
The archive
Paper, starch, glue and undisturbed aisles. Grey silverfish have changed the pest list in many European stores. A year-long lure fits a quarterly inspection calendar.
The plant room
Firebrats hold to heat. A grey unit behind a boiler is the same line in a different placement, not a new product.