Moors for breeding and life require high humidity. In their natural environment, they live in rotten wood, wet litter, and the ground under wet stones. If these pests appeared in the apartment, it means the room is too wet and damp.
Obviously, a person who sees lice, their appearance causes a feeling of disgust and hostility, but in addition it is necessary to know whether these pests are able to bite, what harm they can bring to a person and his home and how to get rid of them.
Crustacean lifestyle
Mokritsy - representatives of the family of crustaceans of the order of isopods and the type of arthropods, possessing a small (up to 20 mm) oval body of marble-gray or brown-brown color. The shell covering the body is divided into 8 segments, of which 7 pairs of thoracic legs are located.
These arthropods live on land, but as the place of settlement they choose only those places where there is high humidity and heat. This is what causes them to appear in the bathroom or toilet, under the sink or in the greenhouse and cellar, under the compost mass, stones, or damp boards on the plot.
During the day, wood lice are not active, they are nocturnal, leaving their shelters in search of food. It serves them as food:
- trash;
- dead and decaying plants;
- moss;
- fallen leaves and other organic residues.
In addition, they eat and live plants, eating their root system.
Dexterines are agile and fast, in case of threat they roll up into balls. These crustacean eggs breed in April-May; they live on average from 9 to 12 months.
Are these arthropods biting or not?
The oral apparatus of these arthropods is not intended for bites. It is used by wood lice only for eating soft organic residues and small parts of plants.
Mokritsy - saprophagous, whose vital activity is supported by the decomposition products of organic substances. They are not able to bite and eat live microorganisms.
What are dangerous?
Unpleasant appearance and predisposition to gather in the colony provided these arthropods notoriety. What harm, except for feelings of disgust and the ability to provoke a nervous breakdown, are woodlice?
For man
Are crustaceans dangerous to humans? It cannot bite, spoil food, contaminate water, buzz or penetrate the body, which makes them almost harmless to humans.
However, due to the fact that these arthropods eat not only the living parts of plants, but also rotten as well as dead microorganisms, there is a risk that the insects on the paws can tolerate various infections and pathogens. The possibility of spreading insects with moss insects is an ambiguous question, since there is no scientific evidence for this.
For pets
For pets, as well as for humans, wood lice do not pose a threat. Moreover, the hosts that contain spiders or reptiles, can specifically engage in the breeding of wood lice, as these crustaceans are for them the best source of protein.
For plants
Wood bugs are most dangerous for indoor plants. Arthropods eat live leaves, damage and violate the integrity of the root system.
In addition, the presence of woodlice in a pot with a plant leads to the fact that the soil is deprived of oxygen and becomes too dense.
Important! The appearance of small holes in the leaves and flowers is a sign that the plant was attacked by wood lice.
If you do not get rid of pests, in 14-15 days the home plant will completely wither and die.
When, when the crustaceans start up in the cellar, they spoil the potatoes and stocks of other vegetables, and in the greenhouse - only the sprouted shoots of vegetable crops, which will affect the crop.
For housing
As a rule, wood lice live under the bathtub, behind the toilet, near the boiler, in cellars and storerooms where vegetables are stored. The choice of these places is associated with high humidity and the presence of the necessary food.
Despite the fact that wood lice do not parasitize on humans or domestic animals and the largest harm only indoor plantsThe proximity to these pests itself and the appearance of their large accumulations in the corners and on the walls of the bathroom are very unpleasant and require immediate disposal of them.
Wood lice are most dangerous for the apartment, penetrating the room through the ventilation system from the basement, from the roof or the street. Such arthropods multiply rapidly, it is difficult to fight them.
Is it worth fighting?
Despite the fact that wood lice do not pose a particular danger and do not bear significant damage, it is important and necessary to destroy them. They are not able to bite a person or a pet, but with their appearance in the apartment you can forget about comfort and convenience.
The appearance of woodlice in the house indicates the need for immediate sanitization, which will contribute to the timely destruction of arthropods and minimize the risk of spread of various infections, fungi or herpes.
Important! It is necessary to distinguish wood lice from scales, preferring to dwell in dryness and eat sugar and leftover food. Exact determination of the type of pest contributes to the effectiveness of the fight against it.
If you do not start to get rid of woodlice, then soon, obviously, stay in the apartment will be impossible due to the constantly increasing number of individuals and the opportunity to see them not only at night, but during the day and not only in the bathroom or cellar. In addition, over time, your favorite home plants and some of the vegetable and fruit crops that are stored in the cellar will be lost.
Ways to fight
It is necessary to approach the destruction of wood lice in a complex way:
- it is necessary to lower the level of humidity in the apartment, reduce moisture, conduct a check of the ventilation system and the condition of the pipeline;
- seal the gaps in the bathroom and toilet;
- eliminate trash accumulated under the bathroom in order to strip woodlice.
Further pest control consists of several ways:
- Mechanical method. It is necessary in the habitats of wood lice to leave a wet broom for the night, so that the arthropods would climb on the wet rods, and in the morning, carefully remove it from the room and shake it outside. This procedure should be repeated twice. In addition, in the corners of the bathroom, you can spill salt or put a bucket filled with lime.
- Folk recipes. Make a few holes in potatoes or carrots containing a large amount of moisture and leave for the night, wood lice will crawl into the vegetables by morning and must be destroyed. It is also possible to process the places where woodlice live, water with equal parts of red pepper, tobacco powder and soda dissolved in it.
- Chemicals. It is necessary to treat the walls and the floor with such preparations as "Gett", "Tarrax" or "Mole", the universal preparation is Tetrix.
Important! When working with chemicals it is necessary to use a mask and gloves.
If none of these methods helped to achieve the result and get rid of pests, you should resort to the help of specialists-disinsectors.
Woodlice are small pests characterized by an unpleasant appearance. Despite the fact that they do not pose a serious danger to human life and domestic animals and threaten only domestic plants, eating their roots and foliage, leading to death, when detecting wood lice in the house, it is necessary to immediately start fighting them.
