# I hate you, silverfish. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 18, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846 "2008-04-18T04:38:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/21 "2008-04-18T10:46:06Z")
_shudder_ I hate those things. They make me think of leeches-they’re just so gross. [Semi-related stupidity thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=464173). :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/22 "2008-04-18T11:09:46Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] I like silverfish. They’re cool - you can send them all to me. A really big one ran across my desk at work the other day - I think there might be a whole family of them living under the monitor stand or the printer. [/QUOTE] That’s OK, I’m sure they love your books and papers. 😃 You can have them! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/23 "2008-04-18T11:38:49Z")
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder] That’s OK, I’m sure they love your books and papers. 😃 You can have them! [/QUOTE] I’m hoping the radiation from the monitor and the stray toxins from the printer will mutate them to the size of horses. When the revolution comes, I will rise and conquer, charging forth on my loyal, silvery steed. ---
**Author:** ![freekalette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/24 "2008-04-18T11:39:17Z")
Gah! Why did I click on this thread?! Here I thought that “silverfish” meant some Doper I just wasn’t aware of, but nooooooo. It’s gotta mean actual, literal silverfish! _shudders uncontrollably_ Cockroaches, fine. Earwigs, fine. Tarantulas and centipedes, teh awesome. But silverfish are the most horrific critters known to man! Jeebus, I’m not going to be able to sleep for a week now. _rocks back and forth in corner sucking thumb and watching out for “them”_ ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/25 "2008-04-18T11:49:27Z")
You see? Cower before my shiny charger, mortal! ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/26 "2008-04-18T13:32:21Z")
[QUOTE=SomeUserName] I hate those little fuckers. Get a cat. I have no bugs or rodents. A freaky movement from anything and at least three of my cats are on it within seconds. Cats are also nocturnal by nature so all night time intruders are slain while I slumber in peace. [/QUOTE] My cats are enormous lazy bastards that you’d think would need a stick of dynamite to move them. Yet suddenly, during the evening, they will sit bolt upright, and run over to some part of the floor or a piece of furniture - where you can’t see _anything_ - and when you go over to investigate they’ve squashed some spider or bug that you could hardly even see. They’re wonderful bug killers (and devastating to the camel crickets that we still get in the basement from time to time). ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/27 "2008-04-18T13:50:17Z")
Silverfish are an order of magnitude less disgusting than cockroaches, but they’re still pretty annoying. You can’t get _rid_ of them. I’ve had them in my house for 20 years, one or two per week, like clockwork, scurrying around my house late at night until I squash them and get bug gook on my walls. I hate them. ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/28 "2008-04-18T13:55:20Z")
[QUOTE=Lynn Bodoni] No, the very worst thing in the world is whatever woke me up one night BECAUSE IT WAS SCRATCHING AT THE INSIDE OF MY EAR!1!1! I jumped out of bed, screaming at my husband to wake up and get some tweezers and alcohol. I was shaking my head and hitting the other side of it, trying to get that nasty creepy crawly out of my ear. [/QUOTE] Next time, just hold a flashlight to the other ear, and it’ll follow the light out. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/29 "2008-04-18T13:58:26Z")
[QUOTE=Una Persson] My cats are enormous lazy bastards that you’d think would need a stick of dynamite to move them. Yet suddenly, during the evening, they will sit bolt upright, and run over to some part of the floor or a piece of furniture - where you can’t see _anything_ - and when you go over to investigate they’ve squashed some spider or bug that you could hardly even see. They’re wonderful bug killers (and devastating to the camel crickets that we still get in the basement from time to time). [/QUOTE] Mine try to launch themselves up the _walls_ to get at bugs. They get a good long way up, too. The more athletic one, with a good running start, can make it maybe six feet up a wall before he falls down. If he does it in a doorway he can stick there for a bit, too. ---
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/30 "2008-04-18T14:04:47Z")
I used to have a problem with silverfish - not very big, but very many. I got a couple of little boxes of poison and bait from the local pest controller. You put them where the silverfish are most likely to turn up, and during the night they flock to the boxes… and DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH. After a few weeks there were only one or two corpses to sweep up in the morning. Silverfish free ever since! ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/31 "2008-04-18T14:10:49Z")
My cats sit and watch the bugs. We have centipedes, too. I need new cats. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/32 "2008-04-18T14:26:22Z")
Geez, **Lynn** , I thought having one crawl up my leg inside my jeans was bad. I can’t even imagine one close to my head!! ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/33 "2008-04-18T14:39:24Z")
I had a centipede sitting on my shoulder at work one day. I have no idea where it came from, but he was sitting there so nicely until I looked down and started to shriek and ran out of my office. Of course he fell off during the panic but I made my co-worker check me over just in case. I never did find him so I could kill him. I haven’t seen a silverfish in a long, long time. I’m so very grateful for that. One of the funniest bug incidents I’ve experienced ended up not really being a bug at all. One night in bed I accidentally brushed up against my husband’s back a little bit with my arm and he thought it was a spider. He sprung out of bed and, knowing that I’m deathly afraid of spiders, ordered, “You! Out of the bed. Now!” He searched the bed and then it dawned on me that I just may have been the “spider” he was looking for. Whoopsie. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/34 "2008-04-18T14:44:39Z")
What I don’t like is that the seem so primitive, like horseshoe crabs or something. They shared the earth with frickin’ trilobites, and give me a distinct vibe of a Thing That Should Not Be. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/35 "2008-04-18T16:02:24Z")
On the other hand, you have to admire their [love of opera.](http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/skinhorse/series.php?view=archive&chapter=27016) ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/36 "2008-04-18T16:07:52Z")
I just watched Peter Jackson’s _King Kong_ yesterday, and saw the bugs in the canyon scene for the first time. I’m normally not bugaphobic, but that scene plus this thread are kind of giving me the heebie-jeebies today. Poor Andy Serkis. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/37 "2008-04-18T16:11:40Z")
[QUOTE=Freddy the Pig] until I squash them and get bug gook on my walls. [/QUOTE] The final revenge of the silverfish. Centipedes are the same way. As [Ogden Nash](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-centipede/) wrote: _You always wallop where he’s not Or, if he is, he makes a spot._ ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/38 "2008-04-18T16:24:12Z")
[QUOTE=Grammanaut] You put them where the silverfish are most likely to turn up, and during the night they flock to the boxes… and DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH. After a few weeks there were only one or two corpses to sweep up in the morning. Silverfish free ever since! [/QUOTE] You don’t say–you can actually go in and ask for silverfish poison? Do you have any brand names to recommend? > [@Koxinga](#): > > They shared the earth with frickin’ trilobites, and give me a distinct vibe of a Thing That Should Not Be. Well put. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/39 "2008-04-18T16:27:23Z")
[QUOTE=Uvula Donor] Next time, just hold a flashlight to the other ear, and it’ll follow the light out. 😃 [/QUOTE] \ ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846/40 "2008-04-18T16:32:57Z")
[QUOTE=Love Rhombus] Again, not a monumental topic. I just needed to get it off my chest. Thank you. [/QUOTE] Understood. If I had one on my chest, I’d feel the same way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-you-silverfish/445846.md?page=3)