Jürgen HubertIs there an entomologist in the house?
I would like to know if this is an ordinary #silverfish or a paper silverfish.
Ray McCarthy@juergen_hubert
I'm an engineer & author, not an entomologist, but I think regular silverfish can easily digest wood pulp paper.
I don't know if slugs can really digest paper, but they certainly eat it and thin cardboard.
Regular woodworm larvae also eat paper (books) occasionally.
Darkling beetle larvae might eat paper? They can digest polystyrene foam packing.
@juergen_hubert
I studied a lot about woodworm as I restored vintage radios and similar as hobby for 20 years.
I studied a lot about woodworm as I restored vintage radios and similar as hobby for 20 years.
Troed Sångberg@juergen_hubert Not an entomologist - but I live in a 125 year old house where we have both regular silverfish as well as the "long-tailed" ones. I think the latter is what's also called paper silverfish, and yeah, that does look like one.
I have so far not noticed any catastrophical effects to any paper here, but I must confess to not collecting old books etc :) The different kinds of silverfish "traps" I've tried don't seem to make much of a difference.
donutage (Bill Cole)@juergen_hubert @clay iNaturalist was uncertain on the species, but gives a 56% probability of it being Ctenolepisma longicaudatum, the gray/long-tailed/paper silverfish. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctenolepisma_longicaudatum
lonely extrovert@donutage @juergen_hubert @clay my iPhone also says paper silverfish and links to that same wikipedia page.