Booklice (Psocoptera): How To Clean? Where It Lives?
Booklice are of African origin.
Females of booklice generally lay eggs during the summer season.
There is no harm to humans. It is formed on the pages of books and is fed by eating the pages.
There are many known species of booklice, which is the worst enemy of aged books.
The species defined as “Psocoptera” with its scientific name is not a true lice variety.
It is a soft-bodied, long antennae, insect that has evolved to smash the mouth, most of them 5 mm (1/25 inch long) in size.
The most common type of booklice is called “Liposcelis” in the scientific world.
There are about 126 known subspecies and they are found all over the world.
Booklice appearing on shelves that are not cleaned regularly can cause great damage to your old and valuable books.
Book louse is a shy insect that likes damp, quiet places and will colonize barns, libraries and rooms that are not regularly maintained.
They hide under the wallpaper and furniture, deep in the shelves and start feeding when they think the environment is suitable.
Furniture, books, cereals, plants, in short, consume most plant foods they can find.
What Will We Learn?
What Does Booklice Look Like?
Booklice are often noted for their grayish tones and have long antennae.
They can be 1 mm in size or 5 mm in length.
Due to their small size, they are difficult to spot.
The majority are wingless or have small non-functional wings.
They eat any plant food they can find, thanks to their shredding mouths.
If you see holes in your books, you may be under attack by booklice.
Where Do Booklice Live?
Booklice, which like moist and warm environments, prefer places that are used as little as possible and have plenty of food (book bindings, window and door, coated papers or wallpaper or starchy surfaces).
If you are wondering how to clean lice from these places, you should first clean the environment from moisture.
Although humidity control is difficult in food storage areas, this problem can be solved with a properly designed ventilation and air conditioning system.
Life Cycle Of Booklice
Females lay eggs mostly in summer and each female can produce up to 60 eggs.
Lice eggs produce new lice nymphs in an average of 21 days.
The average lifespan of booklice is 110 days.
If you’re wondering how lice form in a library, look for the answer in the people or things that come in and out of the room. Lice often come by moving somewhere.
For example, the books you have just added to your library may have nits in them.
If the humidity level of the environment they are in is 60%, they multiply very quickly.
They can continue to breed up to levels of up to 14%.
The definitive solution to getting rid of lice is to keep the humidity level of the environment at the lowest level.
Methods Of Combating Booklice
Reducing humidity is the most effective solution to get rid of these constantly damaging insects (we’ve already talked about this above).
In order to achieve this, there should be no water leaks in the environment, the ventilation system should be properly designed and the drain pipes should never be clogged.
There are also other alternatives to ways to get rid of lice:
- Close the Roads – Lice can reach your home through cracks. Seal all cracks and crevices in the area where you want to defend against lice.
- Don’t Leave Food Uncovered – Exposed stocks of food are like an invitation to lice. Store your food in closed containers as much as possible.
- Clean the Dust – Regularly clean the dust from the corners of the walls and windowsills over time. Lice love to live in these dusty areas. You can destroy one of the habitats of lice by cleaning the dust in the house.
The entire library should be emptied at least once a year and the books should be cleaned one by one.
In addition, the books on the bookshelf should be turned upside down and ventilated from time to time.
Books that have turned yellow are more likely to have lice.
You should keep these types of books away from other books.
It should be cleaned with a soft sponge called a glue eraser.
This sponge has a white and soft texture.
When we turn it upside down, the existing lice will fall and die thanks to the sunlight hitting it.
No medication is needed.
You can add apple cider vinegar to the cleaning water when wiping the shelves.
Take care to arrange the books spaced apart.
Let there be spaces between them for air to enter.
The Most Effective Booklice Spraying Is Fogging Method
However, the liquid spray spraying method is not sufficient to destroy the booklice in the problems that spread throughout the place.
Especially if there is spread of booklice on materials such as between books, libraries, valuables, antiques, applying spray pesticides will cause serious damage.
For this reason, after the necessary cleaning in such places, booklice spraying, which is called Ulv method fogging, should be applied.
In this application, since the place will be exposed to the drug from ceilings to walls, from furniture to cracks, the fight against booklice provides a much more comprehensive and definitive solution.
Booklice attract attention with their difficult-to-control features.
Because the smaller the size of the insects, the more difficult it is to fight.
This necessitates the use of professional methods and much higher quality drugs more intensively.
If you get cheap booklice spraying service, it will be inevitable that you will suffer a great deal of financial damage as a result of careless spraying and the use of simple drugs.
For this reason, it is very important to request pest control support from professional companies in the fight against booklice.
Pest control requires expertise and equipment.
Dust beetle, bird lice, fleas and bed bugs require the same application as the spraying methods used to combat booklice.
This can become a problem for you when you have a large number of book lice in your home.
As a result, if you have bookworms in your home, you can deal with it with the methods we mentioned above.
But if the situation is getting out of control and these insects are damaging your books, you need a professional pest control service.
Make sure you deposit control of booklice often.
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