I have some small black insects in my shower.

[rugeleyboy]

As above, they congregate near the shower head, they disappeared over winter and have made a return, there seems to be more of them now?

There are 100's?

My wife has used various household cleaners, insect repellents and good old blast with the shower but they are still there?

Any ideas and a cure please folks?

[boxtops]

are they flying or creepy things?

[rugeleyboy]

No they don't fly? They just walk around in circles kinda?

[what..the?]

could be 'book lice' they eat mould and like damp conditions, if it's them, remove any mould with water/bleach solution or dettol mould and mildew spray bottle, keep dry area as much as possible, dry room with dehumidifier, or local area with hair drier. Long tern dryness we kill them but in a shower room I am lost how you would maintain dryness.

[starone]

They must be coming from somewhere and your best bet is to find out where and then you can deal with them. Not much good killing the ones you see if you don't find the source of them - where they are living and (worse) breeding. I would start by dismantling the shower head. Apart from that I can't think of anything else except constant watching and lots of insect spray to kill them.

[what..the?]

trying to find picture which is a good impression i.e. what they look like with the naked eye, you can just make out the basic shape shown on the magnified pictures but not much more, they vary in colour depending on what they eat black mould would mean black booklice

[boxtops]

have they been living in your shower head over the winter?

[what..the?]

http://dragonflywoman...1/03/psocopterans.jpg

[what..the?]

if you suspect they are coming from the shower head itself but there nooks and crannies in there, remove if possible dry the item as much as possible so no water is in there and then ziplock bag it and put it in the freezer, this will kill a lot of bugs, but i would worry that if you can't get all the water out before you freeze it could crack/damage the showerhead

[rugeleyboy]

I'm in the bathroom now looking, they are so small it's hard to explain what they look like, that picture doesn't quite describe them? I would say they are oval with no tail?

When we first noticed them they seemed to be near the shower, I'm looking now and it seems they are behind the tile?

[what..the?]

well booklice do look oval, no they don't have a tail

have you plastered recently? or does the room have mould? Or could water get behind that tile = trapped mould or damp?

= booklice heaven

[Maydup]

I suggest you dry the area and re-grout the tiles.

[rugeleyboy]

Yes it's very wet and yes I can imagine the water can get behind the tile in the corner?

And yes we had the bathroom done last year and this has only has only happened since then?

It's obvious it's this 'book lice' .... Thank you. :-)

[rugeleyboy]

The grouts perfect but there is a space right in the corner where they are, I shall put some silicone there.

[what..the?]

feel free to do a quick fix but if it continues and gets annoying, it can spread round the room and they can migrate to other rooms. I would remove any bad tiles to look at the condition of the wall behind if you have wet plaster back there or worse damp plaster board which just decays when it gets wet some drying or removal of damp damaged plaster/patching and re-tiling/grouting might be needed. Even if you stick that one tile down or silicon round it, the tiny b**gers will still come through ting gaps round other tiles, These insects love newly plastered rooms so chances are they appeared soon after the plastering work was done, and remained bred since.

If all this work sounds expensive try and get a hairdryer on the area, ideally if you can get behind that tile to dry there too, and then fix the tile back down water tight.

[rugeleyboy]

Thanks for your advice,

They need stopping!!

[what..the?]

no problem, they are hard to kill so its better getting on top of it early.

For rugeleyboy or anyone else's reference, the only things that will kill these creatures is dry conditions - dehumidifier if the problem is larger scale or hairdryer, no mould, no open food items (esp dry food goods) put these in plastic food containers, some crawling insect insecticides, freezing, microwaving or putting infested items in the oven at 140, generally throwing out excessive papers, books and cardboard, opting for plastic store crates if needed. Also good ventilation of rooms and sunlight into the rooms, proper venting of steam from showers and cookers.

I think a lot of people have these creatures but either don't notice or don't care. A part of me is glad for those that don't know because there is a lot of ranting online about these creatures and they drive people seriously mad that it effects their lives they bother me and I would hate for others to go through it. -end of rant-