January 13, 2021 • 9 mins
Should you be afraid of these creepy little creatures you find in your basement? Only one way to find out.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, there, everybody, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh,
and there's shocking it's Jerry's here. She's just kind of
lingering quietly in the background. And this is short stuff.
I mean there's hiss went away, and that means Jerry's gone.
That's right. When she was on, it was hissy and
now it's not hissy. She speaks like a cobra commander.
(00:26):
I don't know what that means. Do from g I Joe.
If you watch the cover, watch had kind of before
his talk, you know, have you ever seen a silverfish?
That's my line? Oh sorry, Chuck, I thought we were
mixing it up. Chuck, have you ever seen a silverfish?
(00:47):
I don't know what his silver fish is? Yes, you do?
You lie? Is it from g I Joe? That's right,
he was cobra Commander's right here man, silverfish. It's actually
kind of no. I have seen I have seen silverfish,
and they I think a lot of people get freaked
out by silverfish and I don't, And I don't know
if I should. Well, I know I shouldn't, but I
don't know why people do. I guess I think just
(01:08):
because they're weird looking, they're very prehistoric looking, which makes
sense because apparently they've been around since the Devonian period
for four million years, and they haven't really changed much
since then. So I think that it probably is triggers
some innate, primal part of our evolved brain, that is
(01:29):
that that came from whatever those ancient silver fish used
to eat, you know what I'm saying. Sure, I do
know that they've remained pretty unchanged, largely because they haven't
really had to. I mean, I guess they were perfect
little beings. Um, And they're very hardy. I think they
can live six months with just water or just food.
(01:52):
I think as long as they have one of those two,
they're doing fine. Yeah, yeah, which is pretty interesting. But
I mean that's a long time to go without either one.
But it's a long time for an insect. A list
it is. Um. Yeah, and I didn't see how long
they live for in general, but they do seem fairly hardy.
But to kind of circle back to what you were
saying initially, if you know whether or not people should
(02:13):
be scared of them, you shouldn't. They're actually not at
all harmful to people, and the worst they can do
is maybe, um degrade some of your old books, eat
some of your favorite startch callers. Nothing really terribly untoward.
And they also, um don't really tend to break out
in infestations. And if they do, you've had silverfish a
(02:37):
long long time. If you've noticed that, you have a
silver fish infestation, because they reproduce very very slowly. Yeah,
I mean, I don't think I've ever seen more than
one same here in a place. They're like lone wolves.
You know, I guess an infestation might creep me out
a little bit. But um, you did mention books, and
that that's because back in the day books, well there
(03:01):
are still books, like we just wrote one and are
selling a book, but it is not put together with
glues that use animal byproducts. We made darn sure of that, right.
Actually we didn't have to because that's just the old
way of putting books together. And the silver fish eat
these things, not because oh I love to eat books
(03:23):
or even like the paper. It's it's really kind of
the starchy, sugary glues and animal proteins used to put
this stuff together, right exactly, So there s o l
with new books. But you know the problem is if
you have an antique book collection, it's probably worth some
money in the silverfish love that stuff. But for those
of us who don't collect antique books like we said,
(03:44):
you know, um, they love starch that you would say,
spray on like a caller, and they can inadvertently ruin
your clothes, Like they don't set out to ruin your clothes,
but them just kind of sucking on and chewing up
that starch can can harm the fibers as it stands. Um,
we should just leave bowls of mashed potatoes in the attic. Yeah,
(04:05):
as an offering party, in offering to the silverfish gods,
should we take a break? Be sure? All right, well
let's take a break and we'll describe these things, because
we're going to start describing things and we'll be right back.
(04:44):
So chuck. Yeah, that was ah that that dude wrote
in to say, hey, um, not all of us can
go on the internet and look at pictures of what
you're talking about, so please do describe it. That's why
you were referencing. Sure, do you want to talk about
what a silverfish looks like? You're they're skinny, Uh, they're pointy.
(05:04):
Uh in the abdomen region, they got a little round head.
Some people say they look like little carrots that that
mate it with the fish because they have these little
silvery tiny gray scales and they kind of shimmer and
they kind of wiggle like a fish swimming, and I
think that's where they got their name. Plus also if
you look at their tails, they have those like three
(05:26):
little kind of pointy appendage. I guess is that what
they are. They're not. They look they look stingy, but
they're not. But I don't know if they could sting
other things that aren't humans, I don't know. But yeah,
they definitely don't sting or bite or anything like that.
And they don't want to be anywhere near you. So again,
you don't need to to be worried about them. But
if you, if you kind of use your imagination and
(05:46):
just kind of connect those three stingers and fill it
in a little bit, it looks a lot like a
fish's tail. Yeah, you know, all the more reason to
call them silverfish, and all the more reason to fry
them up with somehow puppies and tartar sauce and have
mushy peas. Maybe if you're from England, yeah, I guess
(06:07):
I have a little party. So um, you're going to
find silver fish in places like we said that have
a high starch content, but also very humid places and
at a certain temperature. They apparently prefer high humidity like
between um and then temperatures of around seventy eight degrees
(06:29):
fairre at heights, so they kind of like it a
little tropical, you know what I mean? Yeah, like in
the summertime in your basement or crawl space, you might
see them. Um, I think the things that freaked me
out of those I don't know what they are. They're
not crickets, but they are cricket, like in the ones
that jump in very unpredictable directions. Spiders, No, there, crickets
(06:51):
sort of that they but they leap up in the
air and you never know which way they're gonna go,
Like usually cricket will just leap forward like in a grasshopper,
like they're trying to go somewhere. These things are just
a little unhinged, right, So, um yeah, I read a
really good description of how silver fish move. They move
really really fast and then stop and just kind of
(07:13):
hang out for a little bit, and then they move
again really really fast, and it's almost like this, um weird,
kind of disjointed movement from one place to the other.
But again, usually when they're moving and they see you,
they're trying to get away from you. They're not coming
at you. Yeah, and you know, their reproduction cycle is
pretty long, so you're probably not gonna see infestations. Um.
(07:34):
I think if you do have them, they say, you're
probably you probably have too much junk lane around or
maybe you've got a bunch of storage and cardboard boxes,
which is not a good for many reasons, not a
good way to store things. And uh, they definitely suggest
that you store things in plastic bins. Um now that
we have these sort of modern things available to us
(07:55):
with lids, and it's a lot harder for I mean,
it's just a better way to store things, period. And
one reason I also saw why it is hard to uh,
why it is hard to end up with a silverfish
infestation is because, like you were saying, it's a long
reproductive um time. But also silverfish um. Female silverfish only
lay about a hundred eggs over the course of their lifetime,
(08:18):
which seems really low, um as far as insect eggs go,
don't you think it seems like it? And I guess
they only lay about three or six at a time,
and it takes about three to six weeks for them
to hatch. So if you see a silverfish, you probably
don't have much to worry about. But if you do
want to get rid of them, chuck, what do you do?
I mean, surely you have to like tape up your
(08:39):
house and like go get a fogger and like get
all the furniture out, and then it's a real problem, right,
I mean, you know me, I tend to just leave
them alone. But they do say that you can just
vacuum them up and get ready or clutter reduce the
humidity if you can. Um But I say, don't really
sweat it so much because there's probably not many of them.
(09:00):
And if you do have a real infestation, you can
call a professional, right, But I mean, but I don't
recommend it. If you don't have a like an antique
um book collection at steak, then yeah, maybe just coexists,
right yeah. And if you're storing your antique collection in
a cardboard box in your Carls stage, then you don't
care about it exactly. You got anything else about silverfish?
(09:24):
Nothing else? Leave him alone, everybody? Uh? And since I
said leave him alone, I guess that means that this
short stuff is apt. Stuff you should know is a
production of iHeart Radios. How stuff works for more podcasts
for my heart Radio becausit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, there, everybody, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh,
and there's shocking it's Jerry's here. She's just kind of
lingering quietly in the background. And this is short stuff.
I mean there's hiss went away, and that means Jerry's gone.
That's right. When she was on, it was hissy and
now it's not hissy. She speaks like a cobra commander.
(00:26):
I don't know what that means. Do from g I Joe.
If you watch the cover, watch had kind of before
his talk, you know, have you ever seen a silverfish?
That's my line? Oh sorry, Chuck, I thought we were
mixing it up. Chuck, have you ever seen a silverfish?
(00:47):
I don't know what his silver fish is? Yes, you do?
You lie? Is it from g I Joe? That's right,
he was cobra Commander's right here man, silverfish. It's actually
kind of no. I have seen I have seen silverfish,
and they I think a lot of people get freaked
out by silverfish and I don't, And I don't know
if I should. Well, I know I shouldn't, but I
don't know why people do. I guess I think just
(01:08):
because they're weird looking, they're very prehistoric looking, which makes
sense because apparently they've been around since the Devonian period
for four million years, and they haven't really changed much
since then. So I think that it probably is triggers
some innate, primal part of our evolved brain, that is
(01:29):
that that came from whatever those ancient silver fish used
to eat, you know what I'm saying. Sure, I do
know that they've remained pretty unchanged, largely because they haven't
really had to. I mean, I guess they were perfect
little beings. Um, And they're very hardy. I think they
can live six months with just water or just food.
(01:52):
I think as long as they have one of those two,
they're doing fine. Yeah, yeah, which is pretty interesting. But
I mean that's a long time to go without either one.
But it's a long time for an insect. A list
it is. Um. Yeah, and I didn't see how long
they live for in general, but they do seem fairly hardy.
But to kind of circle back to what you were
saying initially, if you know whether or not people should
(02:13):
be scared of them, you shouldn't. They're actually not at
all harmful to people, and the worst they can do
is maybe, um degrade some of your old books, eat
some of your favorite startch callers. Nothing really terribly untoward.
And they also, um don't really tend to break out
in infestations. And if they do, you've had silverfish a
(02:37):
long long time. If you've noticed that, you have a
silver fish infestation, because they reproduce very very slowly. Yeah,
I mean, I don't think I've ever seen more than
one same here in a place. They're like lone wolves.
You know, I guess an infestation might creep me out
a little bit. But um, you did mention books, and
that that's because back in the day books, well there
(03:01):
are still books, like we just wrote one and are
selling a book, but it is not put together with
glues that use animal byproducts. We made darn sure of that, right.
Actually we didn't have to because that's just the old
way of putting books together. And the silver fish eat
these things, not because oh I love to eat books
(03:23):
or even like the paper. It's it's really kind of
the starchy, sugary glues and animal proteins used to put
this stuff together, right exactly, So there s o l
with new books. But you know the problem is if
you have an antique book collection, it's probably worth some
money in the silverfish love that stuff. But for those
of us who don't collect antique books like we said,
(03:44):
you know, um, they love starch that you would say,
spray on like a caller, and they can inadvertently ruin
your clothes, Like they don't set out to ruin your clothes,
but them just kind of sucking on and chewing up
that starch can can harm the fibers as it stands. Um,
we should just leave bowls of mashed potatoes in the attic. Yeah,
(04:05):
as an offering party, in offering to the silverfish gods,
should we take a break? Be sure? All right, well
let's take a break and we'll describe these things, because
we're going to start describing things and we'll be right back.
(04:44):
So chuck. Yeah, that was ah that that dude wrote
in to say, hey, um, not all of us can
go on the internet and look at pictures of what
you're talking about, so please do describe it. That's why
you were referencing. Sure, do you want to talk about
what a silverfish looks like? You're they're skinny, Uh, they're pointy.
(05:04):
Uh in the abdomen region, they got a little round head.
Some people say they look like little carrots that that
mate it with the fish because they have these little
silvery tiny gray scales and they kind of shimmer and
they kind of wiggle like a fish swimming, and I
think that's where they got their name. Plus also if
you look at their tails, they have those like three
(05:26):
little kind of pointy appendage. I guess is that what
they are. They're not. They look they look stingy, but
they're not. But I don't know if they could sting
other things that aren't humans, I don't know. But yeah,
they definitely don't sting or bite or anything like that.
And they don't want to be anywhere near you. So again,
you don't need to to be worried about them. But
if you, if you kind of use your imagination and
(05:46):
just kind of connect those three stingers and fill it
in a little bit, it looks a lot like a
fish's tail. Yeah, you know, all the more reason to
call them silverfish, and all the more reason to fry
them up with somehow puppies and tartar sauce and have
mushy peas. Maybe if you're from England, yeah, I guess
(06:07):
I have a little party. So um, you're going to
find silver fish in places like we said that have
a high starch content, but also very humid places and
at a certain temperature. They apparently prefer high humidity like
between um and then temperatures of around seventy eight degrees
(06:29):
fairre at heights, so they kind of like it a
little tropical, you know what I mean? Yeah, like in
the summertime in your basement or crawl space, you might
see them. Um, I think the things that freaked me
out of those I don't know what they are. They're
not crickets, but they are cricket, like in the ones
that jump in very unpredictable directions. Spiders, No, there, crickets
(06:51):
sort of that they but they leap up in the
air and you never know which way they're gonna go,
Like usually cricket will just leap forward like in a grasshopper,
like they're trying to go somewhere. These things are just
a little unhinged, right, So, um yeah, I read a
really good description of how silver fish move. They move
really really fast and then stop and just kind of
(07:13):
hang out for a little bit, and then they move
again really really fast, and it's almost like this, um weird,
kind of disjointed movement from one place to the other.
But again, usually when they're moving and they see you,
they're trying to get away from you. They're not coming
at you. Yeah, and you know, their reproduction cycle is
pretty long, so you're probably not gonna see infestations. Um.
(07:34):
I think if you do have them, they say, you're
probably you probably have too much junk lane around or
maybe you've got a bunch of storage and cardboard boxes,
which is not a good for many reasons, not a
good way to store things. And uh, they definitely suggest
that you store things in plastic bins. Um now that
we have these sort of modern things available to us
(07:55):
with lids, and it's a lot harder for I mean,
it's just a better way to store things, period. And
one reason I also saw why it is hard to uh,
why it is hard to end up with a silverfish
infestation is because, like you were saying, it's a long
reproductive um time. But also silverfish um. Female silverfish only
lay about a hundred eggs over the course of their lifetime,
(08:18):
which seems really low, um as far as insect eggs go,
don't you think it seems like it? And I guess
they only lay about three or six at a time,
and it takes about three to six weeks for them
to hatch. So if you see a silverfish, you probably
don't have much to worry about. But if you do
want to get rid of them, chuck, what do you do?
I mean, surely you have to like tape up your
(08:39):
house and like go get a fogger and like get
all the furniture out, and then it's a real problem, right,
I mean, you know me, I tend to just leave
them alone. But they do say that you can just
vacuum them up and get ready or clutter reduce the
humidity if you can. Um But I say, don't really
sweat it so much because there's probably not many of them.
(09:00):
And if you do have a real infestation, you can
call a professional, right, But I mean, but I don't
recommend it. If you don't have a like an antique
um book collection at steak, then yeah, maybe just coexists,
right yeah. And if you're storing your antique collection in
a cardboard box in your Carls stage, then you don't
care about it exactly. You got anything else about silverfish?
(09:24):
Nothing else? Leave him alone, everybody? Uh? And since I
said leave him alone, I guess that means that this
short stuff is apt. Stuff you should know is a
production of iHeart Radios. How stuff works for more podcasts
for my heart Radio becausit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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