My home is 7 years old. We have had springtails for about 3 years. I used Bifen last year and though it stopped them at the house, they are still thriving in the yard. Right now it seems they are located around our patio slab and front door porch slab—and they then travel everywhere. I have found them in our mulch, crawling on the outside brick, our wood fence, by the windows, coming in through the back door (by the patio) and the front door (by the porch), and coming into the bathroom tub. Last year I removed the grass around the patio slab (about 6 inches worth) and put in the Bifen granules—I did the same thing around our front porch, sidewalk and front steps and round the entire slab of the house. I also got rid of most of the wood mulch and replaced in with rubber mulch.
My question is—do you want me to drill a hole in the concrete slab—or just around the perimeter of the slab in the grass? I can’t image drilling into the concrete and really don’t think that’s what you mean. If it is, that is not an option for me and would like another suggestion to get rid of these things. Thank you for your help.
Springtails commonly live up under slabs. As explained in our SPRINGTAIL CONTROL ARTICLE, failure to get them where they are nesting will many times allow them to reproduce in such numbers that a mass migration will lead to what you’re experiencing – even with the preventive Bifen applications around it. The bottom line is that if you allow them to reproduce that close to the house, they will be seen when migrating.
At this time I don’t know for sure that drilling the concrete and treating under it will even solve your problem. My guess is that it will definitely help. But since they commonly nest in the soil around houses, I would first try treating all the exposed soil areas using the BIFEN GRANULES around the house. Try applying a “band” of treatment about 5-10 feet wide around the entire house. Use it at the max rate and if they are reproducing in the open soil, this should help reduce them dramatically. You mentioned you treated around the patio slab with the granules but you didn’t mention the open soil areas and these could be just as important. For now, I would get the granules applied where it will be easy to use them and if you get some positive results, repeated applications may be able to control them without having to drill out the slab but we won’t be able to tell till you try.
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