The kitchen is generally the first room in a home that comes to mind when you think of places you might find insect pests. While kitchens are insect magnets, bathrooms come in at a close second place. Insect pests love bathrooms, and many insect pests will choose to make it their home inside your home. Of course, insects are drawn to bathrooms for specific reasons, namely ones that support their survival. Knowing what attracts insect pests to your bathroom can help you keep them out of it.

One of the main things in a bathroom that attracts insects is the moisture present. Insects need water to survive just like humans, and for many of them, the more humid an environment is, the more they like it. Insects that commonly seek out bathrooms for their high humidity levels include German cockroaches, springtails, silverfish, fungus beetles, and psocids. Keeping humidity levels from getting too high in your bathroom and house in general will help keep away those insect invaders looking for a humid environment.

The bright lights in a bathroom are another thing that attract insect pests. They often contain bright lights placed above the sink, and are often lit at night with night-lights when most other rooms in a house are dark. Those annoying insects that you see flying straight towards hot light bulbs and are attracted to lights find their way to these lights in the bathroom while people are sleeping, only for those people to find them in their bathroom the next morning. The most common of these insects are mosquitoes, moths, and midges. You can make sure to close and cover your bathroom windows with curtains at night to block any light from leaking outside and drawing in insect pests. Keep bathroom doors closed at night to prevent insects in other areas of the house from making their way in there, and use night-lights with motion sensors to limit the amount of light.

Some insect pests found in bathrooms are there because that is where they actually live and breed naturally. These are often referred to as “resident” bathroom pests. An example of this kind of bathroom pest are drain flies. Their larvae will feed on the scum inside drains until they develop into adults. These emerging adult flies will often remain in the same bathroom, sitting on walls and sluggishly circling around before they then lay their own eggs in the drain from which they emerged. Clearly, keeping your bathrooms and bathroom drains clean will help prevent infestations of these pests.

The last type of insects that inhabit bathrooms are only present because other insects are there due to the first three reasons. These are the predators of any insect pest that inhabits or is drawn toward the bathroom. Predatory insects such as house centipedes and spiders are constantly looking for their next meal, and all of the reasons stated above make the bathroom a pretty good place to find one. If other insect pests are in a bathroom, you can be sure the predators will be following right behind them. The best way to keep these guys out of your bathroom is to keep out those other insect pests.

What insects or arachnids have you found in your bathroom?