Bathrooms & Toilets

How to Get Rid of Black Worms in Bathroom – 4 Effective Ways

Written by

Rosanne Jones

Writer, Designer

FACT-CHECKED BY

Steven D. Carrico

Architect

how to get rid of black worms in bathroom

Even though the bathroom is the place to get clean, a pest infestation in this part of the house is likely to cause you to feel nasty regardless of how hard you scrub. A variety of insects, including drain worms, are common in restrooms, because of their preference for moist areas.

Learning how to get rid of black worms in bathroom gives you various approaches to pest control. Let’s examine both methods and measures to prevent these tiny insects in your bathroom efficiently.

Drain Worms, What are They

Black worms are drain flies’ descendants. In other words, they are drain fly larvae, which will eventually become a nuisance when they grow up to be flying flies. Black worms emerge or fall out of drains that have a sticky and wet residue.

You will also uncover several types of sewer flies that include drain fly larvae and eggs in humid surroundings containing organic matter, such as a bathtub, shower, toilet, and washbasin.

Those tiny black worms in bathroom are less than 3 inches long and small in size. They crawl with a spiral movement and have a thin and long body. That’s why they are quite easily recognizable. As for drain flies, most are black or very dark. They have hairy bodies and antennas on their heads.

How to Get Rid of Black Worms in Bathroom

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When having a problem with a group of small worm-like bugs in bathroom, it is essential to prepare a long-term treatment. Maybe your dirty bathroom is not the primary source of these worms as drain flies reproduce so much, as you will get black worms that hatch every day for new generations.

Like dealing with other insects around the house, the drain worm problem is not resolved by cleaning one region, the bathroom. It must be a comprehensive strategy! The outside should also be cleaned. You can use the strategies below to get rid of their existence in your bathroom.

1. Flush the drainage from outside

First and foremost, cleaning the exterior bathroom pipes is an excellent technique to do away with your bathroom’s black worm deposits of larvae and contamination that lure them.

  • Get rid of slime build-up: Add hot or boiling water to dislodge slime deposits over the drain and clean the tubes with a metal pipe brush. Then, wrap the drain pipe for a few hours with a strong drain cleaner gel before splashing it.

2. Clean the bathroom thoroughly

Every corner of your bathroom, including bathroom surfaces, shower drain, bathtub, and toilet needs to be clean.

  • Clear clogged drain pipes: Examine whether your sink or shower drain is totally or slightly blocked. Take the drain cover out and dispose of any waste, especially organic debris, with a toothbrush or certain equipment. If not, try to remove the blockage with a force cup when the water doesn’t go down fast.
  • Clean the drain sides: Leave a drain cleaner and purify it with water after a couple of hours to eliminate the excess organic matter.
  • Scrub the bathroom surfaces: Wash carefully any tiled or ceramic floors, walls, wash basin, and toilet with bleach, which is sufficiently powerful to chew through black worms in bathroom floor and kill any eggs that may have been produced.

3. Destroy the black worms

These tiny black worms, drain flies and their eggs can be killed by natural and chemical methods.

  • Hot water & vinegar: Pour some white vinegar down the drain for a few minutes before adding hot water. Do not use boiling water because some surrounding items may crack.
  • A combo: Baking soda and white vinegar or liquid dish soap and drain cleaners are powerful combos that empty sink drains, so create either a baking soda mixture or a drainage cleaning gel and pour.
  • Coke: The acid of the coke will dissolve any sludge attached to your pipelines, although it may look like waste. Leave the soda on the drains for several minutes before pouring warm water on them.
  • Enzyme cleaner: To eliminate blocks in your drain, you can also utilize eco-friendly enzymes. They consume the organic substances that block the drain pipes.
  • Insecticide: Spray an insecticide on the shower drain or when you can spot a drain fly in the bathroom to stop drain fly infestation.
  • Diatomaceous earth: Put a small amount of DE throughout the edges of your bathroom, especially the entry points, which gather drainage worms. Not just black worms but other insects will be dehydrated and destroyed.

4. Eradicate their breeding grounds

The next stage is to get rid of where drain flies breed when the current worms have been eliminated.

  • Repair plumbing system: Check your system for any pipe leakage, cracks, etc. because plumbing issues can be a significant source of stagnant dirty water and drain worms. If you’re not sure how to inspect or fix it, contact pest control for a professional exterminator.
  • Fix broken tiles: These are the perfect breeding areas to develop black worms. Replace or cover them with cement to prevent the flies from laying their eggs there.

Further Recommendations on Controlling Drain Fly Infestation

Unfortunately, if you are not cautious, drain flies will always return. It’s not that hard to avoid a drain fly outbreak once you’ve cleansed the mineral accumulation and sewage. When water drains away smoothly, probably no infestation will occur. Nevertheless, you should take preventive measures against such insects to limit additional drain worm invasions.

Place some traps

After you finish with all the methods listed above, some traps might be excellent to stop your water from being stuck due to those drain fly larvae. Install some traps on the drainage system after cleaning and inspecting all your bathroom pipes to avoid the re-entry of small black worms in shower drains.

Block the entrance

The main cause will be solved by identifying any cracks or holes that these creatures can access. Locations like door frames, broken tiles, or ventilation can all give drain worms a way to enter your residence.

It is highly recommended to spray pesticides or apply vinegar, baking soda, and very hot water every week at nighttime and allow it to do its magic overnight on holes or damaged entry points. This will also stop the female drain fly from putting in more eggs.

Minimize air humidity

It might sound like a challenge to maintain a bathroom dry; yet, moisture in the air must be controlled. Drain fly larvae must grow with damp areas, such as organic matter, storm drains, and soap scum.

Therefore, if the environment is dry, they will have trouble surviving. Open a window, switch on the ventilation and obtain a dehumidifier to get rid of excess moisture. This will also provide your bathroom with fresh air.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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Why does my bathroom have black worms?

The first thing you have to do to stop these irritating drainage flights in your bathroom is to have basic knowledge about them, specifically, why they exist there. The reason is that the area of the house contains moisture and the organic material they like consuming.

Stagnant water and dirty drains are the best places for drain flies to gather and reproduce. Areas left undisturbed for a long time or not typically utilized regularly are preferred by them as well. If you’ve come close to a source of food, germs, and other organic debris in the restroom, you’ve located the ideal breeding areas for bugs like moth flies, filter flies, etc.

During the nighttime, drain flies and their larvae are most energetic. Although adult drain flies live for up to two weeks as long as there is a liquid supply of nourishment, your bathroom may be infected if it is not managed well. When a female drain fly lays eggs, it takes only two days for her eggs to develop into larvae.

After the larvae enter the pupa stage, they become adult worms within three weeks, meaning that your home drains can be filled with new swarms of black worms. In the end, mature black worms will become drain flies, and this procedure is repeated. Hence, the reproductive sites must be located to handle the infestation immediately.

Are black worms harmful?

Despite having such a disgusting look, drain flies or small black worms don’t bite. In addition, they do not spread diseases or hurt your skin as they have no curiosity other than feeding on biomaterial degradation, such as hair and skin cells, which block up your drains and pipes.

They are not dangerous but annoying. Little black worms in bathtub may represent a hazard while you are having a bath, which is not something you ought to accept with drain worms.

Conclusion

Seeing the bathroom with drain worms means you have a drainage fly infestation. Always eliminate dirt in your drain pipes, and ensure there are no openings or entryways.

These are several methods you can try to get rid of drain flies or their larvae. Has this article been beneficial? Let me know your thoughts on this; comment and share it with family and friends if you liked it.

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