Bathroom bugs don’t just show up without any reason. Factors like excessive moisture in the bathroom, organic wastes such as soap scum, and molds act like magnets for these bugs.
Some of these bugs are incredibly small, making them difficult to detect without a vigilant eye. By staying alert and observant, you can catch these pests before they become a larger problem in your bathroom.
These tiny bugs are resilient, inhabiting even the smallest cracks on the bathroom tiles, shower grout, and inside the tight gaps in the bathroom fixtures. This resilience underscores the need for comprehensive elimination methods.
While these bugs may seem harmless at first, it’s important to remember that they can cause significant damage if left unchecked.
So, what are these bugs, and how can you identify them? What do you need to do to get rid of them and prevent them from coming back?
This guide covers them all. Let’s dive in.
Grout Mites
Grout mites got their names because they’re most often found in the cracks on the shower grout and bathroom tiles.
But these mites are mold mites. Mold mites are microscopic bugs that can be hard to spot individually.
However, when there are too many of them, they appear as a thin layer of white or gray dust on the shower floor.
Grout mites feed on the mildew and fungi that form on the bathroom floor, walls, and fixtures like bathtubs. Excessive dampness caused by leaky pipes in the bathroom causes these molds.
And these molds attract these mites because it’s their food source.
Mold mites don’t cause any severe damage to the bathroom. But they spread fast, I mean, really fast.
The worst part is that mold mites are bad allergens and they can trigger allergic reactions if they make contact with your skin.
Conditions like skin rashes can appear if these mites end up on your skin.
Their molted skins can get into our respiratory systems and can trigger sneezing and running noses.
Drain Flies on the Bathroom Floor
Have you ever noticed tiny brownish or gray flies on the bathroom floor, walls, and near the sink drains?
Those are drain flies.
These tiny gnats are moth-like flies with dark wings. These gnats aren’t able fliers and they’ve a very short flight distance.
So, when they fly, they appear as jumping bugs rather than your typical fly.
Drain flies enter bathrooms from the outdoors or from the drains. These flies lay their eggs in the sludge chocking the bathroom drains.
These eggs, when hatched, produce little grayish worms, which are known as drain worms.
These worms don’t often limit themselves inside the drains. They can come out of the drain holes to feed on the organic wastes stuck in the gaps in the bathroom floor.
Drain flies in the bathroom is a sign of infestation. The worst part is that these flies can spread to other areas of your home, especially to places like the kitchen and the basement.
Drain flies don’t bite. But as they’re associated with filth, they can carry disease vectors that they can spread to your food. This makes it crucial to eliminate them to maintain a hygienic bathroom and prevent the spread of diseases.
Ants in Bathroom Tiles
Ants love the moisture and organic matter that bathrooms provide them.
These ants will also nest in the crevices on the bathroom floor and walls, which often lead to home-wide ant infestation.
Ants can enter bathroom in variety of ways. One of the most common ways are the crevices on the bathroom windowsills.
Ant spillover from your kitchen and other areas of the house can also cause ants in your bathroom.
There can be many ant species that your bathroom can harbor. A few common ones are pavement ants, sugar ants, and ghost ants.
However, big black ants, which are carpenter ants, are also a threat to bathrooms. These ants can nest in the cracks on the floor, walls, and inside bathroom furniture and storages.
Their presence can lead to a home-wide ant infestation and cause structural damage to your property.
Booklice or Psocids On Shower Grout
Psocids are tiny, soft-bodied, and shiny oval-shaped insects that feed on the molds on damp surfaces.
Like mold mites, psocids are moisture bugs that damp and poorly ventilated bathroom attracts, making them the most common bathroom bugs.
Identifying psocids can be tricky because they can resemble baby roaches, termites, and even bed bugs because of their small size, body shape, and color.
However, their glittery transparent bodies and slow pace of crawling can help to distinguish them from their look-alikes.
The most common areas to find psocids in the bathroom are floors, walls, shower tiles, and, at times, fabric.
Psocids are also known as booklice because they feed on moldy papers and books.
But booklice don’t bite. And they’re totally harmless.
However, like most tiny bugs in the shower grout, psocids too can spread in the other areas of the house like kitchen, bedroom, and even to your living room.
Small Baby Cockroaches in Bathroom Shower Grout
How can you not include cockroaches when we’re talking about bathroom bugs? Cockroaches thrive in damp areas like bathrooms and basements.
Add choked drains, leaky pipes, clutter, and waste to your bathroom; these filthy bugs have a perfect place to hide.
Cockroaches, especially American roaches, lay their eggs in the wastes of bathroom drains such as bathroom sink drains and shower drains.
These eggs produce tiny dark brown baby roaches that pop out of the drain holes, searching for food.
The organic wastes, such as human hair and soap scum, stuck inside the cracks of the bathroom tiles provide these baby roaches an open feast.
Sightings of these baby roaches in the bathroom are a clear sign of a roach infestation that is going out of control.
It’s a sign that there are more baby cockroaches. And the adults are breeding, causing the infestation to get worse.
Silverfish
Silverfish are small scaly insects with a pair of long antennae and tapered bodies. These bugs are also moisture bugs that invade homes from outdoors looking for an ideal environment to survive.
Silverfish are also attracted to damp areas of the house, such as bathrooms and basements.
They feed on dead insects and other bathroom wastes, including the wastes that are stuck in the shower grout.
Silverfish are nocturnal insects. So they can be hard to detect during the day.
But I’ve noticed silverfish crawling on the bathroom floor and on my shelves when
I turned the bathroom lights in the middle of the night.
A single egg-carrying silverfish in the bathroom can trigger a silverfish infestation in the bathroom. This infestation can spread to other areas of the house.
Silverfish don’t bite, and they don’t spread diseases.
But their feeding habits and behavior can make them spread to other areas of your home, such as kitchens and bedrooms.
Silverfish feed on the stored grains and on fabrics too. Their feeding cause damages to fabrics and stored foods.
However, inside the bathroom, silverfish barely cause any damage. But your bathroom fabrics can be at risk.
House Centipedes
The presence of these bugs will always draw their predators. And house centipedes are one of them.
Centipedes love clutter and thin gaps. Add these small bathroom bugs to the clutter and cracks in bathrooms, and you’ll have a perfect place for centipedes to hide.
Centipedes will help keep the pests in the bathroom under control because they’ll hunt and eat them.
But centipedes will lay eggs in the cracks on the shower grout, walls, and furniture, which will lead to more centipedes.
Centipedes, though venomous, can bite if they make contact with your skin. But centipedes despise human contact, and they prefer to hide the moment they encounter a human.
Whenever I came across a centipede in my bathroom, I noticed it scurried across the floor and slid inside a gap in the bathroom floor.
Eliminating Tiny Bugs in Shower Grout
You’ll need to treat your entire bathroom and block the entry points to eliminate and prevent bugs in the bathroom shower grout.
Here’s how to do it.
Declutter Your Bathroom
Eliminate clutter in the bathroom by removing redundant items such as an excessive number of fabrics, cardboard boxes, and old bottles.
Clutter provides bugs with the hiding place they need. Removing clutter helps to implement the subsequent steps.
Thorough Cleaning
Cleaning the bathroom floor, drains, and walls will remove the wastes stuck in the gaps and will also kill any bugs, their eggs, and larvae.
The best way to clean the bathroom floor is by bleach. Mix three parts of parts with one part of bleach and spread the mixture on the bathroom floor.
After 15 minutes, scrub the floor. Ensure that you wear protective gloves and shoes while cleaning because bleach is highly corrosive, and it’ll harm your skin if it makes contact.
Use a mold cleaner to remove the molds on the bathroom walls, furniture, and fixtures, such as the sink and bathtub.
Use Bug Spray
Any indoor bug spray helps in killing the bathroom bugs. Use the spray directly on the bugs and in the tight gaps and corners.
However, be careful. Read the safety instructions on the label and follow them before you use the spray.
And ensure that pets and kids don’t enter the bathroom once you’re done spraying.
After a few minutes from spraying, remove the dead bugs and dispose of them outside your home.
Clean Bathroom Drains
Any drain cleaner is good enough to clean the drains. You can also clean the bathroom drains and bathroom sink by pouring a mixture of white vinegar and hot water into the drains.
The mixture unclogs the drains. It also kills the active larvae and eggs of drain flies and roaches inside the drains.
Fix Leaky Pipes
Water leaks in the bathroom increase the dampness levels. High moisture in the walls and floor will draw these grout bugs.
So, check the plumbing areas of the sink, bathtub, toilet, and other bathroom drains for any leakage.
On finding any, seal them.
Seal Cracks on the Floor and Walls
The cracks and crevices on the shower floor, walls, and fixtures are hiding places for bathroom bugs.
Caulk those gaps with a quality sealant.
You may need to get a bathroom repair done if excessive moisture and water leakages have caused too much damage to your bathroom.
Many bugs, such as ants and centipedes, can enter bathrooms through the gaps and cracks on the windowsills.
So, if there are any open gaps in the bathroom windows, seal them, too.
Ensure Proper Ventilation
A poorly ventilated bathroom will have poor airflow, which will prevent the bathroom from remaining dry.
Wetness will increase the dampness, which, again, will attract bathroom bugs.
Exhaust fans and windows in the bathroom ensure adequate ventilation. You can also install a dehumidifier (has an affiliate link) to keep the humidity levels in the bathroom under control.
Seek Professional Help
A severe infestation will always need an intervention from a professional pest controller. Also, eradicating bugs like drains flies and cockroaches can be a tricky affair if you don’t eliminate their sources.
This can only be done by a professional.
Termites and carpenter ants in the bathroom shouldn’t be taken lightly because these pests can cause structural damage to the house.
Monitor Your Bathroom
Once you’re through with the above steps, don’t think that it’s over. Bugs have a habit of coming back, and repeated measures are needed to eliminate them.
So, always keep your eyes open for any signs of these bugs, including their physical presence.
Repellents like peppermint oil and diatomaceous earth act as a protective barrier and prevent bugs. So, use them around the bathroom windows and in the tight corners.
Sticky traps and regular cleaning help keep the chances of re-infestation low.
Summary
Bugs in shower grout or bathroom tiles are common if the bathroom has moisture and waste issues.
All these grout bugs are attracted to moisture and organic wastes in the bathroom that get locked in the cracks on the grout.
These cracks provide both food sources and breeding grounds for these bugs. That ultimately leads to an increase in the bugs’ numbers.
If you’re struggling with bugs in your bathroom floor, then refer to the elimination section in this post to get rid of these shower bugs.
Dr. Thomas Orbert is a PhD in Entomology with extensive research experience in ectoparasites and microbials. He has also worked in the spaces of ecology conservation and has multiple years of experience in field research and scientific publishing.