All homeowners should learn how to get rid of cockroaches. You might not think you need to because you keep a clean, tidy home, but even a few roaches can sneak in and reproduce faster than you’d think. They can also migrate to an otherwise clean home by hitching a ride in corrugated cardboard (German roaches are notorious for this) boxes or other items where you don’t easily notice them.
Beyond being creepy to see scurrying across your kitchen floor, cockroaches can increase asthma attacks in asthma patients and can bite humans, leaving behind horrible sores.
Additionally, cockroaches can cause dangerous viral and bacterial infections in humans like methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MRSA is an infection that can result in death without proper treatment, depending on the severity of the infection.
Finally, cockroaches can literally damage your home. Roaches frequently get inside electrical appliances because they’re attracted to the heat. Roaches can damage electronics by creating electrical shorts to the devices’ power supply or other high voltage components. You normally wouldn’t notice them doing this unless you see a roach run inside an electronic.
This is why it is extremely important to learn what to do to get rid of roaches from your home or business as soon as you are aware of an infestation (and how to spot signs of cockroach infestations).
We’ll show you how to do both. You can skip to a specific section in the table of content. If you have questions about something we didn’t cover, ask us in the comment section and we’ll answer you.
What exactly are cockroaches?
As you may already know, cockroaches are insects that can be at least 1.5 inches long or bigger in tropical areas of the world. These insects come in all different colors, but they all tend to have flattened bodies, small heads, chewing mandibles, compound eyes, and flexible antennas.
Some species of cockroaches also tend to make chirping, whistling, or hissing noises, which are most of the time mating calls during breeding time. However, some noises they make are for defensive purposes.
The most common areas of the world you tend to find these insects living are tropical and subtropical regions. Wood roaches typically dine on wood and aren’t attracted to human food. Cockroaches, however, are omnivores, which is why you tend to find them in the kitchens of unclean homes and restaurants. They like to scavenge for food crumbs and residue on kitchen floors, cabinets, and wherever else they can find them. This is why it is essential to keep homes and restaurants as clean as possible.
It also helps to keep trash picked up in yards and to store filled garbage bags in sealed containers. Sometimes cockroaches are found on farms and in old farmhouses where there is a lot of animal feed and droppings around. Keeping animal pens too is also important for keeping your animals healthy since animals can catch harmful infections from cockroaches too.
Signs of cockroach infestations
There are several signs of cockroach infestations beyond seeing them routinely that can help you determine if your home or apartment is infested with roaches.
- Seeing roaches during the day: Cockroaches tend to sleep during the day and look for food at night, so if you find roaches in your home or apartment during the day, this often indicates you have a significant infestation.
- Finding cockroach droppings: Finding cockroach droppings around your home is another key indicator that you have a significant cockroach infestation. Roach droppings look like specks from a sharpie marker. They’re small, dark, and round.
What are some of the best methods to use for keeping cockroaches away?
There are many methods you can use for getting rid of cockroaches. Some methods involve the use of chemicals while others are simple natural methods. Some of the best methods to use are:
- Leaving your light on sometimes deters roaches from the lit-up room for a few days. Roaches will eventually get used to the light, though.
- Place cockroach bait traps in areas where the cockroaches are entering.
- Create your own cockroach poison using boric acid, flour, and sugar combination that you mix up and distribute into small containers and place in cabinets and areas of your kitchen they enjoy hanging out near (make sure you do not place this homemade solution near foods or beverages).
- Place cockroach adhesive sticky tap traps near cockroach entrances.
- Spray a soap and water solution directly on the cockroaches as you see them or around the areas they hang around.
- Call an exterminator when severe roach infestations occur.
- Place mothballs in corners of your home away from children and animals, but close enough to areas where cockroaches will smell them and be repelled away naturally.
- Seal cracks and holes within the foundation or wherever you find them in your home or business.
- Crush and place bay leaves in kitchen cabinets and corners of the home to repel them away.
- Place citrus peels or oils in cockroach entrances
How can I prevent cockroach infestations?
There are many ways you can prevent cockroach infestations, but one of the main ways you can do so is by keeping homes and businesses squeaky clean, and spotless. This means keeping kitchen areas picked up, floors vacuumed, mopped, and swept, and trash areas as clean as possible.
Other ways you can prevent an infestation are by keeping yards clean and spraying a preventative pesticide around your business or home a few times each year. Keep in mind most pesticides are chemical based and not safe for humans or pets to be around once applied to the yard. It is also best to wait for the first rain before you let family members or pets play outdoors.
If you do not like using chemicals you can always plant citrus plants around your home or business since roaches hate the smell of citric acid.
One particular citrus fruit they hate the most is lemons. You can even mix up a lemon mixture yourself and spray that every couple of weeks around the outside of your home to prevent cockroaches from coming into your home. To make the mixture simply combine an organic lemon dish soap with a few gallons of water and spray the mixture along the outside of your home or business to repel them away naturally.
Exterminators Can Get Rid of Cockroaches From Your Home
If the above methods do not work for getting rid of cockroaches from your home or business it is always best to bring in professional insect exterminators to get rid of this serious pest problem before it worsens.
Remember, cockroaches can cause dangerous health issues to you, your family, pets, and livestock. Always do whatever you can at the first signs of a cockroach infestation to keep your family and animals safe. The first sign of a cockroach infestation is seeing cockroaches themselves or roach fecal matter laying around.
