The Tick and Mosquito Project

control-mosquitoes

What to do About a Roach Problem

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Roaches are found in almost all parts of the country.

While we do most of our writing about ticks and mosquitoes, there are other creatures that are a nuisance even if they are not as medically dangerous.  These include bugs like flies, boxelder bugs, stink bugs, and the dreaded cockroach.

There comes a time in your childhood when you see a roach creeping on the floor. It might not scare you at that time until you try to kill it and it starts to fly, and you realize just how agile and athletic these little insects. The chill of horror, followed by the rush of adrenaline and you start to run away for your life. Once cockroaches conquer your home, it can be require several steps to kick them out.

Roaches can snack on your leftovers, hide in the most unlikely places and some species may spread germs to humans.  They are known to contaminate more food than they eat, so if you know roaches have been near your food sources, suspect that they may have ruined unsealed food.

Roaches can give off a musty, pungent smell, and can leave their little “coffee ground” dropping in your home.  When you read about the history of cockroaches, you’ll get to know that they are one of the oldest creatures alive. They were the only species present in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during to survive the nuclear blasts — so you are dealing with quite a hardy creature.

Getting rid of roaches is a little trickier than, say, getting rid of mosquitoes in your home.  Roaches like to hunker down and find places to get comfortable.  Mosquitoes or other flying bugs, on the other hand, usually get in by accident and really don’t want to be there.

Here are a few things you can do to solve the roach problem if you have one.

Roach Exterminators

Hiring a professional exterminator might be expensive, but it is very much effective. Pest Control services use different factors to determine the cost of the control. The main factor is the total area that is required to be treated. If the area is greater, costs are higher. The other factor on which the cost depends is the number of infestations. The extermination can cost up to $100 or more. The biggest benefit of getting professional help is that it can kill other pests as well.  A good, professional exterminator will have seen roach problems before, and will know exactly where to begin with his or her treatments.

Adhesive traps

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Once cockroaches are in, they aren’t going away by themselves.

These traps are just like glue. Their sticky surface can entrap even a mouse. The cockroach gets stuck to the surface of the trap and cannot possibly move. But this method has certain limitations. It doesn’t eliminate the problem because the nest remains intact, but it can be a good start if your goal is to curb the number of roaches you are seeing in living spaces.  You will still need to address the root cause somehow, though.

Poisonous roach baits

It offers the most efficient and cheap way to get rid of roaches. The poisonous baits are placed in several locations and are mostly in the form of gel so you can also stick it in the corners. The roaches start to feed on this gel and after some time they die because of the poison. The method is effective just because it kills the entire nest as well.  Of course, only use this method if you can do it safely.  Fortunately, the roach baits introduced in recent years tend to be safer and less toxic than the versions from a generation ago.

Roach Insecticides

These are the chemicals used to kill insects. Different types of insecticides are available in the market and provide protection not only against roaches but other insects such as ants, spiders, and bugs as well. However, you can also make an insecticide at your home that would kill roaches.

Take some amount of soap or detergent in a spray bottle and dilute it with enough amount of water until thin. Look for the corners and spray it on the roaches. After some time, the roaches will begin to die. The reason is simple. They have small breathing pores on their body. When you spray the solution, it blocks their breathing pores making it very difficult for it to breathe and the cockroach suffocates to death.

You can also use commercial insecticides, but take care in using these inside your house.  We always prefer more natural methods if given a choice.

However, there is another approach to deal with this problem.

Denying them water and food

This is rather a preventive approach to deal with this problem. Maintaining a proper hygiene in your house can reduce the number of cockroaches to half. Here is how:

  • Cut the water leakages

Cockroaches can hardly survive a week without water. They mostly get water from the water leakages in the pipes and taps. Try to fix the water leakages in the pipes where you find cockroaches in large amount. Depriving them of water would make them feed on the poisonous bait gels.

  • Keep you trash and garbage covered
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Until you get rid of easy food sources for roaches, trying to do much else won’t help.

Cockroaches feed mainly on the food we leave in the bin. Keeping your waste open and uncovered will feed these mosquitos and their colonies will grow periodically.

  • Mop your floor routinely

They cannot live without water, so you have to make every necessary precaution. The floor should be kept dry all the time especially during the night.

  • Dispose the trash regularly

You should try to maintain hygiene. Dispose of the bin as early as you could. If you can’t, keep the lid tightly closed or the garbage sealed in a plastic bag.

  • Vacuum them up

Vacuum cleaners are a secret weapon when it comes to insect control.  They are one of our main tools against infestations of boxelder bugs, and they work great on roaches as well.  Vacuum known roach areas routinely.  Be sure to get the eggs, too, if you see them.  Doing this on a regular basis will help eradicate the roaches inside your house.  Just be sure you empty the vacuum bag out often, because the bugs can continue to live even in confined places like your vacuum cleaner.

 

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