How To Get Rid Of Cockroaches
A lot of property owners want to know how to get rid of cockroaches.
German cockroaches are a public health pest common around the globe.
Learning how to get rid of cockroaches is complicated and can take a lot of time and resources, but here a few tips to help the process dramatically.
Minimize Their Food Source
If you read my article about rodent control you should be familiar with the triangle of survival and the importance of food to pests.
The problem is their food source be almost any organic material they can find.
German cockroaches are tiny, and they need a tiny amount of food to survive.
Crumbs and grease that fall and splash behind appliances and in the cracks and crevices of the kitchen are definitely going to be your focal points.
Make sure to pull out the kitchen stove safely and thoroughly clean it and around it of all grease and food debris.
Cockroaches can sustain a population a long time by feeding on each others feces and corpses, but they will slowly decline with out a stable food source.
Removing all attractive food sources to the cockroaches will stress out the population and make them more attracted to baits, effectively killing off the population faster.
Remove Their Hiding Spots
German cockroaches are thigmotactic (they like contact with physical surfaces.)
This is because being cramped in tight spaces makes them feel protected.
You might see cockroaches, especially adults walking across the kitchen counter top, but this is only foraging for food.
The cockroach habitat is in between the joints of the cabinets and in the wall voids.
Underneath the kitchen sink, behind fridges and stoves, these are areas to look at for cockroaches.
Look for their feces, dark brown specks, along the edges of the cabinets for signs of infestation.
Roaches can live in just about any tight space, so having less items cramped together will significantly reduce harborage spaces and make treatment for cockroaches more effective.
If you have large quantities of stored items, especially in cardboard boxes, think about what you can get rid of to reduce their hiding spots.
Caulking the cracks of decorative trim may also reduce possible harborage points, although it may be difficult to find and seal every crack they are hiding in.
Reduce Heat and Moisture
German cockroaches are ectotherms (cold blooded.)
They rely heavily on external heat conditions to survive and reproduce.
In conditions below 70°F, the life cycle of a cock roach from egg to adult takes roughly 100 days.
When the temperature is between 85°-95°F, it gets cut in half to around 50 days.
Each ootheca (egg case) of a German cockroach can hold roughly 30 to 40 eggs.
Moisture helps nymphal (immature) stages of the cockroaches develop faster as well, above 50% humidity is beneficial to them.
Managing the heat and humidity in problematic areas alone can drastically slow down the rate of infestation.
Removing The Cockroaches
An important part of handling a German cockroach infestation is removing the bugs.
Safely vacuuming areas of infestation with a HEPA filter vacuum is beneficial to keeping the number down and minimizing the need for additional pesticide applications.
Larger amounts of cockroaches, means larger amounts of baits and residual pesticides that need to be used.
Removing them from the property into exterior trash containers will allow the pesticide to remain longer for cockroaches hidden deeper in the cracks and crevices.
It is important to make sure the roaches are dead when you throw them in the trash, so they do not infest other areas.
Summary
Dealing with cockroach infestations is difficult.
There is no one step that will solve the problem, all of the things listed above must be done, thoroughly and consistently.
High cockroach infestations will most likely need some sort of pesticide applications and I highly recommend you contact a professional.
Remediation of cockroaches could take months, it is important to monitor your activity closely and keep up sanitation even when you’re not seeing activity.
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By Jon Amaral ACE, PHE
New Bedford Pest Control
113 Allen Street
New Bedford, MA 02740
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