Meet the Pest
There is nothing that sends a room spinning quite so quickly as the prospect of a cockroach. Knowing how to get rid of cockroaches quickly becomes a matter of sanity for homeowners who don’t enjoy the idea of the filthy pests making their way into the nooks and crannies of homes. Cockroaches are known for being incredibly resistant to extermination methods, making it even more difficult to send these pests packing.
The body of most cockroaches is only about an inch long, but they have spiky hind legs and antennas that can make them seem far bigger. Cockroaches prefer warm, dark areas and are primarily nocturnal. This is why a dark room is the worst enemy for homeowners who flip on the light only to find a cockroach (or two) scurrying to safety.
The development from cockroach eggs to adults takes about three months, with a total life cycle running about a year. Female cockroaches generally lay eggs about eight times, generating about 300-400 offspring. The idea of one cockroach sending 400 more into the walls of your home should cause a homeowner to start preventative maintenance measures as soon as possible.
Bed & Breakfast
Cockroaches like warm, humid climates and prefer to be out of the weather elements. This unfortunately means your home can be prime cockroach territory. Finding a cockroach in your home is sometimes as simple as walking into a room and seeing one running off to hide, but it can also be far more disgusting considering all the warm, dark places available in a home. Inside shoes is a favorite location, as well as a humid bathroom, particularly because cockroaches can emerge from sewer pipes. That means a bathroom toilet, sink or shower drain are all potential roach access points.
One of the most resilient aspects of a cockroach is its ability to get by without food and water. A cockroach is capable of living without food for about three months and without water for a month. However, when a cockroach is hungry, it has will feast on various foods in your kitchen. Cockroaches are also attracted to garbage sources and pet food.
Quit Bugging Me!
Getting rid of cockroaches takes a bit more strategy than screaming mindlessly and slapping a shoe down in hopes of killing the entire population in one swoop. Because cockroaches are so tolerant to environmental challenges, they are highly resistant to plain old insecticides. Some of the best short-term solutions for cockroach pest control include:
- Apply a cockroach-specific pesticide.
- Make homemade roach traps, such as deep jars or containers with an inch of water. The roaches are inclined to fall into the trap and drown.
- Apply boric acid powder to potential entry areas such as around the foundation of your home, basement windows or basement drains. The powder will adhere to the roach and eventually be ingested, ultimately killing it. The powder can also be brought back to the cockroach nest and help to exterminate other roaches.
Short-term solutions won’t stop a cockroach problem because of the sheer amount of eggs a single cockroach can produce. By staying on top of the cockroach pest control issue, homeowners can help to make their home much less enticing to these invasive pests.
Good Riddance
Once a cockroach problem is realized, homeowners need to take extensive measures to ensure the cockroach population doesn’t continue to expand and grow on their property. Some of the following tips are great long-term solutions for permanently exterminating cockroaches:
- Use a pesticide ‘bomb’ product or ‘fogger.' These types of products require a room that is closed off as much as possible and emit a strong, chemical-based pesticide that can eradicate a room of cockroaches and cockroach eggs.
- Electrify them! Well, not really. But electronic emitters have been shown to be effective at putting off a high frequency noise that deters cockroaches.
- Install sticky traps. These are covered traps with an adhesive on the floor of the trap that will result in the eventual death of the cockroach. However, with the ability of a cockroach to live three months without eating, homeowners are more likely to find a live roach in these types of traps.
All of these long-term solutions have been shown to work more effectively in conjunction with other measures. This is largely because of how resilient and environmentally adaptive cockroaches can be. By aggressively tackling a cockroach pest control problem right at the start, a homeowner will have a much easier job exterminating the problem.