How to get rid of cockroaches
Just the sight of one of these hard-shelled, multi-legged visitors crawling across the ground is enough to make your toes curl, and your screams can hit high notes you didn’t know were possible. But what are you dealing with?
Cockroaches are large, nasty bugs with six legs and 18 knee joints. (We were sure you would want to know that.) There are more than 5,000 species in the world, but the most common are the German cockroach and the American cockroach.
Cockroaches may initially infest your home from the outside, finding cracks, gaps under doors, and other ways to enter the home, attracted to heat, darkness, and spoiled food or standing water, in things like open garbage cans, unwashed dishes. As large as they may seem, a cockroach can fit through an opening as thin as a dime when young, or a quarter as thin as an adult. They don’t like light, which is why many owners can’t believe when the cat or dog presents them with the remains of their latest victim. But you can’t depend on your pets to control the population.
The first measure to get rid of cockroaches is hygiene. If you have stored rotting vegetables, open containers of food in cupboards, or unsecured garbage cans, remove all debris and replace containers with tight-fitting ones. Check under appliances, in closets, basement corners and other dark places for traces of black gritty dirt that has an oily appearance. These are cockroach feces and a sign that you have a problem.
Once you’ve cleaned your home, your options for removing them are to do it yourself or have the house professionally treated by a pest control company. Which one you choose may depend on the severity of the infestation. The primary means of destroying cockroaches are contact poisons/sprays and residual sprays that leave ingredients that are released over time in your cabinets and on surfaces where they were sprayed, which will work for a period of 2-3 weeks. There are also the infamous “cockroach motels” that can be placed in your closets. Sometimes a combination of several methods may be necessary, such as a substance to kill by immediate contact, and then cockroaches in places where you have evidence of previous inhabitants. Once your immediate problem is eliminated, you can also take preventative measures, such as spraying powdered boric acid between walls and around foundations where they may have entered the house. This is generally a safe product, and will be carried on the feet of cockroaches, to wherever they hide and breed.
A note of caution: Pesticides can be highly toxic to humans and pets. Spray treatments should never be carried out without proper respiratory protection, and before removing all food, pets, and dishes or other items that your food may come into contact with.
