How to Prevent Cockroaches
How to keep cockroaches out of your home?
1) The key preventative action is to reduce the available food sources by maintaining good hygiene:
- Clear up any spilled food
- Clean down and under the oven / fridge regularly
- Do not leave unwashed dishes out overnight
- Do not leave pet food bowls out with food in
- Food should be stored in tight “cockroach-proof” containers
- Put rubbish into sealed bins and stack away from the house
2) Fix any leaking taps / pipework
3) As cockroaches like to hide in cracks and can enter the house / unit through cracks, fill any cracks in the floors, walls and fill gaps around pipework.
4) As the peridomestic cockroaches often like to live in and around wood piles, mulch, garden debris, keep such materials away from buildings.
5) Check incoming packaging material, such as cardboard boxes. This is a common way for the German cockroach to enter your property and set up home.
6) If you are in an apartment block, it is important to have an overall pest plan for the building as cockroaches readily spread from one apartment to the next through the shared pipework.
7) Have an aerosol spray available that can be used to quickly kill the occasional cockroaches that enter your home. (Crawling insect aerosols that contains the insecticide imiprothrin give the quickest results.)
Where do cockroaches live?
Where a cockroach infestation can be found can depend on the species of cockroach that has invaded your property and the ambient conditions in your area. Some species prefer warm and humid conditions, so these are more restricted in cooler climates, whilst others can tolerate cooler conditions.
You can find cockroaches living in these places around your home or business:
Bathrooms
At the back of bathroom cabinets (especially if they are full of soaps and toiletry products that have been stored for a while). Check plumbing behind sinks, baths and toilets, anywhere they can hide in sheltered dark spaces with access to water even if it’s simply condensation. They can crawl through the drainage system and up through plug holes in sinks and baths. Cockroaches will happily eat soap residue, toilet paper and tissues and even shed skin cells and hair.
Kitchens
Look in cupboards and cabinets, paying particular attention to hidden or undisturbed areas, including in food packaging. Sometimes cockroaches can be found in the upper inside corner of cupboards, hanging upside down out of sight.
Search around pipework such as under sinks and behind dishwashers. These areas could provide moisture as well as shelter and are often the routes of infestation.
Hidden spaces in appliances with motors, which provide warmth, and hidden crevices like backs of cookers, fridges and freezers are another area to check carefully.
Even smaller kitchen appliances such as microwaves, coffee makers, toasters and blenders could harbour cockroaches and provide them with an array of food particles and residues to live on.
Laundry rooms
Cupboards under sinks, where plumbing enters through walls or floors leading to washing machines and tumble dryers. Also check warm areas near the motors at the back of washers and dryers.
Basements
Search along the base and corner joints of walls in cellars for any gaps cockroaches could squeeze through. Cracks in wood baseboards or floor cavities are opportune areas for them to hide. Cockroaches will hide in and eat cardboard and newspapers, so check boxes and piles of paper stored for long periods of time.
Drains
Some species such as Oriental cockroaches can survive in drier, cooler areas. Look around downpipes for cracks and crevices they might hide in, as well as damaged drain covers they could scuttle through.
Outdoors
Pipe ducts and any opening beneath porches or decking; undisturbed areas of garages and outbuildings; and rubbish tips. Oriental cockroaches can tolerate cooler conditions so can survive outdoors in a greater range of the country than the German cockroach.
Our service begins with a thorough survey of your property. We can look for typical signs of cockroaches, identify any potential shelter sites and the invading species.
Our service and benefits
- Guaranteed 24 hour response (Monday to Friday)
- Regular inspections: this even includes night-time inspections. Cockroaches are nocturnal creatures and night-time inspections will better reveal any hiding areas on your premises
- Certified technicians: we have a team of reliable, qualified and experienced professionals local to you and based across Australia
- Safe, targeted treatments: we minimise the risk of insecticides in the home by using non-toxic products, which are highly targeted at the crevices where cockroaches hide. Products used may include a spray, gel baits or dusting powders
- Expert knowledge: our knowledge, backed by global experience, about the habits of cockroach species enables us to provide the most efficient methods of control
- Convenient treatment times: our discreet treatments are carried out at times convenient to you to minimise disruption to your business or home life
- Chemical-free solutions: suitable for homes and sensitive business environments, our chemical-free Entotherm heat treatment service can resolve cockroach problems effectively
- Professional prevention advice: your local technician can provide expert prevention advice on how to proof your home and prevent a re-infestation
- Long-term support: our technician will arrange follow up visits (if they are needed) to re-treat the identified hiding spots at an interval that coincides with the hatching time of the cockroach egg cases (oothecae). We can continue to monitor for signs of activity through the use of our Insect Monitor Unit (IMU) suitable for use in even sensitive business environments. Our work is not complete until your problem is fully resolved.
How to prevent cockroaches
Your property could be an ideal breeding ground for cockroaches. There are multiple ways they can gain entry to buildings: through cracks, crevices, vents, sewers, pipe drains, open windows and doors and in goods brought into premises.
Cockroaches are attracted by food, moisture and shelter, so the most effective way to prevent an infestation is to deny them access.
Preventing cockroaches can be successfully carried out with a few basic measures. When it comes to prevention and control of pests, simple things such as keeping doors and windows shut and good standards of cleaning and tidying that can make a huge difference.
Here are four ways to prevent a cockroach infestation:
1. Eliminate food sources
Cockroaches are amazing scavengers. In an urban environment, roaches rely heavily on the food humans leave behind. Like us, their diet mainly consists of sugar, protein, and carbohydrates. The best way to prevent cockroaches is to remove any potential food sources lying around your home or business.
Eliminate cockroach food sources by:
Removing liquids:
- Although like rodents, cockroaches can last a week or two without water as long as the moisture content in their food is high, it is still a vital part of their diet. Removing standing water from buckets and sinks can help prevent cockroaches from entering your property in search of water
- It’s also worth noting that cockroaches are attracted to moisture and love to live in damp places. Eliminating standing liquids can make your home and/or business seem less appealing
Remove standing food:
- Removing leftover food sitting on tables, kitchen counters and desks can help reduce the appeal of your home to cockroaches. Cockroaches only need minute amounts of food for a meal, so any crumbs, powders, liquid foods spilled on floors, worktops, shelves, cupboards, food containers, packaging, etc will provide enough for a meal
Store food away:
- Smell is an important factor in cockroaches finding your home or business inviting. You can help reduce this attraction by storing items of food such as cereals and pet food in airtight containers
Rinse and remove cans, bottles, and plastic containers:
- Leftover residue in empty cans, bottles, and plastic containers will attract cockroaches. Even though these items are usually found in a bin, there’s nothing stopping roaches from making the transition from your garbage into your property. A good prevention tip is to rinse these containers out thoroughly before disposal
Empty bins regularly:
- Bins are a prime cockroach attraction. They offer cockroaches a whole range of different food to consume. Emptying your bins regularly, preferably on a daily basis, will help prevent roaches from entering and breeding in your property. Commercial premises need to ensure that waste is disposed of before it builds up and overflows containers
Although you can take the necessary procedures to limit the food accessible to cockroaches, this will not remove them 100%. Cockroaches are known to consume other forms of food that may sound strange: they eat paper, glue and even turn to cannibalism when normal forms of food are not available.
2. Clean
As with other forms of pest prevention, one of the best ways to reduce the risk of accumulating a cockroach problem is keeping kitchens and food handling and storage areas clean.
Ensuring that work surfaces are clear of food debris, as well as clearing up all waste and spillage will help prevent cockroaches. Cockroaches are more active during nightfall so removing pet food, drink, and litter trays is also a good method.
In businesses such as hotels, restaurants, healthcare facilities, retail stores and food processors, adhering to food hygiene standards is an essential part of keeping pests such as cockroaches from damaging and contaminating food.
When it comes to offices and workplaces, keeping your office clean as well as limiting eating and storing food at your desk can help prevent cockroaches from moving in.
3. Declutter
Cockroaches release a pheromone in their droppings which signals to others that they have found a safe place to live? Removing excess clutter such as packaging, cardboard, stacks of old newspapers and magazines.
This will prevent cockroach droppings accumulating by eliminating areas for them to be distributed. Removing clutter from your business or home also reduces the amount of areas where cockroaches can hide.
4. Maintenance
General building maintenance will deny cockroaches routes into and around your property and access to places to hide.
Pipes and Drains
As already stated, cockroaches are quite fond of damp and moist areas. Because of this when it comes to your home or business they can usually be found near pipes and drains. Regularly checking this area for signs of cockroaches and taking the necessary procedures such as repairing damaged pipes and clearing blocked drains is a good cockroach prevention measure.
Shelves
Wooden shelves provide a great spot for cockroaches to live on. The cracks in the grains of the wood provide a great hiding spot. A good roach prevention tip is to paint or varnish wooden shelves. This seals all these cracks and crevices reducing the places a cockroach can hide. Alternatively, you could replace your wooden shelves with ones made from plastic or metal.
Seal entrances
There is a handful of cockroach weak spots around a property that provide roaches with an easy way in. These are:
- Walls
- Skirting boards
- Electrical sockets
- Under kitchen sinks and bathroom cabinets
Check these areas for cracks and crevices and seal them using products such as cement or expanding foam.