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Cockroaches, Can’t Live with Them and Can’t Get Rid of Them

Cockroach by gailhampshire, on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic LicensePhoto by  gailhampshire

Cockroaches! Just hearing that name makes you cringe. They are well known as being extremely nasty creatures and will infest your home by the thousands in a matter of months if they are not controlled. These bugs may carry germs and diseases from other places they’ve visited that could even cause members of your household to become sick after living with them for a while.

So we’re going to discuss some pretty important information on understanding the behavior of a cockroach and what makes them tick. We’ve also got a Top 5 list of what to do in order to properly control them if you have been infested.

Where do Cockroaches Come From?

Cockroaches have been around for so long, you can’t really say exactly where or when they originated. But one thing for sure, they’ve been around for approximately 350 million years. Humans have only been on this Earth for the last 2 million years, so the cockroach has quite a leg up on us.

The Praying Mantis is actually the closest living relative of the cockroach, but the mantis is quite the predator, feeding on other insects. If you follow the mantises blood line further back, you’ll discover they are distant relatives to the termite.

Although cockroaches may be a distant relative of the Praying Mantis, they have used quite a different set of skills to survive all these years. For one thing, the cockroach is highly adaptable and can survive in almost any environment and learn how to get by. There are several different species of cockroach each having their own taste in food.

Food Sources of the Cockroach

The German cockroach tends to gravitate towards sugars and carbohydrates. The Oriental cockroach loves to feast on book bindings, and the Brown Banded cockroach prefers the glue from stamps and envelopes. Even though these may be their favorite meals, they have surely adapted to feast on pretty much what ever is available.

Human foods, pet food, toothpaste, wool, egg shells and even other cockroaches droppings. As well as dead and disabled members of their own species have become a normal part of most cockroaches diet. You may find it quite amazing that generally cockroaches do not like cucumbers, pretty strange considering they will eat all that other junk.

Humans vs. Cockroaches

The household cockroach has fast become an extreme enemy to humans, and we tend to focus more on killing them rather than controlling them. Although we’d like nothing more than to smash the living crap out of these nasty creatures, it’s much easier said than done.

Cockroaches are mainly nocturnal creatures and do most of their dirty work under cover of darkness. This make it extremely difficult for us to get the upper hand on them. For one thing, they scatter as quick as lightning as soon as you turn on the lights. The fact that they never venture far from their home makes a short trip for them to find cover once discovered. So before we can get to them, they’ve already shot back into a little crack or hole in the wall. According to research a cockroach will easily travel at over 1 foot per second. That’s pretty quick especially if they only have about a foot to go before they disappear!

One thing everyone may or may not know, is that most cockroaches are excellent fliers. The king-size American cockroach measures up to 2 inches long and they can fly really good. They’re also able to squeeze into a crack no thicker than a U.S. dime. These are not the only tools they have for avoiding capture or death either.

They are also extremely sensitive to the slightest change or shift in air movement. They have tiny sensing hairs on their bellies and they use these to sense any approaching trouble. So even the slightest vibration from approaching foot steps or a chair moving will send them darting off in a flash. It is said they can detect movements of less than one-millionth of a millimeter in the surface they’re standing on. Not only this, but they tend to have soldiers similar to ant colonies that will alert the others if trouble is coming. They do this by rattling their fore-wings as well as dragging their spurs over the ground. At which time they will emit a foul smelling secretion on the ground to cover their escape.

Cockroaches have also built up a resistance to many chemical poisons after hundreds of millions of years of contact with tropical vegetation and being exposed to plant toxins. They also seem to reprogram themselves over time to adapt to chemicals used on them. They are basically adapting to what we throw at them. Even though using poison will seem to be effective for a short time, once they’ve built a tolerance to it, the resistance is passed on to the rest of the colony and the poison is rendered useless after a while.

It’s been rumored for quite some time that a miracle poison for curing the cockroach epidemic is fast approaching. But the truth of the matter is that as long as cockroaches remain a creature of this Earth, they are here to stay. The population of them is too vast and they multiply too fast for us to win that war. The best we can hope for is to learn how to control them and let them live, hopefully outside our homes. So here’s the Top 5 list I promised you on how to at least make their stay miserable so maybe they’ll move on to your neighbors house. lol

What to do if You’re Infested with Cockroaches

  1. First and foremost, you need to cut off their food supply. Be sure that all pet food, trash and dirty dishes are put away or cleaned immediately. Do not let this stuff sit around, cockroaches love this stuff and will gravitate toward it, especially if it’s left overnight. Be sure to empty any crumb-catching trays in your toaster and clean the spill trays on your stove top. These may seem like small areas, but believe me, there’s enough food there to attract a huge colony of roaches.
  2. If you keep bulk foods around, store them in glass, plastic or metal containers that have lids. And be sure to either throw away old envelopes or keep them sealed in a plastic tub of some sort. If the roaches can’t get to the goodies, then they’ll go somewhere else to find food.
  3. If they don’t have a way in, they can’t get to you. So sealing up any possible entry points is a must. Use a caulking compound to seal up cracks and crevices around base-boards, cabinets, plumbing pipes and window seals. Be sure to repair any leaking pipes and use a tight fitting strainer basket on your drains. Cockroaches love to crawl into your drain to access food particles that may be there.
  4. If you are still suffering from these awful visitors, then poisoned bait traps may be useful. These will administer a deadly dose of poison to the roaches that feed on them. The best poison currently used is probably a compound called hydramethylnon. It isn’t harmful to humans, but is quite deadly to cockroaches, until they adapt that is. Argg! But the good thing about this is, once the roaches that have fed directly on the baits die, then the ones that feed on the dead roaches will get poisoned as well.
  5. Then of course once you’ve cleaned your house or are sure they aren’t there, keeping them out is a must. Avoid transporting new roaches into your home by checking any containers or boxes you may bring in and make sure they’re clean before bringing them in. The brown-banded cockroach was basically a southern pest until it was transported North in supplies being shipped to soldiers during WWII. So don’t bring boxes home from your storage without making sure they are clean of roaches.

Well, that’s pretty much all I’ve got on the subject. We’re all well aware of what a pest the cockroach can be and how hard they are to get rid of. But I hope this list will act as a reminder to anyone that may be suffering with them currently.

You can never have too many remedies for fighting the war against cockroaches!


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69 thoughts on “Cockroaches, Can’t Live with Them and Can’t Get Rid of Them
  1. I found one cockroach this morning – first time ever. We have 2 6-month old boys. When should I start to freak out?

  2. Hey I was very well educated from this article. I moved in my apt abt almost a year n a half n never saw ne cockroaches but I saw one yesterday n my bf killed the one today. I am hoping it was the same one. It was a long skinny one with really light brown body. Remind u I never had this problem until yesterday. I dk if it was a male so it wouldnt lay eggs. .

    1. Hi LaTasha and thanks for commenting. I live in a townhouse which is basically a glorified apartment and I can understand your concern. Complexes with multiple domains can be a huge problem where pests are concerned. By exterminating one home it generally causes any pests to migrate to another. That’s why it is very important that the land lord/lady exterminate the entire complex in the event of any signs of creatures trying to move in.

      I would suggest getting with the complex supervisor and check on their pest control schedule and just let them aware you’ve seen one. Also be sure to keep a close eye out for anything moving at the instance the lights come on, cause that’s when they will be out in plain sight. I wish you the best and hope you are not faced with a pest problem!

  3. I wonder if I have an infestation. I have lived in my house for 4 1/2 years now and in the last week I have found and killed 4 roaches!!! I have a pest control company come every 3-4 months. And they spray around my house. Since it is Saturday night I can not call until tomorrow or Monday. Why are these Nast bugs coming in my house now?! I am totally freaking out!!!

    1. Hi Katie, and thanks for stopping by and leaving us a comment.

      Often time even regular use of an exterminator may not rid us of the foul creatures permanently. This is certainly good practice to be using an exterminator, but we must keep one important thing in mind. Your neighbors home may not be getting treated on a regular basis and this could be the source of your problem. Also be aware of bringing boxes or thing into your garage from storage or garage sales etc. It’s possible to be transporting them into your home and never know it. If the problem appears to be getting worse, a good bombing may be in order, usually those are quite successful. Hope I’ve given you a few ideas that may be helpful and I wish you the best in your fight against your pests! 🙂

  4. What is the best bomb to use these creatures came out the blue and my landlord said its a issue through our whole complex but its a problem for the home owner association. What can we do in the mean time how and where should we bomb please help

    1. Hi Ellisha and sorry to hear of your roach problem. I believe any of the major brand pest products would work well. I might suggest RAID Concentrated Deep Reach Fogger as a good product to start with.

      As far as the proper procedure for deploying the foggers you may want to take a look at this site. EPA.gov This would be the best resource for safe results.

  5. When I saw one roach in my house, I bought some boric acid from the hardware store. I used it around every baseboard in my house and I never seen another roach ever.

    1. Wow, that’s pretty intense Debra. I’ve never heard of that method, but I would bet it would keep any pest far away…lol Thanks for sharing your remedy with us 🙂

  6. You can kill cockroaches with Boric acid. Actually not kill them but render them impotent so they die out in a few days. Boric acid powder tends to mix into the air and can be caustic to the lungs. So the best way to apply it is by mixing it
    with some water and spraying it. Spraying the chemical allows you to introduce it into tiny cracks and crevices where roaches hang out. You should also spray it all around the baseboard so that any roaches walking into the room will
    traipse through it. My pest control specialist recommended it for me a few years back. I tried it and it really worked.

    1. Awesome tip Boruch. Sounds a little dangerous but I’m sure it’s quite effective. Thanks for the info. I’m sure this will be quite helpful to some readers. I’ve read this method is used to battle quite a few household pests.

  7. Hello, Mr. Tuttle. We’ve moved to a new apartment this winter and everything was great until the weather got warm. It appeared that there are cockroaches in the building and I’ve seen a few of them entering our kitchen from a plug. I thought the best decision to get rid of them is to call a company to deal with the problem generally, cleaning the whole building, but some of our neighbors refused and now I should do something because I’m not planing to live anywhere near these creatures. I’ll follow your advice and hope to get rid of them. Thank you for the help! Best Regards.

    1. That’s very unfortunate Amanda. I don’t understand how some people could refuse such a thing when health is such a big factor to these disgusting creatures. My hope for you is that they will reconsider, because in a building with multiple tenants it’s nearly impossible to treat the situation unless you can cover all the apartments in the building. Have you spoken to the building’s manager about this? After all they should be the ones footing the bill for the extermination.

  8. Hands down boric acid is the absolute best defense against roaches. Put it in all your cracks in bathroom,kitchen or anywhere you see them and with in 2 weeks they will be gone

    1. Hey thanks Steve for the tip. I’ve seen mention of this method a few times, would definitely be something worth giving a try. I assume most folks would go to just about any lengths to rid themselves of these pests.

  9. Hi, Mr. Tuttle. My family has moved into a new house. We’ve lived there since April, and now it is July. When I wake up around midnight to get water, I see many different kinds of cockroaches running away. We leave our trash can out, so they are there. They even walk over our plates and things like that. We even see things that look like small brown shells. What should we do?

    1. Hi Tolu,

      Sounds like you’ve got quite an infestation problem on your hands. I would most definitely start with taking everyone out of the house for the day and release several roach bombs in the home. Be sure to place one in each room as well as the attic and basement if you have one. They are pretty shifty and will run to areas that are safe, so you want to eliminate any safe places for them to hide by getting good coverage with your bombs. You can always follow up afterwards with little roach motels in dark places to catch any remaining victims. Keep in mind it may take a bit before they all die out.

      Another thing to check is if you have any old boxes in the garage, attic or basement, check them to make sure you weren’t the ones that brought them into the house….Also check with your neighbors to make sure they aren’t having the same problem and advise them to do the same if they are.

  10. Hi, I am staying with my mom for a few months because I just had a surgery. She moved to a new duplex and has been here for several months now. We did not have bugs when we moved from our house, but they are here and we try to keep a neat home. Our neighbor says she has them too. The landlord sprayed both apartments one time and my mom has been setting out bait traps and simply killing them when she shes them. She doesn’t want to mention it to the landlord because the landlord is blaming our neighbor and says told the neighbor to get them under control or she will be kicked out. I am truly getting fed up with this. I am beginning to see them about every other day. My mom doesn’t want me to say anything the her landlord because she doesn’t want her neighbor to be put out. Do you have any suggestions?

    1. Well Tina, the only real way to get them under control in an apartment building where there are multiple tenants is the treat the entire building. If the landlord is refusing to take care of the situation I would refer to the lease. There should be a page or paragraph concerning how bug infestation and extermination is to be properly handled. Mainly as to who’s responsibility it is, either the tenant or landlord.

      If it is in fact the landlord’s responsibility to handle the situation and they refuse, it may be time to contact a health department official and see what they suggest. Hope things work out for you!

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