Cockroaches are as resilient as they are unwelcome. Worse, they pose serious healthy risks as they carry with them allergens and bacteria that can trigger asthma attacks and other ...
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Cockroaches are as resilient as they are unwelcome. Worse, they pose serious healthy risks as they carry with them allergens and bacteria that can trigger asthma attacks and other allergies. If you’re looking for guidance on how to get rid of cockroaches, know that prevention is better than cure. But before we go down that road, let’s first understand what causes cockroach infestation in the first place. Before we don’t understand the root of the problem, we won’t be able to solve it.
There could be several reasons why cockroaches enter your home.
For starters, it doesn’t help that we live in a tropical country. Cockroaches, like other insects, breed in humid and tropical weather conditions. So no matter where you live — even in the most expensive real estate in the country — you’re likely to find cockroaches anyway. They may not be in your line of vision every day but rest assured they will be there, in a corner of your garage, a common toilet that isn’t cared for, etc.
Cockroaches also thrive on all kinds of organic matter — crumbs, spills, pet food, and especially decaying garbage. If you’ve not taken care to properly dispose of garbage from the previous night’s house party, chances are it will attract cockroaches by the next morning.
Cockroaches also need access to water. So, if your pipes are leaking, if there’s condensation, or those nooks and crannies under your sink and the spaces under your refrigerator and microwave, haven’t been tended to, cockroaches will find a way to get there.
There’s also the possibility that you brought the cockroaches into your home unwittingly. It is amazing how often these pests make their way into your home as cockroach eggs laid in used cardboard cartons and grocery bags at infested stores.
It could get worse. You could be as responsible as you possibly can — disposing of garbage responsibly, cleaning up after every meal, even ensuring all those hidden nooks are spic and span — and still attract cockroaches! If there’s a cockroach infestation in your neighbourhood or your building hasn’t been very strict with its cleanliness protocols, cockroaches will find a way into your home through shared walls and pipes too.
Prevention is always better than cure. So, if you’re asking yourself how to prevent cockroaches, you’re on the right track. To prevent cockroaches from entering your home, it would help to follow some if not all of these steps. Of course, there’s not much you can do about the weather but consider the following:
This may be the most obvious thing to say but it cannot be overstated just how far a clean home can go in preventing cockroaches from entering. This would include, cleaning up after every meal, ensuring the garbage — especially wet garbage — is disposed of properly, cleaning the kitchen platform thoroughly and putting away all leftovers in closed containers and in the refrigerator. Make sure places like the areas under the sink, around the garbage bin, and below appliances like the refrigerator are clean and dry.
Cockroaches are attracted to dark and moist places. So make sure you have none. Get the plumbing checked; get the leakage fixed; and most definitely take a long hard look at every place that has a tap and a water source.
Luggage, used furniture, or grocery bags and cartons are the easiest ways for cockroaches to get into your home. Before bringing them in, carefully inspect them for signs of cockroach eggs.
Inspect your room for cracks, crevices, and gaps around windows, doors, pipes, and vents. Seal these openings using caulk, weather stripping, or door sweeps.
This might seem tad extreme, but you will be surprised how effective it is to use an anti-cockroach spray every night. Just spray it in the cockroach-prone areas — eg under the sink, under the fridge, behind the microwave, around the bin, etc — and let it sit for the night. Typically, cockroaches are most commonly found in kitchens so you can simply shut the kitchen door after spraying and let the repellent do its job.
While there are ways to get rid of cockroaches at home naturally, nothing can be as effective as a bug spray. That being said, if you’d like to get rid of cockroaches naturally, here are some ways.
Professional pest control services offer the most effective solution for severe infestations. So, if you find yourself facing one, make sure to book an appointment with Urban Company — to clean your home and pest control it too. But if it’s a mild infestation and you’re looking to get rid of cockroaches, you can do the following:
Dust some boric acid and sugar/flour on a paper plate and leave it in the infested area. Sugar and flour act as baits for cockroaches and boric acid works as a toxin that can kill the cockroaches.
Create a spray using essential oils like peppermint or lavender and spray them in areas which attract most cockroaches. The scents that we find pleasant are repelling to cockroaches.
A baking soda paste works in the cruellest manner you can imagine. When you apply the paste in areas where cockroaches are active, they will consume it. Once they do, the baking soda will expand their stomachs and cause them to rupture, killing them.
Just as essential oil, the scent of bay leaves is repellent to cockroaches. Leave clean dry bay leaves in your kitchen shelves and all the usual spots where cockroaches congregate.
Cockroach infestations can be a daunting problem, but with the right approach, you can reclaim your pest-free home. If this seems like a terribly tedious thing to do, you could simply book a pest control appointment with Urban Company and let the pros do their job.
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