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SO YOU THINK YOU HAVE ROACHES, EH? Well, there's a fairly easy way to find out, no matter where you live. And, when you do find out, I'll tell you exactly how to make an intelligent decision as to what you might want to do about that. There are several choices, of course, and I will go over each of them in turn. |
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Roaches all go through the same life cycle and develop by gradual metamorphosis. They pass through
three stages: egg, nymph and then to adult. Eggs are laid in batches, with each egg case holding many
individual roaches. The number in each egg case depends on the species, but can have as many as 52 individuals
in each egg case. And each one becomes a reproducing adult in as little as nine weeks, again depending
on the species. There are several things that will contribute to a roach problem too. Such as where you live. That is, if you live in a building with other people, such as apartments or high-rise buildings. Or houses that are attached to other houses, like duplexes or garden-style apartments or condos. This means that you have no control over what or who enters those other units, and if roaches are brought into another attached unit, there will be a definite danger that this problem will spread to other units. It will depend mostly on how the building was built, and how many people move in or out of those units during about a two-year span. If there is a high rate of turnover, there will be a greater danger of discovering roaches sometime. Roaches, at least the kind that are associated with man, the so-called german roaches, are vectored only by man. They need mankind to survive best, and are carried from place-to-place on our belongings, both alive and in egg form. So when you buy that neat bureau at the yard sale down the street, you could possibly bring in roaches. Now this doesn't mean it happens every time, but it does happen, and if you are careful about what you bring into the house, your chances will be reduced. And regardless of what you may have heard, the chances of you bringing roaches home from the supermarket, are virtually nil. At least from any supermarket you might want to shop in. You have much more of a chance with some other commodity. Such as bottled or canned beverages, which are manufactured, and then sometimes stored for long periods in areas where they can accumulate roaches from other goods or equipment. It isn't the cans or bottles, it's the cardboard containers used to ship them. Corrugated cartons contain corrugations which can become perfect egg and roach breeding grounds. You don't even need a live roach! All you need is one egg case, a german roach egg may contain up to 52 new little roaches. And there's almost never only one. You bring the carton home (with one egg) and BANG! Six months later you have a real problem. |
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(For your house, apartment or kitchen) How do you do it? Easy. Obtain from the supermarket, or the hardware store, a few "glueboards." These are commonly used by exterminators for several different situations. Get the cheapest. Put it (them) under your kitchen sink - or the place where you suspect there to be roaches. Leave it there an appropriate period of time. If you REALLY have roaches, you ought to pick up a couple in a few days, (& nights) or possibly a little longer. You don't need to "bait" the glueboard, it will catch without any bait. (For an item you buy at the store) Don't worry about the NEW furniture. Most new furniture deliveries generally give you only a small chance of importing roaches. If the dealer, however, stores their "new" furniture with "old" furniture, there is a chance that one may infect the other. To bring in roaches on new items is also possible, just watch where you shop, just like you do at the grocery. And, if you DO discover that there are roaches in your delivery, contact the dealer right away. They are used to this. After all, they handle a lot of furniture, and it DOES happen. Certainly nothing unusual, and ask to be covered by a licensed, insured and professional exterminator for a finite time period, depending on the problem. Settle for nothing less. No "maintenance men." For almost any roach infestation you will need at least a year's coverage to be absolutely safe. And depending on conditions, perhaps longer. (Now for the item you bring in from the yard sale) If you have an unattached garage, put it there first. Use a strong light to inspect the item carefully. Leave one of those glueboards inside or on the item for a few days. If you discover roaches DON'T SPRAY! First, and probably most important, you may damage the item. Most pesticides contain "petroleum distillates, " solvents that may easily damage your treasure. If it's small enough, put it in your freezer. In a plastic bag so you can find out what was frozen. Otherwise, leave it right outside. On your lawn. In full sunlight. And overnight, if possible. Or leave it in your unattached garage, with the garage doors open during the daytime. Close the doors to the garage at night - don't leave the doors open at night for the nighttime animals to inspect - they may take up residence. If it is seriously infested you will need professional help. |
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Again, DON'T SPRAY! All of the commercial sprays contain a "flushing agent" which tends to flush
roaches from their hiding spots. And while you may kill some of the roaches, there is a definite danger
you will scatter the ones you DON'T kill to other areas. So if you do this inside your house, you may
find that the roaches will pop up in other areas where they weren't before. Also, don't use those little
bombs you can buy in the store. They are PURE flushing agent. If you live in an apartment, the landlord is responsible for extermination procedures, so call him to arrange for the exterminator. Make sure it is a REAL exterminator - no maintenance men. Don't get your own exterminator, his treatments may well counteract the efforts of the landlord's exterminator. If you have several exterminators serving one contiguous building, control may be a long time coming. Ethical exterminators will refuse to treat for roaches in a building where they won't have control access to all units. If you have one exterminator for all of the units, he will know what goes on in those other units, and can schedule treatments properly, and for the most effective results. The most effective control nowadays, is NOT from spraying, as we used to do in the "Olden Days," but from baits. Roach baits are almost 100% effective if used correctly, and are non-invasive. That is, they don't smell, and won't disturb your normal routine. So if you have roaches, and the exterminator shows up with a sprayer, and wants to spray - beg off. Ask him if he uses roach baits. If he doesn't, he is behind the times, so ask for one that does. Spraying for roaches is a long-term task. You don't spray once for roaches. Your first treatment must be followed with several (or many) follow up visits to reapply insecticides. They smell, they are much more toxic, and they require close cooperation from you and all your attached neighbors. And yes, you can buy these baits yourself. The most available form is in the form of those roach buttons you can buy in the supermarket. As with anything else, some are more effective than others. The most effective, at this time, contains the active ingredient, Hydramethylnon. Check the label, as manufacturers change their formula, ingredients and names frequently. |
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HOW DO I USE THIS STUFF? In your apartment or home, you attach these buttons (they come with removable tape tabs) in the areas where the roaches are. That is, inside your kitchen cabinets, under the sink, or wherever the roaches are. Roaches are "thigmotactic" - they like dark, damp places, where they can feel the "roof and the floor." So your placements need to be in cracks and crevices where the roaches will find them easily. One button per average-sized cabinet is plenty. Under the sink, or in any cabinet with visible water lines, put more. There is no need to put buttons all over the house, or in places where there are no roaches. And you only need a few, so don't overdo it.. Also, remember that these buttons do have a lifetime, so when you install them, write the date on it and check the label for the recommended lifetime. Whatever it says you can double. But after that, their effectiveness is probably zilch. |
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AND HOW DOES IT WORK? Pretty good, assuming you've done it correctly. Exactly HOW and WHY it works on the roaches is gruesome. Roaches are cannibalistic and will readily eat other dead or dying roaches. Roaches are also coprophagous, which means they eat each others excrement. In fact, new little roaches do this soon after birth, and MUST do it to survive. When the bait poisons and kills a roach, that roach, and his excrement, becomes poison for other roaches, that, in turn, become poison for still more roaches. Never mind putting these things around the house anyway, to catch any roaches that MIGHT come in. This product is best used when you discover the problem. Otherwise, you'll have to change them, on a routine basis, for them to remain effective and active. This is false economy, so don't waste your money. Besides, you'll soon forget to change them and when the roaches do come, the bait won't be effective. The best thing to use, is one of those glueboards I told you about. Put it under your sink, or beside the refrigerator and check it every once in a while. You can get a pretty good insect history on one of these. And they're cheap too. Or, in the alternative, you can employ a professional exterminator, who will know all of these facts, to perform this procedure. His work will carry a guarantee that you will get the most effective control. For suggestions on how to pick your exterminator, and ask the right questions, check here. |
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BEFORE THE EXTERMINATOR ARRIVES It will be necessary for you to empty out your kitchen cabinets, and any other area where you have a problem, vacuuming out all debris from inside the cabinets. You do this to eliminate as much of the alternative food sources the roaches are used to getting. If you cabinets are squeaky clean, the roaches will have only the bait to eat. This will result in the bait acting much faster. The cleaner, the better. Don't wash or paint cabinets after the exterminator applies either insecticides or bait. Wait until he says it's okay. Don't forget to remove any shelf paper and any other roach buttons that you or others have installed. No items of any sort should be left inside the cabinets when the exterminator treats the area. AFTER HE LEAVES Do not use any insecticides at all. No Raid, no boric acid, no nothing. You will interfere with what the exterminator puts down, and could completely negate his work. Sort of like getting medicine from the doctor, then coming home and dosing yourself up on what YOU think will help. It won't. Let the doctors and exterminators do their work. You also can't use soap and water on these areas after the exterminator leaves. If you have to clean up, you should use a vacuum. The treatment of roaches uses a variety of methods, using sprays, baits and dusts. Any one or all may be used on your problem, and the serviceman will advise you on what you can and can't do. FOLLOW-UP TREATMENTS In a word, yes. But it depends on your individual problem as to how much or many you might have to do. Usually, for future treatments, it won't be necessary for you to clean out cabinets and the like. Your serviceman will advise you on what to expect. Here's a PDF Document you can print out that explains what to do. PROGNOSIS Usually, we can get rid of your roach problem fairly quickly, but there are factors that may first have to be overcome. First of all, if you live in an apartment, your landlord should supply the exterminator. Call him immediately. Make sure he sends a REAL exterminator, not the maintenance man. If you live in a free-standing house that is NOT attached to other houses, your roach problem can be cured 100 per cent. If you are in a row house or are attached to another home, it will depend on your neighbors. |
| Naturally, the ultimate success depends a great deal on the co-operation the exterminator gets from the occupants. If there is not complete co-operation, there will not be complete success. In multi-family dwellings this is even more important and EVERY apartment must co-operate fully. |
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We won't get into scientific names and stuff, so we'll just show you what we (and you) usually see around here. These are the most common roaches, the ones we see almost every day. They are pretty well distributed all over the United States, (indeed, the world) and except for maybe the names, are recognized almost everywhere. Roaches are related to ants and wasps. They have been around for some 350 million years, long before mankind, and will be around after mankind. They have been said to be almost impervious to radiation, (they're not) but they have survived an incredibly long time. Roaches have microscopic hairs, called cerci, that can detect air movement. This helps them escape predators by detecting their approach. They can even detect the particular gust created by an approaching predator with air blowing all around them. This is why they can disappear even before you get close. |
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| The good news is that German roaches don't live outside. They are only associated with man, living almost exclusively in our homes and spreading easily throughout our society, rich or poor. We have good luck with these, unless you live right next (attached) to someone who doesn't care. |
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CAN YOU GET ROACHES FROM THE GUY NEXT DOOR? Well, really only if he is attached to your house. German roaches are inside bugs. Normally, they will not be able to travel between structures that are separate from each other. German roaches migrate from house to house because you take them with you. In your belongings, or in packages and cartons you bring in from somewhere that has an infestation of these creatures. |
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| Many exterminators, unless they look closely, may not even notice the difference between German and brown-banded roaches, they look that much alike. A brown banded roach is the "Clark Kent" of household roaches. These are the quiet ones. They can live under your dining room table for years, without your knowing. |
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| Other roaches have no trouble scaling even a surface as smooth as a light bulb. The bad news is that they can live outside. So you can bring them in too. There is some good news. Oriental roaches, fortunately, don't reproduce very fast. In fact, you can have these and only see them on very few occasions - just like the above-described brown-banded roach. And being able to survive outside means that you can get them again - next year! |
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Don't worry about wood roaches. Since they're essentially outdoor insects, they're only seasonal, which
means that next year's cycle will be different. Hopefully, that means less. Wood roaches actually enter houses by mistake. Often, they are attracted by your house lighting, wind up ON your house, hiding in some crack or crevice, and inadvertently find themselves inside. These are not the roaches you worry about, and if you live in an area where they proliferate, there are a few things you can do.... WOOD ROACH CONTROL While there may be some time when you would make insecticidal applications for these, most of the time you would want to fix the reason why you are having the "problems," either on the outside or the inside. Far better and much more effective than any kind of chemical control. First, you alter/move your outside lighting to a place AWAY from the building. If you position lights away from the structure, so that you illuminate from a remote point, you will tend to attract insects AWAY from where you don't want them. Hand-in-hand with that, would be a caulking/sealant program, conducted on a regular basis. If you do the lights and the caulking, you won't need any chemical or the exterminator. |
| Dave Willis, at his PioneerPest, has a nice roach farm to visit.... |
| Our hero, the University of Nebraska has some great pictures, in color, of all the roaches, along with different life stages and pictures of the egg cases too. |
| Cornell University has a very good plain text page that tells you how to use Integrated Pest Management procedures to help you end your roach problems. |
| And naturally, Texas A&M has their own very descriptive page that details what you can do, lists the chemicals used, also has some nice pictures. |
| The Environmental Protection Agency has quite an extensive website, and has a special section set up, just for pesticide issues. |
| If you have questions, comments or messages, you can post them directly to UnExCo's Message Board and get an answer to a question you might have. |
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| And last, but not least, of course, a link to UnExCo's OnLine General Store, where you can buy effective, professional, economical supplies to do it all yourself! |
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| Browse visitor's suggestions here. |
