Hate sharing your personal space with cockroaches? Join the club! Roaches can sneak into snug crevices of your home, and you won’t even know. But, unfortunately, these unwelcome guests can do much more than make your skin crawl. Yes, cockroaches can spread a world of diseases.
Once your home is raided by an army of fast-multiplying cockroaches, getting rid of them is difficult. However, you can steer clear of these pests by taking strong preventive measures.
Keep reading to learn what cockroach treatment you can put in place to NOT attract cockroaches into your home. You will be surprised how some simple changes can guarantee a roach-free home.
Cockroach Treatment to Keep Them Away
Seal All Entry Points
Cockroaches love staying indoors, where the temperature is ideal, and there is easy access to food. So, these pests may try to take shelter in your home to evade the summer heat and winter chills. But don’t worry; you can stop this by sealing all entrances.
Cockroaches can enter your home through openings and cracks in the foundation, doors, and windows. Prevent these entry points by filling the gaps. You can use caulk, expanding foam, or cement to seal cracks. To close openings around doors and windows, weatherstripping is recommended.
Go the extra mile and check all the secret cockroach hideouts in your house, such as walls, skirting boards, electrical sockets, bathroom cabinets, and under kitchen sinks, for possible cockroach infestation and entry points. Doing general building maintenance can also help block entry routes for cockroaches and deny them hiding places.
Eliminate Sources of Moisture
Even though cockroaches can survive without water for as long as two weeks, they still need moisture to survive. Not just that, they love moisture and like to live in damp spots as well. You can make your home less attractive to roaches by removing standing water from sinks and buckets.
In addition to eliminating standing liquid, you can dry up any moist areas in the house. Start by fixing any leaky pipes and dripping faucets. Check under sinks, behind toilets, and in the basements and make sure everything is dry. If you are struggling to keep the basement dry, you can employ a dehumidifier. Clearing up blocked drains is also another effective means of cockroach prevention.
Reduce Hiding Spots
As you already know, cockroaches like hiding in cracks and crevices. So, besides sealing entry points, also try to block all the other cracks and gaps around your house. For example, wooden shelves are a popular shelter for roaches. Simply varnish or paint these shelves to remove the cracks in the grains. Alternatively, you can also replace the wooden shelves with metal or plastic shelves.
Declutter Regularly
There is no better way to reduce cockroach hiding spots than to declutter the house. The more clutter you gather, the safer cockroaches will feel when hiding in your home. When cockroaches find a safe place to hide, they signal other cockroaches about the spot through pheromones in their droppings.
Before you know it, stacks of old magazines and cardboard boxes could lead to a cockroach kingdom. Simply remove the cardboard, magazines, newspapers, and other packaging material so you can enjoy a clutter-free home.
Decluttering also helps you have a clean home, as wiping and sweeping become easier when your non-essential items are no more around. Simplify your space by only having the necessary items in the house. Donate items you do not use frequently.
Never Leave Food Scraps
Now, let’s talk about the most important cockroach attractant: Food! Yes, it is no mystery that the most popular factor that draws cockroaches towards a house is food crumbs. So, if you want to prevent a cockroach infestation, you need to be careful about how you handle food. This includes tiny crumbs and food scraps.
What may seem like insignificant crumbs are actually delicious snacks for cockroaches. These crumbs you carelessly drop all over the house call out to cockroaches. First of all, try not to drop crumbs. Use plates whenever you eat, and never eat on the bed. You can prevent food crumbs from spreading all over the house by eating only in the dining room and kitchen.
Go on a food crumb patrol and clean up any crumbs you notice. Thoroughly clean the surfaces and floors daily with a vacuum and a broom. Pay extra attention to the kitchen countertops and floor. Pull away appliances and wipe underneath them. You can use an all-purpose cleaner to clean the appliances too. This cockroach treatment is sure to reduce cockroaches significantly in your house.
Keep the Kitchen Clean
There’s much more than food crumbs in the kitchen that attract cockroaches. If you want to keep cockroaches away, there is no alternative to keeping food storage and handling spaces in the kitchen clean.
Keep work surfaces free of food debris. Clear up any spillage or waste immediately. Cockroaches love food scraps and unwashed dishes in the sink overnight. Clean dishes as soon as possible and wipe food areas, including the sink, religiously every evening. As cockroaches are more active at night, this cockroach treatment can help make the kitchen less attractive to them.
Consider how you are disposing of food trash as well. Food residue in plastic containers, bottles, and cans can be appealing to cockroaches. If they make their way to the bin, they will soon raid the rest of your property too. So rinse empty containers before you throw them out, and empty bins regularly.
Store Food in Airtight Containers
Do you leave food items in their original packaging? If yes, then your food is not safe from cockroaches. Cockroaches can chew through thin plastic and cardboard. This means dry food, such as flour, cereal, chocolate chips, etc., is at risk. So, you should always store food away in tightly sealed containers. This would also help in keeping the stored product insects away.
Don’t want the hassle of storing them in individual containers? Then, invest in large, sturdy airtight plastic bins to hold everything together in their original packaging.
While at it, do not forget any leftover food sitting on desks, tables, or kitchen counters. The smell of food is enough to draw the attention of cockroaches. So, seal leftover food in boxes and keep it in the refrigerator. Also, pay attention to standing pet food, as cockroaches can feast on those too.
Conclusion
A water spill here and some food crumbs there are all it takes to make your space appealing to cockroaches. However, if you, like everyone else, want to prevent a cockroach population from invading your home, you must keep a few simple cockroach treatments in mind.
First things first, block all entry points and seal cracks and crevices to eliminate hiding spots. Remove all food sources. Clean spills and crumbs immediately, sweep the floors daily, and vacuum regularly.
What more? Keep your home clean and clutter-free. Cockroaches enjoy hiding in clutter, so keep your living space as clean and organised as possible. Finally, start taking pest control action as soon as you see the first cockroach or cockroach egg. Otherwise, this rapidly-multiplying pest will take over your home before you know it.
