A guide to get rid of cockroaches

Now that you inspected properly and found how bad is your cockroach problem, time to start eliminating and trapping them. 

 

You first step comprises of both eliminating and cleaning the environment parallel or simultaneously. Since cockroaches are very fast and very talented in hiding you will have a very short timeline to use direct pest control methods to kill them. So, gather all the supplies you need before starting. Nalaka Daundaratne and Dhanush name following items to get hold of. 

 

1. An instant or short-acting commercial cockroach spray or common household products as WD40 and prepared bleach solution as guided. 

2. Gloves and masks and other safety equipment as require 

3. Garbage bags and cleaning products

4. Commercial surface disinfectant approved by the health authorities or consumer products quality controlling body of your country. You can prepare your own bleach disinfectant according to following instruction provided by CDC US

5. Sealable food containers to restock uncontaminated food

 

 While mid-night is the most suitable for inspection for cockroaches, daytime will be the best time to start hunt them down as they will be more stationary in their hiding places until the night. Chose the most suspected place with highest number of cockroaches. Typically, under the fridge, food storages or places like under the sinks will their most loved living places. Spray your chosen pesticide chemical (ex. commercial roach spray, prepared bleach, wd40, etc.) directly at them making sure to contact many cockroaches as possible. If you have disposable shoe covers wear a pair and it will be very handy to crush some runners in the most traditional way of by food. Might not sound like professional, but this is after all “DIY” right? 

 

Now, continue the same process around the house everywhere that you suspect or got evidence of their presence. We recommend covering every once around the place to see if you can find any. Don’t miss your washrooms. Toilets will be another place they love to live as they have access to drinking water and many food options as our poop particles on dirty toilet bowls and possible breadcrumbs that came along attached on to our feet if the place wasn’t the cleanest. 

 

Soon as you are done covering all places with your initial attacking of cockroaches with the point-of-action pesticide spray, come back to starting point and initiate proper cleaning and discarding everything contaminated. Make sure to use a separate sweeper if you cannot properly disinfect it properly as their droppings and other bodily fluids that might get in contact with brushes can be toxic and unsanitary if you will further spread them around. Place any possible non contaminated food item in a seal container of a bad and place them in a place possible you didn’t find them before or a prepared area with barriers for them reach. Because they always follow their usual path and cockroaches who ran away or was not here at the time will come back and try to contaminate the packages. 

 

Once you finish cleaning and disinfecting each place, sprinkle generous amount of diatomaceous earth and place insect glue traps at least 4feet apart on larger areas and 1-2 in each cupboard or food drawers. This stage is the trapping of cockroaches trying to get many as possible. Diatomaceous earth is very effective as a slow-acting natural pesticide for cockroaches. When in contact, sharp swords-like micro particles will cut through their bodies making significant damage and death to cockroaches as well as many kinds of bugs in the environment. Sometimes, this will be like getting two birds with one stone if you have other issues like mites, ants, bedbugs, biscuit bugs, etc.

 

Now check the results of your trapping everyday. Usually, you will find number of dead cockroaches around your place who got in contact with diatomaceous earth. Also, glue cockroach traps will also have once that got caught. Some of these commercial glue traps claim to have chemicals that will work to attract them through creating smells that cockroaches prefer. While such options are added help for your hunt, even just glue traps will do just fine as they will get onto them accidentally as well as by assuming them as the last resort when in contact with the diatomaceous dust. 

 

Importantly, if you live in an area or a time of the year with high humidity, make sure to brush away or vacuum the pesticide dust and replace a new layer. Because, diatomaceous attracts water from air very fast making them less likely to attach and glaze on to the exoskeleton of cockroaches or any bug. Also, if glue taps have plenty of cockroaches caught, replace them as their survival and risk identifying methods are very effective and will try to avoid the traps as well as communicate to others about the dangers of the path if they will survive or live long enough to reach another colony. Further, keep your bugs spray or the prepared high concentrated bleach close by to get rid of any cockroaches that might come across during the coming days. 

 

Keeping your home throughout clean from food particles is really important during the fighting and preventing their return of cockroaches. For the next 4-5 days, inspect all areas every night to see if you see any difference in activity level of cockroaches. See if you can identify how effective your pest controlling is. Depending on the size of your infestation, if you follow these steps to the point, mostly likely that you have significantly eliminated cockroaches. 

Nalaka Daundaratne - Dhanush Madhavan (Pest Controllers)