How To Prevent And Eliminate Cockroaches
Posted on: 28 September 2016
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Cockroaches are the quintessential pest: plentiful, disgusting, and disease-carrying. They can survive for a very long time, and can breed faster than you can kill them. Thankfully, there are a number of things which you can do to help prevent and remove cockroaches if they do manage to make their way into your apartment or house.
Cover Food
The main reason cockroaches would be attracted into your home is food or drinks that are left out and uncovered. In order to prevent this from happening, you should make an effort to clean up after yourself after cooking or eating a meal, and to avoid storing food out on the counter overnight. You should also invest in plastic or metal storage containers with lockable lids that can prevent the smell from getting out and cockroaches from getting in.
Trash Removal
Besides putting away unused food, you should also make sure to properly store and remove your trash from your home. The best way to do this is to have a trash can with a lockable lid that is located outside of your home. This way, not only is it hard for cockroaches to get into your food waste, even if they do they are still located outside of your living area.
No Standing Water
Cockroaches are attracted to food and, like all animals, need water to survive. Avoid having unnecessary standing water in your home, and fix any leaking pipes or faucets as soon as possible.
General Cleaning
It is a good idea to keep your home as clean as possible to remove any food crumbs or particles that may provide sustenance to cockroaches in your home. This means cleaning out hard-to-reach areas as well, especially within your cupboards and storage areas – cockroaches love dark, damp areas.
Killing Cockroaches
You can kill individual cockroaches by dousing them in boiling water or spraying them with a specialized pest killing spray. However, both of these methods are fairly labor intensive, can be hard to make work consistently, and should only be used for individual cockroaches.
Dealing with Infestation
If you have a large population of cockroaches within your home, boiling water and pest spray won't be enough, as they breed too quickly for you to effectively check their population. Instead, you'll have to call a professional exterminator or pest control contractor to have your home completely cleansed of cockroaches. Contact a company like Pestco Inc in a situation like this.