When you see a cockroach in your home, how worried should you be? Is one roach a sign of a larger problem, or is that roach a loner? It is possible, isn't it? Today, we're going to take a look at the behavior patterns of common cockroach species. We'll tell you how to distinguish the four unique kinds of roaches we have in Mooresville, how likely these roaches are to live with you, how to uncover evidence that they're in your home, and how to get rid of them. You'll find all you need to know about cockroach pest control in this comprehensive guide. For details about our general pest control services in Mooresville, which include the management of cockroaches, check out our residential pest control services page. When you get year-round pest control, it is a package deal. Cockroaches are just one of the many pests you can evict from your home. We'll show you how to do it. With that said, let's look at what it means to find a cockroach in your home and what you can do about it.
Types Of Cockroaches: Identifying Common Species
It would take a long time to describe all of the cockroach species in Mooresville you may find in your home or on your property. How many species of cockroaches are there? It is estimated that there are around 60 species found in the continental United States. Fortunately, only a handful regularly get into homes and make pests of themselves. Almost all pest roaches share one common trait. It is essential to understand this trait and what it means to see one cockroach in your bathroom or basement.
When you see a cockroach in your home, chances are high that you have a large infestation. The reason is that almost all pest cockroaches avoid detection. It is a miraculous skill that is not exclusive to roaches; many insects possess it. If you want to test this theory, buy a roll of duct tape. Pull off a large amount and create a sticky pile of it. Face the sticky side of the tape out as much as possible. Place that mass of tape on the floor in your basement. Give that ball of tape a week to collect insects, and the results may shock you. While it is rare to see insects crawling around in your home, the tape doesn't lie. They're there. And the insects you collect are only a tiny fraction of the insects living in your home. You can also check the tape to see what kinds you have lurking in your home at night. You may see ants, camel crickets, spiders, roaches, and lots more.
When you catch a cockroach with tape (or a sticky trap), you have an opportunity to identify it. There are primarily four kinds of roaches you're likely to find in area homes. They are all nocturnal insects that prefer to stay hidden during the day.
American Cockroaches: These are the largest roaches you'll find in your home. They are chestnut colored and have a yellowish-orange coloration on the head and legs. An American cockroach can grow to be over two inches long.
German Cockroaches: These are the most common of all indoor pests worldwide. You can distinguish them by their tan color and the two black lines on their back, between the head and wings. At full size, a German cockroach is about ⅝ of an inch long.
Brown-Banded Cockroaches: These small brown, black, and yellowish-orange roaches are common indoor pests that can move around in the daytime. But they still tend to stay hidden from view. Here is a bit of good news, if you see one of these, you may not have a large infestation. A full-grown brown-banded cockroach is about ½ an inch long.
Oriental Cockroaches: These are the dirtiest cockroaches you'll find in your home. They prefer to live outdoors in areas where there is poor sanitation and higher levels of moisture. These roaches are entirely black and around one inch long at full size.
When you detect one cockroach in your home, it is helpful to identify it. Finding a single American or German cockroach is a sign of a significant infestation. Finding a single brown-banded cockroach may not be so bad. Finding an oriental cockroach is not good on two fronts: They are extremely unsanitary, and there is a chance they're living in your walls and going in and out of your home. How much of a health concern are they? Let's take a quick look.
Health Risks And Property Damage: The Hazards Of Cockroaches
When you detect signs of cockroaches in your home, it is critical to consider the health implications. While cockroaches aren't likely to bite you, they're by no means harmless. Pest roaches climb in trash receptacles, dumpsters, trash piles, sewers, and other unsanitary zones. They feed on decaying organic matter and feces. It isn't good to have them in your home. Due to their unhygienic nature, cockroaches:
- Contaminate food when they chew through cardboard or paper packaging.
- Contaminate surfaces with microorganisms and also fecal droppings.
- Leave behind materials that cause allergies to flare, particularly for those who have asthma.
- Cause rashes when they crawl across the skin of sleeping people.
- Deposit bacteria in the eyes and around mouths, which can lead to ailments such as conjunctivitis.
Along with making you sick, cockroaches can also do damage. While they aren't going to harm your home, they can put holes in your belongings. They're known to chew on paper, cardboard, and fabrics. The damage they cause is similar to carpet beetles and clothing moths. At the first sign of roaches in your home, even one cockroach, consider contacting a pest control service provider.
Eradicate A Cockroach Infestation: Call In The Experts!
Why is it so important to call a professional? There are many ways Mooresville residents attempt to control cockroaches. A common fad is to use home remedies for cockroaches. We don't recommend doing this because they just don't work. Like the tape method we shared above, you can see results when you apply home remedies, but they don't resolve the problem. They only make you feel like you're resolving it, as they attack the symptom rather than the source. Residents also turn to control products. There are many products available. But cockroach control isn't as much about the products used as it is about the strategy employed. If you don't deal with cockroaches using strategic steps and comprehensive methods, you won't eradicate them.
The technicians at Lake Norman Pest Control are your local area pest control experts in Mooresville. We use field-tested control strategies and the most trusted products to eradicate cockroaches. We also make sure no roaches remain in your home by deploying and checking monitoring devices and performing professional inspections to check for warning signs of continued activity. It pays to call the experts because you'll get the results you want, and you'll sleep easier knowing that a trained and experienced professional has taken care of the problem.
Once the cockroaches are gone, what is the next step? You could look into starting with a residential pest control service plan, which comes with routine liquid applications to your exterior that continually work to deter entry, not only for cockroaches but a long list of other common North Carolina pests. Or you could take steps to prevent infestations. It's hard work, but totally doable if you have the time, energy, and dedication.
Cockroach Prevention: Proactive Tips To Prevent Infestations
There are several reasons cockroaches invade your home. If you target them and address these issues, you may stop cockroaches from entering. After getting a cockroach treatment, the hard part is done. Your interior is reset, and you can focus on the exterior. Here are our best suggestions for proactive cockroach prevention.
- Use a caulking gun and expanding foam to address every hole and opening in your foundation and exterior walls.
- Make repairs to essential building materials, such as screens, door sweeps, and weatherstripping.
- Routinely clean gutters to reduce perimeter saturation, which attracts roaches.
- Trim landscape plants, remove weeds, blow leaves out, and take other steps to reduce humidity and moisture by reducing organic clutter.
- Wash your trash receptacles with soapy water and disinfectant. Then, do your best to get your trash to the curb each week so that your receptacles don't start to build up an odor.
- Store your trash receptacles away from your exterior doors to avoid bringing cockroaches and other insects close, particularly if your doors aren't properly weather-proofed.
- Remove junk piles and refrain from storing objects near your exterior walls.
- Store cardboard boxes (particularly pizza boxes), in a covered container until you're ready to dispose of them.
Steps like these will reduce cockroach activity around your home, remove hiding places near your exterior, and reduce the chance of unwanted entry. You can take these steps on your own and get local cockroach control if you start detecting cockroaches on your indoor sticky traps. If you want more control than this, remember that Lake Norman Pest Control is available to assist you. We make pest control easier. Connect with us anytime for guidance and service options.
