Cockroaches are probably the most popular yet the most hated household insect pests.
They are filthy and having them roaming freely across your kitchen floor is just downright gross. (If that’s the case, you may need roach traps to help in the short term)
But what even causes roaches to enter a clean house in the first place?
Even if you think your home is clean, roaches will find the smallest crevices and hiding places imaginable.
Keep reading to learn how to prevent roaches from arriving at your home.
What are the Common Causes of Cockroaches?
Obviously, getting rid of cockroaches is a severe problem for some homeowners. However, the problem is that a lot of households seem oblivious to the real reasons that actual attract cockroaches.
Focusing mainly on how to eliminate these pests is for dire situations, but every homeowner should understanding what causes roaches to appear in the first place. This knowledge will help prevent roach infestations from ever happening.
The following causes for roaches are:
1. Exposed Food
2. Uncovered and/or Overflowing Waste Bins
4. Crevices, Cracks, Holes, and Hiding Spaces
Exposed Food
This doesn’t necessarily and exclusively refer to the types of food that we usually eat and leave out on our dining table or on our kitchen sink.
Cockroaches are voracious scavengers. They literally eat just about anything they come across with. This means that securing your food in tightly sealed containers just won’t do.
Cockroaches eat a bunch of stuff. They like sweets, starches, and meats as much as they love your fallen hair, shredded skin, your newspaper, your pocketbook, and just about any type of organic matter.
A kitchen full of leftover food, syrup droppings, and food smudges is every scavenger’s ideal paradise. A messy and cluttered study room and bedroom are just as good.
The following video shows the gross reality on how cockroaches love kitchens.
Uncovered and/or Overflowing Waste Bin
One man’s trash is indeed (in this case) one cockroach’s treasure. While you may have a clean house on the inside, roaches will be attracted to the garbage on the outside. The trash outside your dwelling is what could be causing cockroaches to enter your clean home.
Let’s admit it, we often get tempted by the idea of not covering our bins for ease of use. However, we simply can’t deny the fact that this habit is an open invitation to a spectrum of pests especially roaches.
Our waster bins are full of all sorts of trash. But for the cockroaches, it means one thing – FOOD!
And if you are not able to empty your bin regularly, it will eventually reach the point of producing a rather unpleasant odor that gets easily picked up by guess what. . . ROACHES!
Cockroaches may not see and hear very well. However, these shortfalls are well compensated by an extra sensitive motion sensor and an extremely sharp sense of smell.
Through their antennae, cockroaches are able to pick up scents and easily hone in on their source. Cockroach antennae are packed with sensory neurons that make the insect capable of picking up scent and taste as well as humidity and temperature of the environment.
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Water Sources
Like any other insects, cockroaches need water to survive. Although it’s a basic necessity for them, roaches don’t need much re-hydration.
In fact, a small drop of water per day is more than enough to keep one filthy scavenger alive. Entomologists even claim that a cockroach can survive for more than a week without water.
In this case, you want to read: When to Call an Exterminator for Roaches?
In your house, a cockroach virtually has unlimited sources of water. These include your leaky pipes, wet bathroom floors, your pet’s water bowls, and moist under-sink, among many others.
Crevices, Cracks, Holes, and Hiding Spaces
Cockroaches are blessed with an amazingly flexible exoskeleton. Because of this, they are able to flatten their bodies with ease and squeeze through the narrowest of holes very efficiently.
Unattended cracks and holes along your walls, window frames, pipes, and conduits are like an open border. This will not only invite cockroaches into your house but other pests as well. Cockroaches can be a sign of other pests, as they feed on bed bugs and other household bugs.
What are the Precautionary Measures Against Cockroach Infestations?
Studying the above mentioned factors that invite roaches into someone’s home, it now becomes easy to employ solutions that will efficiently thwart an infestation.
For those worst case scenarios, where roaches enter your home – here is a complete list of our suggested cockroach killing products.
This video below has some great tips, and we made checklist to also review to ensure you are taking all necessary precautions:
- Keep your foods in clean and tightly sealed containes.
- Wipe clean your dining table before and after eating.
- Sweep or mop off food smudges and droppings on the floor.
- Declutter. Keep all your things well organized from the ground up.
- Repair all leaks.
- Seal up all cracks and holes throughout your property.
- Secure your waste bin with tight sealing lid and empty regularly.
- Wipe clean and dry your kitchen sink especially after preparing a meal and washing dishes.
Cockroaches are voracious scavengers.
They literally eat just about anything they come across with. This means that securing your food in tightly sealed containers just won’t do.
