Cockroaches are some of the most annoying pests, and part of this is how they are to kill. Cockroaches are sneaky, and they can survive in hostile environments; thus, they can hide in crevices and electronics, making them impossible to find and a big nuisance.
Cockroaches can run through your electronics and cause a lot of damage. Even if this wasn’t a problem, you don’t want cockroaches in the electronics you use to prepare your food. So let us help you figure out how you can get cockroaches out of your electronics;
How To Get Roaches Out of Microwave
Roaches can get into your microwave and destroy it if you don’t get rid of them. They will reproduce in the microwave and fill up most of it, which could damage it and cost you a lot of repairs or replacement money. Here is how you can go about this;
- While working with electronics, you need to unplug them, which applies to microwaves. Microwaves use a lot of power, and the electricity could kill you if you do this with the microwave power cable still in the outlet.
Remove as many covers as you can without risking damage to the electronics in the microwave. The more you expose the microwave, the better your chances of killing roaches, so try to take off the side panels and microwave plate if you can.
- Get a disinfectant with bleach that is safe to use on food appliances. Spray it thoroughly in the microwave to make it as potent as possible. Let the disinfectant sit for about 15 minutes to kill all the roaches in your microwave.
- Wipe off the disinfectant inside your microwave, a wet surface near an electrical appliance is a fire hazard, so make sure you dry it off perfectly.
- Take the microwave outside to the driveway of the backyard, where there is free air circulation, and use a powerful insecticide on it. Spray the insecticide into the crevices and any spaces the cockroaches could hide, then leave it for an hour.
It is essential to go outside for this since most insecticides are also toxic to humans. It will not kill you instantly, but you might have difficulty breathing or hurt your eyes if you use pesticides indoors without enough air circulation.
- After an hour, the roaches will be dead and falling out of the microwave. Wipe them off with a brush or piece of cloth depending on what does the job right for you. Shake the microwave at different angles to get more cockroaches to fall out if you need to.
- Leave the microwave outside for the rest of the day for it to get well-aerated, so the pesticide doesn’t harm you. Put a glass of cheap wine in it since it will poison and kill the cockroaches if they drink it.
In the evening, recheck the microwave to ensure there aren’t more roaches in it, then wipe it down with a cleaning solution before putting the covers back on. You can use this simple process at home, but make sure you use protective clothing.
How To Get Cockroaches In Electronics
There is no doubt about it, we love our electronics, and we need them for everything. Unfortunately, German cockroaches also love our electronics since the devices generate heat that makes them perfect places for cockroaches to nest.
German cockroaches love warm, dark, confined spaces, so your PC would be an excellent place to hide.
This can be messy and can hinder the performance of such devices. So let us look at how to spot and treat cockroaches in your electronics and prevent them from coming back.
1. Identification and inspection
German roaches only live indoors in the dark, confined spaces, so you can assume it is a German cockroach if you see roach activity around your electronics.
German cockroaches are typically smaller and have dark lines behind their backs, and they are most common in electronics.
Now that you can identify a German cockroach, you need to inspect your property for more signs of cockroaches.
Check areas around ports and openings your device may have. These include vents and battery ports or any other space big enough for a cockroach to pass.
If you can, open up the electronic to look inside the device and the roaches in it. Sometimes you might not find the roaches but signs of their presence, like droppings and egg cases.
Droppings resemble drops of black pepper or dark smears and smudges. Egg casings will look like brown capsules, and by these, you will know you have a problem.
2. Treatment
Once you know you have roaches in your electronics, it is time to start the extermination. Before using insecticides, ensure you put on all necessary protective clothing. Pesticides can be harmful to humans, so you have to protect your lungs, eyes, and skin.
Use gloves to protect your hands, put on a face mask and eyewear to keep the fumes out of your eyes.
Start your treatment with slow-killing bait so that the roaches eat the bait and get time to spread it to others before dying.
This will create a cascading effect that will potentially wipe out other roaches and eliminate the colony.
Clean your home before placing the bait since roaches might get another food source, and you won’t be able to poison them with the bait.
Apply a small amount of bait on something like a business card and put it close to the suspected area of infestation. This is important since it discourages the roaches from looking for food in other places.
To ensure you get all the colonies, you should also apply the bait to other areas the roaches tend to forage.
Place small bait inside cabinets, underneath appliances, and around the plumbing. You should notice a drop in roach activity in the next few days.
Replenish the bait every week or so until there are no more roaches on your property. You can now use a residual spray to target any stragglers.
Use a powerful insecticide that will kill both adults and young roaches to get rid of your problem once and for all.
How To Prevent Roach Transfer When Moving
Roaches can be frustrating, so you don’t want to move with them to get into a new apartment. It would help if you had a guideline on dealing with them, so you don’t transfer roaches, so let us get into the details and save you some headache;
1. Exterminate in your old house
To make sure you don’t carry roaches, you need to kill the ones in your old house. One of the most critical parts of this is cleaning the furniture and electronics. Roaches hide in most house appliances, so carrying the appliances will transfer your problem.
Use all the means at your disposal to kill all the roaches you can find in the apartment. It would be best to start this about a month before moving out to ensure you do a thorough job. Use a combination of baits and pesticides to kill the roaches and get them out of electronics.
2. Wash everything
It would be best if you washed everything before moving out. Put all your carpets, clothing, pillowcases, bedding, and any other accessory you can wash in a garbage bag and take them to a laundromat. Wash them and dry them to get rid of eggs or roaches hiding in them.
After washing, put the clothes in a new bag to ensure the roaches or eggs don’t infest the clean clothes.
If possible, move the clean items straight to your new home so you don’t allow the roaches to get onto the clothes.
3. Use plastic containers when moving.
You can get these at home depot or most of the other stores. This is important since the plastic bins don’t have nooks and crannies for the roach to hide. You will be sure you don’t get roaches provided you place un-infested objects into the box.
Cardboard boxes and bags have many spaces for the roaches to hide in or lay eggs. Using them will increase the chances of moving the roaches or their eggs into your new home, so you must look out for that.
Inspect all the furniture on moving day and get all the dead cockroaches out of it to ensure you don’t have a problem in your next house. If you see any signs of roaches, treat the furniture with a high amount of pesticide and give it time to sit before moving.
Conclusion
You need to remove the panels from your microwave and clean the interior with bleach, then use a lot of pesticide on it to kill all the roaches in the crevices. Make sure you dry off the components of your microwave before closing it up and reconnecting it to the power outlet.
You can use bait to kill roaches in your house if you have a significant infestation. Use slow-killing bait so the roaches can take it back to the colony and poison the rest of their population before dying.
