Of all the pests that invade homes, roaches are the hardest to eliminate. These pesky creatures are adept at hiding and breeding inside homes.
Eliminating roaches can be tedious and costly, primarily if you use ineffective means. Simple fumigation can cost hundreds of dollars, and there is still no guarantee that the bugs won’t return.
Roaches are resilient and can survive almost any condition. They can go for months without food and even live for days without ahead! They commonly hide in drain pipes, especially in kitchens with an unlimited food supply.
Drain pipes also provide an unlimited supply of water. They receive little or no light, making them ideal for cockroaches to hide. Note that roaches don’t live in drain pipes but hide inside them.
So, are you wondering what to pour down the drain to kill roaches?
You can use several things to kill the roaches hiding in your drain. Pouring bleach or ammonia cleaner will kill roaches instantly. Ammonia corrodes the exterior of roaches on contact. White vinegar is also toxic to roaches, and it will work effectively.
Where Else Do Roaches Hide?
Drains are a familiar hiding spot for roaches. They have several other spots, especially in living rooms and kitchens. If you want to end an infestation, you must identify the hiding spots and flash them out.
Here are the hiding areas:
1. Cabinets
Cockroaches hide in drawers, cabinets, and cupboards. These locations are advantageous since they are dark and rarely disturbed.
They provide ideal concealing, breeding, and egg-laying spots. Roaches may also find food in cabinets and thrive in such conditions and multiply rapidly.
2. Hallow walls
It is common to find cockroaches hiding in hallow wooden walls. Cockroaches are tough to eradicate once they have entered the walls. To fumigate your home and eliminate the roaches, you’ll need a professional exterminator.
Cockroaches lay their eggs in walls as well. If this occurs, home remedies are unlikely to eliminate the roaches.
3. Kitchen Appliances
Cockroaches can hide inside typical kitchen appliances for long durations. Toasters, dishwasher vents, toasters, and refrigerators are all spots where they hide.
It’s frequently tough to get them out once inside, especially if the electronics are prone to water damage.
4. Suitcases
Suitcases present an ideal location for roaches to hide and breed. They are dark and don’t often get checked.
You may have noticed reddish or brown substances inside your suitcase, primarily if you haven’t used it for years. They could be ootheca left behind by roaches.
5. Bins
Roaches may live in dins, especially in the kitchen. They can get an unlimited supply of food and water inside the bins.
They are attracted to the scent of particles and crumbs that you discard. It would help if you sealed your waste bins tightly to prevent a roach infestation.
It would help if you emptied your bin frequently.
How To Get Rid Of Roaches
While getting rid of roaches is not easy, it isn’t impossible. You can have the roaches gone in just a few days. Some methods are more effective than others.
While using bug spray may work on a few bugs, an infestation is much harder to manage. How then can you eliminate the roach population?
1. Use traps
Step 1: Get the Bait Ready
To attract the roaches, you’ll need bait. Sugary foods, such as soft candy should do the trick.
Step 2: Get a sticky trap.
You can purchase these traps commercially for a meager cost. They come in a set of four.
Step 3: Disperse the bait across the trap.
Spread your trap out to cover a large surface area. Place the sweets on the trap in a random pattern.
Step 4: Get rid of the bugs.
Kill the cockroaches on the trap using insect spray. To ensure that no pests survive, spray the area thoroughly.
Step 5: Get rid of the pests.
Throw the trap away after rolling it. Remove it from your home and dispose of it outside.
2. Boric Acid
Boric acid will kill any cockroach in a matter of minutes. The acid is harmless to humans, but it corrodes the cockroaches’ insides.
In the kitchen, it is safe to use. Because the acid looks so much like flour, you must always identify it. Keep Boric acid out of the reach of pets and children.
3. Call in the pros
Seek professional help from a reputable exterminator. Some fumigation services might cost hundreds of dollars, but it is only worth the money if the services are effective.
A thorough sweep of the house can solve your infestation woes once and for all. Fumigation not only gets rid of roaches; it eliminates other pests like bed bugs and mosquitos.
4. Diatomaceous
Diatomaceous earth is harmless for humans, just like boric acid. It kills roaches and eggs by corroding the outside of their bodies until they die. It’s incredibly efficient because it simply takes a few seconds to start working.
Diatomaceous earth is available for purchase in grocery stores. It is reasonably priced.
Natural Remedies to Roach Infestation
There are multiple natural remedies that you can use to manage and eliminate roaches. These remedies are good for the environment and work just as well, if not better than other solutions. The remedies discussed below are plant-based.
5. Cedar oil/spray
Cedar oil is toxic to roaches. The scent they produce is too strong for roaches to bear. It makes them perfect for preventing roaches from entering your home. You can plant cedar around your house to repel potential invasions.
6. White vinegar
White vinegar is not only effective against houseflies, but it also deters roaches. To prevent cockroaches from infesting your home, dissolve a teaspoon of white vinegar in water and spray the solution over entrances, cracks, and holes.
7. Eucalyptus spray
Eucalyptus has a strong odor that repels cockroaches. Consider growing eucalyptus around your property to successfully get rid of pests.
You can also use eucalyptus aroma in your home. There are several eucalyptus-based fragrances available commercially.
8. Lavender
Lavender is surprisingly efficient at repelling a variety of creatures, including cockroaches. The aroma of lavender is enough to keep mosquitoes and cockroaches away. Inside your home, you can use lavender-based perfumes.
9. Peppermint oil
Peppermint oil is used to kill roaches as well as deter them. Cockroaches are repulsed by the aroma of mint, which can assist them in leaving their hiding places. Planting peppermint around your house will deter bugs from entering your living area.
10. Citrus
Citrus is excellent for keeping bugs at bay. The highly acidic components interfere with the homeostatic balance in roaches. It is overwhelmingly toxic for roaches and thus serves as an effective deterrent.
11. Cinnamon
The scent of cinnamon is strong for humans, and so is the case for roaches. While cinnamon is repulsive, it will not kill any roaches.
Telltale Signs Of An Infestation
Roaches are adept at surviving in large groups. These insects reproduce rapidly over a short period. It makes it difficult to control their population.
Regulating the population is further made difficult by surviving in highly hostile environments. Roaches have evolved over millions of years, adapting to the environment and developing sturdy bodies.
What are the signs of an infestation?
1. Roach poop
Like other living things, Cockroaches must discharge organic waste from their bodies. These droppings have no odor. It’s all too easy to confuse the droppings for stains.
Examine the corners of your house, as well as the area beneath the refrigerator. These feces may be mistaken for spectacles. The presence of a large number of droppings suggests a large number of roaches.
2. Roach smell
Pheromones are musty-smelling molecules secreted by cockroaches. Roaches deploy these hormones to communicate and attract mates.
If there are a lot of cockroaches, the scent will be even greater. Cockroaches have a disgusting odor and can trigger allergies in some people. It’s best to eliminate the cockroaches when the population is still tiny.
3. The presence of ootheca in your house
If you find cockroach eggs in your home, you’re likely dealing with an infestation. Kitchens are where cockroaches deposit their eggs.
They can lay up to fifty eggs at once. Castings contain these eggs.
A casting is brown or yellow. They are a centimeter in length. The exterior of these castings is tough. The exterior protects the eggs from the cold and predators until the eggs hatch.
Conclusion
Cockroaches are one of the most common house pests. They are challenging to get rid of, mainly due to their ability to multiply rapidly. Roaches can lay up to 50 eggs at a time.
These creatures are masters of hiding. They easily slip into cracks, holes, and closets. The most effective way of eliminating the bugs is by destroying their eggs and flashing them out of hiding. You can use ammonia, bleach, or white vinegar to kill the ones hiding in your drain.
