How To Tell If There's A Roach Problem In Your Reno Home
Signs Of Cockroaches
Cockroaches are nocturnal. Roaches seek out dark, humid places, so under the kitchen sink and the bathroom sink are favorite places to hide. In addition, they live behind, under, or in, appliances such as the refrigerator and stove. Because these areas are hard to check, you are apt to see signs of them before you actually see a roach. The most frequent signs are listed below.
- Feces –Small cockroach feces look like coffee grounds or black pepper. Larger cockroaches have feces that are cylindrical. Feces can serve as a rough indicator of the number of roaches you are dealing with.
- Strong oily or musty odor – Cockroaches have an unpleasant odor that is described as oily or musty. The more roaches you have the worse the odor is.
- Smears – Cockroaches leave behind smears that are oily and dirty. These smears are greater along more frequented paths.
- Egg cases – Cockroaches leave behind empty egg cases that look like small purses.
- Shed skins – After cockroaches hatch from their eggs, they go through several instars, or molts. You will find shed skins lying around.
Lifecycle Of Cockroaches
Female cockroaches lay their eggs in a "purse" that is brown. Most species stick this purse in an out-of-the-way, safe area with a sticky glue they excrete. German cockroaches carry their egg cases on their backs until the young hatch. Depending on the species of cockroaches, there are 16-50 eggs in the purse. When the cockroaches hatch, they are called nymphs. After several molts, they become adults. German cockroaches can go through several generations a year, while some other cockroaches take a year to reach maturity.
Dangers Of Cockroaches
Cockroaches are not just irritating. They can carry diseases and can give them to you when they crawl over your food-preparation areas and utensils, or when they eat your food. These diseases include salmonellosis, typhoid fever, cholera, gastroenteritis, dysentery, listeriosis, giardia, and E. coli. In addition, the shed skins, feces, and egg cases turn to dust and get in the air. This worsens asthma and allergies. Children from homes with lots of cockroaches are more likely to be hospitalized with asthma than their peers who live in places without cockroaches.
Cockroaches Die Hard
Cockroaches, especially small German Cockroaches, are very hard to kill. They can hide in a crack that is only 1/32-to-3/16-of an inch wide. They jam themselves into these crevices where pesticides cannot penetrate. That makes bug bombs mostly useless against them. In addition, over-the-counter pesticides are dangerous unless you use them just right.
Get Professional Help
It takes a pest control specialist to get rid of all of your roaches. Natura Pest Control can help. When you contact us, we will come out and give you a free inspection, inside and out. We will then develop a customized plan to get rid of the cockroaches. Once they are gone, we will come out at regular intervals and renew the outside treatments to keep roaches from coming back. And don’t worry, we only use safe and effective natural products, not chemical pesticides. Call Natura Pest Control today to get rid of your cockroaches.
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