You might be the type of person who likes home-cooking. Cooking can be great fun, but the aftermath is a lot less fun. The best thing to do would be to clean all those dirty dishes right after meals to avoid attracting pests, like cockroaches. They carry diseases and can be unhealthy to both people and pets.
Keep reading for ways to eradicate cockroaches from your home and protect yourself from cockroach infestations.
Here are some useful tips to get rid of pests:
Traps use the scent of bait to attract roaches. Roaches that come to investigate the scent are killed in a sticky substance. For maximum efficiency, place your cockroach traps in dark, damp areas where it is likely to find lots of cockroaches. Traps should be replaced periodically.
Poisons disguise insecticide as a food source, using the bait itself as the trap. When roaches die from eating the bait, other roaches that eat them will also die. While this is very effective, one downside is that you have no control over where the roaches will die, and you may end up with dead roaches hidden in some very odd places. What is more, poisons are harmful to people and pets, so place cockroach poison beyond children’s reach.
Certain liquid solutions highly repel cockroaches. You can usually buy concentrated sprays at stores, but you can also make your own using essential oils like tea tree oil and citrus.
Mix your concentrated solution with water, then spray in areas where roaches like to hide. You can also use the solution as a disinfectant for cleaning countertops and even floors.
Ultrasonic repellers constantly broadcast noise inaudible to the human ear but agonizing for pests. Different ultrasonic repellers will be tuned to different frequencies designed for repelling different pests, so you should consult with an expert to learn more about getting rid of cockroaches with an ultrasonic pest repeller.
Develop these habits to forget about cockroaches:
The need for food is among the main reasons why cockroaches will attempt to enter your home. Letting dry, unwashed dishes sit overnight creates an easy source of food for cockroaches. If you don’t have a dishwasher and struggle to do the dishes immediately after eating, the least you can do is rinse them to get rid of larger food particles. Be sure not to leave even soft fruits out for long: they may attract giant burrowing cockroaches.
Another source of cockroach food, much more difficult-to-deal with, are our crumbs. Crumbly food tends to be snack foods, eaten away from tables, so it can be difficult to control where we’re leaving crumbs. This is why you shouldn’t eat in bed. If you can, try to place crumbly food in a bowl so your crumbs fall into it.
But, sometimes, especially when we’re cooking, a mess can be unavoidable. Crumbs on counters and floor, cooking splatter on walls, your oven, and stovetop, all of it needs to be cleaned up regularly.
If you have a pet, be sure not to overfeed it so uneaten food doesn’t sit around attracting roaches. Most bags of pet food are resistant to pests, but you may still want to invest in a resealable airtight container for storing your pet food.
Besides your food, cockroaches’ diets consist of many less appetizing sources, like dead skin and anything organic you track in on your shoes from outside. So, sweep and mop regularly, and if you can, wipe your shoes on a mat on the way in.
Cleaning up stray cockroach food sources will be for nothing if you’re throwing anything edible in your trash. So, take your trash out as often as needed; twice a week should do — thrice wouldn’t hurt. And be sure to throw the trash out as soon as possible if you’ve disposed of any food or food waste.
Another reason why cockroaches enter our homes is their need for shelter — it makes you wish your home were less welcoming. Walking in the front door might just be the most common way cockroaches get into our home. In fact, a crevice in any improperly fit doors and windows might be a wide-open front door for a cockroach.
Check your doors to see if they seal properly at the top, bottom, and both sides. Make sure your windows close all the way. If you’ve found a crevice in one of your doors or windows, consider calling a professional to have it filled, or check out this video to learn how it’s done.
While most modern piping and ventilation systems are sealed, corrosion can still lead to potential entry points for cockroaches. In older systems, holes may be more common, the system may not be as resistant to corrosion, or it might not properly seal when closed.
Have a professional inspect your ventilation system, or do it yourself if you know how. You usually don’t need a plumber for just checking the pipes under the sink for holes, but you might need a plumber for any leaks and holes in the basement.
Preventing cockroaches from invading your house is easier than you may think. Keep your place tidy, eliminate the holes and leaks, and don’t leave the food out for long. If, however, pests manage to penetrate your house, don’t hesitate to get rid of them with the help of modern solutions. [Of course, if the problem gets too bad you might not like the idea of staying where you are; it might even be time to investigate the best spots to buy a home in the US!]
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