All You Need to Know About Oriental Cockroach and Ways to Combat These Devils

“Cockroaches- The word is enough to scare the hell out of you,” especially when it is the case of girls you can often find them screaming and jumping at the sight of cockroaches. So are you facing such a similar situation at your home? Are you fed up with seeing oriental cockroach at your place? Then we have lots of things to help you out with.

Oriental cockroaches are also known as water bugs, and you can spot them near dark and cold places. You can find them creeping under your kitchen basins, water sinks, damp basements bathrooms, toilets, washing machines, etc. Anywhere where these oriental cockroaches can find some cool place, they make them their hub and use the sewer pipes their pathway for travelling here and there. These sluggish species are brown in color and about an inch in length but surely have the capacity of bringing tension to your minds.  Seeing an oriental cockroach crawling in some space at your home can make you worried, and straightaway brings the next thought of getting rid of them. You can also find cockroaches inspecting your kitchen barns and cupboards of your room and surely this is not a sight worth seeing, right? These cockroaches are hardly seen in outside areas. If these creepy creatures are seen outdoors, it is definitely summers or warm climate; otherwise, they are often found in dark and moist places.

How to Identify an Oriental Cockroach

Despite its name, oriental cockroaches are believed to be of African origin. They’re one of the larger species of cockroaches, and they’re often referred to as “waterbugs” because they like to hang out in damp areas.

These roaches usually find their way into homes by crawling under the door or through gaps beneath the siding. They may also come up into your bathroom or kitchen through the pipes, sewers and drains. Oriental roaches cannot fly, although the males do have wings that cover 75% of their abdomen.

How can you tell the difference between an oriental cockroach and a regular roach?

• Color: Black, shiny
• Size: 1” long
• Shape: Oval
• Region: Northern areas of the United States

Oriental roaches will eat all kinds of food, but they especially love decaying organic matter, garbage and starchy foods. These roaches are heavily dependent on water, and can’t survive more than two weeks without it. That’s why they tend to congregate in large numbers near water sources.

While these roaches are usually found outside, they can sneak into your home via doorways, small openings and pipes. It’s also possible to bring them into your home through bags or boxes from places that are already infested. You can even bring them home from a laundromat.

Signs of an Oriental Roach Infestation

You spotted an oriental roach in your house. Does that mean you have an infestation? Not necessarily. It could just be a lone roach who snuck into your home and is looking for food. But to be on the safe side, it’s important to look for signs of an infestation.

There are three telltale signs of an infestation:

• Sightings: If you see more than one roach in or around your home, there’s a good chance that you’re dealing with an infestation. In the warmer months, oriental roaches can be found near moist gutters, sewers and storm drains.
• Odor: Oriental roaches emit a particular smell that’s notoriously musty. This smell is actually a chemical that the roaches use to communicate with one another.
• Egg Capsules: If you have an infestation, you may find egg cases ranging from 8-10 mm in length. Their cases are usually dark brown or red in color. Cases can hold up to 16 eggs.

If you believe that you have an infestation, it’s important to take steps to exterminate the roaches before the problem gets out of  hand and someone gets sick. Oriental cockroaches are potentially harmful and have no place living in your home. It’s important to understand the danger of these roaches and how to get rid of them.

The Harm that Oriental Cockroaches cause:

These one inched oriental cockroaches may look very small but can cause great harm to you and your housemates. These cockroaches eat up all kind of dirt and filth and all sorts of decaying contents, and you can easily analyse the further story. Garbage is something that these cockroaches are fond of, sewer tanks, garbage bins are few other areas where they are found eating up all the shit. After having all those shitty things, God forbid if they come and sit up on your food without you having any clue about this and if you further consume the same food infected by an oriental cockroach, then it can be highly harmful to you. These cockroaches secrete some odorous secretion from various parts of their bodies, and when they sit on your food, then your food can be infected with bacteria, virus, and protozoa which can show you the way to the hospital.

These cockroaches are a cause for many food-borne diseases caused due to the pathogens that they carry in their body. Since they consume garbage and decaying matters, they have pathogens of all the dirty matter they have consumed on their legs, and whole body and they can transmit these pathogens to every clean surface they walk. When you talk about food, they can also change the taste of the food by their secretions; you can sense a change of flavor and odor of your food if it is infected by such cockroaches. Consuming infected food can be a serious cause and can undoubtedly make you fall sick. So it is always advisable that you keep your kitchens free of such cockroaches or it is going to affect your family’s health. There have been many cases of hostel students falling sick due to eating food that was infected by cockroaches in the hostel kitchen. In a hostel and mess, you can’t help it as you have no control over the kitchen area. But when it is your home, you can surely make regular checks and keep an eye on any such oriental cockroach movement in your house. So you got to be the murderer of these cockroaches if you want to keep your family members safe.

Oriental roaches can also carry bacteria on their body. When they shed their skin or leave excrement behind, they also leave that bacteria behind. Not only can this get you sick, but people are also allergic to the skin and excrement. This can cause severe asthma attacks.

Beware of oriental cockroaches

It is not just that these cockroaches can spoil your food and can cause food poisoning, but these oriental cockroaches are just awful enough and are also supposed as a carrier to spread tapeworm, hookworm and pinworm eggs. These cockroaches are also capable enough of spreading diseases like dysentery, typhoid, salmonella, hepatitis B and many such similar diseases. Apart from this having these unwanted guests at your home can also bring a sight of astonishment to the guests entering your home for a cup of tea or dinner. Seeing a cockroach crawling up on your dining table can bring out fear and fright in the minds of your guests.  It is not that you are a sloppy owner of a house if your house is invaded by cockroaches as this can happen anywhere. But you have to take proper steps and action to cut their growth in your house if you do not want to be enlisted in one of the sloppiest homemakers in your surroundings.

Home remedies to get rid of oriental cockroaches

Yes, it is not a very easy job to get rid of these cockroaches, we do agree to it, but you need to have persistence and patience as well if you need to get rid of these dangerous little monsters. You very well know that these insects need food, water and garbage for their survival and cutting down on these can help you gain control over these pests. Eliminating these essentials for your unwanted monstrous guests can be the very first and initial step that you can take to shove off these oriental cockroaches from your home. Being strict in this process can help you to kill them or drive out the cockroaches out of your home and search for some new shelter.

How to Get Rid of Oriental Roaches

If you want to cut down on the three essential things for the oriental cockroach survival, then here are few things that you can do:

• First of all, having a clean house is the primary need if you want to have a cockroach-free home. You should discard all size of old and unwanted boxes, paper piles, etc. where these cockroaches can find a sheltered place.
• Another thing that you need to take care of is to close all kinds of bins and trash boxes that you have in your house. These garbage bins can be a breeding place for oriental cockroaches so always use plastic bags in your trash bins and remember to use trash bins that come with a well and tightly fitted lid.
• If you have leaky taps in your kitchen and bathrooms, then it is a sure shot call for calling up the plumber and getting it fixed, if you don’t want the cockroaches to build their home in your bathrooms.
• Also, make it a habit to clean your washbasins and other appliances so that these cockroaches do not get a breeding lace. You should also use phenol and other such chemicals in washing your kitchen and other appliances so that these cockroaches stay at a distance.
• Any left out food should be thrown away at night or should be stored in the fridge or packed containers so that the cockroaches do not cause any harm by infecting your food.
• You should also use vacuum in your house and use a single space for storing food rather than using all the rooms for food storage. Also, clear your dining tables of any food drops and clean it properly so that there are no chances of cockroaches having their supper on your dining table.
• You should also close all your floor drains, vents and windows with meshes because these places are prone to have cockroach population. So close all such outlets with meshes to make it a cockroach-free place.

You have to remember that you have to keep these creepy insects outside and make it difficult for them to enter indoors. So you need to be very cautious and alert and do all the possible titbits to keep them away from making a way to enter your house. Keep a check on all the entry areas of your home and make sure that all your doors have net meshed doors and all such holes that may be there in your home should be repaired so that it is a no entry signal for the cockroaches.

Chemical treatments to drag the cockroaches out of your home

The abovementioned tips are valuable if you want to handle the cockroaches in your home using safety measures. But if you want to get some tips of using chemical treatment methods, then you can approach a pest control company to do your bit of work. Here are some treatments and processes that you can use for controlling these pests to invade your home.

• Delta dust and boric acid can be helpful for you to control the cockroaches. You can buy these chemicals and use the manual and instructions carefully and apply them on the places wherever you have the slightest of doubt of these oriental cockroaches building their shelter place.
• You also get these cockroach killer sprays in the market; you can buy one of those and spray it at your home in all the areas where you can see them roaming around. All your corners and water outlets should be sprayed with these cockroach killers so that you can have a cockroach-free home. But make sure that you keep these out of reach of your children otherwise it can cause serious issues if they spray them accidentally.
• You can also use the LP granules at places where you find cockroaches and use the insects’ baits for preventing them from making a place for themselves in your place of residence.
• The best thing that you can do is to hire a pest control company to do your cockroach control task. If you have some money to spare, then you can call them to assist you in making your home pest free. They make it a point that they clear your house from the invasion of cockroaches and let you breathe some air of relaxation without taking any tension of the cockroaches who have started living with you as your housemates.

Undoubted advantages of choosing a pest control company to get rid of cockroaches

• Taking help from professionals to solve your cockroach control issues can let you relax and have your cup of coffee and let the professionals play their part. They have proper methods of driving out the cockroaches from your home, and they can make use of efficient and best methods to get your home cockroach free.
• Another significant factor of calling up the professionals is that they minimize the chances of the reappearance of cockroaches and try to remove them from their roots.
• Calling a professional working for you at your home is a sign of freeing up your home from the cockroach baits that you might have kept here and there. If you have children at home, then it might be dangerous to keep oriental cockroach baits thus this approach is more feasible for you to get rid of cockroaches.
• Employing a professional company for getting rid of cockroaches is beneficial for you as these companies have trained professionals who have an idea about the lifecycle and habits of these cockroaches. Thus it’s a helpful factor to do the pest control chore at your home. They have well-defined methods of pest control that does not harm any other member of the house and clean up the cockroach population at your house.
• They make use of safe methods while freeing your house of cockroaches and take care that the children are not affected by the methods they use for the pest control. They ensure you of any kind of risks and do the treatment in the best possible safe manner.
• They assure you of freeing up your home from these insects and work out the magic until you get hundred percent satisfaction.

Approaching the professionals for this pest control task gets you a home that is free from such insects and gets you a healthy and hygienic environment to live in. You neither have to compromise on your health issues and be assured of safe methods being used up at your house to make your infested house free from these deadly monsters.