If you’ve found a dreaded cockroach or two crawling around your house, you’re no doubt wondering what in the world attracted these roaches to your home.

You keep a clean house and you don’t leave the windows open, so what’s going on? How did these pests get inside, and why are they disrupting your life all of a sudden?

Cockroaches—even the ones that like to live outside—enter homes for a few reasons, and we’re going to break each one down for you.

First, you’ll learn what causes roaches in your house. Then what you can do to get rid of roaches permanently.

Let’s get right to it!

Understanding Indoor and Outdoor Roaches

Right now, you don’t have to know exactly which species of cockroach you’ve found in your house. But to know what’s causing roaches in your home, it is important to determine whether you’re seeing an indoor or outdoor species.

Indoor Roaches

Indoor or “domestic roaches” only live inside homes and other structures. If you’ve found them in your house, you probably got them from somewhere else.

Usually, a person accidentally brings roaches or roach eggs in unawares. That might sound unlikely, but it’s easier than you’d think for a tiny cockroach to stow away in your purse or work bag. These insects might have crawled into your child’s backpack at school. Roaches sometimes hide in grocery bags and packages, too.

One exception is shared living: if you live in an apartment building or townhome, the roaches might’ve come from a neighbor. In that case, you should tell the building owner right away.

Indoor roaches are typically smaller species. You could be dealing with one of these species:

• German cockroaches
• Brown banded cockroaches

Besides your home, indoor species have nowhere to go. Once they’re in, they’re going to start multiplying.

Outdoor Roaches

Outdoor roaches live among the fallen branches and leaf litter that covers forest floors. They also inhabit the mulch and soil that surrounds your landscaping. These cockroaches are especially prevalent in southern states.

Outdoor cockroaches are often larger and many of them fly. These include:

• American cockroaches
• Oriental cockroaches
• Smokybrown cockroaches

These roaches usually prefer living outside in dark, damp environments like sewers, subway tunnels and storm drains.

But when the environment changes—when their habitat floods or the weather turns too cold—they start looking for better shelter. That’s likely the reason outdoor roaches have moved into your home.

They could have crawled in through the gaps around wiring or entered your home through the dryer vent. American roaches or smokybrowns might even have flown through an open window or onto the roof. Later, we’ll explain how to seal up these entry points.

First, let’s talk about the things that make cockroaches comfortable in your home.

What Causes Cockroaches to Start Living in Your House?

Cockroaches invade for a simple reason: they want something from your house.

You already know that outdoor roaches often come in looking for warmer shelter.

In fact, that’s one of 3 primary reasons for cockroaches to enter homes: food, moisture and shelter.

Food Fit for a Roach

A cockroach’s hunger is never satisfied and its sense of smell is finely tuned to detect anything edible. And what they consider edible truly stretches the definition of food.

Roaches will feed on just about anything organic, including paper, glue, pet waste and garbage. They’ll even eat pet hair that’s collected under furniture and grime stuck in the garbage disposal.

Once they’ve found all those crumbs and other tasty morsels, they’re going to stick around. So what causes roaches in a clean house?

Moisture and Humidity

Most cockroaches are very sensitive to dehydration and need water to survive.

That’s why they live in humid places and why you’ll often find them under the kitchen sink or in the bathroom. American roaches, especially, love damp locations, like sewers and gutters. Indoors, Oriental roaches often get caught in bathtubs and toilet bowls.

Just a few drops of water from a leaky pipe, dripping faucet or wet shower mat are enough. If there’s a room in your house that traps humidity, that’s where roaches will go to breed.

Shelter: Safe and Out of Sight

Shelter is more than just a hiding place for roaches—it’s a safe location to lay eggs. When they find the right place, they reproduce quickly.

Clutter only makes a room attract cockroaches more. They love a closet filled with photos and books, where they can hide their egg sacs undisturbed.

We’ve mentioned their need for moisture. A combination of moisture and clutter? That lets roaches thrive. In a moment, we’ll show you how to stop giving roaches what they want.

Some Cockroaches are Attracted to Lights

While many species of cockroaches spend their days hiding in the dark, a few flying roaches—like smokybrowns and wood roaches—are strongly attracted to lights. Neglect a torn window screen or forget about the gap under your old front door and roaches can crawl—or fly—right in.

How to Say ‘Ciao’ to Your Roach Problem

Here’s how you can begin to implement CIAO right now:

1. Clean and Sanitize

You might have a clean home, but this first step is about more than just sweeping: you’ll need to empty out cabinets, move furniture and vacuum everywhere.

You should also throw out any opened, damaged or unsealed food that could have been contaminated by roaches. Use a disinfectant spray to sanitize surfaces.

Use a towel to kneel on the floor and vacuum under appliances, behind furniture and along floorboards. This is where our first two steps—cleaning and inspecting—overlap. Before you vacuum these hard-to-reach areas of the home, write down every place where you find evidence of roaches (droppings, dead roaches or a musty stench).

Do the same as you clean and empty out cabinets. You’ll probably discover quite a few food sources and potential hiding places, which you’ll target in steps three and four.

2. Inspect for Hotspots and Entry Points

With everything cleaned out, it’s much easier to thoroughly inspect these areas to find out where roaches are hiding and how they’re surviving.

Every time you find more evidence, write the location down on a notepad and clean it up. Keep vacuuming and disinfecting as you discover other locations.

Then, near each hotspot, place a store-bought sticky trap. This will attract and trap any roaches hiding nearby to help you determine where they’re most active and how big the problem is. It’ll also give you a head start on the next step by killing roaches overnight.

If you’re dealing with outdoor cockroaches, now is the time to inspect the area outside of your house.

Walk the perimeter, looking for cracks and crevices less than half an inch wide. Add these to your list. Check for torn window screens and gaps around wiring. Make a note of any puddles or areas of saturated soil that you’ll need to address later.

Use our step-by-step guide to find where cockroaches are hiding.

Now that you’ve cleaned, emptied and written down your target areas, it’s time to attack.

3. Attack the Existing Roach Infestation

To get rid of existing roaches, you’re going to use four proven tools:

1. Traps
2. Gel bait
3. Insecticidal dust
4. IGR

You’ve already set some traps in areas where you found evidence of roaches. Now, add some more near other typical cockroach hiding places: around the fridge, dishwasher and washing machine, in the pantry, along basement walls and around pipes.

In the small cracks and holes that roaches use to get inside walls or under floorboards, apply drops of gel bait. This powerful pest control product spreads from roach to roach, so a single drop could kill a number of the pest.

Use insecticidal dust to treat inaccessible places like wall cavities and electronics. Did you know tiny roaches could hide in your microwave’s clock or inside your air fryer? Squeeze a puff of the dust inside to kill any roaches that touch it.

An IGR is a bonus product that stops roaches from reproducing. It might not kill the adults, but it makes them sluggish and weak enough that they won’t survive long. More importantly, it prevents baby roaches.

4. Outsmart and Outwit to Prevent Future Roaches

The only thing worse than finding roaches once is finding them twice.

But now you’ve got a file on them. You know where they come from and what they’re looking for. You know their habits and their hideouts.

Let’s turn that knowledge into strategy.

Keep Roaches Out

Outdoor species displaced by flooding or cold weather are determined to get inside. You’ll need to plug every opening in exterior walls with steel wool and weatherproof caulking. Repair screens, seal up window frames and install weatherstripping to guard the spaces under doors.

Then, work on eliminating excess moisture by spreading mulch more thinly and clearing clogged gutters that might be dumping water into a moat around your walls. Stack firewood neatly to help it dry and rake any leaves and debris away from your house.

Preventing indoor roaches comes down to vigilance because they depend on you to bring them in. Check everything before you bring it into the house (or your car, for that matter). That includes bags from the store, boxes from the garage, tools from the shed and firewood from the yard.

Take Away the Things Roaches Want

You’ve already cleaned out cupboards and closets. As you put things back, be careful not to recreate that clutter. Take this starting-fresh opportunity to organize and reduce. You’ll make things less attractive to roaches and better for you.

A quick way to eliminate roach hiding places is to swap cardboard boxes for plastic bins with lids. Stack them neatly and leave room for occasional cleaning around them.

Just as you did outside, address the moisture in your house. Use fans to ventilate rooms, like the attic and basement, that become especially humid. In the bathroom, hang the shower mat after use and try to reduce lingering humidity.

As you restock your pantry and open new food items, seal them in hard containers instead of trying to fold or clip things closed. Try to organize things neatly so you can clean around them on a regular basis.

Make sure you wash the dishes daily and replace your garbage bag as soon as it’s full. After you’ve cooked, wipe down countertops to remove crumbs and grease. Don’t leave any food or dirty pots and pans out in the open. Empty pet water bowls and discard their food each night.

Repair any faucets that drip to remove that water source and save money. While you’re there, fix any leaky pipes under sinks or attached to appliances, dry up damp areas, and mop up standing water.

You can‌ find even more tips for preventing roaches in our guide to exclusion.

Set Long-Term Traps

There’s one more way you can outsmart roaches: set long-term cockroach traps that’ll catch them before they can get settled.

Sticky traps are great for this because they can catch quite a few roaches before you have to replace them. Just check on them from time to time to make sure there aren’t any fresh catches. If there are, scroll back to the first step to get rid of any others.

Insecticidal dust is another great long-term solution. This stuff remains potent as long as it stays dry, so it can kill roaches for over a year in the right conditions. Dust into walls and behind furniture (where pets can’t get to it) for added peace of mind. Set an appointment on your phone’s calendar every six months to a year to refresh it.

Unfortunately, if you’ve had outdoor roaches, there’s a decent chance you’ll wind up seeing them again at some point. But this time, you’ll be prepared.

Conclusion

A cockroach infestation makes even a clean home feel dirty, contaminating food and putting you at risk of allergy and asthma attacks.

Now that you’ve learned what causes cockroaches, you also know what you need to do to get rid of them. Eliminating the things that attract roaches gives you the upper hand right now and helps prevent them in the future.

The cockroaches’ days are up. You can do this!

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Sources

1. Why do I have cockroaches in my home? National Pesticide Information Center. Retrieved from http://npic.orst.edu/faq/roach.html
2. Omg, Barb, et al. (2006) Cockroach Control Manual. University of Nebraska Extension.

You hoped you’d never have to deal with water bugs in your house. But, now, you’ve discovered them crawling around in your kitchen, your bathroom, your basement.

Some folks might tell you to shrug them off as a nuisance, something to get used to seeing. But water bugs are dangerous pests. They contaminate your home and spread disease. And your water bug problem will only get worse if you leave it alone.

In this article, you’ll learn what brought water bugs into your house, what they’re doing behind the scenes and, most importantly, how to eliminate them.

Ready to get rid of water bugs in your house for good? Let’s get to work!

What are Water Bugs? Are They the Same as Roaches?

Water bugs are extremely common pests, especially in the southern U.S. They’re the big, brown or black bugs that probably first appeared in your kitchen, laundry room, bathroom or basement.

Even if you haven’t seen one before now, you’d probably heard about them from neighbors or friends who had already dealt with them.

What you might not have heard is that aside from a certain pond dwelling creature called the Belostomatidae (or Giant Water Bug) which rarely enters homes, water bugs and roaches are the same thing. Specifically, water bugs are one of two species of cockroaches: American roaches or Oriental roaches.

Note: The smokybrown cockroach which some people also call a water bug, is not discussed below. You can read more about it here.

American Roaches

American cockroaches are the biggest roaches you’ll encounter at home, measuring in at up to 2 inches in length. They’re reddish-brown, with flat, oval-shaped bodies and long antennae that make them look even larger. Both males and females have wings, with the male’s being somewhat longer.

Oriental Roaches

If you’re seeing big, black water bugs in the house, you’re dealing with Oriental cockroaches.

These roaches are 1 to 1.5 inches in length and often a bit rounder than other species. An adult Oriental roach sports a shiny black color. While a male usually has short wings that cover about 2/3 of its body, a female’s wings are tiny and rudimentary. Neither sex can fly.

Water Bug Nymphs

What if you found small water bugs in the house? They could be nymphs—baby water bugs.

• Baby American roaches look like smaller versions of the adults, with the same reddish-brown, oval-shaped bodies—but absent any wings.
• Oriental roach nymphs tend to be lighter in color than the glossy black adults. They might appear golden or copper-colored but will still have the stout, round shape of the adults. Oriental cockroach nymphs also do not have wings.

There is another possibility to consider…

Water Bug or German Cockroach?

If the bug isn’t a nymph, it could be a German roach—perhaps the only discovery worse than baby water bugs.

• To tell a German cockroach from a water bug nymph, look for its light tan color and the dark pair of parallel stripes that run down its back.

American Roaches, Oriental Roaches and Your Home

Both American and Oriental roaches are primarily outdoor species. So what are they doing in your house?

These insects prefer to live among wet undergrowth and decaying organic material. Neither of these insects spends any time in the water (unless they have to); their nickname merely refers to their constant need for moisture.

They inhabit forest floors, the hollows beneath rocks and the landscaping around homes. Flying American roaches might live inside tree hollows or beneath loose tree bark.

In urban environments, they hide in dumpsters, gutters, sewers and storm drains. They’ve been discovered in septic systems and observed pouring in the thousands from city manholes.

The scenes in these places are grim: multitudes of water bugs thriving in the moisture, laying egg sacs that will increase the colony’s size exponentially. They’re surrounded by their own droppings and discarded exoskeletons, on which mold grows and adds to the already-disgusting stench.

What Causes Water Bugs in the Home?

Cold weather often drives water bugs indoors. Although Oriental roaches can tolerate cooler temperatures than other species, they also look for warm harborage as the weather changes.²

Extended periods of hot, dry weather can also make things uncomfortable. Without ample moisture in their environment, water bugs will dehydrate quickly.

When heavy rains flood American cockroach habitats, these water bugs might look for dry shelter in a nearby basement or crawl space. Entire colonies sometimes migrate together. They’ll follow the plumbing into the walls or climb into trees and glide onto the roof.¹

How Do Water Bugs Get Into the House?

Water bugs often live around human dwellings. The area around your home is full of potential hiding places. Excessive watering makes mulch and garden soil perfect habitats for water bugs. Unruly piles of firewood store moisture and make ideal cockroach breeding grounds.

We’ve already mentioned that Oriental roaches are flightless. They also can’t climb smooth, vertical surfaces, so they’re usually going to search for entry points at ground level. Water bugs exploit openings in exterior walls, torn window screens, gaps beneath doors and other cracks and crevices.

These insects could follow your TV cable straight from an exterior wall to your living room. A water bug can even climb up the pipes of a rarely-used toilet or shower where the P-trap has dried up.

American roaches can glide from tree branches or tall shrubs onto a windowsill and climb in through a torn screen. They can even sneak under loose roof shingles to enter homes.

Note: There’s always the possibility that you’ve brought them in accidentally. Carrying a few logs for the fire into the living room or a box of tools from the garage into the kitchen might bring these unwanted pests inside, where they’ll find warmth, plenty of hiding places and the smell of food.

What Water Bugs are Doing in Your House

Once a water bug finds a way inside, it starts searching for its basic survival needs: food, water and a dark, damp place to hide.

Within the walls are endless crevices where water bugs can hide and multiply. As they scavenge each night, they leave pheromone trails to help other roaches follow their routes to food.

Meanwhile, they contaminate your food with dangerous bacteria and leave excrement all around your kitchen and bathroom. They might feed on old documents, paper keepsakes or family photos. And they’ll lay eggs—dozens of them—deep in the walls or behind cabinets and appliances.

These insects multiply rapidly. One water bug could lay over 150 eggs in a year. Before you’ve even noticed them in your home, the infestation could number in the hundreds. And even as you spray or smack every water bug you see, plenty of eggs are waiting to hatch and make matters much worse.

Effects of a Severe Water Bug Infestation

Leaving water bugs alone is not an option. Playing whack-a-mole with one bug at a time or trying to pretend they’re not there gives them free rein to keep breeding and spreading.

You’ll see more and more water bugs, you’ll spend more and more time trying to squash and spray while these pests continue to spread bacteria and put your family at risk of stomach illnesses, allergies and asthma attacks.

When a roach infestation grows out of hand a home becomes unlivable. At that point, it’s up to a professional exterminator to save it.

How do you get rid of waterbugs in your house without an exterminator? And begin to do it today?

With “CIAO.” A system for getting rid of water bugs in house and apartment structures permanently.

Getting Rid of Water Bugs with CIAO: Clean, Inspect, Attack, and Outsmart Future Water Bugs

Putting the CIAO System to Work

1. Clean

Cleaning is the most important first step you can take, and the keystone of the rest of the system. Put on some comfortable, old clothes you’re not afraid to get dirty. Grab a knee pad or use a folded towel to make yourself comfortable while you peer with a flashlight under appliances and furniture. You’ll need at least one large, sturdy garbage bag and your vacuum cleaner.

You should also grab a notepad and pen to write down each place where you find evidence of roaches. While we’ve listed inspection as the next step, you should always start inspecting while you’re cleaning to get the best high-level picture of the problem.

You’re going to start by emptying all of the cabinets, drawers or shelves in the rooms where you’ve seen water bugs. If you’re emptying kitchen cabinets, discard any food or ingredients that water bugs might’ve gotten into. If you’re cleaning the bathroom, throw away your toothbrush or disinfect the body and replace the head.

Put all utensils, pots and pans, personal hygiene items, toys and other sensitive objects aside to clean later. Water bugs might’ve touched them.

As you clean, remember to make a list of all of the places where you find roach droppings (which look like coffee grounds) dead roaches or discarded exoskeletons. You might also notice a musty stench emanating from areas with high roach activity. Give a quick description of each find so you can reference it shortly, when you’re setting traps.

Once you’ve emptied out your things and recorded the evidence, use the vacuum to suck up all of it—dust, crumbs and, potentially, dead water bugs and their eggs or exoskeletons. If you can safely pull the fridge or other appliances away from the wall, vacuum behind and under them, too.

Then, use a disinfectant spray or wipes to sanitize surfaces and remove the roach’s communication trails.

Find even more tips for sanitizing after water bugs in our Roach-Free Recipe.

2. Inspect

You’ve already started to make a list of the cockroach hotspots you found while cleaning. Now that everything’s cleared out, look for the holes and cracks where water bugs could hide and travel. Keep your eyes open for more droppings and dead roaches, too.

It’s important to check exterior walls, windows and doors, too. You’re looking for openings just half an inch wide through which water bugs can crawl. Pay close attention to areas near the ground where both Oriental and American roaches are most active.

Later, you’ll seal up these entry points. First, though, you’ll make these hot spots your targets for sticky traps.

Sticky traps—a.k.a. insect monitors—will show you where the insects are most active and help you estimate the size of the infestation. With these monitors in place, you’re also getting a head-start on the next step—attack. Sticky traps are your first wave of attacks, letting you start eliminating water bugs even as you gather information.

Place a sticky trap near each location you’ve written down on your notepad. You should also place sticky traps in other high-risk areas: behind the fridge, along basement walls, under pipes and near appliances.

Learn how to get the most out of sticky traps in our guide to inspecting for roaches.

3. Attack

There are lots of purported home remedies to kill water bugs instantly out there, from bleach to baking soda. We’re going to focus on the four tools the pros choose to use water bugs’ behavior against them:

1. Baited traps
2. Gel bait
3. Insecticidal dust
4. Insect growth regulator (IGR)

Deep cleaning has already removed the insects’ easiest food sources, starving them out. In addition, you’ve started catching the desperate pests with sticky traps.

Now, apply powerful gel bait to cracks, crevices and other hotspots you’ve identified to target the colony at its core. Gel bait is especially effective because the poison spreads from one roach to others as the insects return to the nest to die. Water bugs multiply fast; gel bait lets you fight back faster.

Insecticidal dust like boric acid, silica, and diatomaceous earth are better for less precise, harder-to-reach areas because it’s long-lasting and easy to spread widely.

Apply a thin layer of dust in places like wall cavities and floor voids. The deadly dust particles float through the air, stick to surfaces and kill roaches by dehydrating them. A silica dust like CimeXa is very low in risk to humans but extremely effective at killing water bugs. You can even mix in some powdered sugar to attract the bugs to it.

An IGR is an extra line of defense that prevents roaches from producing offspring. While traps and insecticides kill the adult water bugs, an IGR stops the colony from growing behind the scenes.

Read our guide for all the details on killing water bugs in your home.

4. Outsmart Them (How To Keep Water Bugs Away)

The final step in this water bug elimination plan is a long-term effort: preventing water bugs from getting back inside.

You know that a water bug wants a dark, warm, protected environment with plenty of moisture and easy access to food. Now, outsmart these bugs by closing all of their entry points, sealing up your food and reducing damp areas wherever possible.

Use steel wool and insulation foam to plug holes in your walls and floors. Repair window screens and door frames so there are no spaces for bugs to enter. Fix dripping faucets or leaky pipes that become water sources for roaches. Use fine mesh drain stops in the bathroom, especially in sinks and showers that you rarely use, and be sure to mop up standing water.

Finally, place a few glue traps in previous water bug hotspots to monitor for signs of new activity. You can also dust into walls, floors and other spaces before sealing up holes. As long as it stays dry, dust can kill roaches for over a year.

Get more tips for stopping roaches that invade homes in our guide to preventing roaches with exclusion.

Conclusion

As you read this article, the water bugs in your house were hiding safely out of sight, waiting until night to begin scavenging again.

They don’t know that you’ve learned all about their behavior and how to use that knowledge to eliminate water bugs. In-house^[1] pest control methods, like the ones we’ve described in our “Ciao, Roaches” plan, give you the power to start clearing your home of pests today.

You’ve got this!

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Sources

1. Barbara, Kathryn A. (2014) American cockroach. University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Retrieved from http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/roaches/american_cockroach.htm
2. McCanless, Kim (2017) Oriental cockroach. University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Retrieved from http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/roaches/oriental_cockroach.htm

You’ve seen a cockroach before but not one like this—not one carrying a strange protrusion like a brown bean or a tiny purse behind it. That “purse” is an egg sac carrying precious cargo: dozens of roach eggs!

And you’ve discovered a pregnant cockroach.

That’s a truly rare encounter, one that might inspire awe if it didn’t trigger such a terrifying thought: all of those baby roaches are about to invade your house!

We’re going to show you what to do when you find a pregnant roach, how to deal with its offspring once they hatch, and how to keep all roaches, including pregnant ones, out of your home for good.

Let’s dive in!

Overview of the Cockroach Life Cycle

We’ll use the German cockroach, arguably the worst cockroach pest in the United States, as our life cycle “lab rat.”

A German cockroach goes through 3 stages of life:

1. Egg
2. Nymph
3. Adult

In the right conditions, a roach could sprint through these stages in just 100 days.⁷

The Pregnant Cockroach and Her Eggs

A female cockroach can begin to reproduce as soon as she reaches adulthood. The roach is oviparous, which means her offspring grows outside of her body in eggs. In the case of cockroaches, eggs develop in an egg sac, called an ootheca.

The oothecae is a tiny, purse-or bean-shaped capsule that contains as many as fifty eggs. The larger the egg case, the more eggs it contains.

A female roach produces one egg sac at a time but could tally ten or more over her lifetime.

You’ll know you’ve found a pregnant roach if it appears to have a pill-shaped protrusion sticking out like a fat, ribbed tail. This extends further as more eggs develop inside it.

The “pregnant” female carries her egg case for about 1 month until the eggs are ready to hatch. She might continue to carry it; otherwise, she’ll deposit it in a safe and hidden location, usually deep in a wall crevice, under a heavy appliance or deep in a cluttered cardboard box.

Within a day or two—provided it stays hidden and moist—the eggs will hatch.²

Cockroach Nymphs

From the eggs come many tiny cockroach nymphs. Cockroaches have hard exoskeletons that don’t change in size. As the baby roaches grow, they need more room to breathe… literally.

To molt, a nymph inhales until it bursts out of its old exoskeleton. Then it grows a newer, larger one.

Just after molting, roach nymphs appear white until their new outer covering forms.

A German cockroach nymph reaches adulthood in about 2 months.⁷

Adulthood

As soon as a cockroach “gets its wings” (if it’s a species with wings, that is) and reaches adulthood, it’s ready to start reproducing.

In lab studies, about 85% of nymphs survived to adulthood.⁷ Just 3 days after their final molt, these bugs are already mating!

A female can often reproduce for her entire life from just a single mating.⁷

Adult German roaches live about six months, during which time one female might produce anywhere from 400 to over 1,000 roaches!

Cockroach Egg and Nymph Development by Species

Species	How long till egg hatches	No. of Nymphs per hatching	How long till adulthood
German	30 days	40–50	2 months
Oriental	60 days	15–20	1 year
American	40–50 days	15	6 months to 1 year
Smokybrown	45 days	20	320 days
Brown-banded	70 days	15	160 days

What Does It Mean to Find a Pregnant Roach?

Bad news: finding a pregnant roach means if you don’t already have an infestation, you’re about to.

How fast does a cockroach infestation grow?

Think about it.

One female German roach produces 40 eggs. Let’s say it’s an even split between males and females. A month later, the 20 females each produce 40 offspring. If that pattern continued, in just 4 months you could have 16,000 roaches running riot in your home!

It depends on the species, the environment and a few other factors but it’s not hard to imagine one pregnant roach becoming thousands, if not ten-thousands, within 6 months. Various studies have shown that German roaches can achieve a 20x in just 3 months.⁷

Already, the exact number of zeroes hardly matters; it’s too many cockroaches and a huge safety risk.

What to Expect: Seeing and Smelling

You’ll see plenty of signs as a roach population multiplies that quickly.

1. First, you’ll start to see droppings in more and more places. Roaches spend most of their time hiding but as the population grows, more of them will be forced out into the open. Hence, the clusters of tiny black specks you’ll see popping up in new places every week.
2. Second, you’ll see more and more roaches, living and dead. Maybe you’ve gotten used to spotting a roach or two in the kitchen every few days. If you do nothing, that could become a daily encounter with half a dozen roaches or more. Eventually, they’ll find their way into your appliances, your outlets, your floors and walls, your closets and your drains.
3. Third, there’s a chance you’ll start finding egg sacs in cardboard boxes in the attic and beneath your favorite furniture.
4. You might also start to smell the bugs. Cockroaches in large numbers produce a stale, musty odor that will become noticeable in heavily-infested rooms.

Act Fast: How to Stop a Roach Infestation

We know all of this sounds scary but you have the power to stop the spread of roaches starting today!

Let’s break down exactly what you should do when you find a pregnant roach to ensure that’s the last one you’ll have to deal with!

Effective Roach-Killing Tools

You’ve got a number of cutting-edge roach control tools at your disposal, from good old fashioned sticky traps to advanced gel bait formulas.

• Start with traps, positioning glue traps or roach motels in high-risk areas like the kitchen and bathroom. You can trap roaches along baseboards and behind appliances, too.
  • Learn all about choosing and setting traps in our guide.

• Move on to gel bait, applying pea-sized drops of the gel in cabinets, beneath appliances, behind shelves and in cracks and crevices. Make it easy for the roaches to take the bait, which they’ll unwittingly share with other roaches after it kills them.
  • Learn all about choosing and using roach bait in our guide.

• Shore up your defenses with insecticidal dust, spreading a fine layer of CimeXa or boric acid on shelves, floors and other surfaces where roaches frequently travel. You can even dust in wall cavities and floor voids to kill cockroaches where they’re hiding.
  • Learn all about applying roach-killing dust in our guide.

• Finally, the backbone of it all: sanitation and exclusion. Keep things clean and closed up to prevent roaches from finding food, water or places to hide!

Prevent More Baby Roaches with an IGR

Ready for the secret weapon that’ll take your roach elimination plan to the next level?

It’s called an IGR and it stands for Insect Growth Regulator.

What does it do? It throws a big ol’ wrench into the cockroach baby factory!

An IGR prevents cockroach nymphs from reaching adulthood. By now, you can probably guess what that means for the colony. No adults means no new babies and no new babies means no future adults.

An IGR spray travels through the air and gets absorbed by the roach’s outer shells. It won’t kill the young roaches it reaches but it’ll render them slow, weak and not likely to survive long in the harsh world you’ve created through sanitation and exclusion.

More importantly, it’ll take care of the hidden threat: the hundreds or thousands of hidden eggs about to hatch. The IGR makes sure these weakened roaches are the last wave by cutting off their development before they can grow up into thousands of egg-laying adults.

Spray the IGR in any area where you’ve seen roach activity or suspect they’re hiding to freeze the colony’s growth.

With this plan of attack, you can deal with anything from one pregnant roach to thousands of the pesky pests roaming around your house.

Now, get answers to a few common questions about pregnant roaches.

Conclusion

A pregnant cockroach is a sign of the worst—an infestation that’s primed to explode if it hasn’t already. You’ve made a rare and fascinating discovery but inside your home it spells nothing but trouble.

Find a pregnant roach and it’s time to act fast. Set your traps, choose your bait and spray an IGR to hit the colony from all angles.

You’ve got this!

Frequently Asked Questions

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Sources

1. Fuller, Dawn (2016) Study of a pregnant cockroach paves a new direction in genetics research. University of Cincinnati. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160105133257.htm
2. Wilson, Tracy V. The Cockroach Life Cycle and Behavior. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved from https://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/cockroach2.htm
3. Vector Control – Methods for Use by Individuals and Communities (1997) WHO. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/docstore/water_sanitation_health/vectcontrol/
4. Smokybrown Cockroach. Oklahoma State University Entomology & Plant Pathology. Retrieved from http://entoplp.okstate.edu/ddd/insects/smokybrownroach.htm
5. Oriental Cockroach. Oklahoma State University Entomology & Plant Pathology. Retrieved from http://entoplp.okstate.edu/ddd/insects/orientalbrownroach.htm
6. Newbern, Elizabeth (2016) Mom Genes: This Cockroach Species’ Live Births Are in Its DNA. Live Science. Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/53480-cockroach-pregnancy-unraveled.html
7. Ross, Mary H. and Donald E. Mullins (1995) Understanding and Controlling German Cockroaches. Oxford University Press.

Got house roaches? Let’s be clear—you’ve got a job to do and you’ll want to do it right.

These bugs are easy to get, can be difficult to get rid of, and if they’ve settled into your home, you’ll want to eliminate them ASAP, before the problem gets worse.

Let’s take a look at the common house roach, why it chose your home, how to serve it a proper eviction, and most of all—how to say goodbye for good.

Let’s go!

What is a House Cockroach?

If you’ve got them, you’re already far too familiar with the nasty, disgusting roaches zooming around your home.

But what exactly are “house cockroaches?” You may think you know, but as it turns out, yours may be much different from your neighbor’s.

House roaches can be any of several cockroach species known for targeting human homes. They differ from roaches that live entirely outside, and can quickly cause big problems if you let them stay inside.

Other pests infest our homes too, of course. But what makes house roaches particularly challenging (to get rid of) is their behavior. Because, well—they’re kind of smart.

They hide extremely well. So well in fact that you may have no idea how many there really are. And when you try to kill them (at least the way most people do), they cunningly outwit you, not so much as individuals, but as a group.

They’re also physically talented in ways that make eliminating them (or keeping your sanity around them) even harder. Most house roaches are fast, some can swim, and yes—some can even fly. Sometimes right at you.

The Different Types of House Roaches (Small and Large)

If you were to call in a professional exterminator to solve your cockroach problem, he’d begin by figuring out which kind you have. You’ll want to do that too, because different roaches call for (somewhat) different approaches.

All told, there are 5 main types of house cockroaches likely to be harassing you, along with a couple more that may have entered by mistake.

To identify and treat house roaches, it can be helpful to group them by size—Small and Large. See if you can recognize yours here:

Small roaches: In-house invaders that multiply fast

You might think that large roaches caused the biggest problems, but no—for sheer destructiveness small roaches beat the big ones by a mile. Small roaches are the pint-sized invaders of the cockroach world. They found your home on purpose, they’re relentless in taking over, and they won’t leave until they’ve destroyed much of what you have.

If the roaches in your home are small, they’re likely to be either brown-banded or German house roaches.

German House Roaches

German cockroaches are about ½ inch long, tan or light-brown and feature two dark lines running vertically down their backs. They also have long, semi-transparent wings that they occasionally use for short flights. They love warm, damp hiding places. Kitchens and bathrooms are their favorites.

Brown-Banded House Cockroaches

Brown-banded cockroaches are similar in size to German roaches, but darker in color. Their distinguishing characteristic is a pair of light-brown bands that stretch horizontally across their backs. Males have long wings while females have short ones. They love warm but drier hiding places.

Large roaches: In-house colonizers mistook your home for a sewer

Large roaches are opportunistic creatures that didn’t purposely set out to find your home. Instead, they mistook it for a sewer or compost pile, then decided to stay for the ample food and water, and the cozy shelter you appreciate so much, too.

Large house roaches will infiltrate your home with the seasons. Or when nearby road construction upsets their usual disgusting haunts. Between the time they get in and the time you get rid of them, they’ll terrify your children, crawl onto you at night, and go to the bathroom all over your stuff.

The large house roaches:

American Cockroaches

American cockroaches: Huge (2+ in.), reddish-brown and winged. Ugly. They fly sometimes.

Oriental Cockroaches

Oriental cockroaches: Medium (1 in.), glossy black (or very dark brown) and slow-moving. Often mistaken for beetles. Males’ wings only cover about 2/3 of their backs. They don’t fly.

Smokybrown Cockroaches

Smokybrown cockroaches: Big (1½ in.), and a dark, glossy brown, smokybrown roaches have long wings and long antennae. Usually content to scrabble around your garden or yard, they’ll sometimes infest your attic in large numbers.

Baby House Roaches

Baby roaches look much like adult roaches, but lack wings until they develop them later. Though tiny, they’re no less dangerous and destructive. If you’re seeing lots of baby house roaches or tiny roach eggs, be aware that your home may be in a very active stage of infestation.

Accidental Invaders

Some roaches don’t really find much appealing about your home, but occasionally get in anyway. Unlike the house cockroaches above, they won’t breed inside and infest your home. Left alone, they’re likely to die without your help.

Australian Cockroaches

Australian cockroaches: Also big (1–1 ½ inches), mostly brown but wear striking, pale yellow stripes along each shoulder. Occasional flyers, they may fly inside by mistake, or simply wander in.

Wood House Roaches

Straightforward Guide: How to Get Rid of House Roaches for Good

Identified your cockroach yet? Good. It’s time to get to work.

You’ll begin with products and techniques that work against any house roach, then tweak them for certain ones.

Here are the steps:

Tooling Up

Step 1: Buy a Set of Sticky Traps

Sticky traps are the simplest pest control device on the market—and among the most effective. They attract roaches with a natural scent or pheromone, then trap them with a special glue.

You can use sticky traps the way most folks do—as always-on, everywhere, merciless killing machines. Or the way that exterminators do—as information-gathering tools.

If you go with the later approach (and we recommend you do), you’ll lay down traps in a lot of places, then systematically count and record each trap’s kill. Using sticky traps this way (called “monitoring”), you’ll discover exactly where roaches are most active. And know exactly where to hit them hard.

Sticky traps are generally sold in sets of 8-12. You can buy a single set if you just want to kill cockroaches, but you’ll need more to use the monitoring method well.

For more on buying and using cockroach sticky traps, see here.

Step 2: Buy a Pack of Gel Bait

Cockroach gel bait can be a game-changer for many people, especially for those who’ve only used bombs or sprays.

The gel contains a tiny dose of poison mixed with a strong attractant. After eating the gel, a cockroach will slowly die, after which its body will be consumed by other roaches. The poison will kill those roaches too, and may kill even more roaches as the poison is passed on yet again.

Gel baits are so effective, they can sometimes wipe out an entire cockroach colony, or at a minimum, significantly reduce it.

You’ll find gel baits sold two forms: in disposable plastic “bait stations,” and syringe-style applicators. While you may find bait station products to be more convenient, the syringes allow for more control, and do a better job.

A single package of gel bait will completely treat most homes, with enough left over for follow-up treatments should you need them.

For more on buying and using cockroach gel bait, see here.

Step 3: Buy an Insecticidal Dust and a Hand Duster

Where gel bait hits roaches in their need to eat, insecticidal dust hits them in their need to forage, avoid predators, and seek out mates. That is, it kills them as they crawl around.

Insecticidal dusts are fine powders applied to surfaces roaches walk through. The powder gets on their legs and bodies, then slowly penetrates and destroys their protective shells, eventually killing them.

To apply “dusts” properly, you’ll need a simple tool called a “hand duster,” which distributes the powder in a thin, controlled layer. If you expect to do a lot of dusting, high-end dusters do a better job. But for most people, a less expensive model (about $10) will usually do.

For more on buying and using insecticidal dust, see here.

Taking Action

Step 1: Cleanup

House cleaning may not seem like a pest control method, but it’s one of the most important steps.

House cockroaches can survive on even the tiniest bits of food, so when you vacuum up crumbs or wipe up spills, you deprive them of a meal. They also leave pheromone trails for communication, so when you wipe or scrub down surfaces, you deprive them of signals they use to mate and locate food.

Cleanup also primes your home for the pest control products you’re going to use. It leaves roaches hungrier for your baits, and removes competing scents for the attractants in your traps.

Vacuum

The first step is to get out your vacuum cleaner and give your home a thorough cleaning. Vacuum everything you normally would, but press harder into carpets, deeper into cracks in hardwood floors, and into spaces you might otherwise skip—underneath and between couch cushions, the undersides of furniture, and the tops of lamps, bookcases, and picture frames.

Vacuum not only low, but high. Put your vacuum’s attachments to good use, especially the stiff little brush most vacuum cleaners come with, and (a fierce cockroach weapon if there ever was one) the crevice tool you can use to suction out tiny voids.

Be particularly thorough in kitchens and bathrooms where roaches tend to thrive, and if you actually see any scrambling past you, suction them up, remembering later to throw your vacuum cleaner bag out in a sealed garbage bag.

Declutter

Next? Decluttering. And better organization if your home needs it.

House roaches love clutter, and a disorganized space creates innumerable hiding spots where they can feel protected and lay their eggs. Go through your home room-by-room with a garbage bag and a willingness to toss things out. Be particularly merciless with papers, magazines, or anything made of cardboard, especially cardboard boxes.

Mop and scrub

Finally, get out a mop, sponges, and a wash bucket, and begin scrubbing surfaces cockroaches might have touched. Avoid harsh or smelly cleaners during this step—they could interfere with the pest control products you’re about to use.

Then give your home as thorough a scrubbing as you ever have. If you’re like a lot of folks, this will feel good—like you’re taking back your home.

For more thorough cleaning tips, see Preventing Roaches through Sanitation.

Step 2: Place Your Sticky Traps

There are no concrete rules for placing sticky traps, but exterminators almost always begin with certain high probability spots—kitchen cabinets, the space behind the refrigerator, and underneath each sink.

If you’re using your traps for monitoring, you’ll want to mark each trap with its location before you lay it down. Then check on all your traps every few days or so (more if you have a severely roach infested house).

When at least one of your traps has begun to fill, compare it with the others and record the numbers at each location.

You’ll focus your time and products in those areas in the next two steps.

Step 3: Apply Drops of Gel Bait

Knowing exactly where the problem’s worst (thanks to monitoring), you can start applying your cockroach gel bait.

You’ll apply it in tiny dabs in out-of-the-way places—in nooks and crannies, crevices, and corners. Resist the urge to leave big globs or to apply in long trails like caulk. Pea-sized dabs will do the trick.

If you do it the way the pros do—in small amounts, spaced well apart, in places only a cockroach could love— no one will ever see them. And your pets won’t even know they’re there.

Step 4: Add a Dash of Insecticidal Dust

Next, it’s time to “dust.”

Using your hand duster, you’ll dust in places you can’t reach with gel bait—in deep crevices, voids, and holes. Just a couple of puffs from your duster will coat surfaces deep inside walls and flooring, where the dust can work for years.

As with gel baits, dusts should be applied with a “less is more” approach. A super-fine layer will do the job, and roaches may actually avoid it when you use too much.

Also, don’t plan to apply dust everywhere. A puff inside your laptop may seem like a good idea, but the heat it traps will mess with your system for years.

Step 5: Wait, Watch, and Monitor

The final step—monitoring—is the easy part, because your products do all the work. Your job is to simply let them do that, and watch as the roaches in your house begin to disappear. While that happens there are a few things you should and shouldn’t do:

Do:

• Check your baits every week or so to be sure the roaches are eating them. If they aren’t, you may want to apply them in a different spot. It’s also a good idea to scrape old baits up every couple of weeks and replace them with a fresh batch.
• Check the areas you dusted every so often for moisture. If you dusted near a dripping pipe or inside a basement that later got flooded, the water will turn your dust into soggy clumps that no longer work and need to be reapplied.
• Replace sticky traps as they get full. Traps will fill to the point there’s no more sticky area to stick to. When that happens, living roaches will utilize the dead ones as a food source, defeating part of your objective from Step 4.

Don’t:

• Use any other roach killers (like sprays) in the vicinity of your baits, dusts, and traps. They could lessen their effectiveness, or even turn roaches away.
• Dispose of the dead cockroaches you begin to find. If the gel bait is what killed them, you’ll want them around for other roaches to nibble on, getting a dose of poison, too. Of course, there’s no reason you have to look at them for days, so go ahead and push them out of sight.

Step 6: When Things Don’t Work

Okay, so let’s fast forward a few weeks after you applied your bait and dust. House roaches have either been drastically reduced, or have disappeared completely…right?

If you’ve gotten to this point and you still have a house cockroach problem, there are a number of things you should do.

• First, you’ll want to make sure that your baits are being eaten (see above). If not, and you’re sure there’s roach activity nearby, it may mean roaches either don’t like the bait you chose, or somehow learned to avoid it—and you’ll need to try a different brand.
• Next, you may need to use a different dust. If you settled on borax, boric acid, or diatomaceous earth because they’re natural, you may want to replace them with CimeXa, a man-made alternative which doesn’t exactly come directly from the earth, but is actually safer and does a better job.
• You may also want to add a fourth roach treatment product to your attack, an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR), which interrupts the breeding cycle of the common house roach, dealing a long-term blow to the colony. An IGR is sometimes the clincher product in treating a more embedded infestation, and they’re simple to use.

Step 7: Keeping House Roaches From Coming Back

After your house roaches are gone, how do you keep them from coming back?

Cockroach control at home—for the long-term, really depends on prevention. And there are two kinds of prevention you should take: General preventive steps that apply to all cockroaches. And special preventive steps that apply to large vs. small species.

To prevent all cockroaches from coming back

Since roaches looking for a space to infest are also looking for food, you can deny them a reason to target your home through regular cleaning, removing those tasty crumbs and smears as they appear.

Also consider replacing your garbage containers with ones that have tight-fitting lids, take the trash out often, and begin sealing foods in airtight containers with thick walls roaches can’t chew through.

You’ll want to hunt up possible water sources, too. The brown-banded cockroach doesn’t need much water, but all others do. Make it your personal mission to find and eliminate every drip, leak, or puddle a roach could drink from, including condensation.

Now, onto some specific approaches.

To prevent large roaches in particular

Since large house roaches (American, Oriental, Smokybrown) are primarily outdoor creatures, you’ll need to literally seal them out of your home, including your walls, your foundation, and your drains.

• Consider buying a set of drain covers. Roaches in home septic systems (and city sewers) are not only common, but mobile, and yes—they’ll climb up your pipes when conditions are right. Drain covers are an inexpensive solution for that, and keep any roaches already inside your home from entering drains for a drink.
• Invest in a tube of caulk, some steel or copper mesh, and a can of expanding foam to deter large cockroaches. In home construction—exterior walls and foundations—roaches will find all the holes, cracks, and gaps that have opened over time, and slip right into them. Also look for gaps in siding, and deteriorating seals around window frames and doors.
• If lots of cockroaches are coming in from outside, consider adding one more technique—a perimeter treatment to Steps 1, 2, and 3 above. With this method, you’ll apply a weather-resistant spray to your home’s foundation, and possibly a granular bait nearby.

To prevent small roaches

Unlike their larger cousins, small roaches don’t typically enter through exterior walls. Instead, they choose sneakier modes of entry that speak volumes about how much they love to be around us.

Live in an apartment or a condo? Your roach problem may have started in your neighbor’s unit, and made it to yours through the walls. You’ll want to stop that from happening again, so get out your caulk gun and begin sealing up every crack and crevice you find, puffing a little dust inside first for any roaches that make it that far.

Then there are the ways we unknowingly bring roaches in ourselves. German and brown-banded roaches are born stowaways, so tiny you might not notice them in the boxes, bags, and parcels you regularly carry into your home.

• If you suspect your favorite grocer or takeout restaurant could have a pest problem, inspect your bags before toting them inside.
• If you love thrift shops and yard sales, know that roaches love them too, and could be hiding in virtually anything someone else has owned—furniture, clothing, electronics, or appliances.
• Boxes of free stuff, or hand-me-downs? Think about those bargains first. They may hold an all too-familiar surprise.

Conclusion

House roaches are pernicious pests that bring trouble to homes around the world. Don’t let them get the best of you, and don’t let a house cockroach problem get worse!

Start with step 1 in this guide right now, and keep exploring the site for even more tips (try out these easy Roach-Free Recipes) to get rid of roaches fast!

You can do it!

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

1. 2019 State of the Cockroach Control Market (2019) Zoecon/Central Life Sciences.
2. Picard, Caroline and Amanda Garrity (2020) Pest Experts Share How You Can Get Rid of Roaches in 5 Easy Steps. Good Housekeeping. Retrieved from https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/a47840/how-to-get-rid-of-roaches/
3. Why do I have cockroaches in my home? (2016) National Pesticide Information Center. Retrieved from http://npic.orst.edu/faq/roach.html
4. Potter, Michael F. (2018) Cockroach Elimination in Homes and Apartments. University of Kentucky Entomology. Retrieved from https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef614

Water roaches might not sound like fearsome pests but if they get into your house, they can cause lots of trouble. What causes these bugs to invade homes and what can you do to stop them?

Let’s explore what attracts water roaches and list the steps you can take to keep them out.

Wait! What is a Water Roach?

Before we get into the details, we have to straighten this out: a water cockroach isn’t a kind of bug that’s “sort of, but not really,” a cockroach. It is a cockroach. A cockroach of a very specific kind.

Water roaches are a group of roaches known as peridomestic cockroaches—a type of insect that primarily lives outside. In certain regions of the country, these cockroaches have acquired “water roach” as a sort of catch-all nickname (along with “palmetto bugs,” too).

The cockroach species we’re really talking about?

The Oriental cockroach, Smoky brown cockroach, and by far the most common, the American cockroach (for pictures of these roaches see above).

And the species of cockroach we’re not talking about?

The indoor, or “domestic” cockroaches like the Brown-banded cockroach and the German cockroaches below.

Note: Belostomatidae, a.k.a. the Giant Water Bug or “toe biter” may sometimes be referred to as a water roach, too. These bugs live in water and can deliver painful bites when disturbed, but are not household troublemakers and are probably not the pest you came here for.

Now, without further ado, let’s talk about what causes a water cockroach problem and what you can do about it.

What Causes Them to Come Inside?

Water roaches invade homes for a few reasons, most of which are out of a homeowner’s control. Seriously—they infest homes both clean and dirty, as long as there’s a little food and… the number one reason they move indoors…

Easy access to water.

True to its name, a water cockroach needs lots of water to survive. If a dry spell sucks the water out of the mulch and leaves that cockroaches eat, they’ll start looking elsewhere to quench their thirst—say, those potted plants you dutifully water on the porch.

Just like that, they’ll begin to ignore your personal space and commandeer your home, one area at a time. How disrespectful.

Can Water Roaches Infest Your House?

They might be outdoor bugs to begin with, but once inside, water roaches make themselves at home. Reddish brown to dark brown in color and big—between 1 and 2 inches long, they’re attracted to warm, damp areas, such as the kitchen, bathroom, basement or attic.

They’re fast-moving, good at hiding, and hide behind appliances, in cupboards and in outlets and vents. They can crawl through the hollows between walls and lay eggs beneath baseboards.

You don’t want these bugs around at all, but especially don’t want them building nests in your home. Within weeks of a colony settling in, you could be dealing with dozens more of these intruders skittering around.

Can They Come Up Toilets?

Though it’s true that cockroaches can hold their breath—thankfully, no. Not toilets filled with water, anyway. But leave your house for a season and let your pipes run dry—well, that’s another story. With no water in the pipes and no barrier between your home and the sewer, you could face a nightmare in the bathroom when you return.

Drains, on the other hand, are perfectly acceptable hiding places for these pests. They don’t live in water but they’re known for sneaking into drains for a drink and using the pipes as shortcuts from room to room.

Do They Crawl on You at Night?

Water roaches almost never willingly approach a human, but (rarely) have been known to crawl onto beds at night, drawn by the sweat and skin cells that collect in the sheets. And for what it’s worth, though they’re physically capable of biting people, they’re not often known to do it.

How to Get Rid of Water Roaches

Since these bugs are outdoor insects, preventing them starts outside… in their arena.

Prevention comes down to 4 steps:

1. Inspect
2. Seal
3. Clean
4. Treat

With a solid plan and dedication to the task, you’ll be like a pest control professional in no time.

Ready? Let’s start with step one.

1. Inspect for entry points.

You’re looking for the tiny cracks, crevices and holes that could provide bugs an easy way to enter your home. Check for gaps around the dryer vent, cracks in the walls, holes in the foundation and torn window screens. Roaches sometimes hide in electrical boxes or near hose bibbs in the wall.

2. Cover and seal every opening you find.

With their small, flat bodies, it’s like cockroaches are designed to be able to squeeze through tight spaces—and they are. To create a solid barrier against these bugs, you’ll have to close up every opening you can find with caulk, steel wool or a mesh screen.

That might seem like a lot of work for a “just-in-case” scenario. But be aware—it takes far more work to get rid of water roaches than it does to exclude them and prevent a problem from happening in the first place.

3. Clean up and organize outside (and inside).

Keeping things as neat and tidy as possible is one of the most important ways to prevent these bugs from finding refuge in your home and mooching off your leftovers. The best-case scenario is keeping them far away from your home in the first place.

Here are a few tweaks to help you achieve this:

• Spread mulch thinly so that it dries more quickly and disappoints lazy invaders looking for an easy hiding place.
• Keep things like garbage cans, piles of firewood and landscaping supplies away from your house.
• Before you bring anything in from the garage or outside, carefully check it for signs of cockroaches. The worst surprise would be giving these bugs a free ride into your own home.

Will they leave if there’s no food?

A water cockroach can live as long as a month without eating but, eventually, it’s going to need some food. These scavengers love finding a plate of leftovers that someone forgot to wrap up. A sink full of dirty dishes is like a midnight snack buffet.

Sweeping, vacuuming, wiping and washing around the kitchen removes their easy food sources. Sometimes, that’s enough to send them looking for new digs.

4. Use pesticides (natural or otherwise) to keep them away.

Once your defense is all set up, you can bolster it with a bit of offense. Pesticides come in many forms but the most effective ones for dealing with a water roach problem (remember to read all labels and precautions) are going to be granular treatments and liquid sprays.

Granular pesticides are great because you can sprinkle them in the mulch and grass and let them work in the background, out of sight and automatically. Sprays can also help treat hard-to-reach areas, like narrow crevices.

One of the best all-natural pesticides is boric acid. You can mix this powder with sugar and sprinkle a thin layer where you think water bugs would enter.

Food-grade diatomaceous earth works wonders as another natural, non-toxic pesticide. You can sprinkle it inside and outside, wherever you want to create a deadly barrier for bugs.

Conclusion

Armed with the steps above, along with a little time and effort, you should be able to stop most water cockroach problem in their tracks.

However, if water roaches have already gotten inside your home, your response will need to be a little different. Learn how to get rid of cockroaches in our guide to facing a cockroach infestation.

Either way, you can do it!

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Sources

1. Why do I have cockroaches in my home? (2016) National Pesticide Information Center. Retrieved from http://npic.orst.edu/faq/roach.html
2. Beriseno, Terri. 10 Cockroach Hiding Spaces. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved from https://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/household-hints-tips/insect-control/10-cockroach-hiding-spots2.htm