Roaches are common pests that can live in your house secretly. If you notice a single cockroach, you should not ignore it. You may not know it but there can be many more bugs hiding throughout your home.
Cockroaches are adept at hiding. Thus, you should check some favorite roach places to find these bugs, such as bathroom sinks and kitchen cabinets. You must also keep an eye out for signs of roach infestations, including fecal droppings, shed skin, and eggs.
To control a roach infestation, we must plan a step ahead. So, let’s explore what you should do if you see one cockroach.
Can You Have a Single Roach in Your Home?
You can have a single cockroach roaming around your house. The bug can either be a loner, roach scout, or the last surviving member of its colony. It can also be an unfortunate wood roach that found its way into your home with some firewood.
But without a detailed investigation, you should not make such conclusions. That’s because roaches are nocturnal insects that prefer to live in groups. They sneak out of their nests in the dark, so you can barely see them active in the daytime.
Roaches are also adept at infesting homes rapidly. So if you see one roach, it can be an alert for a larger infestation. To find out whether or not you have a roach problem, you should look for signs of cockroaches living in your house.
What To Do If You See One Cockroach?
If you see one roach, you should find out if more bugs are living in your home by following a few methods. These include checking common roach hiding spots as these bugs can fit into the tiniest cracks and crevices. For instance, cockroaches can hide in:
- Cabinets
- Drawers
- Walls
Thus, you can never know if they are living under the bed until things get out of control. You can also search for some obvious signs of a roach infestation.
Experts Say: Roaches Can Squeeze Their Bodies
According to research, cockroaches can squeeze their body size by 40 to 60%. This is why these bugs can easily fit into small holes and crack. Additionally, their squeezing ability allows them to enter your home through tiny openings.
No matter how vigilant you are at sealing access into the house; roaches can always find a way inside. This shows that seeing one more roach definitely means there are more hiding in nooks and crevices of your home.
How To Find Roach Hiding Spots?
You can find roach hiding spots by looking into dark, warm, and humid spaces. Here are some common roach living areas you can start raiding:
Bathrooms
Bathrooms offer the ideal vacation spot for roaches. They offer food, water, and shelter and are mostly dark. You can check your bathrooms for roach infestations in these spaces:
- Cabinet joints
- Plumbing behind bathtubs, sinks, toilets, and showers
- Drains
Kitchens
Cockroaches can enjoy living in your kitchen as it can offer several food options and multiple hiding spots, including:
- Cabinets and cupboards
- Appliances like refrigerators, microwaves, etc.
Laundry Room
The laundry room contains moisture and warmth, allowing cockroaches to thrive comfortably. Check these areas:
- Dryer/Washer motor
- Cabinets
Bedrooms
Your bedroom can host roaches if it has food crumbs on the floor. Roaches can also infest your bedroom for warmth and safety. You can check your bedroom for roaches in these areas:
- Under the bed
- Behind the dresser
- Behind the bed
- Inside cupboards, drawers, or cabinets
Basement
Your basement is often left abandoned and can be a suitable space for roaches to live. Inspect these spots:
- Corners and bases of walls with holes and cracks
- Baseboard gaps and cracks
- Cardboard or paper boxes
Drains
Drains can have cracks and leaks too. As a result, these bugs may freely live inside:
- Damaged drain covers
- Pipe ducts
What Are the Signs of a Roach Infestation?
Common roach infestation signs include roach droppings, molts, odors, etc. If you see one cockroach, these signs can be proof that there are several more in your home:
Cockroach Droppings
Roach droppings or feces can indicate the presence of many bugs infesting your house. You can identify roach poop as specks of black pepper or ground coffee. They usually measure less than a millimeter in width and can have different lengths.
If your home is infested by hundreds of roaches, you may find a lot of droppings in kitchen utensils, behind furniture, under the sink, and inside cabinets.
Molts
Cockroaches have a flexible exoskeleton. They can shed their protective covering multiple times as they grow in their lifetime. You can find their molts in various places around the house. These skin sheds may be present in abundance near common roach-hiding spots.
Smear Marks
Roaches can leave irregular and brown smear marks on surfaces they crawl. For instance, you can find smear marks along walls or floors.
Eggs
Roaches lay their eggs in a special egg case called ootheca. One ootheca can contain up to 50 roach eggs.
Usually, they are cylindrical and brown. Once the roach babies hatch, the ootheca is left behind. If you find these egg cases in multiple areas of your house, you can have a roach infestation.
Damage
Cockroaches can eat almost anything. They can feed on organic materials, including books and leather. Thus, they can leave chew marks or other signs of damage on many items in your home.
Oily Odor
Roaches can release pheromones for communication that have a musty or oily odor. They also release pheromones to leave tracks. Depending on the bug infestation level, this smell can be moderate or intense.
How Do Cockroaches Enter Your Home?
Cockroaches can enter your house in many ways. These insects can infest the cleanest homes if they offer access to water, food, and shelter. They are adept at squeezing through small holes and cracks. Thus, they can use any pipe or hole to crawl inside.
Here are some common ways roaches can enter your home:
Take a Piggyride
Roaches can enter your home with grocery bags, luggage, furniture, or card boxes. Additionally, if an object contains roach eggs, it can produce several cockroaches that can cause an infestation.
Come From Your Neighbors
Cockroaches can enter your home through the plumbing system. They can easily migrate between nearby apartments by crawling through connecting pipes, lines, or common walls.
From Drains and Sewers
Roaches can thrive in sewers, but they can also use them to enter your home. If roaches are getting into your house through drains or sewers, you must repair your sewer system.
Why Do Roaches Suddenly Appear?
Cockroaches can suddenly appear in your home for many reasons. These can include:
Overcrowding
If roaches run out of living space, they can be forced out to look for new shelters. This can usually happen if you have a severe infestation.
Disturbed Hiding Spot
You can startle cockroaches by disturbing their nests. Thus, the bugs can start roaming in your house suddenly.
Open Drains
If you leave a drain pipe open, cockroaches can come into your home wasting no time.
How To Remove Cockroaches?
You can remove cockroaches by following a few effective methods. These can include:
Cleaning
Roaches can infest homes that are unclean and offer food. That’s why cleaning your home can help you get rid of roaches fast. For this purpose, you should:
- Remove roaches nests
- Remove food crumbs
- Dispose of garbage regularly
- Vacuum carpets
- Clean cabinets, appliances, cupboards, etc.
- Store food in airtight containers
- Clean floors, walls, and old dusty corners
- Avoid leaning uncleaned dishes overnight
- Remove roach dead bodies and eggs
This way, cockroaches can have a hard time searching for food. As a result, they can migrate to other places to satisfy their hunger.
Setting Glue Traps
You can set up glue strips near roach hiding spaces to estimate the level of infestation. For instance, place sticky traps under the sink or near your refrigerator.
You can also use this method for removing baby roaches. When they crawl over the strip, their legs can stick to them. The nymphs are usually weak and can not escape the traps.
Reduce Roach Hiding Spots
You can reduce cockroach hiding spaces in your home to get rid of them. For this, you can declutter your home by throwing away excess papers, cardboard boxes, etc.
Also, organize your storage spaces and monitor them regularly. This can help you identify a roach infestation as early as possible.
Seal Roach Entry Points
Roaches can enter your home from cracks and holes. So, you should seal or caulk them to reduce their access to your home. This method can help you prevent more roaches from coming. Additionally, you can kill the bugs inside your home without letting them escape your treatment.
Dry Standing Water
Cockroaches can infest your home if you have leaky pipes and standing water. However, if you fix your house’s plumbing system and dry-standing water areas, roaches can die from dehydration within a week or two.
Use Roach Baits
You can use cockroach bait traps to capture the bugs on sticky surfaces. These traps are available at most house improvement stores and are quite useful.
The powerful traps feature insecticides disguised as food. When roaches feed on the bait, the poison enters their body and kills them within a few days.
The best part about bait traps is that roaches can poison their colony members when they return to the nest after eating.
You can place these traps near stoves, inside cabinets, under sinks, behind furniture, near trash cans, etc. However, you should ensure to reapply for the treatment after two or three weeks.
Use Boric Acid
Boric acid is a handy remedy to kill cockroaches. To use this ingredient, you must mix sugar, flour, and boric acid equally. Then, prepare a dough and place small dough balls near roach nests.
When the roaches eat this dough, they can die within a few days. For effective results, you should replace these dough balls every few days.
Spray Liquid Concentrates
Liquid concentrates are useful roach deterrents. You can mix them in water and prepare a diluted spray. Then, spray the solution on cracks, holes, and roach nests to eliminate the pests.
Use Roach Killing Dust
You can use roach-killing dust or Diatomaceous Earth to remove roach infestations. The special dust works by damaging the roach exoskeleton and affecting the nervous system.
Thus, the bugs die within a few weeks. They can also carry the dust to their nests, causing more casualties. To eliminate cockroaches completely, you should reapply the dust near roach nests and crawling areas after a few days.
FAQs
When Should I Be Worried About Cockroaches?
You should be worried about cockroaches when you notice cockroach droppings under the sink, along walls, or near the dustbin. Additionally, if you see cockroaches in daylight, it can indicate a serious bug infestation.
Does Killing a Cockroach Attract More?
Yes. Killing a cockroach can attract more roaches. That’s because killing one bug can release oleic acid to inform other roaches about nearby food sources. Therefore, if you kill cockroaches, you should dispose of them properly.
Conclusion
If you see one cockroach in your home, several more can be hiding from you.
- Find cockroach hiding spots
- Look for roach nests near food sources, water, and darkness
- Roach droppings, odors, molts, and eggs can signify a growing infestation
- Cockroaches can enter your home through pipes, ducts, holes, cracks
- Use roach traps, baits, and dust
- Keep your home clean and seal entry points to prevent roach infestation
- Reduce food and water sources
- Reduce roach hiding spots