COCKROACH CONTROL TREATMENTS
Canberra, Queanbeyan and beyond
Nobody wants a cockroach in their home, business or worse still their restaurant. With their fast scurrying movements and association with disease, they certainly are disgusting. Here at Residential Reports, if you have a cockroach infestation that can’t be dealt with under our general pest control treatment we can carry out specialised cockroach control management plans to eliminate the problem
What cockroach control treatments do we provide?
Our standard treatments provide protection from large cockroaches entering the building. However, you have a significant cockroach problem, especially a German cockroach infestation, it will be necessary to carry out a specific cockroach treatment.
Large cockroach control treatments:
Large cockroach treatment involve identifying the main hiding places and where possible treating these sites. If treatment is not possible (eg sewers), we will look at ways to make them less attractive. The building will then be protected using a combination of sprays around the outside of the building and cockroach baits in the problem areas inside. Powder will be blow into the roof void if that is considered a significant cockroach hiding place.
Small cockroach control treatments:
Small cockroach control is more often than not targeted at the German cockroach. Locating all the hiding places is key. Cockroach baits are the key product to control German cockroaches and these will be placed need all suspected hiding places. Sometimes a special non-repellent spray will be used to target specific areas
Whereas home can often be dealt with using a one off treatment, regular service plans are more commonly required for apartment blocks, food businesses and restaurants.
Give our friendly staff a call to see how we can help with your cockroach problem.
The success of any of our cockroach treatments also depending on the homeowner or business owner carrying out the necessary housekeeping steps to make the building less attractive to cockroaches (see below).
Tips to keep cockroaches out of your house
1) The key preventative action is to reduce the available food sources – maintain good hygiene;
- Clear up any spilled food
- Clean down and under the oven / fridge regularly
- Do not leave unwashed dishes out overnight
- Do not leave pet food bowls out with food in or unwashed
- Food should be stored in tight “cockroach proof” containers
- Put rubbish into sealed bins and stack away from the house
2) Fix any leaking taps / pipework – cockroaches love moisture
3) As cockroach like to hide in cracks and can enter the house / unit through cracks, fill any cracks in the floors, walls and fill gaps around pipework.
COCKROACH EGG CASES IN BOXES ARE A COMMON WAY FOR COCKROACHES TO GET INTO YOUR HOME!
4) As the larger cockroaches often like to live in and around wood piles, mulch, garden debris, keep such materials away from buildings.
5) Check incoming packaging material, such as cardboard boxes. This is a common way for the German cockroach to enter your property and set up home.
6) If you are in an apartment block, it is important to have an overall pest plan for the building as cockroaches readily spread from one apartment to the next through the shared pipework.
7) Have a aerosol spray available that can be used to quickly kill the occasional cockroaches that enters your home. (Crawling insect aerosols that contains the insecticide imiprothrin give the quickest results).
A bit more on cockroaches...
Generally speaking there are two types of cockroaches;
- large cockroaches species which can be up to 5cm long tend to live outside and come inside looking for food
- small cockroaches species which are up to 1.5cm long tend to live inside and are more difficult to control
Large cockroaches (such as the American cockroach and Australia cockroach), tend to live outside in dark damp areas such as the sewers and sub-floor areas of buildings. Surprisingly they also like, hot dry roof voids where they hide under insulation.
Small cockroaches (such as the German cockroach and Brown banded cockroach) live inside. German cockroaches tend to live in kitchens, bathrooms and laundries, Brown banded cockroaches (which look very similar) tend to live in drier areas such as bedrooms and living rooms.
All cockroach species are nocturnal which is why many homeowners may not know they have a cockroach problem. If you start to see cockroaches during the day, it’s likely you have a major problem as their normal hiding places are overcrowded!
The cockroach life-cycle starts with an egg case, which contains around 30 eggs. These eggs hatch into nymphs (young cockroaches without wings). These young nymphs can be very small (a couple of mm) in the smaller cockroach species. As the nymph grows it sheds its cuticle and may go through five stages before turning into the adult stage). The complete life cycle may be as quick as 4-6 weeks for German cockroaches but can tend several months for the larger cockroach species.
The German cockroach is probably the most difficult to control. Its rapid rate of reproduction means that numbers can quickly get out of control. Due to its small size it can nest in the smallest cracks and crevices and loves electrical items, often nesting in microwaves, toasters and dishwashers!
