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Your business is your business, but when you’ve got pests, it’s our business. At Lloyd Pest Control, we can help you keep doing business without the unplanned guests.
Nobody likes having pests in their home or business, but there’s often something particularly nasty about cockroaches. The smell, the scurrying, the crunching if you happen to step on one – it is anything but pleasant.
Most roach infestations in homes or businesses are of the German variety. German roaches are small, about half an inch long, and yellowish-brown. There are other types of roaches, such as the much-larger American and Oriental roaches (which can be up to 2 inches in length), but they are natural outdoor bugs that usually stay there. Not the German roach, though.
So, why do these German cockroaches infest anywhere and everywhere indoors? What are they seeking? And is there anything you can do to avoid an infestation? Lloyd Pest Control is here to equip you with the information you need to remain roach-free.
Like any good scavenger, roaches seek out food – and they aren’t picky about it. In addition to foods people would eat like bread and meat, roaches can eat things like glue, book bindings, and even toothpaste. They aren’t outdoor roaches so will naturally seek buildings containing their meals.
In addition to food, one of the defining traits of roach behavior is their preference for both moisture and heat. As a result, you won’t often find them in dry, cool areas.
You might think roaches only infest dirty, poorly-kept homes. While it is true that a lack of readily available food will prevent extreme breeding from happening, roaches can infest even clean homes. The safe, predictable indoors is much more hospitable to roaches than the harsh outdoors, and if there is a way in, a roach population will be more than happy to make themselves welcome.
Two rooms are particularly susceptible to roaches: kitchens and bathrooms. Kitchens are great sources of food and home to plenty of warm, dark corners (like behind the fridge and under the stove). Bathrooms are usually the wettest rooms in the house, so roaches are perfectly fine hanging out there.
Restaurants and hotels are the two businesses most often infested by roaches, as they provide scrumptious meals and ample warm nooks. Places of business that do not practice satisfactory sanitation are most prone, but roaches are resilient creatures and can make their way to clean businesses as well.
Non-service businesses are also vulnerable. Roaches can hitch a ride with employees or in shipments of cardboard boxes, which are favorite hiding places for the critters. And since roaches can multiply quickly, offices and high-rises certainly aren’t immune to an infestation either.
Roaches wouldn’t be as much of a nuisance if not for their prevalence and their hazards to health. Unfortunately, roaches are hardy, and they can also pose multiple health problems.
Cockroaches are surprisingly crafty creatures. They’re relentless in their pursuit of inside spaces and get creative in finding routes indoors. This can include pipes, cracks in the wall or foundation, and the tiny spaces underneath your garage doors. Roaches are great hitchhikers, too.
Another reason German roaches are so prevalent is because of their parenting skills. Unlike many other bugs, roach mothers will carry around their egg sacs until they are about to hatch, which helps optimize their birth location and keep them away from danger. When combined with their low bar for what they need and want to eat, roach populations can rapidly get out of hand.
It’s commonly known that rodents and mosquitoes carry disease, but cockroaches are equally dangerous in this regard. Roaches can carry bacteria and viruses on their bodies in addition to spreading disease via their droppings. Some of these diseases include:
Although cockroaches won’t directly contaminate you with a disease like a mosquito, a population of roaches can quickly contaminate large swaths of your house or business. This is problematic because they don’t even need to be in sight for their diseases to reach you.
Even in death, roaches pose a health risk. Like many other insects, they shed their skin. This old skin is made up of a protein called chitin, which eventually breaks down and becomes airborne. This protein is an allergen for many, causing itchy eyes, a runny nose, rashes, and other symptoms. Furthermore, exposure to cockroaches has been linked to the development of asthma in children.
The single best thing you can do to combat roaches is sanitation. Yes, roaches can eat lots of things, but if there isn’t ready access to food in your home or business, it will be very difficult or impossible to maintain a strong population.
Even if your home or business is perfectly clean, roaches could enter and give someone a scare if there is a way in from the outside. Do some investigating (and caulking work) and see if there are any potential entry points.
If roaches crawling up and down your wall is driving you up the wall, let the professionals step in and help. Lloyd proudly uses sustainable cockroach control tactics with the lowest toxicity materials possible. In many cases, low-impact baiting works excellently, where our technicians will use sticky traps to identify hot spot areas in which to deploy the baits. Our expert technicians are experienced in both business and residential settings and are prepared to help kick out those unwanted guests. Don’t delay; contact Lloyd Pest Control today!
