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How to Get Rid of Roaches
by Brenda H. Murphy
Description: Tips for controlling roaches in your home.
Just the sight of one of these multi-legged, hard-shelled
visitors crawling across the floor is enough to make your toes
curl, and your screams can hit high notes you didn't realize
were possible. But what are you dealing with?
Roaches are a large, disgusting insect, with six legs, and 18
knee joints. (We were sure you'd want to know that.) There are
more than 5,000 species in the world, but the most common are
the German cockroach, and the American cockroach.
Initially cockroaches may infest your home from the outside,
finding cracks, gaps under doors, and other ways to enter the
home, attracted by warmth, darkness, and spoiling food or
standing water, in things like open garbage pails, unwashed
dishes. As big as they may seem, a cockroach can insinuate
itself through an opening as thin as a dime when young, or a
quarter as an adult. They don't like light, which is why many
homeowners can't believe it when the cat or dog presents them
with the remains of their latest victim. But you can't depend
on your pets to control the population.
The first measure in getting rid of cockroaches is hygiene. If
you have stored vegetables that are rotting, open containers of
food in cupboards, or unsecured garbage pails, remove all refuse
and replace containers with those that seal tightly. Check under
appliances, in cupboards, basement corners, and other dark
places for traces of a black gritty dirt that has an oily
appearance. This is roach feces and a sign that you do have a
problem.
Once your home is cleaned, your choices in removing them are to
do it yourself, or to have the home professionally treated by a
pest control company. Which you choose, may depend on the
severity of the infestation. The primary means of destroying
roaches are contact poisons/sprays, and residual sprays which
leave time released ingredients in your cupboards and on the
surfaces where sprayed, that will work over a period of 2-3
weeks. There are also the infamous "roach motels" that can be
placed in your cupboards. Sometimes it may take a combination
of several methods, such as an immediate contact kill
substance, and then roach motels in places where you have
evidence of previous inhabitants. Once your immediate problem
is eliminated, you can also take preventative measures, such as
sprinkling powdered boric acid in between walls, and around
foundations where they may have entered the house. This is
generally a safe product, and will be carried on the roaches
feet, to wherever they are hiding and breeding.
And one important note of caution for you: Pesticides can be
highly toxic to humans and pets. Spray treatments should never
be carried out without proper respiratory protection, and first
removing of all food, pets and dishes or other items that your
food may come in contact with.
Visit http://www.LearnHowToRemove.com for a
growing library of tips to remove those annoying messes in your
life.
Reader comment: I use draught arresters at all exit doors to
stop cockroaches from entering. Probably works with some spiders and also small mice
which I have seen leaving from under door. Seeing is believing...Daisy
Reader comment: Do not keep pet food out on the patio where the roaches can get
to it. Put boric acid in the weep holes between the bricks around the
outside of the house....the best thing I ever did to eliminate roaches...Dana
