When baby roaches appear in your home, it is a sign of a well-established roach
Food Sources: Crumbs, spills, or improperly stored food can attract roaches. Moisture: Roaches are drawn to damp areas, so leaky pipes or high humidity can contribute to infestations. Entry Points: Gaps, cracks, and openings in walls or around windows and doors can allow roaches to enter.
Cockroaches can squeeze into the smallest spaces and multiply quickly, especially German roaches, producing hundreds of offspring in a year. One roach can mean an infestation is growing; it can also mean you have a full-blown infestation, especially if you notice them frequently or see all life stages.
In addition to being unpleasant and unwanted guests in the home, small roaches can spread harmful bacteria and cause allergies and asthma in children. Effective roach control starts with making your home unappetizing for these pesky creatures by removing all available food sources.
Why? Because roaches go through several life stages, seeing nymphs likely means that adult roaches have already settled in, mated, and produced egg cases (known as oothecae). Each egg case can hold anywhere from 16 to 50 eggs, depending on the species. Keep this in mind as you consider the level of infestation.
Small Roaches vs Big Roaches. Some may think small roaches are the “worse” type of roach, and this is probably because they may think a small roach is always a German roach. They can be, but if you see small roaches around your home this could also be a juvenile roach of some other type, such as an American roach.
Some strong scents, such as lavender and mint, have been known to repel cockroaches.
Generally, the presence of discarded skins and feces are indicative of a nest, with other telltale features including a large number of dead roaches, egg cases, dark spots, and smears. Egg cases are usually brown and less than a quarter of an inch long. Each case can house 40 or more baby roaches.
Seeing baby roaches but no adults after treatment is common. This could happen because: The Treatment Worked: The treatment might have killed most of the adult roaches, leaving only the newly hatched nymphs.
Insecticides can be used to kill baby cockroaches on contact. However, it's important to use products that are safe for indoor use and follow the instructions carefully. Boric acid: This is a natural insecticide that's toxic to cockroaches. Sprinkle it around entry points and where you've seen cockroaches.
Here are some tips on how to identify roach eggs: Look for small, white, cylindrical eggs that are about 1/8 of an inch long. Eggs are often found in clusters and can be hidden anywhere from cracks and crevices in the wall to inside furniture. Eggs are usually found in a protective casing called an ootheca.
No matter how clean your home is, if there's some excess moisture somewhere, it could very well be an attractive invitation for your neighborhood roaches. This is one of the reasons why you'll commonly find roaches hanging out in your bathroom and laundry room or around an appliance that produces condensation.
Citrus is one of the scents cockroaches are most known to hate, notably lemon and orange. Keeping a dish of lemon juice on your kitchen counter can deter these pests, as well as placing lemon peels around the home to discourage cockroaches from coming out of hiding.
Leaving the light on doesn't deter cockroaches effectively because they can navigate in low-light conditions. While they're mostly active at night, they may still come out in search of food or water. During the day, cockroaches hide in dark areas not directly exposed to light.
Cockroaches are blessed with an amazing sense of smell. This is what they use when seeking food and mate but at the same time, this is also their weakness. A cockroach's sense of smell can be used to get rid of them.
The presence of baby cockroaches usually indicates there is a nest nearby. Once a nest is established in or near your home, the odds are likely that you either have a full blown infestation already or one is in the process of starting.
What causes roaches in houses and apartments? What attracts roaches to a clean house primarily consists of their basic needs: food, water, and shelter, although they are usually brought into houses and apartments on other items, such as luggage or clothing.
Cockroaches are drawn to sweet, rotting things. They will feed on sweets, meats, starches, and decaying organic matter. If you have these in your home, roaches will be happy to stay.
Poor sanitation, improper food storage, and water leaks provide ample resources for these pests to thrive. Even small crumbs or spills can attract cockroaches and support their populations.
Use bait stations: Place roach bait stations where you have seen roaches, such as under sinks or behind appliances. Use sticky traps: Place sticky traps in areas where you have seen roaches to capture them. Sticky traps also make ideal monitoring boards if you think you might have a pest issue.
It may surprise you to know that cockroaches are, in fact, able to bite humans. There have been reported cases of cockroaches biting fingernails, eyelashes and calloused skin on hands or feet. Cockroaches will also eat dead skin cells. However, cases of cockroach bites are extremely rare.