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Roaches

ROACHES - Some of their more common names are kitchen bugs, kitchen roaches, sewer bugs, water bugs, house bugs, and palmetto bugs. They form the oldest group of insects. They are among the most persistent and are highly adaptable. They live both indoors and out. They are the most important household pest infesting homes, restaurants, bakeries, hotels, and any other place they can find food, water, and shelter. Some of these roach pests are the German Roach, American Roach, Brown Banded Roach, and the Smokey Brown Roach.

BIOLOGY- They belong to the order Dictyoptera. They go through Gradual Metamorphosis, meaning egg, nymph, and adult. The eggs are placed in purse-like capsules called oothecas, commonly referred to as egg cases, and depending on the specie they can contain from 12-50 eggs each. The eggs are contained in two rows of divided chambers inside the ootheca. Females may carry the egg case for several days protruding from their abdomen before she deposits it or glues it in a safe location. The tiny nymphs that hatch resemble the adults except in color. They go through periods of growth commonly referred to as molting to become adults. These insects prefer dark, damp, and warm hiding places during the day and are active at night. If they are active during the day then that is usually a good indicator that there is a severe infestation. They like to hide in refrigerator insulation and motors, sink cabinets, drainpipes, furnace rooms, sewers, food service equipment, and any crack and crevice they can find in floors, walls, furniture and belongings. Some fly and some do not. They can carry organisms that cause disease because of the areas they inhabit like sewers and garbage cans. Then when they contact our foods they deposit these organisms on to them.

CONTROL - To really control roaches one of the most important steps is to improve sanitation. If it is an outdoor roach such as the American and they are living under mulch then clean up the mulch. If its an indoor roach such as the German living in the kitchen, try to clean up any spills and crumbs to limit their available food. Remember, this helps but will not guarantee extermination or prevent an infestation. Once they move in their reproductive capabilities will normally produce large numbers quickly. For example, if you start with one pregnant female German roach you can have over a million within a year. Once established, control can be achieved using various baits such as Maxforce FC Roach Gel Bait, DuPont Advion Roach Gel Bait, Maxforce Granular Insect Bait or Niban FG Granular bait, residual liquid insecticides such as Onslaught, Demon WP, Evercide, Suspend SC, Demand CS, Talstar Pro, etc., dusts such as EcoEXEMPT D Dust or Delta Dust, crack and crevice aerosols such as Cy-Kick, Invader, Intruder, and PT-565 Plus XLO. You can also use environmentally friendly and safer pesticides such as EcoPCO WP-X, EcoPCO AR-X, and EcoPCO ACU. One of the most important things to use is an Insect Growth Regulator called Gentrol. This is basically birth control for roaches; they will grow up to adulthood but will be unable to reproduce thus breaking their life cycle. It is very simple to use, you mix the concentrate with water and the residual insecticide in your sprayer, or if you select Point Source then you break the ampule and place the disc where it is needed. Baits work well because of the transfer effect. Roaches consume the bait and pass it to other roaches so you get a more of a kill. The best approach is to use a combination of products such as a bait product, an aerosol, a dust for voids, and a residual liquid with Gentrol.

Geographic Location(s): Nationwide.

Additional Categories

American Cockroach