When it comes to cockroaches, the unfortunate fact of the matter is control is just about impossible. Virtually all Las Vegas home and business owners will find a roach on their property at some point or another. The terrible thing about roaches is when you see one, there are probably dozens you don’t see, especially when it comes to smaller roaches like the German cockroach. The good news is there are a few things you can do to prevent a problem before it starts.
Dangers Of Cockroaches
Cockroaches aren’t just irritating, they’re key spreaders of dangerous diseases. Roaches love to hang out in dark, moist places, and they’re not at all picky about where they get that darkness and moisture. Some of their favorite haunts include corpses, open sewers, and garbage dumps. When they come into your home, they track the pathogens from these places in with them. Roaches are known or suspected to spread deadly illnesses including cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, plague, salmonella, and even leprosy.
Cockroaches don’t just spread disease. They spread themselves – they’re one of the fastest breeding pests that can invade your home. Some cockroach species can produce dozens of offspring a month per individual female. That means if you get a couple of breeding females in your home, you could have hundreds of roaches within a few months.
Signs of Roaches
Even if you have cockroaches, the likelihood of you seeing one is pretty low. They’re sneaky little devils and masters of hiding. That means you’ll see other signs of infestation before you see live roaches. Signs include:
- Roach droppings (look like coffee grains)
- Roach egg capsules (look like pills rather than individual eggs)
- Shed roach skins or roach bodies
- Smear marks from roaches crawling through water
- A musty, foul odor
Cockroach Prevention
If you don’t have any of the above signs, then good news! You probably don’t have roaches yet. The even better news is there are lots of measures you can take to keep cockroaches at bay. One of the biggest things you can do is give your home a deep cleaning. Roaches love dirt and clutter. By vacuuming and scrubbing, you pick up crumbs cockroaches could use as food. By doing dirty dishes right away, you eliminate even more food sources. By picking up clutter, you reduce roach hiding spots.
When you clean, be sure you’re getting forgotten places like the backs of cabinets, underneath heavy appliances, out in the garage or shed, etc. Roaches can live off the tiniest crumbs, so leaving even a few behind could be enough to sustain an infestation.
Another big way you can prevent roaches is to physically bar their access. Sealing off potential access points in your home’s exterior is a good place to start. Inspect your home and repair any damage you find like holes in siding, cracks in the foundation, etc. Also, seal off potential roach attractants. Keep pet foods and pantry items in airtight, hard plastic containers. And make sure all garbage cans are sealed with tight-fitting lids.
Cockroach Elimination
Unfortunately, if you do wind up with an infestation there isn’t much you can do on your own. Cockroaches are resistant to many pesticides, and they reproduce so fast things like sticky traps and poison baits don’t work – the roaches they kill have probably already replaced themselves ten times over. Fortunately, you don’t have to go it alone.
Here at Anderson Pest Control, our cockroach extermination process includes inspections to identify problem areas, people and pet-friendly treatment options and custom-tailored prevention strategies to stave off future infestation. So give us a call at (702) 356-0183 or visit our contact page to schedule your service today.