Coli, listeria, and salmonella are all diseases that cockroaches can bring into your home. They spend their days slinking through garbage, toilet bowls, and sewers only to enter your home and scurry across your countertops and over your food, leaving a trail of bacteria wherever they go. If you see a cockroach in your home, just knowing the possibility of what harmful diseases they are carrying into your space can make you shudder. Not to mention the intense creep out factor a cockroach’s presence brings on top of any thoughts of illness inducing bacteria.
Signs
You may see a cockroach which will really put you on high alert about any possible infestations. One female cockroach, depending on the type, can lay 1000 eggs in her lifetime. It doesn’t take a math wizard to understand how many thousands of cockroaches you may have in your home as more females are hatched and begin laying eggs. You never have just one cockroach for long. Keep an alert eye out for signs of infestation before and after you actually see a cockroach.
- Exoskeletons strewn about in a dark, forgotten corner of your home can be a clear sign of an infestation. Like other insects, cockroaches have an exoskeleton that they have to shed in order to grow. If you find multiple exoskeletons, you will know you have a cockroach infestation, and every one of them is growing well.
- Smear marks on walls and along wall- floor junctions are also something to look for. Cockroaches often hangout in wet, damp areas in the home. If the cockroaches are very active in one area, they scurry through water, and leave brown, smear marks on surfaces.
- Casings called ootheca contain a number of eggs laid by cockroaches. Some contain about 14 while others can carry 50. You may not find the eggs when searching for signs of cockroaches, but it is very possible to find the ootheca left behind after the eggs hatch.
- Droppings are another clear sign of cockroaches. Although they are tiny droppings, because the number of cockroaches can so quickly get out of hand, there can be a good number of droppings in one place so you may notice it.
Seeing an actual skittering cockroach is enough to drop what you are doing and call a professional to treat your home for these pesky pests. But if you also see any of the above signs, it's clear you have more than just a tiny cockroach problem. You can try to take care of the problem yourself by using:
- Roach traps
- Bait Stations
- Diatomaceous Earth used in a thin layer in hard to reach areas
- Roach sprays
- Boric acid in a thin layer in hard to reach areas that are draft free
But keep in mind that roaches are characteristically notorious for being difficult to eradicate. And every day they remain, more eggs are hatching. Hit your cockroach infestation hard and fast by calling a professional pest control service to eliminate every last cockroach on the premises. For Tulare County residents seeking to rid their homes of a cockroach infestation, give San Joaquin Pest Control in Visalia a call today.
