For Your Information: Before You Sign a Contract For Pest Control Services: Be sure you fully understand the nature of the pest to be exterminated. Find out of the company has liability insurance to cover any damage to your home. If a guarantee is given, know what it covers. Don't expect a treatment to last indefinitely. Get bids from several different companies in order to compare prices.
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Cockroaches: The Unwanted Guests
By Dennise Brogdon
Although, they are known to invest areas of filth, cockroaches can infest a well-kept, home as well. Cockroaches often infest a home looking for food and water, but they also infest buildings to escape the elements, such as cold and heat, heavy rain and drought. Dirty or not, your home can be the place they find.
How do they get in?
You can unknowingly carry in cockroaches into your house. They can stow away in boxes or bags, in beverage cartons, in furniture, and in your pet’s dried food. You can also carry them inside in firewood. They will enter on their on accord around loose-fitting doors and windows, where electrical lines or water and steam pipes pass through walls, and through sewer and drain lines. Once they are inside they can travel inside of walls, beneath cabinets and appliances, and roam throughout your home.
Infestation
Once they are inside they can multiply fast, especially when food, water, and shelter is ideal for survival. Some cockroach species have short development stages and develop egg sacks often. With some species, in a matter of months, the infestation can grow to thousands.
In your home, cockroaches eat just about anything you eat. They can survive on the crumbs from meat and grease, sweets, breads and starchy foods. They will also eat pages in your favorite cookbook, leather, and book binding and sizing.
Cockroaches like warm, dark, humid areas. Beneath kitchen and bathroom sinks are favorite areas. They will also live in cracks throughout your home, but prefer to stay near food and water. They will invade cracks in upholstered furniture, kitchen chairs, and your kitchen table. They will infest the cupboard or pantry and kitchen cabinets. You can find them behind widow frames, door frames, baseboard and molding. They also like the warmth of electrical appliances. They will infest your toaster, microwave, radio, TV, refrigerator, washing machine, and other appliances where there is a motor or electric device that can keep them warm. They will also hide behind your home’s electric switches, receptacles, and light fixtures.
Prevention
Prevention is easier for controlling roaches than to try and rid your home of them. Keeping you home clean from food debris is a key to cutting off the food supply. Eliminating water is also important. You should repair leaking pipes and not leave water in the sink or glasses of water or drinks sitting out at night. Inspecting containers, bags, boxes, furniture and books before bringing them inside will help reduce the chance of infestation.
Roaches can get into areas smaller than a dime and as thin as a quarter. Seal cracks and crevices around the outside of your home at the foundation and around the exterior doors and windows with caulking. Seal areas with caulk or foam around electric wiring, air conditioning wiring, cable, satellite cable, or any other wiring or pipes that provide an opening around your home.
Caulking or clear sealants can be used to seal baseboards, molding, and around doors and windows inside your house. If light shines through, either beneath or around the outer dimensions of your outside doors, seal them with weather stripping. Beneath cabinets use caulk or foam to seal around drains. If any pipes leak, repair them right away.
Eliminating their way in and eliminating their food and water sources will greatly reduce your chances of an infestation. If you eliminate their places to hide it will also reduce the chances of an infestation growing. Throw out the clutter where they might hide by getting rid of boxes, old newspapers, and old magazines.
Once they are in
You can use a number of products to get rid of cockroaches. Often, the trick is to put the pesticide in the right place to get the best results. Cockroaches like to stay near food and water and they like to be warm and cozy. That is why they can often be found in the kitchen. Most often, you will not see roaches until night, and often it’s not until you walk in the kitchen and turn on the light. When the light comes on, they scatter quickly in all directions. Grabbing a roach spray will only kill one or two roaches. Roach sprays also stink up your kitchen and you end up with dangerous poisons sprayed where food is prepared.
Baits, traps, and powders are effective, but you must use these products with care around pets and children. Place powders behind appliances and against the walls at the baseboard. Cockroaches tend to follow along walls, so placing baits and powders along the walls and in the corners tends to increase the chance of cockroaches getting the pesticide. If you use baits, traps, and powders, don’t use a spray. Spray insecticides tend to have an odor that roaches avoid and will make the baits, traps, and powders ineffective if sprayed.
Getting rid of cockroaches once they infest your home is much harder than stopping them at the door before they enter. Check the containers you bring into your home and seal off areas where they can come in themselves. If you do have an infestation, cut off the food, water, and shelter as best you can and use a pesticide that works best for your family. With a little effort and prevention, you can rid your home of these pests. Please visit http://www.pestproductsonline.com.
Dennise Brogdon is the managing editor of the Hughston Health Alert, a quarterly, patient-information newsletter, and she is an editorial assistant for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s scientific journal, the Journal of Athletic Training. Dennise is a Web site copywriter and editor. She has experience writing and editing SEO copy and META tags, brochures, advertorials, video scripts, and other technical and promotional material, as well. Dennise earned a BA in English with professional writing as an emphasis at Columbus State University. She is a member of the American Medical Writers Association and the Georgia Writers Association.
Cockroaches: Asthma and Allergy Prevention
By: Dennise Brogdon
Cockroaches are one of the most troublesome pests found in homes. They cause damage to food, stain furniture and books, and they can be a health hazard for people with asthma. Studies have shown a strong association between the presence of cockroaches and the increase of asthma and allergy symptoms. Cockroaches will infest any structure, clean or not, to escape extreme weather and to find food and water. Using prevention techniques, treatment with pesticides, and a good clean-up afterwards will help reduce the risks of an asthma attack.
Proteins found in cockroach saliva and droppings are what triggers attacks in people with asthma. Another trigger is caused by what some researchers call roach dust. Roach dust is found in the decaying body and body parts of dead roaches.
To get rid of roaches you must eliminate any food and water sources in your kitchen. Clean the kitchen before going to bed because cockroaches look for food at night. Use a small trash can in your kitchen that requires the bag to be emptied each evening. Put away the pet’s food for the night and seal up any containers of pet food. Do not leave food out on the counters on dishes and wash off the counter tops to remove all crumbs. Sweep and mop the kitchen floor. Eliminate water sources by draining the sink and wiping up any water from around the sink.
Roaches can be carried in or they can find their own way inside your home. Inspect bags, boxes, furniture, and books before you bring them inside. Seal cracks on the outside of your home at the foundation and around the exterior doors and windows with caulk. Seal areas with caulking or foam around wiring and plumbing that provides an opening around your home. Clear sealants can be used to seal baseboards, molding, and around doors and windows inside your house. Seal your outer doors tight with weather stripping. Beneath cabinets use caulk or foam to seal around drains. Roaches must have water, so you should repair leaking pipes in the house. Eliminating their way in and eliminating their food and water sources will greatly reduce your chances of an infestation.
If you or a family member suffers from asthma and you have a roach infestation there are some effective treatment methods you should follow. Powders are effective treatments for roaches and they do not release irritants in the air like most store-bought pesticides in a can do. Powders usually take a little time to show results, but they can continue to work for a long time after application.
Apply powders where pets and children cannot reach it, behind appliances, under the stove and refrigerator, and in open spaces beneath cabinets. Apply the powder in areas where roaches are active. As roaches hunt for food and water they walk through the powder. The powder sticks to their bodies and the roaches lick it off, poisoning them. Lightly apply the powder, if it is too thick the roaches will avoid it. Most powders come in a plastic squeeze bottle with a narrow tip, making it easy to apply. You can also purchase a powder applicator that helps to apply it properly.
Baits are a safe treatment alternative for people with asthma. Gels, pastes, granules, and dusts are all forms of baits. For heavy infestation, you may want to use baits with powder. But, do not put the powder on the bait and do not spray the powder or bait with an insecticide. Sprays have odors that the roaches will avoid.
Baits contain food that attracts roaches. The baits poison the roaches after they eat the bait. Then the roach returns back to its hiding place and dies. Other roaches eat the body of the poisoned roach and it kills them as well. Apply gel baits in small drops along the baseboards, behind appliances, and along the counter at the back of the countertop, but only at the edges and in the corners. Be careful when cleaning the counter that you don’t wipe the area clean and that you don’t apply water to the bait. Baits must be kept out of the reach of children and pets and way from food, so be careful not to smear the bait while you clean.
Often, asthma is triggered by roach dust even after the roaches are gone. Clean the house thoroughly by wiping up the roach dust. Use an old, damp cloth that can be thrown away after use. Dead roaches, droppings, and eggs sacks are all evidence you can find after an infestation. The roach dust needs to be vacuumed up and the vacuum bag disposed of. If possible, use a HEPA vacuum cleaner, a HEPA filter, or a water vacuum cleaner to avoid the risk of dust particles going back into the air. If the person doing the cleaning has asthma, he or she should wear a dust mask. Once the roaches are gone and the dust is gone as well, your home will be cleaner, it will smell better, and it will be free of asthma causing irritants.
To fid out how to get rid of roaches in or around your home, please visit www.pestproductsonline.com.
Dennise Brogdon is the managing editor of the Hughston Health Alert, a quarterly, patient-information newsletter, and she is an editorial assistant for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s scientific journal, the Journal of Athletic Training. Dennise is a Web site copywriter and editor. She has experience writing and editing SEO copy and META tags, brochures, advertorials, video scripts, and other technical and promotional material, as well. Dennise earned a BA in English with professional writing as an emphasis at Columbus State University. She is a member of the American Medical Writers Association and the Georgia Writers Association.
