How Cockroaches Get Into Your Home

It’s a rainy season which also means it’s the season of roaches. During this season, they’re more noticeable than usual. They are unwanted guests and no one wants them in as they carry germs that cause deadly diseases and can also cause embarrassment.

Can you keep them out of the house? YES, but what attracts them to your home?

Cockroaches are attracted to the same things humans need to survive: food, water, and shelter.

Food

Like any other animal, cockroaches love a good meal. They are omnivores and will eat any organic food source or scrap they find. Their adaptable diet is one of the secrets to their survival as a species.

Their favorite foods include meats, starches, greasy foods, and sweets, but they’ll also munch on “foods” like:

1. Cardboard

2. Leather

3. Soap

4. Pet food

5. Human hair

6. Human fingernails

7. Stamps

8. Wallpaper glue

9. Feces

10. Other cockroaches

11. Their own exoskeletons that they’ve shed

With such an undiscerning diet, it would seem that any food source could attract cockroaches into your home. But in particular, a few poor food management practices can draw the pests in:

·       Dirty dishes: If you leave dirty dishes in your sink to soak for too long, the odor from the food can lure the roaches in.

Spilled food: Clean up spills—even in hard-to-reach places, like behind the oven—as cockroaches will find the food source soon enough. Spilled pet food is also attractive to roaches, so make sure to clean up any messes your dog or cat leaves behind.

Garbage: Food odors from your trash can can attract cockroaches, so take your trash out regularly. Don’t leave trash bags on the floor by the door with the intent of taking it out later, and never stack food items like pizza boxes next to the trash can if it’s too full.

Rotting food: Do you keep potatoes, onions, and other root vegetables in your pantry? Just don’t forget about them. As they decay, they become a tempting source of sustenance for cockroaches, gnats, and other insects. Even dry foods can attract roaches to your pantry if the storage bags aren’t properly sealed. Get rid of roaches in your kitchen cabinets as quickly as possible.

Water

Water is just as important to survival for cockroaches, and they can find it throughout your home’s interior and exterior. You may be providing several water sources for cockroaches without even realizing it.

For instance, cockroaches love to make themselves at home near pipes because they’re dark and potentially leaky. It can be tricky to spot an infestation of cockroaches in pipes, but you can prevent it by regularly checking your faucets, drains, and pipes for leaks. Plus, you can seal any cracks in your plumbing that could provide roaches a way into your home.

Cockroaches can also find puddles to drink from all around your home. Clogged gutters are an easy spot for water to pool, but you might create an artificial puddle by leaving a dog bowl full of water outside. Swampy yards invite in cockroaches, mosquitoes, and other pests to live and breed.

Other potential sources of water include wet towels and bath mats (make sure you hang your towels properly so they dry after showers) and even pooling water in overwatered plants. The latter also invites fungus gnats into your home.

---