Roaches are looking for clutter for shelter and crumbs and garbage for food. Don't Leave Food By Your Bed: Everyone loves a midnight snack, but try to clean up your bed and bedside table from food and drink. Seal Cracks and Crevices: Seal any crack and crevice which allows an easy entrance for cockroaches.
Bay leaves also act a natural roach repellent, as roaches hate the smell of them. Use a mortar and pestle or any other crushing tools to turn some bay leaves into a powder. Sprinkle the powder in a few lidless containers and place them around your bedroom and bed.
Lemon and lemongrass essential oils specifically will drive any cockroach away due to their strong scent of limonene, which smells like nothing else on earth! Add a couple of drops of citrus or peppermint essential oil to a few cotton balls, and lay them around where the roaches in your home congregate.
Thus, sleeping with the light on can keep cockroaches away from your bedroom. When you leave your lights on, the cockroaches will not even try to come out. Predators are also attracted by the light and will begin to actively hunt down the cockroaches when it's bright in the room.
It's a fact that cockroaches are afraid of humans and other mammals or animals that are bigger than them. They see us as predators and that fear triggers their instinct to scatter away. However, they dislike strong and distinctive scents such as citrus, peppermint, lavender and vinegar.
The results of the investigation on what color will repel the greatest number of cockroaches, indicate that red light repels a greater number of roaches than the other five colored lights and the control group of no light. Green light deterred the second most roaches followed by white, yellow, and blue.
So what smell do roaches hate? Oregano, rosemary, mint, eucalyptus, lemongrass and catnip are great herby options. Citrus oils work brilliantly too.
Borax is a readily-available laundry product that's excellent for killing roaches. For best results, combine equal parts borax and white table sugar. Dust the mixture any place you've seen roach activity. When the roaches consume the borax, it will dehydrate them and kill them rapidly.
A concoction of baking soda and sugar is an effective way to control the multiplication of these pests. Sugar acts as bait to attract cockroaches and the baking soda will kill them. You just need to identify their hideouts and sprinkle this mixture in those corners. This is one of the best way to get rid of roaches.
Pine-Sol and Fabuloso are strong, all-purpose household cleaners. Similar to bleach, these products kill roaches on contact. Some homeowners suggest spraying Pine-Sol around the outside of your house to keep cockroaches away.
Researchers found that cockroaches are immobile a few hours before the night ends, throughout the day, and after an extended period of being active. Scientists view their immobile state as their sleeping pattern. During this time, roaches do not sleep but rather rest.
Using natural scents works best to deter roaches. Plants such as eucalyptus, lavender, and mint are smells roaches hate.
Cockroaches hate the smell of lavender, and that is good news for you. If you love to grow lavender in your yard and garden, you are more than halfway to a roach-free home.
If you start to spot the signs of roaches in your home or even notice them crawling around at night, it's best to contact your local roach exterminators. Even one roach is often a sign there are many more established in your home.
If you spot one, odds are there are a few others lurking nearby, in dark corners or cracks and crevices and they could be fast on their way to a full blown infestation. Cockroaches are dangerous to humans – they carry bacteria on their bodies and their feet, contaminating any surfaces they come into contact with.
Cockroaches do hide in bedrooms if clothes or other items accumulate. Besides the warmth, there are numerous gaps and crevices in dark areas to hide in. They can occupy bookshelves, closets and wardrobes, nightstand drawers, and the bed itself.
Mint. For best results, mix mint oil and water in a spray bottle and spritz anywhere bugs can enter your home. Mint, such as peppermint oil, contains a compound called menthone that can kill cockroaches. And since menthone is what gives the oil its smell, it works great as a deterrent.
Sugar is by far the most attractive substance to a cockroach. They love sugar and can smell it from anywhere. This means you'll want to keep your sugar containers, fruits, and other sweeteners sealed in air-tight containers that are up off the floor.
Two of the most common cockroach predators are toads and frogs! Both of these amphibians are known for eating insects like flies, but they also gladly welcome cockroaches. Because both frogs and toads tend to live in shady, moist environments, they frequently encounter cockroaches that also love the dark and damp.
Turning up the AC may not look good on your energy bill but at least your house will be cockroach-free. There's a reason why we see roaches in the summer, and they vanish during the winter – cockroaches hate the cold. Always turn up the AC. To save energy, you can turn on an overhead fan or buy a large fan.
This fact means that the ultraviolet light has a killing effect, and also prevents population increase which successively invades by attraction, since the activity of aggregation pheromone is eliminated. Thus, the usefulness of ultraviolet light is heightened as a means of controlling cockroaches.
Cockroach Bites
Cockroaches are omnivores that eat plants and meat. They have been recorded to eat human flesh of both the living and the dead, although they are more likely to take a bite of fingernails, eyelashes, feet and hands. The bites may cause irritation, lesions and swelling.
Cockroaches are classified as “unhygienic scavengers in human settlements” and squashing them can spread bacteria that may lead to asthma, allergies, and illnesses. Cockroaches have been known to cause illnesses such as salmonella, staphylococcus, streptococcus, dysentery, diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid fever.
Some suggest crushing bay leaves and placing them in areas where they hide to repel them, Essential Oils - A general idea that cockroaches dislike the smell of essential oils such as peppermint, eucalyptus, lavender, and tea tree as they disrupt and musk their scent trails in food finding.