Roaches are a nuisance. You see one running across your kitchen floor during dinner, and you ruin your appetite. You see one on the counter while you are entertaining guests, and you feel mortified. You one running across your baby’s foot, and you worry about the health of your family.

Learning more about roaches can help you understand how you get them and what you can do to keep them out of your home. If you already have roaches in your home, it’s important that you call a reputable pest control company as soon as possible. The roaches you see are just a fraction of the roaches that are likely in your home. You need the professionals to discover the source of the roaches and to remove them completely.

Here’s what you need to know about cockroaches and your home:

How They Enter

Cockroaches can just walk right in your front door, though they aren’t likely to do that. Typically, they are going to slip in through cracks around your home while they are searching for sources of food and water. That might be through cracks around pipes or vents, in the foundation, or in the brick. They also come through cracks around door and window frames.

Roaches also like to piggy back onto your things to follow you home. You might unwittingly bring one home in a purse, backpack, briefcase, or even a grocery bag.

Livelihood

Roaches don’t need much to survive. In fact, there are numerous jokes about how the only thing remaining after a disaster would be the roaches. They don’t need much to eat or to drink, and they are likely to find what they need in the drips and crumbs that you don’t even realize you are leaving behind.

You’ll most likely find roaches nesting under sinks and behind walls, where they are likely to get plenty of warmth and humidity. However, they can nest just about anywhere, including in furniture and behind picture frames.

Allergies

Roaches leave behind feces and dead skin that can contribute to the air pollution in your home and trigger allergies. Even the dead roach bodies that will inevitably be left behind if you have a thriving roach population in your home can contribute to allergies.

For many, these airborne irritants will be nothing more than a nuisance. But for some, they can become a serious health threat. If you notice that your family members are showing signs of allergic reaction, such as puffy eyes or runny nose, you may have a roach problem.

Signs of Infestation

Typically, cockroaches are most active at night, and they like to stay out of the light. So, if you see a roach or two, it is likely to be scurrying behind an appliance after you turn on a light for a midnight snack.

If you are seeing numerous roaches or you are seeing them frequently during the day, you likely have a severe infestation. Those are roaches that were likely pushed out of their dark hiding spaces because of overcrowding.

Preventing Roach Infestations

Fortunately, there are many lifestyle changes you can make that will keep roaches out of your home. You can start by keeping paper products like cardboard, newspaper, or paper bags to a minimum. Don’t keep stacks of these in your home. Roaches are attracted to them. Put your recycling outside, and use reusable cloth bags for your shopping and plastic totes for your storage.

Next, keep all surfaces clean of any food or liquids. Use airtight containers to store any food, including fresh fruits and vegetables. Wipe up even the smallest smear of grease or liquid on your stove, counters, or floors. Even a sticky residue from cleaned-up jelly can be enough to feed a roach.

The more steps you take, the better protected your home will be. Make sure you work with a pest control company to identify the infestation and to treat it quickly. The more time you wait, the more the roaches will spread and the more unmanageable they will be.

Varsity Termite and Pest Control is ready to help. Our Phoenix pest control technicians will inspect your home and find the source of any pest infestations, whether you have roaches, scorpions, ants, rodents, or some other pest. We’ll then present you with the solutions for removing them from your home and keeping them out. Our goal is to make your home safe and sanitary and free of nuisance pests. Call us today to talk with a pest control technician about your pest problem and the solutions.