3 Things to avoid when faced with a roach infestation
People see a roach and they freak out after telling the landlord or worse yet the hubby for umpteen time, most people take matters into their own hands in order to get some relief unknowingly making things worse for themselves in the long run will give you the top 3 things to avoid when faced with a roach infestation.
The first thing to Avoid is over the counter roach spray, don’t panic and don’t buy into the false hope of killing roaches on contact. While the instant relief you may get from killing that one roach there are hundreds being breed and waiting to torment you every day. If these products really worked New York state would be roach free.
Roach sprays provide a kill for that one roach but they have no residual and no transfer capability in order to kill and remove the infestation building up inside your walls.
The second thing to avoid is fogger bombs this is the quickest way to contaminate your cups, dishes, spoons and food and accomplish absolutely nothing but make the roaches hide in your cupboards, pantry fridge and stove. The pyrethrin in foggers will act as repellent until the residual is gone in couple of days, foggers put on a good show but do little to control an infestation. Foggers are great for pest problems like fleas that nest in carpets and furniture.
The last thing to avoid is applying boric acid or any other roach powder to the corners of your kitchen or cabinets roaches first you contaminate everything and end up eating more boric acid than the roach, roaches don’t go looking for boric acid to eat there is not attractive food source in boric acid. Boric acid works great as mind field inside walls there it will not be disturbed scattered all over the place, when the roaches walk across it they will groom themselves and accidentally ingest the boric acid and die.
Now that you know what not to do here is what you can do, if you can afford to hire an Integrated pest management expert that uses baits and IGRs along with sealing and proofing to control your pest problem then hire them this will be much quicker and efficient than trying to do it yourself.
If you can’t hire a professional then here is my best recommendation to you.
If your roach problem just started a few weeks ago then a simple gel bait treatment with Advion cockroach gel bait is your best choice. DO NOT USE IN CONJUNCTION WITH A SPRAY AS YOU MAY CONTAMINATE THE BAIT AND IT WONT WORK. Apply as directed on the label at the highest legal dose, read the label completely in order to apply it correctly.
If you have had the problem for a while and have made the above three mistakes to control German roaches then stop what you are doing immediately. You will have to wait a week before you can apply the gel bait or any of the other products I will recommend.
Use Avert Dry Flowable Bait by opening all your electrical outlets in your kitchens and bathrooms and puff a little bit of the powder bait inside the wall trough any hole you can find inn the outlet. DO NOT STICK ANY METAL DEVICE OR FINGER IN THE OUTLET. Apply the dust bait behind the water pipes under your cabinets into the wall, find any void under the cabinets and make a puff there. After you have placed the puffs of bait seal off around the pipes with Dap Daptex Plus foam sealant to prevent the roaches from entering you home.
Third purchase a box of Point Source IGR stations and place them according to label directions in your kitchen, bathrooms and any other place there is a water source in your home such as a laundry room. IGR’s are Insect Growth Regulators that will cause the roaches to mature before their time adults that are unable to reproduce it’s like birth control for insects.
In 30 days repeat the bait application again at the lowest label rate, and after 90 days replace the Point Source IGR disks, repeat the bait gel in 90 days and so on.
If you live in multi unit apartments you will get control with far less contamination and effort than with any toxic chemical spray. This is the same protocol we use and it has worked for hundreds of clients it will work for you. Don’t cheap out and try to make it work without all of it.
For problems with large roaches only like American or Australian roaches I recommend you add Invict Express to your treatment and place it under the Fridge, stove, washer, dryer, garage and exterior perimeter of the home.
