Cockroaches are an eternal annoyance. They breed fast, can survive for weeks without food and water, carry diseases, and are incredibly tenacious. They’re also pretty quick on their feet, and the ones that can fly are the worst.
Cockroaches are considered nocturnal because they usually hide out of sight during the day and only come out to scavenge for food at night. Here’s all you need to know about how to keep cockroaches away at night.
Why Do I Have Cockroaches in My House?
So you want to figure out how to keep cockroaches away at night. But before you do that, you need to figure out what’s causing the infestation in the first place.
The first thing you need to know about cockroaches is that they can pretty much eat anything as long as it’s organic. They do prefer sweets, meats, and starches, but if that’s not available, just the dead skin cells, paper trash, or hair lying around your house works for them too.
Dirt, trash, unwashed dishes, food scraps, or even a leaking water pipe can become a beacon for these insidious little beasts. Cockroaches are like the signature of a messy and unkempt home.
And cockroaches aren’t territorial by nature; they’ll build their nests anywhere regardless of who or what lives there. They’re an invasive species.
Signs You May Have a Roach Problem
If you spot even one cockroach, that’s the first sign of an impending infestation. They’re tricky to spot because of their excellent hiding skills. If there’s even one you can see, there’s probably many you cannot. So where do you check?
Here are some of the most popular nesting spots where cockroaches lay eggs:
#1. Attics
#2. Under Furniture
#3. Pipes
#4. Kitchen appliances
#5. Bathrooms
#6. Ceilings or rooftop
#7. Cardboard boxes and other packages
#8. Home electronics
Basically, every nook and cranny of your home you don’t visit frequently can be a choice spot for cockroach nests.
If you’re worried about a possible existing infestation, here are some of the signs to watch out for when you’re examining these areas:
#1. Cockroach droppings
#2. Brown irregular smear marks
#3. Eggs
#4. Damage to property due to them nibbling away
#5. Skin that has been shed
#6. Dead cockroach bodies
How Roaches Enter Your Home
Your home may seem like a sealed environment, but due to the scavenging abilities of a cockroach, it’s just a series of tunnels and roads that lead to food and warmth.
Being as small and tenacious as they are, it really doesn’t take much for them to break in safely. Here are some of the points of entry to your house that roaches abuse:
#1. Drains And Pipelines
Cockroaches are able to hold their breath for 40 minutes and can survive being submerged underwater for over 30 minutes. Drains and pipelines can lead cockroaches from faraway places to your home.
#2. Cracks In the Foundation of Exterior Walls
Even the largest cockroaches can manage to wriggle through a crack or hole less than half its size to get into your home. Any hole in your wall that’s large enough for you to see up close is an open invitation to cockroaches.
#3. From the Space Under Doors
A cockroach can fit through space under your doors as small as 1/16th of an inch. No door is impenetrable for cockroaches.
#4. Open Windows
Not the most frequently chosen point of entry but cockroaches are excellent climbers and, as mentioned earlier, some even fly. No matter how high up you live, they can find a way to reach your windows, but it doesn’t happen often because cockroaches are sneaky. They prefer a less obvious entry.
#5. Catching a Ride with You
Cockroaches may just be hitching a ride with you in grocery bags, infested furniture, or other boxes you bring home. Cockroaches love paper, so if you’re ever bringing something home in a cardboard box or brown paper bag you might want to check for cockroaches.
What To Do If You See a Cockroach
First things first, you should know that all cockroaches have wings and can use them. It’s just that a majority of them prefer not to because they’re not the most aerodynamic creatures. But if you panic, the cockroach will also panic, and it will trigger their fight or flight response in the most literal sense.
Don’t try to chase it around with a broom or step on it. If you miss, it’ll just go into hiding or it might start flying, which is the worst possible situation for you to be in.
Even if you didn’t miss, they’re capable of surviving a stomping or two. Such tenacity requires an industrial solution. The best thing to do is keep a cockroach spray in hand, sneak up on it quietly, and then use the spray to kill it.
If you’ve spotted one cockroach, chances are there are many, especially if you’ve spotted a baby cockroach or nymph. Cockroach egg sacks can contain as many as 50 eggs. If you spot a baby cockroach, it probably has 16-50 other siblings waiting in hiding.
How To Keep Cockroaches Away At Night
1. Store-Bought Traps
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Cockroaches are excellent escape artists so it’s almost impossible to trap them in some sort of cage, like you would with rats. You have to outsmart them to trap them.
Store-bought cockroach traps are lined with a sticky glue-like substance and use a scent or some kind of bait to lure in cockroaches. So when they approach to investigate, they get stuck permanently and you can easily dispose of them.
2. Store-Bought Baits
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Store-bought baits work in the same way as traps. They disguise chemical pesticides as food to lure cockroaches. And like a moth to a flame, the gluttonous pests will inevitably try to consume it and die of poisoning. Some may survive for a while but spread the poisoning to other cockroaches.
Make sure you place these baits strategically, such as near sinks, leaky faucets, under furniture, and the other places mentioned earlier. Also, make sure they’re out of reach of your children and pets.
3. Boric Acid
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Boric acid is one of the most effective ways of dealing with cockroaches. Just sprinkle the powder in all the corners, crevices, and dark or damp areas where cockroaches tend to hang out. The roach will come into contact with it, try to consume it and die.
However, keep in mind that boric acid is not effective when it’s wet. It’s also highly poisonous, so you need to make sure your children and/or pets cannot access it.
4. Liquid Concentrates
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Liquid concentrates help deter cockroaches from entering by poisoning the entry points of your house that cockroaches use to break in. They’re also available at your local supermarkets, in the pesticide section.
All you have to do is spray it in all the cracks and crevices in your home. The same cautions concerning kids and pets will apply here, too.
5. Call a Licensed Exterminator
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If the infestation gets out of hand for you to handle, save yourself the trouble and hire a licensed exterminator. Their tools and services have a higher efficacy rate for dealing with large numbers of cockroaches than supermarket tools.
The biggest advantage with an exterminator is that their processes will get rid of all pests for you, not just cockroaches.
Many also offer the additional services of identifying and sealing all the entry points to prevent cockroaches and other small pests from entering in the first place. A good, reputable licensed exterminator can cockroach-proof your house for good.
A Few Parting Words
Hope you found this article on how to keep cockroaches away at night informative. Learning more about the enemy is always the way forward. Cockroaches thrive in dirty, humid conditions and breed faster than bunnies.
The best solution is to keep your house as neat and clean as possible. Pre-emptive vigilance is always better than having to deal with an infestation.
