How to keep roaches away from your apartment?

Apartments with a cockroach population are not safe to stay in until you’re able to deal with the potential threat of cockroach infestations. Cockroaches are serious public health pests and carriers of disease-causing organisms (pathogens).

Their presence in your apartment could be detrimental to your health and that of your loved ones. This is because roaches tend to contaminate any item they touch while searching for something to eat in your space. Thus, eating food or directly contacting items infected with cockroaches could make you and your family sick, leading to hospitalization.

To help keep cockroaches away from your apartment and keep your family safe from the potential threat of an infestation, we’ve put together this content for you. In this post, you’ll learn about the signs of roach infestations, how to get rid of roaches naturally in an apartment, and other effective cockroach control measures for the removal of heavy infestations.

What Are Roaches?

Cockroaches (also known as roaches) are usually winged insects with a flattened oval body, six long legs, a pair of long threadlike antenna, and a shining black (or brown) leathery integument. They are nocturnal and love to stay in a warm, humid, dark environment found within buildings.

There are about 4,600 cockroach species, out of which just 30 species are associated with the human environment. A few of the roach species that share a close association with human habitats are considered pests.

Popular cockroach species found in homes and offices in Canada are the German cockroach, Oriental cockroach, and American cockroach. These species of roach make a meal out of anything they come across in your apartment, including your food, paper, clothing, books, and even dead insects. They neither bite nor cause harm directly to humans, but the pathogens they carry can make you and your pets sick.

What are the Health Concerns Associated with Cockroaches’ Presence in Your Apartment?

Cockroaches are usually found lingering around wastewater, bins, and sewage. These unsanitary places are known to bread germs and diseases. Thus, roaches visiting the sites mentioned above tend to carry several pathogens that could cause serious health concerns to people and pets. They spread these germs and diseases through contamination when they enter your apartment.

Most of the illnesses spread by cockroaches are associated with food poisoning, that is, consuming food which roaches’ droppings and saliva have contaminated. Common diseases spread by cockroaches include salmonella, staphylococcus, streptococcus, dysentery, diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid fever. In addition, roaches could also trigger an allergic reaction (cockroach allergies) in some asthmatic individuals, exposing them to further danger.

What are the Common Signs of a Roach Infestation?

Roaches are nocturnal and good at hiding away in the dark spots of your space when indoors during the daytime. This means that you’re most unlikely to notice their presence in your apartment at the early stage of an infestation. However, their presence may not be entirely unnoticeable at any stage of an infestation as they tend to leave behind damage and evidence.

If you fear that you may have a cockroach infestation, you should watch out for the following signs in anywhere in your apartment where there’s warmth and food:

• Small black droppings (cockroach feces) in places where roaches prefer to stay, including your bathroom, airing cupboards, living rooms, and kitchen.
• Cockroach eggs – usually oval-shaped egg cases (ootheca) behind your furniture, between the spaces of your books, and other hidden locations such as inside your food container.
• Shed roaches’ skins or dead bodies found throughout the house, including inside your cupboards, kitchen cabinets, and bathroom.
• Strong oily or musty odor coming from the hidden corner of your room.
• Live cockroaches foraging on your property at night.

What are the DIY Remedies for Cockroaches Control?

Here are a few DIY tips to follow to keep roaches away and prevent an infestation from occurring in your apartment:

• Identify all entry points or how you might bring in

Roaches can get into your apartment in many ways. However, the most common way cockroaches get indoors is through any holes they can find in your walls and floors (can move in from neighbour unit) as a result, roaches often target apartments with gaps between doors, walls, cupboards, skirting boards, and other hidden openings. Therefore, the earlier you find their doorways into your home, the earlier you can prevent their ingress into your home.

• Seal off entry points before infestation, not after

You don’t want to make it easy for roaches to enter and exit your apartment as they wish. Seal off all possible entry points before infestation. With this, you would get to stop roaches from finding their ways inside.

NOTE: IF YOU ALREADY HAVE ROACHES, DO NOT CLOSE / SEAL  ANY HOLES

If you notice cockroach or cockroaches coming out from gaps between your walls, tiles, doors, windows, or near your building foundation, you should NOT cover them at all. If you cover holes or gaps from where roaches are coming out, you will help them to penetrate into your apartment or building structure.

Ask yourself: “how can we treat roaches, when they stock in my property structure and keep multiplying?!”

PREVENTION: Try do not visit pest infested places (if you see there roaches, bed bugs, fleas) if this is possible.

• Remove attractants

Have a firm understanding of what draws roaches to any apartment. Cockroaches would enter your apartment primarily to find food. They would constantly visit and settle in homes where they could get their favorite diets such as starches, sweets, greasy food, and meats.

Ensure you don’t keep dirty dishes in your sink, pet food doesn’t litter your floor, and roaches couldn’t find crumbs on your counter when scuttling along. All these are good ways to make your home inhospitable to these disease-carrying pests.

NOTE: MENTIONED ABOVE IS NOT A TREATMENT.

• Maintain a clean home

Cockroaches are unsanitary insects and are drawn to dirt and filth. This means that a dirty home remains the prime target of these insects. Keeping the surroundings and inside of your home as clean as possible could help prevent a cockroach infestation. A thorough and regular mopping and vacuuming of your home can help remove an early-stage infestation before it becomes full-blown.

• Fix leak pipes

Roaches need water to survive and would enter even the cleanest homes if that’s where they could find it. If the pipes in your apartment are leaking, you are more likely to face a cockroach infestation often. It’s time to fix those leaks and make your home less attractive to roaches searching for water to survive.

Are DIY Methods Enough to Completely Deal with a Cockroach Infestation?

DIY methods could help stop a cockroach infestation and help get rid of a small infestation at best. However, it’s virtually impossible to effectively deal with an infestation without involving a local cockroach control expert.

All DIY methods you may find on DIY sites can’t help get rid of a heavy roach infestation. It would be best to call for the assistance of a professional pest control company like Provincial Pest Control (PPC) to ensure that cockroaches are eliminated for good from your apartment.

Professional Cockroach Exterminator Near Me (Canada)

Provincial Pest Control (PPC) serves homes and offices in many cities across Canada, including Toronto, Ottawa, Vaughan, and Richmond. We are a reliable pest control company in Canada and specialize in offering professional cockroach control services to Canadian residents. We provide free pest inspection for homes and offices and same-day pest treatment.

We can recommend the best cockroach killer for you and also offer advice on how to kill cockroaches, how to keep cockroaches away from your space, and how to get rid of roaches in apartment naturally. If you’re looking for how to get rid of a heavy roach infestation or how to get rid of cockroaches in kitchen cabinets, we’ll be glad to help. Contact us and book your free pest inspection here now.