Today, almost every house suffers from a pest infestation. Unfortunately, some pests, like roaches, pose some dangers to home occupants. Cockroaches are not only a health hazard to people with asthma but also carry disease-causing germs.
When these pesky insects come to your home, they leave behind some evidence. One of the most common signs of a full-blown infestation is the presence of roach poop in your home.
Apart from invading your home, roaches will also make it their toilet. However, while cockroach poop in your home can make you disgusted and angry, it can help you determine where these insects are hiding. You can then use this knowledge to take the necessary measures and get rid of them.
Continue reading this guide to help you identify cockroach poop and how to differentiate it from termite poop, mouse droppings, and rat poop.
What’s Inside Cockroach Excrement?
All kinds of things that the insects have eaten is inside cockroach excrement. These can be cardboard boxes, garbage, rotting meat, dead insect, or food.
In addition, these insect pests do not urinate. Instead, they secrete both solid and semi-solid waste—all of which vary depending on size, appearance, roach species, and the age of the cockroach.
Read More: What Do Cockroaches Eat? Their Favorite Foods
Identifying Cockroach Droppings
Cockroach droppings can help you tell the size and type of roach you are dealing with. Additionally, by examining the poop, you can rule out the presence of other pests in your home and improve your mitigation strategies.
Roach poop has various characteristics. For instance:
Shape and Size
The size and shape of the poop you see can help you know the size of cockroaches you have in your home. Needless to say, small roaches excrete small droppings, and large roaches produce bigger droppings.
Small Cockroach Poop
Small roach species like the German cockroaches and brown-banded roaches have small poop. The roach droppings are like tiny black crumbs sprinkled across the area. At a distance, these droppings might appear like ground pepper or coffee grounds spilled on the floor.
However, after inspecting it closely, you will notice that the cockroach droppings are rounder in shape.
Large Cockroach Poop
Oriental, American, and smoky brown cockroaches are all large species of cockroaches. They usually are one inch long and produce solid, cylindrical droppings resembling rice grains.
Since this cockroach poop can be confused with mice or rat droppings, you must do a close inspection. Otherwise, you will end up chasing after imaginary rats leaving behind a roach infestation to grow.
Color
All cockroach feces have a definite dark brown color which might sometimes look more black, depending on what the roach ate, its age, and any adjacent contaminant.
While you can determine the species and size of the roach by analyzing its poop size, you cannot do the same with the color.
The poop color is the same in all cockroach types. Thus, color does not help you tell whether you have German, Asian, or American cockroaches in your home.
Texture
Roaches do not urinate; instead, they excrete semi-solid or solid droppings. So, if the poop is not whole, look for stains or smears.
Additionally, the feces are semi-solid and will not soak onto other surfaces. Instead, they will leave behind raised marks.
That said, you must carefully examine the cockroach poop by:
- Wearing latex gloves
- Lightly smearing the cockroach droppings
- If it is cockroach poop, it will not be evenly smooth and will smear in a waxy texture. Conversely, mice or rat poop will smear in a greasy or wet manner.
Differentiating Cockroach Droppings From Other Pest Poops
You might be confused if you have recently seen other pests in your house. For instance, you are wondering whether the roach droppings belong to a rat you saw last week or a roach you came across in the kitchen at night.
Read More: Look-Alikes: Types of Bugs that Look Like Cockroaches But Aren’t
Cockroach Poop vs. Termite Poop
Termite droppings are somewhat similar to roach dropping in terms of texture and size. However, you can tell them apart because:
- Termite poop has different colors, while roach poop is either brown or black, depending on its age, what it ate, or any surrounding contaminants.
- Termite droppings are mostly found near lumber, but you can find roach poop anywhere else in your home.
- Termite droppings have six sides, while a roach’s poop has a cylindrical shape with edges.
- Their droppings look more like pellets, not cylindrical, or like black pepper, coffee, or rice grains.
Remember that the color of termite droppings will depend on the wood they eat.
Large Cockroach Poop vs. Rat Droppings
While cockroach poop might resemble rat poop, various characteristics can help you tell the difference. For instance:
- Rat poop has a pointed edge, while cockroach poop is rounded
- Rat poop is thicker than cockroach poop, no matter how big the roach is.
- Rat feces are wider, while cockroach poop will be the size of coffee ground, black pepper, or rice grain.
- It is almost the same length as mice’s dropping but much longer than cockroach poop.
Mouse Droppings vs. Cockroach Poop
There is a big difference between a cockroach’s size and a mouse’s. Thus, roaches can squeeze their bodies into smaller spaces compared to mice.
That said, if you find poop in a place where a mouse cannot fit, chances are that it belongs to a roach. On the other hand, mouse droppings look more like mammal poop, while roaches’ poop is more regular and uniform, like rice grains.
Places in Your Home You Can Find Cockroach Poop
Cockroaches don’t have a designated bathroom in your home and will defecate anywhere. In addition, they tend to poop where they spend most of their time. This can be near their nesting area or water and food sources, which can play a significant role in getting rid of them.
Knowing where the roaches eat or drink water will allow you to cut off the supply and leave them starving. Besides, you can follow that with a homemade roach control remedy to get rid of them.
In addition, knowing where roaches are nesting in your home will allow you to target a larger roach population and have a successful roach eradication process.
So, if you have spotted signs of cockroach infestation like shed exoskeleton, you can start tracking them down using their droppings.
The following are common places in your home to find cockroach droppings:
Kitchen
Your kitchen has an adequate supply of food and water, making it a prime location for the roaches and their feces.
Look for cockroach poop in:
- Drawers
- Cabinets
- On shelves
- Behind large kitchen appliances like stoves and refrigerators
Read More: How to Get Rid of Cockroaches in the Kitchen
Bathroom
Cockroaches can enter your home through leaky pipes, crawl through the drains, find gaps in baseboards, and slide under the doors. Sometimes, they come from other parts of the house and move to the bathroom in search of water and humid conditions.
Besides having water and being moist, your bathroom is a quiet place, and roaches will feed on hair, nails, soaps, and tissue paper.
So, look for roach poop:
- Around the base of your toilet
- Behind the toilet trash can
- Inside the bathroom cabinets, especially near soaps, toilet paper, and toothpaste
- Near drain pipes
Read More: Why Are There Cockroaches in the Bathroom?
Laundry Room
Roaches can be found in closets or laundry rooms. They will infest your clothes and hide in pockets, hoods, and linings to escape exposure.
Besides, your washer and dryer make the laundry room warm and moist, which are favorable conditions for roaches. Also, roaches don’t want to be detected, and people come to the laundry room less often than in other rooms.
In addition, there are many hiding spots for roaches in your laundry room. So, look for cockroach poop:
- Under your washing machine and dryer
- Inside cupboards and on shelves
- Behind or under storage containers that are rarely moved
Storage Rooms
Roaches love to hide in dark areas with little foot traffic. Unfortunately, your storage space offers just that. Storage areas might be your attic, wardrobes, closets, and anywhere in your home where you keep items for a long time.
That said, look for roach feces in these areas using a flashlight. Also, check all the corners and be careful not to mistake small roach droppings for dust or other debris.
Read More: Roaches in the Attic: How to Get Rid of Them
Cracks and Crevices
Cracks and crevices offer an easy entry point for cockroaches. They are thin and can flatten their bodies to fit into them. So, check for roach droppings where there are cracks or gaps like:
- Behind furniture
- Around the garbage can
- Around electric outlets and light switches
- Near baseboards
- Between electronics
Does Cockroach Poop Have a Smell?
Yes, cockroach poop has a smell. The pungent cockroach poop smell will signal you of a full-blown cockroach infestation.
Cockroach poop can easily be smelt, but there has to be a large quaintly of droppings for the smell to be perceived.
Their poop can give off odors that are usually described as:
- Sooty
- Oily
- Foul
- Musty
- Moldy
Moreover, the smell these insects give off is not just a scent. It’s more like a signal for other roaches.
It gives other cockroaches a trail to follow and helps them find one other. Therefore, if the cockroach infestation is not treated, you will have a bigger problem, not to mention the health risk posed by these insects.
Read More: What Is The Smell Of A Cockroach Infestation?
Why You Should Get Rid of Cockroach Poop
You might see poop that is so small and decide to ignore it. Besides, if it is hidden somewhere, you will be tempted to leave it there. However, it is crucial to clean the roach droppings to avoid various issues.
They Attract More Roaches
Did you know cockroaches can communicate through the bacteria in their droppings? Besides, these insects have a strong sense of smell and will detect the presence of other roaches and gather towards them.
In addition, a large amount of poop indicates a thriving roach population, which is excellent news for homeless cockroaches.
So, it doesn’t matter if you eliminate roaches in your home; if you fail to clean up their mess, more will come to your home.
They Are a Health Risk
Roaches are known to carry at least thirty types of bacteria, all of which are passed into their poop.
So, if you inhale or even consume anything contaminated with their poop, you will be exposed to dangerous illnesses like cholera, typhoid fever, diarrhea, and dysentery.
Can Trigger Asthma
The saliva and shed exoskeleton of cockroaches can all trigger asthma and other allergies. However, the content in roach feces can also trigger asthma.
Moreover, these symptoms can worsen if the debris becomes airborne when you use an HVAC.
Cleaning Up Cockroach Poop
Cleaning up cockroach feces might not be a pleasant task. However, with the risk posed by the droppings to your loved ones, you will be happy you cleaned them up.
Wear Protective Clothing
Cockroach poop has bacteria and can cause allergic reactions. So, it will be best to suit up before handling the mess.
Therefore, put on some old clothes, a pair of latex gloves, protective face masks, and a respirator to lower your exposure to airborne allergens from the poop.
Vacuum
Get rid of loose cockroach droppings by vacuuming them from the surface. It is advisable to use the HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) vacuum because vacuuming can stir up allergens.
Alternatively, you can soak the cockroach poop in disinfectant spray and wipe them off surfaces manually.
Clean or Wash
Different areas will need different techniques when cleaning roach droppings. For example:
- For walls, vinyl flooring, tiles, cabinets, and hardwood, you will need to use a disinfectant that won’t damage the material. Spray the areas affected and leave them for some time; let the disinfectant sit until it dries completely, and wipe the stains out.
- If there is cockroach poop on your clothes, you will need to scrape it off and treat the stain by washing the clothing in warm water.
- If the droppings are on the carpet, you must vacuum first to get rid of loose droppings. Next, use a carpet detergent or make your homemade carpet cleaner by mixing dish soap, water, and white vinegar. Finally, spray the affected area and let it dry before vacuuming it again.
Read More: Do Cockroaches Like Carpet? How to Get Them Out
Dispose Of It
Cockroach droppings are health hazards, so you must wash or get rid of anything that comes into contact with it. After the cleaning exercise, clean all the work clothes and gloves and dispose of vacuum bags and rags in the trash that no animals or humans can access.
Cockroach Droppings Are a Sign You Have an Infestation
Whether or not you have a full-blown cockroach infestation in your home, roach droppings are not a good thing. They can make you sick and can destroy your belongings. So, to avoid an infestation, it will be best to seek the help of a professional roach exterminator.
