Waking up in the dead of night to see a German cockroach skittering across the floor isn’t something anyone would want to experience. Worst still is when the situation isn’t hypothetical but a genuine, disgusting circumstance you are thrust into, leaving only one question on your mind.
How does someone go about getting rid of German cockroaches? Better yet, how do you kill German cockroaches so efficiently that you can remedy the problem in a few days?
Unfortunately, nothing can stop a German cockroach infestation in just a few days. Still, you can put a dent in their population and begin to halt their advancement through your house. This article discusses how to get rid of German cockroaches and what other preventative measures you should take.
German Cockroach Identification
To deal with the situation, you must first ensure that you are dealing with a German cockroach. To do so, you need only note the roaches’ appearance, some of their habits, and finally, the location you found them.
German cockroaches are traditionally light brown, with two distinct dark splotches beneath their heads. In size, your average German cockroach measures between 1/2 inch to 5/8 an inch long.
German roach nymphs or younger roaches appear almost entirely black in some cases, with a thin stripe of tan running directly down the middle of their backs. The egg cases are the same light brown coloring, with one end of the case being darker.
What Are Ways to Get Rid of German Roaches?
There are multiple ways to get rid of roaches, including both conventional and natural ways. Still, one of the best ways to deal with cockroach populations would be to limit their access to food. This could be in the form of dirty dishes or pet food lying around, providing free meals, and having open access to standing water to provide everything a German roach needs to thrive and multiply.
Conventional
If you need a little extra help, conventional methods are the way to get rid of German cockroaches.
1. Set Bait Stations
Attacking the roach population directly with a bait station is a tremendous first offensive against them. Make sure to place them in areas you notice high-traffic movement.
These areas might have droppings or dead cockroaches nearby. The roaches’ will eat the bait, which is laced with roach poison, essentially killing them afterward.
Better still, the bait stations have a secondary effect when the roach returns to the haven where other roaches hide. They will vomit and die, causing other insects to eat the saliva and perhaps their body, further poisoning more of them.
2. Use Insect Growth Regulators
The insect growth regulators halt the molting process, making roaches incapable of mating, and stemming their population. Utilizing an insect growth regulator can yield speedy results, with specific products able to decimate a German roach infestation with several applications alone in weeks.
Combining a growth regulator with a roach bait in tandem can be one of the easiest ways to handle a German cockroach infestation and better keep female German cockroaches from creating more spawns in the future.
3. Use Liquid Concentrate
Liquid concentrate is yet another kind of insect growth regulator. Still, it does the same thing, stopping roaches from reaching sexual maturity by breaking their growth cycle and hindering their population by association.
4. Boric Acid
Sprinkling the corners of your home with a lot of German cockroach activity with boric acid will kill any roach that comes into contact with the powder within 72 hours. Better still is that the boric acid itself will continue killing other roaches that interact with the dead roach, with one insect potentially killing dozens at a time or more.
Be sure to clean up the dead bugs afterward.
5. Traps
While traps won’t clear out an entire infestation, they can help you get rid of a few rogue roaches. In addition, they can be a good tool to find out where the problem is coming from.
There is a number of best roach traps on the market. The Cockroach Motel is one of the most popular options, as the bodies are hidden out of sight. However, you can also make a homemade roach trap quite easily.
6. Hire a Professional Exterminator
Combating an ongoing infestation is not everyone’s forte, and there is no shame. Sometimes, the best way to find a solution is to reach out for a licensed professional’s aid, and to that effect, you may want to contact a professional exterminator.
Aside from the apparent benefit of someone who kills German cockroaches and more for a living, you gain the additional boon that the exterminator will help show you why you have an ongoing roach infestation in the first place. The professionals will help develop a treatment plan to stop it in its tracks and keep them from coming back again. This method is a win-win situation, but it may be more costly than some prefer.
Natural Ways
Utilizing chemicals and pesticides where German cockroaches also live innately means using them where you and your family live. This can be problematic for babies or children who can get into anything.
Another issue to consider is pets with no problem eating your favorite shoes, let alone the mysterious substances you’ve sprinkled trying to combat an infestation.
Below are some more natural remedies that aren’t nearly as toxic to small pets and children and won’t have you itching and scratching if you come into contact with the substance itself.
1. Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous earth can be sprinkled along the inside and outside of your home, focusing more on cracks and crevices than anything else because you want the roaches to walk through the dust itself, which kills roaches by dehydrating them.
2. Baking Soda
Baking soda has many uses, as most people already know. Still, when mixed with an excellent bait like peanut butter, you can create a heinous bait that causes roaches to explode after they ingest it.
This is because baking soda has a volatile reaction inside a roach’s stomach. Additionally, roaches that decide to dine on the corpse of their comrade can suffer the same fate, although the response has diminishing effects with more roaches it passes through.
Read More: Baking Soda to Kill Cockroaches
3. Essential Oils
Essential oils don’t just make your home and surrounding areas smell amazing; they can also be an effective natural repellent. You can use peppermint, cypress oil, cedar, or oregano oil.
The strong scents can act as a deterrent against most pests in general. Still, if a German cockroach comes into direct contact with something like peppermint oil it kills the roach entirely because the smell can be so potent.
To get the most effect out of using essential oils for roaches, you want to spray problematic areas with it to keep roaches from coming in. Ideally, you would like to mist your doorways, windows, any cracks you find, and open drains.
You will want to fix the cracks, as no essential oils will keep them from coming in your home entirely, especially if you need to remember to spritz the area for a while.
4. Use Sticky Traps
Sticky traps are lovely due to how simple they are to use. Apply the adhesive strips or pad in areas you’ve seen roaches scampering about, and the sticky trap will hold them in place once they’ve walked upon it, which will obviously kill roaches, and once again serve a second purpose.
Using sticky traps allows you to gauge just how bad of a roach problem you have and will enable you to keep tabs on the trap’s effectiveness and the severity of the infestation itself. Be sure to place a tiny bit of bait in the middle to entice more roaches onto the pad.
What Precautionary Measures Should You Take?
Making your home less welcoming is a key precautionary measure you should take. One of the best ways you can go about handling a German cockroach infestation is to prevent it from ever happening in the first place.
To that end, you want to limit what German cockroaches eat in and around your home to keep it from ever looking like a welcoming location in the first place.
1. Clean Your Home
Cleaning your home, specifically any dirty dishes you have, will prevent roaches from having a free meal. Sweeping the floors and mopping with bleach will double down on this preventative measure, as crumbs that you or your little ones leave are just as nourishing as anything in your sink.
Roaches are also prone to eating anything that doesn’t kill them, so cardboard boxes, leather jackets, and even wood at times can pose a delightful meal; so make sure you double down on your cleaning regimens, not just in spring!
2. Maintain All Kitchen Appliances
Toasters, ovens, and microwaves can all have lingering food particles and crumbs that can cause them to become a haven of sorts for roaches. Cleaning these appliances will keep your home roach-free and your food from getting you sick when cockroaches inhabit these appliances.
Read More: How to Get Rid of Cockroaches in the Kitchen
3. Fix Leaky Pipes
Leaky pipes may not seem like a big deal when it comes to roaches, but the standing water provides a source of hydration which is incredibly necessary for a cockroach to survive. Cockroaches can go weeks without eating a single morsel of food but only four to five days without having a bit of water.
4. Seal Food Containers
While the concept of roaches getting into your food is disturbing, it can happen, especially with food containers left in the open, like cookies, dry cereal, and other snack goods like chips.
Sealing these containers is imperative as they serve as an endless source of food for roaches, a potential health risk to anyone unfortunate enough to eat the goods without realizing roaches have been inside them.
5. Get Rid of Cardboard Boxes
We briefly touched on this above, but nothing is sacred to a roach; if they can, they will eat it. This goes for spare cardboard boxes as well.
Assuming you’ve already stored whatever was in them. In that case, it is best to dispose of the boxes as quickly as possible. If you are using them for storage, consider upgrading to sealed plastic bins, as roaches aren’t as keen on eating plastic, and sealed up, whatever is inside them will be out of reach from roaches.
6. Seal Cracks & Crevices in Your Home
If air can get out, roaches can get in. Adopting this philosophy will save you a lot of time. Depending on if you go with a professional exterminator in the event of an infestation, it could save you a lot of money too.
Installing a new washer and dryer can leave tiny holes around your home. In that case, do your diligence and investigate every recess of your home to prevent German roaches from getting in!
How Long Does It Take To Get Rid of a German Roach Infestation?
Getting rid of a German cockroach infestation can take a couple of weeks to a few months. However, the time it takes depends greatly on the treatment method used and the home state when you begin the treatment.
For example, if you used a bug bomb or dusted your entire home with diatomaceous earth to kill roaches quickly, but they still have a food source, you will not find much success.
Assuming you’ve cleaned your home thoroughly, made sure all cracks are sealed, fixed leaky faucets, and cleaned all appliances riddled with roaches, you could expect a German roach infestation to be done within as little as two weeks. Still, the more severe infestations can take longer.
Are German Cockroaches Hard to Get Rid Of?
Yes, German cockroaches are hard to get rid of. Still, removing them from your life and home boils down to taking precautions against them, preventing them from having food and water, and ultimately keeping your house clean.
After you’ve done those things, the fight is relatively straightforward. If cleaning is complicated for you, a full-on infestation might prove impossible.
Why Do I Have German Cockroaches in My House?
You have German cockroaches in your home because they are attracted to free food, water, a place to hide, and homes that are easy to get into. If your house, in particular, provides any of these essential checkmarks for them, you can quickly get some uninvited guests.
Contrary to popular belief, your home doesn’t have to be dirty to get roaches, and you need access to these three core facets.
Another thing to consider would be the state of affairs within your neighbor’s homes, especially if you live in an apartment. Roaches can easily climb in and out of the drains in your home, so if a neighbor isn’t the most sanitary person, you may have to reach out to management about the issue.
What Are German Cockroaches’ “Hot Spots”?
Many places are considered German cockroach “hot spots” or the places you are most likely to find them. For example, you can look beneath large appliances like ovens, refrigerators, bathrooms, kitchens, and basements. However, these are only some of the biggest hotspots available.
Overall, any location near food and water can serve as their nesting grounds. For instance, if you have a lot of crumbs beneath your fridge, roaches may scrounge for food there, then hide in nearby cabinets that aren’t used often during the day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Use Insecticide Sprays to Control German Cockroaches?
Yes, you can use insecticide sprays to control German cockroaches. However, this may come at the detriment of yourself and your pets and children, as insecticides can be dangerous if inhaled or, worse, ingested.
You’d be wiser to go with a gel bait or roach motel to more effectively combat an infestation, especially in a home or dwelling you are residing in during treatment.
Where Should I Place Roach Baits?
You should place roach baits where you see evidence of a roach infestation. For example, seeing large amounts of roach droppings, black smudges, roach moltings littering the area, roach eggs, or egg cases are all indicators that you are looking at a location that would be prime for bait.
Do German Cockroaches Carry Diseases?
Yes, German cockroaches carry diseases and bacteria with them. As such, coming into contact with them, or worse, consuming anything a roach has come into contact with, can give you the flu, dysentery, diarrhea, and E. coli.
