Cockroach Pest Control Advice
Cockroach infestations surprise many Brits every year. The insects survive and thrive throughout the country, requiring urgent cockroach pest control to protect homes and businesses from contamination. Cockroaches do prefer warmer, humid climates, so they aren’t as common in Britain as in Asia or the States. However, temperamental British weather drives the insects indoors, where they infest buildings and create serious health hazards. Understanding these creatures, and how to stop them, helps victims protect their homes and workplaces with effective cockroach pest control.
Common Types of Cockroaches in the UK
Of the 3000+ species of cockroach, two types appear most commonly in the UK: the Oriental cockroach and the German cockroach. Identifying the species helps with cockroach pest control, as species-specific traits inform specialists in tackling infestations.
Oriental cockroaches appear shiny black or dark brown, and grow between 20 and 25 millimetres in length. Tougher than their German counterparts, Oriental cockroaches live in shady, damp areas. They often infest drains and pipes or the gaps beneath floors and behind walls.
German cockroaches only grow between 10 and 16 millimetres long, with light brown or yellowish bodies. While all cockroaches prefer humidity and warmth, German cockroaches particularly tend towards heated areas in homes and businesses. They often cluster around heated kitchen appliances or warm bathroom pipes.
What Makes Cockroach Pest Control Essential
Cockroach pest control presents practical challenges, but the threats which infestations bring require serious attention. Cockroaches travel through unsanitary places, like bins and sewage systems, then contaminate living and working areas. They also defecate and regurgitate as they travel, bringing dangerous toxins to food preparation and storage areas as they search for nutrients.
In this way, cockroaches spread bacteria, viruses, and fungi, causing dangerous illnesses and allergen flare-ups. Hygiene standards and health legislation govern these hazards in the UK. The laws and moral responsibilities involved in insect infestations necessitate serious cockroach pest control.
How to Identify a Cockroach Infestation
You may suspect a cockroach infestation before you notice any of the creatures themselves. As nocturnal creatures, cockroaches often evade the human eye until their population clusters take hold. The insects leave smaller droppings than mice, rats, or other pests. Their faeces resemble stained speckles, like black dust or coffee grounds. A tell-tale sign of growing infestations, these appear around cockroach nesting and feeding sites.
Unlike other creatures, cockroaches lay egg cases, which contain up to 50 eggs each. These red cases, the size and shape of a small pill, also appear near cockroach infestations. Cockroaches release pheromones when they find a new habitat, drawing more insects towards their sources of food, water, and shelter. By the time that cockroaches themselves appear in a property, dead or alive, there may well be a cluster taking hold.
Why Cockroach Pest Control Present So Many Challenges
The surprise and dismay at discovering a cockroach infestation often spurs residents into action. However, the cockroach’s famous resistance makes them hard to stop. While they cannot actually survive a nuclear blast, cockroaches are tough, fast, and very difficult to control.
Like mice and rats, cockroaches fit through cracks and openings far smaller than their size. Cockroaches compress their exoskeletons to invade buildings and evade capture. Their bodies resist crushing, they reproduce rapidly, and they can run a distance fifty times their body length in a single second.
How to Begin Cockroach Pest Control
Anyone who suspects a cockroach infestation should set a sticky trap near the problem area. While these traps cannot combat the infestation itself, they help identify the pest involved. They also aid cockroach control experts in selecting treatment options.
Pest control experts prioritise prevention rather than treatment. Building owners should seal cracks in walls, floors, and pipework when they occur to ward off pests. Exposed food and stagnant water attract cockroaches. Conscience sealing and cleaning, therefore, works wonders in pest prevention. However, when cockroach infestations set in, they often spiral beyond control. When individuals delay calling a cockroach control team, they often allow time for the problem to worsen, increasing costs in the long term.
Cockroach Control Experts
Cockroach control professionals bring expertise, equipment, and effective strategies to each infestation. Their work involves locating and identifying clusters, as there may be more than one group of cockroaches in a property. After forecasting a treatment plan, they often use bait, sprays, and powders to solve the issue and make the property safe again. Cockroach control experts only use chemical treatments after verifying the infestation and obtaining permission from the property owner.
Professionals deploy chemical treatments which may not be available on the open market, raising their effectiveness above and beyond DIY attempts. Cockroach pest control also involves aftercare, where professionals support residents and workers beyond the infestation. This includes securing and cleaning the property and checking to ensure the infestation does not return. Through treatment and aftercare, cockroach control experts help keep buildings safe, functional, and pest-free.