If you have pets, you know the struggle of having to walk outside at night to let them do their business. And you’ve probably noticed a roach or two scurrying away when you open the back door or turn on the back porch light. You get that slight chill down your spine and a small pit in your stomach. It’s not a fun feeling.
That feeling gets heightened when you see the roach scurry under a kitchen appliance when you wake up for a glass of water or a midnight snack. You don’t want to deal with it at the moment, but you know you will have to deal with it at some point. Putting off your roach infestation problems, however, can cause a lot more issues than you may realize.
The Problem With Roaches
We all can agree that roaches are disgusting. But the issues of roaches infiltrating your home go far beyond that. You see when they’re not scurrying around your house at night, trying to eat anything you haven’t cleaned up, they spend their time in some nasty places. Their previous home before they moved into your kitchen or basement was most likely a sewer, a landfill, or a dumpster. And you might not see it, but they’ll carry plenty of filth with them from their previous locations.
Unfortunately, roaches are very effective disease carriers and spreaders. Typically contaminated with bacteria, roaches will spread germs all over your house, especially on your food-preparation surfaces where they like to hang out the most. Diseases that are spread by roaches include E.coli and salmonella, so the health threat is real. They’ll even secrete pathogens into your air and onto your counters and walls that can cause allergic reactions or cause problems for anyone with allergies or asthma.
Four Tips For Roach Prevention
In light of the severe health threats that roaches pose to you and your family, you need to take a proactive approach to prevention. Here are a few things you can do on your own to help discourage roaches from making your home their home.
- Declutter: Roaches love any spaces in which they have a lot of options for cover. That’s why you’ll see them in the basement so often. If you have a lot of open floor space and organized areas, they’ll probably look for another home.
- Moisture control: Since roaches love damp, dark spaces, you need to address any moisture issues you may have. Check for leaking pipes in the basement or under your kitchen counters.
- Proper food and trash storage: If roaches don’t have easy access to leftover food, crumbs, or trash, then they won’t have sustainable food sources. Keep everything clean and stored properly.
- Sealing entryways: If you can weather-strip your doors and double-check the caulking on your windows, you might prevent their entry. They’ll crawl under garage doors too, as well as through small cracks in the walls behind your cabinets and pantry. Sealing these up with spackle or caulking can limit potential entry points.
Unfortunately, you can work hard to seal up your home and still wind up with a roach problem. Since roaches are such a threat to your health, it’s best to not take a chance with your solutions.
The most effective strategy for roach prevention is to contact the professionals at The Original Bugman Pest Elimination, Inc. Our friendly pest professionals have been keeping South Carolina homes roach-free for decades with monthly or bi-monthly treatments. Give us a call, at your convenience, and get on the road to being roach-free, year-round. Learn more about our home pest control and commercial pest control offerings.
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