Reasons for the appearance of cockroaches in your apartment

Greetings, dear readers. Have you ever wondered where cockroaches come from in your apartment? Probably yes, since you are reading this article. Well, you've come to the right place.

I will tell you where cockroaches come from in clean apartments, what ways they can get into your home and why they like to live next to us. Let's discuss the main reasons that provoke the appearance of Prussians. You will learn what harm they can cause to people, and what to do if insects decide to settle near you.

Cockroaches can only live next to humans

The most important thing: in Eurasia, cockroaches are insects that can only live next to humans. Insects like them are also called synanthropic. It is human housing, outbuildings, and industrial enterprises that maintain a suitable temperature all year round - these are the only places where cockroaches can survive and constantly reproduce in our climate.

In the tropics, cockroaches can and do live in the wild. Large Madagascar cockroaches, banana cockroaches, car cockroaches live in leaf litter in tropical rainforests, feed on falling fruits and rotting leaves and do not need human proximity.

South American banana cockroach

And the red cockroaches familiar to us have spread throughout the world from India and the Indochina Peninsula. So, at least, scientists think. And there, in warm Southeast Asia, they live safely outside human habitation and outside populated areas in general. And in other warm places on the planet, where they managed to reach with humans, they go out into the wild and survive there due to their omnivorousness and high fertility.

The same goes for black cockroaches.

But in our climate, neither red nor black cockroaches can survive all year round outside constantly heated human buildings.

It is important to understand this so as not to try to scare away cockroaches or drive them away from your apartment or home. Such repelling is ineffective, if not to say that it is ineffective at all. It is almost impossible to scare them away or drive them away, except for a while, because they cannot live anywhere except yours or a neighbor’s house.

Such attempts to scare off cockroaches are similar in their prospects to attempts to scare yourself away from your home. Imagine that in your house someone plugs an ultrasonic repeller into the socket, or lays out tansy, or sprays vinegar on the baseboards so that you “forever” leave your only home. Obviously, you won’t leave your home after this. And the cockroaches won't leave either. Moreover, they are able to exist safely in conditions in which a person would be very uncomfortable.

Is it hard to fight

Fighting cockroaches is quite a difficult task. These creatures are distinguished by very high vitality, so it will not be easy to drive them out of your apartment - it will take a lot of effort and time. True, financially this is not a particularly costly matter, since all cockroach repellents are usually inexpensive. Unless replacing plumbing to block access to water can be expensive.

Here are a few facts about cockroaches that show their tenacity:

• A headless cockroach can live for at least ten days. It is also capable of reproducing during this period.
• Cockroaches live even in conditions of very strong radiation and feel comfortable.
• They can live for forty days without food. Moreover, a hunger strike does not weaken them, but makes them aggressive - cockroaches can even start biting, and it’s very painful!
• Many cockroach poisons are also not taken. They also quickly get used to poisonous agents, so you should only use proven poisons and periodically change them to another.

Cockroaches are very unpretentious

All cockroaches need to live is an air temperature in the range of 20 to 35°C, the presence of food and the availability of water. Moreover, they are extremely unpretentious when it comes to the quality of food: any organic matter is suitable for their nutrition. Adult cockroaches and older nymphs live happily, grow and reproduce, feeding on bread crumbs, drops of oil on the walls behind the stove, peeling skin from people, even mold fungi in pipes.

Cluster of cockroaches behind the refrigerator

Scientists in their studies kept cockroaches on a diet of glue, and the insects survived safely. They were fed only soap, and they also did not think of dying. For lack of anything else, cockroaches happily gnaw paper and soft wood, and symbiotic bacteria in their intestines convert this cellulose into a source of energy and essential carbohydrates.

In addition, it has been shown that the first instar larvae of cockroaches can live for a long time, feeding only on the excrement of adults. This, by the way, is used in pest control - if you feed an adult cockroach poison with a delayed effect, then part of this poison will then go to the larvae, which do not crawl out at all to where a person can see them. And there, in their shelters, they will die from him. But more on that later.

Now it is important to understand that almost any conditions in which a person can live are suitable for cockroaches. This means that there is practically no point in trying to drive or scare them away from the house. They will not live only where humans will not live. And often they survive safely in places where even humans are unable to live.

For example, sewer pipes and sewer collectors in cities are literally incubators for cockroaches. Especially the black ones, for this reason they were also called sewer, because in the summer they can often be seen crawling out of manholes. Cockroaches multiply in huge numbers in food industry enterprises, in flour and grain storage facilities, if they are not poisoned here. People cannot stay in such rooms for a long time due to the large amount of dust in the air. But it doesn’t scare cockroaches.

Are cockroaches in the home always unsanitary?

So, do “mustachioed” parasites always enter the house due to unsanitary conditions? In order for a premises to receive the status of unsanitary, it must have certain conditions. First of all this:

• Stale garbage
• Lots of dirty dishes in the sink
• Improper food storage
• Wool, excrement and other animal waste on the floor
• Grease on walls, floors and hard-to-reach places

As you can see from the list, for your home to receive unsanitary status, it is not enough to have dusty shelves or a dirty floor.

In addition, mustachioed guests love high humidity, so you need to make sure that your faucet does not leak and that your water pipes do not become rusty.

In general, we can say that the likelihood of cockroaches is much higher where conditions are close to unsanitary. After all, such premises have everything that is needed for the full existence and reproduction of parasites!

Cockroaches can eat almost anything that contains carbohydrates, fats or proteins

It is the ability of cockroaches to feed on any organic food that allows them to survive in almost any room. That is, in fact, even the presence of normal “human” food is not a necessary condition for them to live in a particular room. If somewhere there is no such human food, but there is water and a normal temperature is maintained, cockroaches will most likely be able to live there.

So they live in the same sewers, where a person is unlikely to find something tasty for himself. So they live in attics, in the holds of ships, where in the most difficult times they can gnaw each other’s wings from hunger, and according to some evidence, they even gnaw the dry skin on the heels of sleeping people. Similar stories are known, although their authenticity has not been confirmed.

This means that if you put all the food in your house in containers inaccessible to cockroaches, this does not guarantee that you will get cockroaches. Although, the likelihood of their appearance and mass reproduction will be lower - they will prefer to live where there is plenty of food.

We had a case of a call to the post office, where cockroaches lived in the warehouse. There were no products there at all. Only boxes, parcels and envelopes. And among all this, cockroaches roam around. Simply because there is a bakery behind the wall. It would seem, why don’t they live only in the bakery, but climb into the warehouse without food and water? But this is already a strategy for the survival of the species.

So be prepared: if your neighbors often leave fried potatoes or half-eaten bread on the table, and even more so do not close the trash can, then cockroaches may appear on yours, even if there is not a single random crumb anywhere in your apartment.

But cockroaches need water much more urgently.

In rooms where there is no water at all, there are either no cockroaches at all, or they live here if they can quickly get into neighboring buildings for a watering hole.

What are the signs to find them?

Corners hidden from human eyes become homes for insects. They make nests behind furniture, between cabinets, behind baseboards, and inside ventilation ducts. Most often they live in the kitchen, where the source of food and water is closest. Pests appear at night, so they are found by turning on the light. During the day, insects also crawl out, but they become bolder due to the increased population of the colony .

You can also understand where cockroaches come from in the house by the presence of their waste products. Insect excrement is found on different surfaces; the places where they live most often are most polluted. There is a specific smell in the room, which is a consequence of the release of a special enzyme that helps pests “communicate.”

Video: Reasons for the appearance of cockroaches in the house

Cockroaches definitely need water

Cockroaches cannot live without water. They need it at least in some form. Whether it be drops in the sink, water in the toilet, condensation on the window, damp dust in a dark damp corner, even the flow of sewage in the sewer - this is enough for them. But if somewhere there is no water at all, cockroaches do not appear there, or disappear from there immediately after appearing.

Sometimes they try to use this need for water to remove cockroaches. But in practice, it is almost impossible to “dehydrate” an apartment. There will definitely be water left somewhere. Cockroaches can climb into the pipe in the sink and get to the siphon, which always contains water - it here prevents the smell from the sewer riser from escaping from the sink. They can also drink from coffee or tea cups in the trash can, or from a flower pot. This means that it is unlikely to be possible to get rid of them by depriving them of a source of water. Although theoretically it is possible.

Male black cockroach licks condensation from the wall

For example, cockroaches do not live in silos where grain is stored, although there is a huge amount of husks and crushed grains on which cockroaches can feed. The fact is that it is this husk that absorbs all the moisture that may be in such a tower, and there is simply nothing left for the cockroaches here. But next to such storage facilities - in their annexes, in toilets, in basements - there are sometimes thousands of cockroaches.

Where do cockroaches come from in clean rooms?

The reasons why cockroaches come from in conditions of non-compliance with sanitary standards are clear: crumbs of food in the dining room, unwashed dishes, rotting waste - this is a breeding ground for their reproduction. But in addition to human food waste, cockroaches can feed on indoor plants, paper and leather products, and even wallpaper glue. Therefore, mustachioed tenants can settle in almost every human home. The main thing is access to a water source. It is known that cockroaches cannot live without water for more than a week, while without food they can survive for several months. In the absence of food in the human sense, cockroaches may begin to eat, for example, books. Moreover, American scientists, in the course of their research, found that cockroaches can remain alive even without a head.

The following sequence of colonization of human housing by cockroaches predominates:

• kitchen;
• bathroom;
• living rooms.

Residents of the first floors located above basements or basements are at risk of infesting an apartment with cockroaches. Basements are usually damp and warm; conditions for the growth of the cockroach population are favorable and contribute to the expansion of their habitat upward through the ventilation duct and hoods.

Cockroaches almost always get into new, not yet infected premises themselves.

Moreover, if they can get here, they will do it.

For example, if they live with your neighbors and can get into your apartment through an open window or through the ventilation, they will get into your apartment. Whether they will then stay here and live permanently depends on whether they find suitable conditions here. Most likely, they will find it and live. But even if they don’t find them, they will definitely check your home or other premises for suitability for their cockroach life.

Sometimes people bring cockroaches into some premises themselves. For example, cockroaches usually arrive in all supermarkets, canteens, and restaurants in boxes with imported products. And no matter how carefully they are hunted down here, sooner or later these guys will arrive again with a new delivery in some box.

This is how, by the way, cockroaches spread throughout the world. Red cockroaches conquered America, Europe and Africa; American cockroaches, on the contrary, migrated with bananas across the ocean and now breed in basements throughout southern Europe and are found even in Ukraine.

However, cockroaches most often get into apartments and private houses from their neighbors. This is not difficult for them - they run quickly, in the warm season they can live on the street and move between houses, and sometimes even breed in the fields. And they always start up simply because they can get into a new room - there are no special reasons for their appearance.

And this is very important: if you know that in residential areas cockroaches come from neighbors and come here on their own, it means that there are some holes, cracks, openings in the apartment through which these insects can get here. This seems obvious, but this leads to a critically important conclusion: if cockroaches once got into you through such passages, then they will be able to get in again in the future. And if such passages are not blocked - sealed, sealed, siliconed, covered with a net - then even after complete destruction they will sooner or later be able to appear here again. This means that even ideal professional treatment in such a room will provide only a temporary effect. We'll come back to this a little later.

Cockroaches are not dangerous to people

The most common fear associated with cockroaches is the alleged transfer of infections from waste accumulation areas to residential premises. People see how cockroaches run across tables, over food, climb into bread bins, and immediately imagine in vivid colors that just a couple of hours ago this same cockroach could be crawling in a garbage chute, or swarming in the sewer, and now it is trampling bread with these same paws . And he probably picks up various bacteria and viruses in the sewer by the handful, and in a clean kitchen he throws them into the bread...

A cockroach on the handle of a knife - a couple of hours ago it could have been rummaging through the trash can

This is nothing more than speculation. Those cockroaches that live in the apartment run along the walls and floors in the apartment. And, for example, your child, who touches the floor and walls in the apartment with his hands, himself collects in his hands the same garbage that cockroaches can carry onto food or dishes. That is, the cockroaches already living in the apartment do not pollute it with anything new.

Yes, cockroaches can really be swarming in the garbage disposal now, and an hour later they can already be running around your table. But this rarely happens. Single individuals can never move so far. Basically, all these pests move within just one room. Those cockroaches that get into an apartment will clean their legs and antennae many times before climbing onto food, and they will almost certainly not leave sewer or garbage microflora on the food.

Be that as it may, there is not a single case known in which it would be reliably established that a person became infected with any infection that was brought into the room by cockroaches. Cockroaches do not carry any specific human diseases and do not infect people with them.

But what makes cockroaches really dangerous is the allergens they leave in the apartment. Their chitinous shells contain several very aggressive allergens to which many allergy sufferers react. It is believed that a significant part of allergic rhinitis of unknown etiology in people, especially young children, occurs precisely because of an allergy to the shed chitinous covers of cockroach nymphs or to the remains of dead insects. These shells are destroyed over time, their particles fall into dust, are inhaled by humans and cause an allergic runny nose. And if you do not find out that the cause of this runny nose is cockroaches, then after it becomes chronic, it can become complicated and provoke bronchial asthma.

Remains of chitinous coverings of red cockroaches found in the apartment

Similarly, by the way, the remains of cockroaches, which are ground with cocoa beans on plantations and factories in tropical countries, then end up in chocolate and also cause allergies, only this time food allergies, with hives, dermatitis and other troubles. Moreover, scientists believe that almost half of cases of chocolate allergy are actually an allergy not to chocolate, but to particles from the bodies of cockroaches ground together with cocoa beans.

According to sanitary standards, 100 grams of a natural chocolate product - in the same bar, or in candies - can contain up to 60 particles of cockroaches’ bodies visible under a microscope. And this is not considered an excess or any violation of sanitary standards. Moreover, such surprises are equally contained in both simple cheap chocolate and elite bars. Ironically, the less chocolate there is in a chocolate product, the fewer cockroaches there are.

So the main danger of cockroaches is allergies to them.

Cockroaches don't bite people

Even the largest representatives of cockroaches are harmless. For example, giant Madagascar cockroaches hiss when frightened and hope to scare away the offender, but they almost never use their jaws.

Moreover, Prussians and black cockroaches do not bite people.

These games with cockroaches are completely safe

There is an opinion that with a very large number of cockroaches in the room and a complete absence of food here, these insects can gnaw the skin of a sleeping person. There is even allegedly evidence that on ships in ancient times, cockroaches gnawed off the skin of people's fingers.

In fact, today in no residential building can a situation arise in which cockroaches become so hungry that they begin to bite people. They can go from any room to where there is normal food that is safe for them. And there is always enough food for them in human housing.

As a rule, people want to consider bumps on their bodies to be cockroach bites when they convince themselves to the last minute that there are no bedbugs in their house. Some people are terrified of bedbugs, others cannot admit to themselves or their relatives that bedbugs live in the house, and they come up with any explanation for the bumps on their skin - including trying to explain to themselves that they are being bitten by cockroaches.

In fact, there is no documented case in which it would be reliably confirmed that a person was bitten by a red or black cockroach. If you can photograph something like this, please send us such confirmation. It is very interesting.

Plus, in such quantities that cockroaches in housing are critically short of food, they do not accumulate here. When there are a lot of them, some of them spread out into neighboring rooms and their number in the apartment never exceeds a certain threshold. Although…

White cockroaches

White cockroaches are not a separate species. The fact is that for some time after molting, the skin of the Prussian dog becomes very thin and white. We rarely see such cockroaches, since usually after molting they try to sit in shelters.

There is another answer to the question of where white cockroaches come from. Occasionally, they turn white due to human poisoning - caustic chemicals can strip the brown color of the shell. The cockroach itself can survive.

Cockroaches reproduce very quickly

This is especially true for red cockroaches. This is the key to their survival and the reason why they are so difficult to fight.

An adult cockroach lives for about six months to a year. During this time, the female manages to bear and lay from four to eight oothecae with eggs. Such a capsule with eggs, when seen on a cockroach, is sometimes mistakenly considered one egg. From each such ootheca emerge from 8 to 56 nymphs, which over the next 50-60 days molt 7 times and turn into adult cockroaches. That is, already two months later, these small cockroaches themselves will reach the age when they begin to reproduce.

By the way, immediately after molting, each cockroach remains white for several hours. These are not albinos, as is sometimes mistakenly believed. These are just nymphs with body coverings that have not yet hardened...

At the same time, cockroaches do not have any natural enemies in the apartment - no one eats them here on purpose, and even if some domestic animal does this, it eats insects only occasionally, just when they meet. The general population of insects in the apartment does not suffer from this.

As a result, the number of cockroaches in an apartment, under conditions suitable for them, grows very quickly, one might even say rapidly. Consequently, even minor delays in their destruction, including attempts to try to remove them using unreliable means on the principle of “maybe it will help,” end in hundreds of cockroaches behind the refrigerator and shock for the owners, to whom the exterminator shows such nests.

For example, watch the video from the processing, where the master discovers many hundreds of cockroaches in the apartment:

In red cockroaches, this ability to reproduce quickly is especially noticeable due to their peculiar care for their offspring.

Ways to combat invasion

You need to get rid of cockroaches without delay. Firstly, breeding too quickly makes it difficult to remove them from your home. Secondly, they can be a source of diseases dangerous to humans.

There are different methods of combating parasites, from drugs to home (folk) techniques:

• Spray aerosol;
• Insect repellent gel;
• Indelible pencil;

• Special plastic trap;
• Boric acid in cheese egg;
• Chemical disinfestation;
• Ultrasound purchased from a specialty store.

If you do everything correctly, the cockroaches will go away no matter where. People make jokes in the Matryoshka game: to their neighbors (44%), home (23%); sleep (8%).

In general, the fact that cockroaches appear in the house does not always indicate the presence of complete unsanitary conditions in the house, but rather shortcomings in cleaning and inattention to things. What matters is how quickly you get rid of them. Then the simple game “Matryoshka” will bring a smile, and not painful memories.

Among the most effective solutions to help destroy insect colonies, it is worth noting the following:

• aerosols;
• traps;
• toxic baits;
• folk remedies (ammonia, boric acid, arsenic).

Next, we will consider each of the presented options separately.

• insecticides in different types can be used independently. This method is universal; everyone can expel parasites from their home. Before you start baiting parasites, read the instructions; some products are dangerous for pets and children and require special precautions;
• calling special pest control services to your home. This is the most effective method in combating all types of insects in the apartment. All the means that specialists use are safe, but during the period of baiting cockroaches, all residents should not be in the room. The only disadvantage of such procedures is their high cost. The average price for processing a one-room apartment is about 1,600 rubles; a similar procedure in Moscow costs about 2,500 rubles;
• freezing out parasites. The method is very effective, safe, and has many advantages. But there is one significant drawback: the method is used only in the northern regions of the country or in winter in all other areas. It is very important to prevent the water in the pipes from freezing, otherwise bursting of the batteries cannot be avoided;
• the use of special baits or traps that include poison or insects can only get into the device, but not get out. These methods are often used as a preventive measure against neighboring “invading” cockroaches.

Folk remedies and mechanical methods (slippers, newspapers or other devices) are also used. In most cases, such methods do not show the desired results. Before you start exterminating parasites, first use proven, effective means.

Products produced for home use can poison cockroaches when inhaled, but are not dangerous to humans and pets.

Insecticides are good and effective remedies for cockroaches in the apartment; they cope well with parasites and prevent their reoccurrence in the home:

• pest control gels. They are applied to secluded corners; some products destroy about 500 individuals. The gels are not dangerous for children and animals; cockroaches die within a few weeks. The most popular: Raptor, Fas, Sturm, Brownie. For a two-room apartment you need funds for 200 rubles;
• aerosols. Raptor, Raid, Combat, Executioner are very fast. When the entire apartment is completely treated, the parasites die within a few hours. It is necessary to remove all living creatures from the home for the duration of the entire disinfestation, even indoor plants. In addition to the labor-intensive process, these products are relatively expensive - one bottle costs about 500 rubles, and at least two are needed to treat the entire room;
• powders or dusts. They allow you to combine getting rid of cockroaches with life in the house at a normal pace, are in the average price range, and last for several weeks after use. The most popular products: Raptor, Clean House, Pyrethrum;
• pencils. “Mashenka” is often used, they must be used correctly, the product costs about 80 rubles;
• homemade traps. Used with the addition of boric acid, vanilla, sugar, flour and eggs. The products are not highly effective, but are completely environmentally friendly and cost very little.

We suggest you read: Why chickens lay small eggs and what needs to be done to increase their size

Prussians protect their eggs

Not so directly that they protect them and drive predators away from them. Their care is different: females carry oothecae with eggs at the end of the abdomen almost until the very moment when the larvae hatch from the eggs. Thus, the eggs, which could be eaten by any predator or even another cockroach, are always with the female, who can escape in case of danger. And the larvae emerging from these eggs themselves hide quite effectively.

Ootheca of the red cockroach shortly before the larvae hatch

Due to this, by the way, red cockroaches displace black ones in those places where these species are found together.

The fact is that female black cockroaches lay ootheca a few days after the entire capsule has formed, and for several more weeks such ootheca simply lies where the mother left it until the nymphs hatch from the eggs. If red cockroaches find this capsule, they happily eat it. Thus, in those places where red and black cockroaches live next to each other, the red ones completely destroy the new generation of black ones, and the more Russians appear here, the less chance the eggs of black cockroaches have to survive.

For this reason, the black cockroach, although it remains a widespread species, is much less common than the red one.

Interestingly, the same feature that ensures the high survival rate of red cockroach eggs also makes it easier to control.

There are almost never any eggs of red cockroaches in the room, which means that after good disinsection, nymphs should not appear here.

This feature is especially clearly visible when comparing the baiting of cockroaches with the baiting of bedbugs. Bedbugs often have to be poisoned twice because after the first treatment, eggs remain in the room, which are not affected by insecticides. As a result, when baited, adult bedbugs and larvae die, but new larvae hatch from the eggs after a few days. They grow, begin to bite people and need to be re-poisoned before they reach maturity.

Red cockroaches do not have eggs indoors. Such eggs are either carried by the female, or after laying, larvae hatch from them within a few hours. The probability that at the very moment of treatment one of the females will lay such a capsule and nymphs will emerge from it at that very moment is minimal. Even if this happens, all newly hatched nymphs will immediately come into contact with the product that has not yet dried and die. This means that in one treatment you can destroy all the cockroaches in the apartment. Moreover...

Cockroaches die from most insecticides

We have already tested more than 40 drugs based on various insecticides. In the form of an aerosol, almost any means kills red and black cockroaches.

So, in our experiments, cockroaches from different apartments and from different industrial enterprises were successfully killed:

• Get Total and Get Express
• Executioner
• Chalk Mashenka (!)
• Boric acid and borax
• Karbofos
• Cifox
• Combat
• Sinuzan
• Averfos
• Lambda Zone
• Various aerosols from the Raid and Raptor lines
• Hector from cockroaches

It was not possible to kill the cockroaches with Phenaxin powder, permethrin-based smoke bombs and several gels. We believe that the point here is not so much in the active substance, but in the preparative form of the products themselves. For example, an aerosol with fipronil quickly killed cockroaches that had not previously been “taken” by a gel based on the same fipronil.

In any case, cockroaches indoors can be completely exterminated at one time with a relatively inexpensive means. If this fails, it means that the product is being used incorrectly. If you manage to destroy cockroaches, but then they appear again, it means that the places where they enter the room are simply not blocked.

We have completely removed cockroaches from apartments many times. In one heavily infested apartment, we even shot two videos: one before treatment, so that you could assess the degree of infection and look at the procedure for disinfestation itself, and the second, three weeks after the persecution, when not a single live cockroach could be found in the apartment.

In most cases, DezinCity specialists poison cockroaches with exactly this result; in the most difficult situations, after the second treatment, not a single cockroach remains in the apartment. And the exterminator always warns the customer that if cockroaches once got into the apartment, then in the future they will be able to do this again and will probably do so. People nod their heads in understanding, promise to find and block all ways for cockroaches to enter the apartment, but forget about this exactly at the moment when the exterminator leaves the apartment. But they remember after a couple of weeks, when they notice new newcomers. That is, when it is too late to eliminate the routes of their penetration.

How did they get into my house?

Cockroaches are fast and agile creatures, and their flat bodies help them fit into even the narrowest gaps. Moreover, they are predominantly nocturnal, so we often notice them only at the moment when the colony has grown to an impressive size. But how could they get into your home?

Here is just a small list of ways in which the Prussians penetrate our apartments:

• They came from neighbors, from the basement, a garbage chute through a ventilation shaft, cracks in the walls, a sewer riser, etc.
• We arrived with a parcel from an online store.
• You brought them home yourself along with fruit from the supermarket.
• Returned with you from a business trip or trip.

The last three points seem absurd, but in fact such cases are not uncommon. One pregnant female in your travel suitcase is enough to establish a fast-growing colony.

People especially often bring Prussians back from business trips. During such trips you often have to stay in inexpensive hotels, which are sometimes plagued by insects. One pregnant female has taken a fancy to your bag, and now you are going home not alone, but with new neighbors.

Or you flew away on vacation, but did not stay in a hotel, but rented a house. A little later it turned out that it was swarming with Prussians. The most curious of them can easily hide in your things, so you won’t even notice how the insect has made a nest in your bag, and you can calmly fly home with this bag. Well, there it’s a stone’s throw to a colony of arthropods, because once a fertilized female German can reproduce throughout her life, and she doesn’t need a male for this. So if, after your vacation, you notice a mustachioed reptile escaping from your suitcase towards a hole in the wall, cross your fingers that it is not a pregnant female.

It happens that during a trip, female cockroaches lay eggs in the suitcases of vacationers, who then take these eggs to their home. So he left alone and returned with his entire offspring - an unpleasant prospect, but it is impossible to insure against this. Unless you choose hotels and houses where there are definitely no insects.

Read on topic: How to get rid of cockroaches in an apartment forever, step-by-step strategy for exterminating Prussians

However, cockroaches sometimes have a hard time in a new home. For example, if the owners are clean people, do not have the habit of leaving food out in the open, and their taps do not leak. And sometimes it’s the other way around - the new home has all the conditions for a comfortable life and, importantly, the breeding of insects. Let's find out what factors contribute to the appearance of Prussians in an apartment, and why they like to live next to people so much.

What contributes to the appearance of cockroaches in an apartment?

As I already said, even the cleanest owners can develop Prussians. However, most often they choose houses where people often forget about basic rules:

• They do not take out the trash every day and leave food scraps, vegetable peelings, etc. in the bin.
• Do not wash dishes immediately after eating.
• Do not wipe the table and the floor underneath it from crumbs immediately after the meal.
• They leave food out in the open and do not put food in the refrigerator or sealed containers.
• They ignore leaking pipes and taps - after all, this is the main source of water, without which the Prussians cannot survive.
• Do not place nets over the opening of the ventilation shaft and do not seal cracks in the walls and floors.

These are the main factors that promote arthropod invasion. But, fortunately, all of them are easily removable. Below we will discuss tactics that, coupled with special insecticidal agents, will help you forget about the problem.

Why do cockroaches like to live in our homes?

Apartment buildings are, without exaggeration, a paradise for cockroaches and many other types of arthropods. Judge for yourself:

• our apartments are warm and humid in places;
• there are no natural enemies for cockroaches;
• but there is always plenty of drinking water and a wide variety of food. Moreover, if the Prussians can easily go without food for weeks, then water is something they cannot refuse for long;
• there are many secluded nooks where you can organize a nest for a colony or lay eggs;
• If pest control has begun in one apartment, you can always move through the ventilation shaft or sewer riser to a less vigilant neighbor.

All these factors make human apartments an ideal place for a calm and comfortable life for Prussians. It sounds like an advertisement for an apartment complex, but it's true - where else could they feel so secure and comfortable?

That's right, nowhere. So cockroaches are the eternal companion of humanity. As soon as they appear in at least one apartment, they begin to slowly but surely spread throughout the house. Fortunately, getting rid of them is not so difficult if you approach the problem responsibly. But before we start talking about killing redheads, I'll talk about the harm they can cause to people.

Why are cockroaches dangerous in the house and why do you need to get rid of them?

There are people who are absolutely not worried about the presence of insects in the apartment - it is from them that the Prussians then spread throughout the entire entrance. Especially for those of you whose neighbors do not consider it necessary to engage in pest control, I have prepared a small list of arguments in favor of exterminating arthropods.

• Before getting into the apartment, the cockroach makes a long journey through the basement, the sewer, and who knows what its little paws touched. And now he is crawling with these paws over your dishes, cutlery, and your food.
• Prussians can carry many different diseases - from a banal but very unpleasant helminthiasis to salmonellosis and gastroenteritis.
• Red natives often live inside household appliances - microwaves, refrigerators, etc. This may damage the wiring and lead to a short circuit, which in turn may cause a fire.
• When the size of the colony increases significantly, the insects no longer have enough food, and then they can bite people at night - they especially love the delicate skin of the lips and eyelashes.
• Cockroaches also often crawl into the ears or noses of sleeping people. Such an invasion can have a variety of consequences, including complete loss of hearing, and this is not the worst thing.

Reading on the topic: White cockroaches or a terrible mutant

I hope that with the help of these arguments you will be able to convince your neighbors that it is necessary to fight cockroaches. Moreover, they can only be defeated by uniting with neighbors, so an explanatory conversation is simply necessary.

By the way, some especially amazing characters firmly believe that cockroaches in the house are necessarily something good. For example, there is a sign about black cockroaches - supposedly they bring peace and tranquility and material well-being to the house. I hope this blog is read only by sane people who don’t need to explain why this is absurd.

How to get rid of cockroaches?

Now that we know exactly how the Prussians got into our house and why they like to live here, we can talk about what to do and how to get them out. I'll tell you why you need allies in the form of your neighbors and how to prepare your apartment for processing. And as a bonus, I’ll share a little secret on how to prevent the mustachioed enemy from invading your cozy apartment again.

We are looking for allies in the coming war

As I already said, the first step is to enlist the support of your neighbors. Otherwise, the Prussians will continue to run from one apartment to another, after which they will return again as if nothing had happened. By the way, it would be a good idea to come to an agreement with the utility companies - insects are often a dime a dozen in basements, so such premises also need to be treated.

Choosing the right weapon

At your nearest hardware store or supermarket you will find a huge arsenal of insecticidal products - powders, gels, traps, aerosols and emulsions. You can read in detail about all these drugs on our blog.

Choose the right product based on your preferences and capabilities. The main thing is to remember that before treating an apartment, you must carefully read the instructions and strictly follow them during disinfestation.

Preparing the apartment for combat

Of course, you can simply open the package, scatter the poison around the house and lie down to watch the series with a sense of accomplishment. But in this case, you should not count on any decent effect. Before starting disinfestation, the apartment needs to be prepared:

• Send your children and pets to stay with grandma for a day or two.
• Roll up carpets, remove pictures, move upholstered furniture away from the walls.
• Vacuum and mop the floors.
• Collect dust on the shelves, take out the trash, dry the sink, bathroom and kitchen sink.

We are reading on the topic: Large cockroaches are very scary for me

When the apartment is ready, don’t forget about yourself - put on personal protective equipment:

• latex gloves;
• protective glasses;
• respirator (if you use an aerosol).

Let's start the attack

So, the product has been chosen and purchased, the children are at their grandmother’s, the apartment is prepared. Let's start processing by studying the instructions on the packaging of the product. The manufacturer usually indicates in detail all the necessary information, so our task is to study it carefully and strictly follow all recommendations.

According to the instructions, apply the selected product to the following surfaces:

• trash can and the space around it;
• surfaces around the bathtub, sink and sink;
• back walls of household appliances and upholstered furniture;
• heating radiators and walls behind them;
• walls behind paintings;
• the undersides of carpets and the floor underneath them;
• space under the refrigerator, stove, washing machine and dishwasher.

Now you need to wait the time indicated on the package, then do a thorough cleaning and ventilate the apartment. Most modern insecticides do not affect cockroach eggs, so after 10-20 days it is necessary to repeat the treatment according to the above scheme.

Prevention of repeated enemy invasion

No remedy will save you from the Prussians if, after disinfestation, you do not take care of the issue of preventing the reappearance of arthropods in the house:

• place a fine mesh over the opening of the ventilation shaft;
• inspect the walls and floor for cracks, if you find them, repair them;
• fix leaking taps and pipes;
• Empty the trash can daily;
• do not leave treats for insects in the open - hide food in the refrigerator or in airtight containers;
• Wipe the bathroom, sink and sink dry at night;
• Clean regularly and prevent dust and crumbs from accumulating in the apartment.

These simple habits can be acquired quickly, the main thing is to follow these rules regularly. Then you won’t have to worry about arthropods settling in again - even if your neighbors are not very clean, your apartment is now not such an attractive place to live. In addition, the sealed cracks and mesh at the opening of the ventilation shaft make it much more difficult for the red-haired creatures to gain access to the apartment.

Don’t forget that you can get hold of insects upon arrival from a business trip. When traveling, it makes sense to take care of the issue of prevention and try to scare cockroaches away from your things. To do this, you can put a sachet with the scent of mint or eucalyptus in your suitcase - these smells perfectly repel red-haired reptiles.

By the way, this tactic can be used at home. It is enough to use an aroma lamp with essential oils, or plant a peppermint bush on the windowsill. It will fill your home with a wonderful fresh smell and repel the mustachioed creatures, and you will be able to enjoy a cup of aromatic tea with homemade mint all year round.

That's all I wanted to tell you today about the Prussians and their ways of getting into our homes.
Help your friends solve the cockroach issue - share this article with them on social networks. I have a lot more useful information for you, so be sure to subscribe to blog updates to receive new articles regularly. Thank you for your attention, dear friends. Have a nice day everyone and see you soon! Sincerely, blog author Mikhail Leshchenko

Cockroaches are not afraid of repellers

Neither ultrasonic, nor electromagnetic, nor magnetic resonance. Such repellers are nothing more than dummy toys for those who want to try their luck before a normal pest control and throw away a couple of hundred rubles with the expectation of “what if it helps?” Will not help. Even theoretically, there is no principle according to which a signal from such repellers could scare away cockroaches. But in fact, such repellers are nothing more than a box with a light bulb, for the blinking of which the buyer, in fact, pays money.

Not a single case has been confirmed in which such devices would get rid of cockroaches

At every second treatment, experienced exterminators listen to stories from clients that before calling the service, a person tried to fight cockroaches with repellents, but was unable to completely remove the insects. Moreover, people seriously believe that a certain ultrasonic signal from such a device, plugged into an outlet, is really effective against cockroaches, capable of scaring off and even killing these insects. It’s only a pity that over the years of treatment, specialists have not found a single cockroach that would have suffered from the repeller. But more traditional methods are quite effective. For example…

Preventive measures

To prevent the re-spread of cockroaches in the apartment, you should adhere to the following rules:

• Carry out regular high-quality cleaning of your home;
• empty the trash can until it is completely filled, tightly stretch a piece of plastic film over the edges of the container;
• hide food in the refrigerator, remove leftover food from the table;
• thoroughly wipe the sink, bathtub, and surfaces in the bathroom from moisture during the disinfestation period;
• seal cracks and cracks in walls and ceilings that can become habitats and places for cockroaches to move.

Do not forget what causes cockroaches to start, and the fact that over time they develop immunity to poisons, thanks to which they simply begin to drop as if dead, but after a certain time they return to the normal rhythm of life. Therefore, under no circumstances should all individuals found with their paws upside down be thrown into the trash; they should be flushed down the toilet without fail.

Leading cockroach control experts recommend doing this as follows:

1. Firstly, to effectively combat cockroaches, you should use only modern means, strictly following the instructions developed by the manufacturer.
2. Secondly, if you want to get rid of cockroaches, a clean house is necessary, also carefully study possible habitats before treating them with poisons. After identifying such points, they must be treated with special care with poison. At this stage, pay special attention to the space near baseboards, under the refrigerator, furniture, ventilation shafts and the like.
3. Also, the remedy for cockroaches is strong - it eliminates possible ways for them to enter the house. To do this, cracks and other openings are carefully filled with putty, and the ventilation holes are closed with special mesh with a fine mesh.
4. All food waste must be placed in sealed bags. Prevent insects from accessing food. Make every effort to keep the house clean.

If the measures taken do not produce the expected result, then it is better to seek help from real professionals in this matter. Fortunately, there are more than enough organizations dealing with pest control issues in our time. Today, disinfestation is an effective remedy for cockroaches, reviews of which have made it the most popular in situations where standard control methods have not produced the desired result. But even carrying out disinfestation requires the owners of the premises to actively monitor the cleanliness of the house.

Cockroaches die quickly at high temperatures and frost

It is known that cockroaches generally cannot tolerate negative temperatures. In this regard, they are even more vulnerable than bedbugs: bedbugs can survive long-term cooling down to -5 - -10°C, and cockroaches die at -5°C within a few hours.

Likewise, both red and black cockroaches die in less than an hour at air temperatures above +45°C.

This means that you can destroy them indoors, for example, using an industrial heat dryer. They warm up the air to 50-55°C, this temperature is maintained for 1.5-2 hours, and there are no live cockroaches left here. Moreover, such a disposal will be completely safe for people and pets - cats and dogs.

How long do cockroaches live?

Cockroaches are extremely tenacious creatures. Given comfortable conditions, adult individuals can exist in the house for one and a half years. Large black cockroaches can go without food for up to 40 days. However, as already noted, it is quite difficult for them to live without water. Typically, insects that are tormented by hunger and thirst become extremely aggressive, eating their relatives. Often the deterioration of living conditions leads to the fact that pests begin to bite domestic animals and even people.

A unique difference between cockroaches and other household parasites is the ability of adult individuals to exist without certain parts of the body, in particular... the head. In the latter case, the insect's breathing and fluid consumption occurs through special pores on the abdomen. Therefore, physical impact on cockroaches does not always lead to their death.

It's easy to kill cockroaches

And all the problems with exterminating them are related to the fact that it is much more difficult to prevent them from getting into the room again.

It is simply surprising that most people understand this, but do not take any measures to find and block the entry points of cockroaches into the premises.

For example, we regularly communicate by phone with customers of an online store that sells insect repellents. And many quite sensible people tell us that they have poisoned cockroaches many times with various means. These remedies work, the cockroaches disappear, but then appear again. And when we say that in this case there is probably a repeated migration of cockroaches from neighbors, people agree and say that they understand this.

The most amazing thing is that, realizing this, they continue to look for a new super-effective remedy that could both destroy cockroaches and prevent their reappearance. People cannot answer the question of how such a remedy could work to prevent cockroaches from getting into the apartment. Apparently they are hoping for a miracle.

But there is no miracle. The whole secret of exterminating cockroaches is to find, while they are living in the apartment, through which holes and cracks they get in, then seal these routes of entry, and then poison those insects that are already in the apartment. Moreover, such blocking of the “entrance gate” is an inexpensive procedure. Usually it requires a tube of silicone sealant or a can of polyurethane foam, which is enough to seal the cracks and holes found. And during normal renovations in an apartment, there are usually very few such entrance gates - literally two or three small cracks, in the bathroom or kitchen. Why people don’t do this, but prefer to live with cockroaches for years, fight them and look for more and more new means to destroy them, is a big mystery to us.

There is another life hack for those who don’t want to seal cracks and holes...

Black cockroaches

Black cockroaches are a rarer species. They are found in private houses, as well as in high-rise buildings, but usually not higher than the fifth floor. Such cockroaches usually come from sewers and trash cans.

Black cockroaches are very large, so the question of where large cockroaches come from is usually addressed to them. Sometimes they reach three centimeters in length! Such cockroaches reproduce rather slowly, but they are much more dangerous than their red counterparts, since they smell unpleasant and carry various serious diseases:

• Diphtheria.
• Typhoid fever.
• Dysentery.
• Helminthiases.

You can become infected with them if you eat foods on which they crawled. Therefore, the question of where black cockroaches come from is very relevant, because it is very important to prevent them from appearing in your home.

You need to be more wary of black cockroaches, although they are usually smaller in number than red ones.

Cockroaches can and should be poisoned by teaming up with neighbors

This is obvious: if cockroaches live with neighbors, then it is from the neighbors that they can migrate to you after destruction. If you team up with your neighbors and poison cockroaches in all neighboring apartments at once, then there will be no re-infestation - the cockroaches simply will have nowhere to come from. Provided, of course, that not a single treated apartment borders an infected premises.

Therefore, re-infestation occurs much less frequently in private houses: they do not border on other premises at all, and in order to infect them, cockroaches must come here through the street, which happens relatively rarely.

How to deal with them

If cockroaches appear in an apartment, they must be destroyed immediately, and not wait until they multiply in large numbers. The easiest way to do this is with the help of insecticidal preparations (aerosols, crayons, gels and powders, aquafumigators), which can always be found in stores and markets. The following brands have proven themselves to be excellent in the fight against cockroaches:

• Clean house;
• Dohlox;
• Global;
• Raptor;
• Executioner;
• Combat;
• Raid;
• Get.

Purchase any of these cockroach medications and thoroughly treat the entire apartment or house. Be sure to spray the inside of the furniture and the cracks between the wooden parts on the outside, ventilation hoods, baseboards, heating radiators, and door cracks. Remove the back covers from household appliances, clean out insects from the devices, and put the covers back in place. After treatment, remove all dead cockroaches and any debris they leave behind, and then thoroughly wash the furniture and dishes with a detergent solution to eliminate the unpleasant cockroach odor.

It will be good if you agree in advance with your neighbors and carry out insect baiting together.

You can protect your apartment from cockroaches even if the whole house is infested with them.

Very often we hear statements that it is impossible to protect yourself from cockroaches, because they have already crawled throughout the house.

But exterminators, even in infested houses, saw apartments without a single cockroach. And such apartments are not always ideally renovated. True, there are almost always cautious and prudent people who live there, who know that a tube of silicone sealant costs much less than professional pest control or a kit of cockroach killers. In such apartments, the joints between pipes and walls are insulated, the entrance doors are sealed, there are small mesh on the ventilation, and there are no cockroaches. Although literally behind the wall of such an apartment, insects are literally swarming.

The most important thing: to protect your apartment from cockroaches in this way, you do not need to make new repairs here. Pointed, cheap, but correct solutions will be quite enough to completely block cockroaches from accessing your chambers.

Where do cockroaches live in an apartment?

Darkened, remote corners of the kitchen and bath are favorite places for cockroaches to establish their nests. But when there is no longer enough territory, you can find their hiding places in the most unexpected places:

• under door frames;
• in the back and behind kitchen cabinets;
• in accumulations of dust on the cabinet;
• under linoleum;
• on bookshelves;
• in wardrobes;
• in crevices;
• behind the refrigerator;
• under the baseboard.

Cockroaches are nocturnal animals. Their reproduction in the secluded corners of the apartment may go unnoticed for some time. If insects appear outside their shelters during the day, the size of their colony has increased too much. This is fraught with unpleasant consequences in addition to aesthetic rejection - cockroaches can carry infectious diseases and attack sleeping people.

Anticipating where cockroaches most often come from, the following measures are taken:

• restriction of free access to food and drink;
• regular ventilation of the home;
• frequent general cleaning;
• use of special repellent devices (plates, crayons, powders, aerosols);
• elimination of cracks and dust collectors;
• elimination of garbage chute.