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What attracts German cockroaches?

The most common type of cockroaches in Canada are German cockroaches. They seek out warm and humid places to live, that have plentiful food, water, and good sheltered places to breed. This translates into spaces in the home including around appliances, in kitchens, under sinks and in bathrooms, around and behind dishwashers, within drop ceilings, small closets, and pantries.

The good thing about German cockroaches is they don’t tend to spread from apartment to apartment or building to building the way other cockroaches can. They can be brought in on objects, within packages or on deliveries, for example. While cockroaches eat almost anything, they do prefer to munch on junk foods – sugary, greasy, starchy things – and proteins like meat.

How concerned should I be about having German cockroaches in my home or office?

Like all cockroach species, German cockroaches do pose risks to human health when they are present in a home or office. They contaminate food with their waste and other bodily secretions. They also carry and transmit numerous diseases and pathogens that can easily be picked up by humans through multiple vectors. These can include more mild things like diarrhea, ranging up to more severe cases of things like dysentery, cholera, typhoid, and other serious health conditions.

Extended exposure to cockroaches can result in allergic reactions, particularly of the skin and respiratory areas of the body. Itching, swelling, asthma, trouble breathing, redness on the skin, and other symptoms are common. And, on top of all of that, German cockroaches are known for biting humans, which naturally can cause pain and make it easier to transmit diseases to humans.

German cockroaches take only about 10 weeks to go from egg to adult – one of the fastest maturity periods of any of the common Canadian varieties of cockroaches. Their lifecycle lasts around seven to eight months, and mature females can produce 300 to 400 offspring. This can translate into exponential growth, and make infestations incredibly rapid in their growth and expansion. So, like any cockroach species, you should be concerned about German cockroaches, and seek immediate professional treatment to rid them from your home or office.

What attracts Oriental cockroaches?

Oriental cockroaches like to spend time in warm, moist environments, both inside the home and outdoors. You’ll often find them hiding under logs and mulch, piles of leaves, or inside enclosed spaces like sewers, storm drains, and other piping – anywhere there is lots of moisture and decaying organic material. To get inside a home or office, they tend to enter through existing damage, cracks, and other pathways through exterior walls. They like to live in areas that go undisturbed by humans most of the time, such as basements, crawl spaces, around drains (especially with leaky pipes), under or around appliances, and similar locales.

Often, if they enter a building and can find no ready source of water or moisture, then they will not stick around, and look for a better place. So ensuring you have no standing water, no leaky pipes, and no highly humid, out-of-the-way areas for them to call home is a great way to prevent them from sticking around and setting up their own home in yours.

What are some tips to prevent cockroaches from invading my home or office?

Some good general advice to help avoid a cockroach invasion in your home or office includes:
– Clean up any food waste, crumbs, spilled beverages, and other residues immediately.
– Don’t leave opened or exposed food or beverages out overnight.
– Properly vacuum and clean, including hard-to-reach areas, to remove any food or liquid remnants that may attract cockroaches.
– Clean counters, table tops, sinks, and other surfaces with soapy water (not just plain water), and/or use an appropriate antibacterial spray or wipes compatible with the surface.
– Keep trash in closed, plastic garbage cans, and remove it frequently.
– Get a plumber to fix any leaking water fixtures in the home (sinks, faucets, pipes, etc.).
– Wash dirty dishes and pots and pans right away – don’t let them sit out for hours or days in the sink or even in a dishwasher.
– Improve ventilation in the home to reduce moisture and condensation levels, making it less hospitable for cockroaches.

What attracts brown-banded cockroaches?

A third common variety of cockroach in Canada is the brown-banded cockroach. These cockroaches like warm places, just like their other counterparts described above, but prefer dry environments to the humid environments characteristic of Oriental and German cockroaches. This means you’ll almost only ever find them indoors rather than outdoors in Canada, in heated buildings, and not in humid parts of the home or office.

Most often, brown-banded cockroaches like to live in bedrooms, living rooms, and other areas, away from food and water. They’re often found hiding behind paintings, mirrors, and other wall hangings, under furniture, in closets, and inside electrical items and appliances. In terms of food, they will eat almost anything. If normal food isn’t available, they’ll eat paper, books, wallpaper paste, and other common objects.

How concerned should I be about having Oriental cockroaches in my home or office?

Like all cockroaches, you should be concerned about spotting Oriental cockroaches in the home. They can carry a number of diseases and transmit them to humans by different vectors, including contaminated food. Food-borne pathogens including salmonella, E. coli, and related diseases are often spread by Oriental cockroaches. They can also make it unpleasant to live in the home or work in the office, as they tend to be one of the more odorous varieties of cockroach. They communicate via chemical releases, and to humans, these have a foul, musty odor that is largely unpleasant, especially when you have hundreds or thousands of cockroaches producing it.

While adult Oriental cockroaches can be easily eliminated with pesticides and chemicals, their eggs are very resistant to these treatments. Therefore, most off-the-shelf chemical solutions don’t work, and require the specialized chemicals and equipment that are only available from professional pest control services. That will help to ensure they are removed, and don’t come back.

How concerned should I be about having brown-banded cockroaches in my home or office?

Just like other varieties of cockroaches, brown-banded cockroaches are problematic in the home or office. They carry and can transmit diseases, both via contact with surfaces, and through their waste products, which contaminate surfaces and human food. All the typical range of stomach problems and more serious diseases, including diarrhea, typhoid, dysentery, and cholera are possible. Allergic reactions, skin conditions, and asthma are also typical from prolonged exposure to the cockroaches and their waste and secretions.

One particular challenge with brown-banded cockroaches is that they tend to avoid light, and immediately scatter and hide should light suddenly be present during the night. This makes them hard to spot and find during the daytime especially. They’re smaller than most other cockroach varieties, too, so they are very good at hiding in small places. All of these challenges mean it’s best to call on the services of a professional pest control service to ensure that they are all eliminated.

How do i get rid of cockroaches?

It’s important to get rid of cockroaches as soon as possible after first spotting them. Otherwise, they will breed, spread, and even branch out to other homes, apartments, or offices in the surrounding area.
There are some off-the-shelf products to help control cockroach infestations and get rid of them. However, many of these are meant for small-scale problems, and aren’t 100% effective. This is especially true when you are unsure of where most of the cockroaches are hiding. Leaving even a small percentage of the population intact will result in breeding, replacement, and re-infestation in short order.

Therefore, it’s best to leave cockroach extermination to professionals. This is the best way to help ensure that the infestation is controlled, the pests are eliminated, and they will not take hold again. It takes between one and two months for cockroach eggs to hatch, which can be a common trigger for re-infestation. Professional pest control services will be able to eliminate all existing cockroaches, and prevent a recurrence, with fast, safe, and affordable pest control solutions.