Discovering a
cockroach
at home is very unpleasant.
Especially since a cockroach rarely lives alone...
To discover
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All our answers
Why are there cockroaches in my house?
Contrary to popular belief, the presence of cockroaches in your home does not mean that your home is dirty.
Like many pests, cockroaches and cockroaches like warm, humid places they can find in homes.
Hidden in cupboards, under household appliances, in gaps, cracks, baseboards or pipes, they can then quietly breed.
They generally take advantage of the night to enter homes through all sorts of openings: ajar windows, daylight under the doors, cracks in the walls, etc.
You can also bring them back from outside without realizing it, in your shopping for example.
Once inside, these critters tend to sneak around in search of food.
The cockroach is an omnivore that will feast just as much on your food or that of pets, as on paper, fabric or waste and excrement.
To know :
If they tend to disgust, you should know, however, that a cockroach is not dangerous for humans.
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How to avoid having cockroaches at home?
There are several tips for keeping cockroaches (and their fellows) at bay:
Seal all potential openings: seal cracks, insulate doors, close windows at night, etc.
Regularly clean the cupboards, and decant opened packages of foodstuffs into airtight containers.
Vacuum so as not to leave crumbs lying around under household appliances.
Thoroughly clean your kitchen worktops and all surfaces that have been in contact with food.
Empty your trash regularly and take the opportunity to disinfect it.
But even these tips can sometimes not be enough.
If your neighbors have them in their house, chances are that cockroaches are also coming to your house.
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How to get rid of it?
The ancients say that even in the event of a nuclear disaster, cockroaches would be the only ones to survive.
So how do you overcome an invasion of cockroaches at home and bet on a definitive extermination?
Treatments with chemicals
Professionals use different types of insecticides to eradicate a colony of cockroaches, alternating treatments, as these nocturnal crawling insects would be more and more resistant.
In general, it is even necessary to treat twice in a row to overcome an infestation.
Which is not surprising when you consider that a female cockroach can lay 50 eggs every three months.
There are anti-cockroach traps: sort of boxes with bait at the bottom, and sticky walls that prevent the crawling insect from leaving once it has entered.
These traps are good indicators to know if you have a lot of small animals in your home depending on the number of cockroaches you find trapped in them in the early morning.
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On the market, you will also find different types of insecticide treatments (spray, vaporizers, cockroach gel, poison, etc.) but these products are toxic and should be used with caution.
Ventilation is mandatory after treatment against cockroaches.
If the proliferation is significant, prefer to call on a disinsection professional.
Natural solutions to fight cockroaches
Like most insects that colonize our homes (German cockroaches, larvae, spiders, ants, bedbugs, etc.), cockroaches are very sensitive to strong repellent odors such as white vinegar or essential oils (eucalyptus, lemon, lavender, etc.). .).
To get rid of cockroaches, mix water in a spray with about twenty drops of essential oil or a cup of white vinegar, then spray nests, nooks, pipes (cockroaches like to be near a source of water, under the sink for example).
You can also add it to your steam cleaner for more efficiency.
Baking soda is also very effective, as it dehydrates cockroaches.
Mix a glass of sodium bicarbonate and a glass of powder cure and place this mixture in small piles in the infested places.
Cockroaches will ingest them and die.
You will get the same effect with diatomaceous earth, although a bit more expensive, or boric acid.
Last tip:
Don't crush the cockroaches.
Not only do they give off aggregation pheromones that immediately attract other cockroaches, but you could also be scattering eggs under your shoes all over the house.
