Cockroaches are a severely dangerous infestation and a very difficult infestation to kill off without professional assistance. Cockroaches often enter homes from the sewer and bring with them a slew of dangerous and even deadly bacteria and viruses. They can give you food poisoning with their saliva and feces and they can survive off the glue on cardboard boxes. They are most attracted to homes with water issues. Any wet spots in your home, especially bathrooms and laundry rooms in the basement will attract them. They are not focused on finding food exclusively. That is a secondary need for them. Water is the primary need of all cockroaches but most of all the Oriental Cockroach which lives mostly in the sewer and is the most likely cockroach to enter through drains.
Several different cockroaches are common in southern Ontario. The American cockroach is a native to Ontario and North America and is a large smooth cockroach with a translucent colour and semi-functional wings that can flutter on for short periods. Still a terrifying sight to see a flying cockroach. The German cockroach is very small and not native to North America but is also the cockroach able to produce the largest number of young by a wide margin. Their ootheca can carry up to forty young and most other cockroach oothecae carry around four to ten eggs. This means german cockroaches are very difficult to find and to treat as they are fast at reproduction. The oriental cockroach is rather large as well and is very adept at hiding inside of drains making it difficult to attack them directly. Other species are less common but for now, these are the ones to focus on.
The danger in trying to deal with cockroaches using just home remedies is they are very fit creatures with a high rate of survivability. They are intelligent as well and know how to avoid danger. You cannot annoy them away you have to hit them directly. For this, you can try vinegar. The strongest you can get. This will be effective if you spray it directly on cockroaches which is a difficult thing to do, they are one of the fastest insects and the American cockroach can move even faster. The fight for your home might not be winnable with vinegar alone. However, if you add some other domestic treatments to your vinegar treatment you may find success faster than you think.
Now the key to getting rid of cockroaches is prevention and treatment. Prevention involves locating wet spots in your home and fixing them and cleaning up the wet areas if you cannot stop the issue. You will also need to clean out your drain pipes and then attach fine steel mesh over the drains. This will prevent cockroaches from entering the house through the sewers. You can do this with a special filter device at the intersection of your plumbing and the cities sewers. This will keep everything out.
You will then need to begin the treatment. Vinegar is good for spraying directly especially on a large number of baby cockroaches which can decrease the numbers. Use it to spray inside the motors and vents of small and large appliances and in cracks and crevices. You will also need to replace the cockroach’s food source with a strong domestic grade cockroach bait. They usually come in a syringe-like container. You leave dime-sized drops in areas of high activity. You can also make use of diatomaceous earth which is a mined silica dust that can catch in cockroach body parts and cut open the waxy layer that keeps their fluid in their body. This is a fast and effective way of killing cockroaches in your home without putting yourself or your family in danger with pesticides.
