Houstonians can scurry through ordeal of cockroaches
Only two things are certain in Houston homes: air conditioning and cockroaches.
One is a gift in the face of adverse humidity, the other is a bug that fuels a large pest-control industry in the area.
Cockroaches are a fact of life in Houston. Most Houstonians will see two types of roaches. You have your flying roaches, the massive brown variety. That’s the American cockroach, also known as the palmetto bug. Yes, these are the ones that make terrifying leaps from trees in the dark of night.
The German cockroach is the indoor dweller, spending its time scurrying across the floor, domesticized via your drains and availability of food in your house.
Both will eventually make their ways inside in search of food and water.
Here’s how to deal with the dirtiest, filthiest creature of all time.
The easy, pricey and often most effective solution is to hire an extermination service. Cockroaches can nest anywhere: the bends of pipes, dark crevices and gaps between appliances and counters, garage corners — you name it, the cockroaches have already probably started building a family there. Those places can be difficult to reach.
Turning to an exterminator to root them out may be well worth the money.
Weapons against a yucky pest
When working with an extermination service, make sure the technician explains what chemicals the company uses and how they eliminate the bugs. It’s worth checking if the company also provides other services, such as sealing cracks where roaches may squeeze through. A good technician will walk through your home with you and explain where the extermination will take place before performing the service and extracting the payment.
Increasingly, exterminators are offering petfriendly pest-control services. Some services may also include maintenance sprays in the future.
Spraying with chemicals only goes so far, though. Raid won’t work well if the chemicals are applied to
areas the roaches merely skitter on, rather than where they live, and it might create a superbug.
“The belief was if we did that (sprayed), it would penetrate into the wall void and kill cockroaches in the walls,” said Janet Hurley, an integrated pest-management specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. “It helped make some of these roaches resistant.”
Hurley, who’s working on a project with a University of Florida researcher on consumer knowledge of pest-control options, said there’s a broad spectrum of prevention options past spraying Raid on the ground.
To prevent roaches from entering a home, pest-management experts said regularly sweeping up crumbs and cleaning surfaces will help. By starving them of food and water, the bugs will be less inclined to come inside. A 2019 study by entomologists at Rutgers University found that the likelihood of having cockroaches in dirtier
homes (layers of grease and grime in the kitchen and keeping floors and shelves clutter free around the house) was far greater than in cleaner homes (surprise).
Home-improvement stores such as Home Depot and Lowe’s sell other options for managing bugs. Boric acid and diatomaceous earth are just two of the powders that can be used to either desiccate (dry out) an insect or disable its nervous system. Sprinkling boric acid on the floors where cockroaches crawl causes the powder to stick to the bug, and the roach will
slowly ingest
it, according to researchers at the University of Kentucky. A pack of boric acid tablets, crushed and mixed with some roach bait such as sugar, will attract them. They’ll inhale the acid that’s toxic to their systems and slowly die.
Diatomaceous earth is also great for eliminating roaches and other critters. Like boric acid, it clings to a roach as it crawls. As more of the silicon dioxide sticks to the bug’s exterior, it dries out the body by “absorbing the oils and fats,” according to the
National Pesticide Information Center. There may be a lot of belly-up roaches afterward, so grab a broom and sweep up.
If that’s too much work, or if you’re sensitive to working with those chemicals, premade traps will do the trick. The bait works best left in the corners where roaches congregate, Hurley said.
Manufacturers recommend sprinkling diatomaceous earth sparingly. Though cockroach brains are tiny, the bugs are smart enough to realize not to walk into a small mound of glittery powder.
And it’s important to find where the younger roaches who have not reproduced live.
“If you really want to stop a population, you stop them when they’re pre-adolescent,” Hurley said.
Fortify your space
Physical boundaries can also keep roaches from crawling up drain pipes and under doors into a home. Pest-management companies recommend repairing and sealing tiny cracks in the house to keep them from coming through in search of food and cooler temperatures.
They can fit into the tiniest spaces — some species can squeeze through half-inch holes. Door sweeps and showerdrain covers both run under $10 at Home Depot and Lowe’s.
Or maybe you can get a different form of natural pest control: a pet. I am sad to report that my roommate’s dog, though a very good boy, does not do much for roach control around my place.
But other dogs and cats are known to chase after the brown specks darting across the floor.
Not only would you get a good companion out of having a pet, you might also unburden a local pet shelter of a stray cat.
Keep in mind that you probably don’t want your pets to eat the filthy things. They’re likely vectors for disease, not to mention their tongues when they come over to lick you happily … yuck.