It’s been said by some that a clean house is a roach-resistant house. There’s some truth to that. By keeping a clean dwelling, you’ll give roaches less of a reason to intrude upon your happy home. There is more to keeping roaches at bay than just having spotless floors, however. Let’s look at potential trouble spots that you may have overlooked during your most recent cleaning spree or inspection.
How Clean is Clean?
You can mop the floors, disinfect counters, and give your appliances a shine. But what about those places that aren’t often seen or touched? Roaches spend most of their time in the areas of your home that you don’t see. They squeeze between the oven and wall where grease splatters and drippings remain out of sight. They crawl under the refrigerator and feast on lost food and juice or soft drink spills. If you’re someone who drops crumbs in between couch cushions or underneath ottomans, you might have a roach problem.
To keep these nasty nuisances out, clean these areas on a routine basis.
Regularly Inspect Stored Food
In addition to feasting on grime and crumbs, some roaches are persistent enough to make their way into your pantry and stored food. This is doubly true if you don’t invest in airtight, plastic containers. Any unsecured pantry items could wind up a veritable buffet for roaches. The plastic containers can keep aromas in and roaches out.
Cleaning Outside the Kitchen
Even if you’re absolutely certain that the kitchen is spotless, there are other opportunities for roaches to rear their ugly heads. They can eat some truly unexpected items, including soap, toothpaste, glue, leather, book bindings, human hair, and feces. Even though roaches have a preferred diet, anything will do in a pinch. If that wasn’t bad enough, cockroaches can go more than six weeks without eating anything.
Hiding Places
Sometimes roaches aren’t after food, just a place to hide. If that’s the case, you’ll need to do a little more investigating around your home to see if you can figure out how they’re getting inside.
How to Keep Roaches Out
Keeping your home clean and your food secure should fix most of the roach issues, but there are some other steps to take to prevent them from coming in, including:
- Filling in holes in exterior walls with a caulking gun. Focus on pipes, outlets, air conditioning units, and other gaps.
- Fix all weather stripping and door sweeps. Cockroaches don’t need much of a gap to sneak inside.
- Examine window and door screens and patch any holes.
Call McCall Service for Dedicated Roach Removal
Even if you follow all these steps (or if you live in an older house), you may still need extra muscle to kick cockroaches to the curb. That’s where McCall Service comes in. If you’ve experienced a cockroach infestation in your Florida home or business—or are worried about the possibility of one—our pest control experts have what it takes to determine the cause of your cockroach conundrum and get rid of them once and for all. To get started, schedule your appointment with one of our pest control technicians today.
