Quickly, effectively and forever: how to get rid of cockroaches in an apartment

Cockroaches can settle in your home completely unexpectedly, sharing shelter and food with you, despite your rejection of them. Most often, they choose a bath or kitchen as their habitat. These insects are also dangerous because they are carriers of a number of dangerous and intractable diseases. Many methods and means have come into practice to combat these red insects.

Where do uninvited guests come from and what attracts them?

If you have never had insects in your home, and one day you were surprised by them in the kitchen at night, there is reason to think. How did barbels get into your home? You can use a variety of measures to exterminate cockroaches, but if you do not block the channel of their entry, everything will be useless. New hordes will rise to take the place of your fallen comrades, and you may lose this battle shamefully. The most common sources of invasion:

• housemates who neglect sanitary standards;
• bags and packages from stores;
• things from long trips;
• postal items: parcels and letters.

Hi, neighbor!

If there is a “dysfunctional” apartment on the site above or below, you will most likely have this problem. The Prussians will first settle there, and then inevitably go to explore new territories and will certainly find a loophole into your apartment. The slightest crack is enough for them, not to mention the “highways”: ventilation and garbage shafts. In apartments where unscrupulous owners have bred insects, as a rule, there is not much food, so the mustachioed colony will certainly send scouts throughout the area in search of a better life.

If you have a habit of leaving food freely available in the kitchen, the Prussians will really like it

Hordes of red insects can attack your home if your neighbors have started pest control. An emergency evacuation can overwhelm your kitchen in literally a matter of minutes, and it is truly a disaster that is almost impossible to deal with.

Advice! Fighting cockroaches is not just your family's business. If there is such a problem, you need to join forces with your neighbors. Only joint work on disinfestation can guarantee the destruction of an insect colony.

Unexpected purchase

Pests can get to you on bags and packages from the supermarket. Where there is a lot of food, insects feel very at ease. You may not notice how a female longhorned beetle crawls into a bag of groceries, but in your kitchen she will lay eggs, and literally a few days later, you will have a new colony.

You can bring in Prussians not only from a grocery store, but also from any retail outlet

Southern guests

A vacation, a business trip or an exciting trip - all this can also cause the appearance of barbels in the apartment. Especially if you stayed in hotels with not very good conditions. Cockroaches can move into your suitcase or bag of belongings. So it turns out: you will save on a good hotel, lose your nerves, time and money on pest control.

Not every southern guest will be welcome

Advice! If you lent your suitcase to a friend for a business trip, check it before returning it to its usual place in the closet.

A package for you

It’s hard to imagine, but cockroaches very often travel with mail. They cross borders with your purchases through online stores visa-free. Surprisingly, it was thanks to this transport channel that the Prussians successfully settled across all continents.

So don’t be surprised if, after receiving the coveted package from China, exotic creatures appear in your apartment

What do Prussians look like?

Cockroaches got their name “Prussians” from ancient times, when our ancestors believed that they were brought from Prussia. Residents of Germany and the Czech Republic, on the contrary, believe that the homeland of cockroaches is Russia and there these insects are called “Russian”.

In fact, red cockroaches originate from southern Asia. From there, more than 3 centuries ago, this nasty insect was transported by merchant ships to Europe, and then to North America.

Prussians cannot stand the cold and can die from minor frosts. For their stay, they choose heated premises, that is, our apartments and houses. Having settled in a new place, red cockroaches easily displace their larger black relatives.

One can only envy the omnivorous nature of insects. They eat almost everything:

• leftovers;
• bread and cookie crumbs;
• garbage;
• paper;
• textile;
• leather.

The danger of living next to cockroaches is that they, living on rotten vegetables and fruits, garbage and dirt, can bring pathogens.

Attention! Cockroaches in many cases carry pathogens of diseases such as dysentery, gastroenteritis and diarrhea. A person may have an allergic reaction to the chitin that these insects shed when they molt.

Insects cause irritation due to their ubiquity and indestructibility. They constantly scurry around the apartment in search of food, and if there is at least some food in the kitchen, cockroaches will definitely get to it.

What do barbels like?

A scout or a female who accidentally moved in a suitcase - these parasites will not remain in every apartment. They need special conditions; if they are not there, the insects will look for another territory for breeding. What might attract them to your home:

• food is freely available - this can be not only food, but also edible garbage. Moreover, even a handful of flour is enough for a colony to provide its food for a long time, because a cockroach can eat once every few days;

Important! Never leave the trash can full, food in the kitchen, or dirty dishes in the sink. All this will attract insects.

Cockroaches especially love to “manage” the kitchen, where there is something to eat

• water – like any living creatures, cockroaches cannot live without water. And again, a few drops are enough for them, even those that linger on the walls of the sink, and a leaking faucet will become a full-flowing Niagara for them;
• warmth - Prussians do not like the cold, so they really like heated apartments. And if there are places for shelter - loose wallpaper, cracks in baseboards or other similar shelters, they will certainly settle there.

For your information! Exotic creatures from the east prefer sewer pipes.

From all of the above, the conclusion follows: first of all, look for the source of the invasion. If longhorned beetles are entering from a neighboring apartment, look for and seal cracks, and place nets on ventilation shafts. Check bags and suitcases, shake out all parcels before putting them in closets.

Reasons for appearance

When you find cockroaches in your home, it’s worth thinking about why they settled in your apartment. The answer is very simple - optimal conditions have been created for the habitat of these insects, namely:

1. Affordable food. This could be crumbs on the kitchen counter, cereal spilled in a kitchen drawer, or open garbage bags. A cockroach can feel quite normal even if it eats once within 3 days. Therefore, if you sprinkle a handful of flour, it will be enough to feed a colony of Prussians for several weeks.
2. Water is freely available. Cockroaches, like any living creatures, cannot survive without water for long. Therefore, they can often be found in the sink at night, where they are content with drops of moisture on the walls or bottom of the sink. And, if your faucet is leaking a little, then this is a real abundance of water for the red insect.
3. Neighbors have food and water for cockroaches. If you have careless neighbors who do not clean the apartment, then you will not be able to get rid of cockroaches alone. We'll have to try to join forces with them in the fight. In the event that the neighbors do not want to engage in a joint fight, the only option left for you to limit the inter-apartment migration of insects is by sealing all the cracks and cracks in the walls, ceiling and floor of your apartment.
4. Warm. Prussians are not adapted for living in cold rooms, so they live only in heated dwellings. And, if these rooms have places for shelter, food and water, then this place looks like a real paradise for cockroaches.

Important! Fighting the Prussians in an apartment building will not be successful if you fight them alone. Only by uniting with neighbors can this complex problem be solved.

The most effective remedies for cockroaches in a factory-made apartment

How to quickly get rid of cockroaches? First of all, let's figure out whether these pests have weak points. In fact, they exist, despite all the rumors about their phenomenal survivability:

• cockroaches are fragile insects that are easy to crush;
• they are afraid of low temperatures and hot air;
• insects do not like strong odorous substances;
• Prussians do not tolerate thirst;
• parasites can be poisoned.

Fact! A cockroach can live for some time without a head.

If a cockroach falls on its back, it will not be able to roll over on its own and will die of starvation.

Insect poisoning substances, insecticides, can be purchased at any hardware store. Let's figure out what form they come in and how to use them.

How to permanently destroy cockroaches in an apartment using sprays and aerosols

Aerosol is a weapon for emergency treatment against cockroaches. It’s convenient that the aerosol is always at hand, you don’t need to prepare or apply anything, just take out the can.

The insecticide in this case acts almost instantly, but it does not kill insect eggs

Advantages and disadvantages of insecticidal sprays:

This method of fighting cockroaches is suitable if a colony is evacuated into your apartment during pest control of your neighbors. Meet the flow with a stream of poison from a spray can, and they will not penetrate your home.

Powders and gels for cockroaches

Another method of getting rid of red cockroaches is to use poison in the form of a gel or powder. It is poured directly in places where barbels have been spotted.

You can apply these substances to pieces of cardboard and place them in secluded places that cockroaches love

Advantages and disadvantages of powders and gels against cockroaches:

If you are deciding how to get rid of cockroaches in the kitchen, powder or gel is the best option. Apply it around the trash can area, behind the sink and along baseboards. Perhaps this will be enough to defeat the uninvited guests.

Important! After applying the insecticide in powder form, after some time you need to do wet cleaning.

The powder can be produced in a pressed state, in the form of chalk. They use it to outline the perimeter of the room - and cockroaches will not be able to cross this line

Concentrated insect repellent solutions

Insecticide in liquid form is added to water when washing floors or sprayed in areas where cockroaches live. Disadvantages and advantages of liquid solutions:

How to get rid of cockroaches in a dorm using liquid insecticides? It’s very simple - you need to wash the floors in the rooms and hallway with it.

Remember: you need to work with such drugs very carefully and be sure to use protective equipment: gloves and a respirator

Ammonia

Another equally effective folk method of fighting cockroaches is ammonia. Unlike boric acid, its task is not to harm the insect, but to scare it away. Cockroaches have an extremely well-developed sense of smell, so when they smell an unpleasant odor, they will try to avoid it.

To combat cockroaches, ammonia is diluted with water based on the proportion: one teaspoon of ammonia per liter of water. The resulting solution is used to treat “approaches” from which uninvited insects can come, for example, a gap under the front door or holes in a plumbing unit. The procedure is carried out every 2-3 days and is repeated until the cockroaches lose interest in your apartment.

How to get rid of domestic cockroaches using folk remedies

You can save on factory-made insecticides by resorting to folk recipes. People have been fighting cockroaches for a very long time, so they have accumulated plenty of experience in preparing poisons from scrap materials. So, how to get rid of black and red cockroaches in an apartment using folk remedies?

Boric acid and ammonia for cockroaches

A good remedy for cockroaches in an apartment is boric acid. It is freely sold in pharmacy kiosks. Pests do not like this caustic powder, as it burns through their integument and causes unbearable itching. If a cockroach stumbles upon this powder once, it will not appear in that place again.

Boric acid can simply be scattered in places where parasites appear and, in addition, the entire floor can be washed with an acid solution

You can make poisonous baits using boric acid. To do this, the powder is mixed with boiled yolk. Balls are made from the resulting mass and laid out around the apartment.

Important! Boric acid bait can attract the attention of pets. So it is better not to use it if you have a dog or cat.

Ammonia will also repel insects with its pungent aroma. Its effect is short-lived, but if you regularly carry out thorough wet cleaning with ammonia, the Prussians will avoid your apartment.

Borax and arsenic in folk remedies for domestic insects

Tetraborate, or, more simply, borax, is another remedy for effectively getting rid of cockroaches. How to use it:

• mix borax, sugar and starch in a ratio of 3:1:1;
• Sprinkle bait powder where insects appear.

Arsenic is an extremely toxic substance. It will also help in the fight against red hordes, but it must be used extremely carefully. Avoid contact of the poison with skin and mucous membranes, do not work with it if there are children or pets in the house.

Arsenic is mixed with powdered sugar and scattered in areas where pests are active.

After a week, be sure to thoroughly wash all treated surfaces.

Frost as a means of fighting the Prussians

You already know that parasites do not like the cold. How can you get rid of cockroaches using this knowledge? It's simple: on a frosty day, open all the windows and leave the apartment to cool for an hour or two, turning off the heating system. If you suspect that insect eggs are in things or pieces of furniture, take them out into the cold. The eggs will also die from the cold. But in an apartment in a large house, there is a risk that while your home is freezing, the longhorned beetles will have time to evacuate to neighbors who are warm.

At least for how long will you be able to solve the problem

A couple more tips on how to get rid of cockroaches at home

Barbels are afraid of heat. So if you have a steam generator or even just a steamer, use it to treat places where there are traces of insects. The steam will kill eggs in the most difficult to reach places. Another way to destroy Prussian settlements is plants with a pungent aroma. It could be wild rosemary, wormwood, geranium, lavender or honeysuckle.

Bunches of plants are laid out in kitchen cabinets; you can use fresh or dried herbs. Pests will avoid these places

Professional products

Highly effective products include concentrated liquids, such as “Tsifoks” and “Xulat-25”. They are considered professional products and therefore must be used strictly according to the instructions. They are designed for use over large areas.

It is beneficial to contact specialists, since they can always qualitatively assess the situation and select a drug that is suitable specifically for your case.

Cockroach repellent "Tsifoks"

Liquid repellent for cockroaches Skulat-25

There are situations when, for various reasons, it is impossible to call disinfectants. In this case, you need to at least consult with them about the required drug and subsequent actions, and treat the apartment yourself.

In very difficult cases, when insects literally fall from the ceiling, you need advice from knowledgeable specialists. Professional workers know how to act correctly in such situations. After all, sometimes it may turn out that not just one family needs treatment of an apartment, but all the neighbors on the floor or in the entrance.

Use of mechanical traps

If there are not very many pests, try catching them using simple mechanical traps. Making such a trap is very simple: you will need double-sided tape and bait. The tape is glued to a piece of cardboard so that the sticky layer remains exposed. You need to put bait in the center of the cardboard: a piece of sausage or lard. Cockroaches will be drawn to the smell of food and will stick to the tape. The only thing is to watch where you place the trap, don’t get caught in it yourself.

For your information! Cockroaches are very curious, so they will definitely show interest in a new item, especially if it smells edible.

Sticky traps are also available at the factory.

Types of poison

If you have to deal with such nasty pests as cockroaches, then your war may be long. It is important to take into account the fact that they multiply very quickly and, in search of a better life, spread not only throughout the apartment, but throughout the entire residential complex!

Before poisoning cockroaches, you need to talk with your neighbors about their presence in other apartments. If you poison only in your apartment, then later your neighbors’ cockroaches will crawl to you. Therefore, everyone needs to start poisoning parasites at the same time.

To combat small pests there are many different means, both professional and inexpensive folk. They may be in the form:

• gel;
• pastes;
• spray;
• powder;
• liquid product;
• tablets;
• microencapsulated products;
• chalk.

Each of the means is good in its own way. We will discuss all their advantages and disadvantages below, but it is important not to forget that cockroaches reproduce quickly and adapt to harmful substances.

Electric and poison traps

Technological progress has also reached the problems of insect control. Electric traps powered by the network have become available for sale. They are good because they do not use toxic substances. They can be used without fear for the safety of children or animals. You need to place edible bait in the trap. Cockroaches, attracted by the smell of the bait, climb into the trap and die from electric shock. Interestingly, the bodies of killed individuals emit pheromones, which also attract their relatives.

There are many reviews about such devices, and they all contain positive recommendations.

Important! Electrotraps are subject to safety rules for working with electrical devices. Install them in dry places out of reach of small children. Remember to periodically clean the devices and change the bait.

Gels

From folk remedies we will smoothly move on to the achievements of modern technologies. One of them is special gels that are applied in the habitats of cockroaches. Having touched such a gel, the cockroach becomes a carrier of the poison, spreading it throughout the colony on its paws. After some time, the gel begins to act and destroys the insect.

Although gels generally do not have an unpleasant odor and do not release toxic substances, they are extremely dangerous for humans and pets. Therefore, they should be applied only in places inaccessible to children and pets, for example, behind a kitchen unit.

How to make a simple trap with your own hands

To make a simple mechanical trap, you will need a glass jar or bottle. The outside of the glass container is wrapped with paper tape, cloth or paper. This will allow insects to easily reach the neck.

Coat the inside of the neck of the jar or bottle with vegetable oil. Once a cockroach gets into the jar, it will not be able to get out on the slippery inner surface. Place bait at the bottom of the trap: sausage, sweets, a piece of potato or kefir.

Renew the bait once a day and throw away the caught Prussians

For what reasons do they appear?

The Prussian cockroach chooses human housing for habitat and population growth, since this insect cannot exist under conditions where the temperature is less than five and more than twenty-five degrees.

The main reasons for the rapid spread of parasites in an apartment are: the presence of a large amount of food debris and moisture. Accordingly, in order to somewhat reduce the growth of the colony, it is necessary to maintain the cleanliness of the home.

How to get rid of cockroaches in an apartment forever: professional pest control

Public institutions and retail outlets resort to the services of professional exterminators. This is not a cheap pleasure, so apartment owners need to be in a completely hopeless situation to order such services. The products used by professionals are extremely toxic; you will not find them on the open market.

There is a significant plus: after the work of the exterminators, you will not only have no cockroaches, but also mosquitoes, flies, bedbugs, ticks, fleas, spiders and other arthropods

Companies providing such services usually use the Danish drug Sinusan or the German K-Otrin . These chemicals are sold in large containers and have a wide spectrum of action.

Don't let your guard down - cockroaches may return

After getting rid of red cockroaches, do not rush to celebrate your victory. Make sure they don't sneak in again. We recommend learning about the types of domestic cockroaches.

To do this, cover the ventilation grilles in the apartment with a mesh with small cells through which insects cannot penetrate. Disinfect the room periodically and be sure to keep the apartment clean, especially in areas where you cook, dine, and feed your pets.

Preventive measures against insects in the apartment

If there are insects that cause only disgust, these are cockroaches. We have studied how to get rid of them, all that remains is to consider preventive measures. They are extremely simple:

• do regular cleaning, make it a rule to vacuum every week and wipe all surfaces with a damp cloth, preferably with a small amount of ammonia;
• pack all food in airtight containers, do not leave food waste on the table or in the sink;

Take out the trash can more often, place a container with an airtight lid in the kitchen

• do not allow leaks in the water supply, wipe the walls and floor in the bathroom dry after bathing;
• Make sure that there are no unprotected passages or cracks leading into neighboring apartments; cover the ventilation shafts with a fine mesh.

Prevention

In a private house, the fight against barbels seems less difficult than in city apartments. The house must be carefully treated once, and then constantly adhere to preventive measures to prevent Prussians from re-populating your home.

And in an apartment building, you can get the same result only in case of coordinated actions with your neighbors living in adjacent apartments and those living on the floor above. Only with simultaneous disinfection of all apartments at the entrance, it is possible to ensure that cockroaches, after treating the premises, do not enter your apartment again and again.

Here is what preventive work should be done to prevent the invasion of the Prussians:

1. Do general cleaning of your home regularly. Wash the floors in the room more often, do not leave crumbs, wipe off dust.
2. Keep food in a sealed container. After a meal, immediately wipe the crumbs off the table and keep your pets' feeding areas clean.
3. Conduct an audit. It will be great if you inspect all the kitchen drawers and put away any spilled cereal in them.
4. Timely washing of dishes. Make it a habit to wash spoons, plates and glasses after every meal. After that, wipe them dry.

5. Taking out the trash. There is no need to keep the garbage under the sink for a long time. Buy a trash container with a tight-fitting lid and empty it frequently.
6. Deal with water leaks. It is absolutely unacceptable for water to drip from the tap. It is known that Prussians can live more than a week without food, but only 24 hours without water. Therefore, systematically inspect the toilet tank, pipe connections and sink for leaks.
7. Keep your bathroom dry. Always wipe it dry after taking a bath. After that, wash and wipe the bathroom floor.
8. Seal all cracks. If you are sure that your neighbors are unclean, take care to make your apartment inaccessible to cockroaches. After a thorough inspection of all surfaces of the apartment, putty all discovered cracks and holes.
9. Protect ventilation ducts. Seal the existing openings to provide ventilation in the home with a mosquito net with a mesh size that does not allow cockroaches to get through.

Important! After processing, it is important to ensure that the cockroaches do not have the opportunity to quench their thirst. Even drops of water left on the walls of the sink can nullify all efforts to kill insects.

Use other people's experience

As they say, experience is the son of difficult mistakes. In the fight against annoying pests, use advice on forums on how to get rid of cockroaches, and customer reviews about the effectiveness of certain products. This is especially true for factory-made drugs and traps. Not all advertised products live up to expectations. People who have tried the drugs in practice will help you understand them.

So before you buy an expensive spray or powder, read what people think about it

If you have successful experience using any products, share your recommendation in the comments!