How To Easily Get Rid Of Roaches Without Using Foggers

November 24, 2017

Get Rid Of Roaches Without Fogging

You see cockroaches in your South Florida home and then you see that fogger at the store that comes in a pretty green box. You think, this is it, the quick kill solution to get rid of roaches. How can it not work?

It literally sprays insecticide everywhere in the room you set it off in, and yes! It will actually kill whatever poor roach gets sprayed by it. But how often have you seen roaches just hanging out waiting to get fogged?

Most cockroaches are NOT out in the open in your home just waiting for your fogger to be activated. They prefer hiding in the dark, humid areas that are harder to access.

Underneath and behind appliances, in cracks and crevices, outside underneath decaying organic matter, and in the sewer system. The active ingredients in these fogger products are repellent insecticides.

Fogging systems are great at killing roaches on contact, but foggers can actually push the majority of them further into their safer hiding places.

Fogging or bombing roaches creates a long-term problem for you and your loved ones that will not go away. It will also unnecessarily expose you, your family, and your pets to insecticides.

Identify The Type Of Roach In Your Home

The best way to get rid of cockroaches depends on the type of cockroach that you have in your home. While there are many species, to keep it simple we’ll only go over the two most common.

If they are very big and scary looking, it’s probably an American cockroach, often called a Palmetto bug. If they seem to be smaller roaches that seem to be coming from the cabinets and appliances in your kitchen, it’s probably a German cockroach.

The Best Way To Get Rid Of Cockroaches

Hopefully, at this point we’ve convinced you not to use one of these bug bombs on cockroaches in your home or business. The “spray and pray” method is just not effective.

It will actually make the problem worse, so it’s a complete waste of time and money.

Instead, the best way to get rid of roaches is to actually target the places they are hiding at in your home. If you need help, simply contact us at Native Pest Management.

The Best Way To Get Rid Of American Roaches

If you are positive it’s those big American Cockroaches you are seeing, think about how many you are seeing a week. If you see them daily, they are most likely coming from your sewer/septic system.

If you see them only a couple times a month, it is more likely there is an exterior entry point they are entering your home from.

Start with the exclusion for American roaches. Have you had any remodeling done recently in the kitchen or bathroom?

There may be an uncapped pipe that is allowing them to enter from the sewer system. There also may be a toilet in the home that has a broken wax seal underneath it.

Get out the caulk and make sure the base of all toilets in the home is properly sealed. Also seal around any plumbing penetrations and any exterior holes on the home you can find.

Next, use a granular cockroach bait both inside and outside of your home. We like Maxforce Complete Granular Insect Bait.

Make sure to carefully follow the label so that you do not apply it anywhere out in the open in your home that can be accessed by pets or children.

The key is to get the granular bait in the places American Cockroaches are hiding – underneath appliances, in cracks and crevices, near the water heater, and outside of the home in plant beds and underneath trees.

Lastly, if you have the ability to safely spray an insecticide, you’ll want to treat inside and outside of the home with a non-repellent product such as Arilon.

When spraying any kind of insecticide, more is not better! The key is applying it in the right places, and if you read the label carefully these places will be described in detail.

The Best Way To Get Rid Of German Roaches

German Cockroaches are treated very differently than American Cockroaches. We would not use any of the above treatment methods if this was the type of roach in your home.

They don’t live outdoors, so there is no point in treating or excluding the outside of your home for German roaches.

They also don’t prefer granular bait so we wouldn’t bother using Maxforce Complete on them. The first thing you’ll want to focus on in a German roach treatment is sanitation.

If there is grease all over your kitchen appliances and food and water out in the open, you must do a deep cleaning. German roaches require food and water to survive, and the more of it that’s available to them the quicker they will reproduce.

If food is available to them, it will also be competing with any bait you use. While you are sanitizing, vacuum up some of those roaches!

Physically removing a number of roaches will be a great start to your control methods and will allow you to use fewer pesticides.

Next, it’s time to get out the bait. Gel bait. German roaches love gel bait but they won’t travel far to get it. With whatever gel bait you use, (we like Vendetta Plus,) the important thing is to apply it correctly.

You’ll want to use only pea-sized droplets and place them in cracks and crevices where German roaches hide and breed.

With German roach control, the key product I’ve never seen a homeowner use is an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR). German roaches breed so quickly that if their life cycle is not interrupted, you’ll never get 100% control.

Their egg casings will keep hatching and you’ll have to keep treating them over and over again. By using an IGR like Gentrol Point Source you’ll break this life cycle and get rid of roaches for good.

Lastly, if the above products simply aren’t doing the trick, you can break out the big guns. A non-repellent spray such as Alpine WSG works very well when applied to cracks in crevices in the kitchen and bathrooms by following label instructions.

Make sure not to spray any bait you’ve applied or it roaches won’t eat it since it will taste bad to them.

Do not expect this spray to kill the roaches on contact. If it does, you’re doing it incorrectly. The goal with all German roach control methods is to allow them to survive long enough to inadvertently bring the products back to the others that are hiding in inaccessible areas of your home.

The Best Way To Get Rid Of Cockroaches in Apartments

Every day we receive calls from tenants and owners of apartments who sound defeated, as they have been losing the seemingly never ending war against cockroaches.

Many times we've heard people say they feel like they need a monthly spray in their apartment to push the roaches back through the walls to their neighbors' apartments.

These calls often start with people saying their neighbor just sprayed for roaches so now they have a cockroach infestation in their unit.

Since the vast majority of pest control sprays that are applied in apartments and condos, or "fumigations" as it's often referred to in our Miami, FL service area, use contact kill sprays, the neighbors probably did push the roaches over to your unit.

The good news is, if you follow the advice above regarding treating with non-repellent sprays, baits, insect growth regulators and dusts, your neighbor can spray all they want but you'll have the peace of mind that you won't have cockroaches in your apartment.

Cockroach Control in West Palm Beach, FL

If all else fails, professional pest control companies may be the best option to safely and permanently get rid of the roaches in your home.

Native Pest Management is your local provider of pet-safe pest control in Florida. Whether you are searching for “pest control West Palm Beach”, “pest control Fort Lauderdale”, “pest control Miami”, “pest control Port St. Lucie”, “pest control Tallahassee”, “pest control Wellington”, or even just "pest control near me" for various other cities in our service area, we can help.

With over 2000 verified five-star reviews across sites including Google, Yelp, Nextdoor, Facebook, the BBB, and Angie’s List, we do what it takes to safely solve your pest problem.

Call us today to schedule your free pest control inspection.