- Keep the kitchen clean. Clean up crumbs and spills promptly, and pay special attention to range tops, as cockroaches love grease.
- Put food away and don't even leave dirty dishes overnight.
- Empty trash regularly, and keep trash away from the house.
- Fix dripping faucets or leaks; cockroaches are attracted to water.
- Put naphthalene balls on corners; roaches hate their smell.
- Prevent bugs from coming up the drain. If you believe that the cockroaches are coming up your drains, pour regular, cheap bleach down the drains before leaving the house in the morning. For a stronger solution, mix 1 part borax with 3 parts bleach.
- Move logs and other debris away from the outside of the house. Cockroaches love piles of wood and other convenient hiding places, and as the weather turns colder, they'll migrate inside the house to keep warm.
- Seal cracks in exterior walls.
- Seal cracks everywhere you can inside your house. This takes time, but the payoff is great, because you eliminate most of their favorite hiding/breeding places. You'll need a lot of caulking, so use the big tubes with a caulking gun. Fill every crack inside every cabinet; fill the cracks on both sides of floor, door, and window moldings; fill all openings around pipes in bathrooms and kitchens. This makes a big difference and makes the whole house feel cleaner.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Preventing Roach Infestations
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