How to Get Rid of Cockroaches in your Home

Of all the pests that commonly infest homes the cockroach is perhaps the most hated, thanks to their reputation as disease-carriers and the fact that they often exacerbate asthma and allergies. These common pests are usually thought of as being very difficult to get rid of; however, the best ways of eliminating cockroaches from your home are quite simple. To get rid of cockroaches in your home, it's not enough to kill the one you see, and that's why many people believe that eliminating them is so difficult. If you want to get rid of cockroaches and make sure they never come back, you must make your home inhospitable to these little pests.

Step One: Identify the Pest

To get rid of cockroaches, you must first confirm that they are in fact infesting your home. Fortunately, they're easy to identify. Cockroaches are usually between half an inch and two inches long, with a flat elongated body, and range from light brown through to black in color, depending on the species. Each has six legs, including a pair of back legs that angle back towards the body of the roach and extend beyond the tail, and a set of long antennae that often resemble a fourth pair of legs.

Step Two: Clean Up

Cockroaches are scavengers, and they're drawn to places where they can easily find food. Even tiny amounts of food can attract these pests, and they can dine and thrive on an astonishingly wide variety of substances that we don't consider food-including substances such as paper and even soap.

Making your home inhospitable to cockroaches means removing as many sources of food as possible. Cockroaches can survive long periods without food as long as they have access to water, so it's also important to keep your home dry.

• Be thorough with vacuuming and mopping, and make sure that wet areas such as the kitchen and bathroom are dry as well as clean
  
• Store all food in sealed containers, rather than plastic or paper bags
  
• Wash dishes soon after using them, and keep the sink and kitchen surfaces clean and dry
  
• Don't allow dirty laundry to build up for too long-cockroaches can feed off shed skin and hair that collects on clothing
  
• Keep garbage cans tightly closed, and don't allow trash to build up inside the house

Step Three: Remove Potential Nesting Sites

Cockroaches are also drawn to places that offer quiet areas in which they can hide. Depending on the species, they'll prefer either moist areas or dry ones, so it's important to remove all potential nesting sites from your home.

• Check the seals on windows and doors to make sure that roaches cannot use these to enter and leave. Consider investing in door and window screens if you don't already have these.
  
• De-clutter your home-remove junk and items you no longer use, and find a place to safely store items that you want to keep for occasional use.
  
• Remove shelf and drawer paper from any location where you use it
  
• If you suspect cockroaches may be nesting in your walls, you must locate any and all cracks and holes by which they might be entering and leaving. Seal up all but one of those sites-the remaining open site should be used as a trap point. Make sure this last open access point is not easily accessible to children and pets.

Step Four: Baits and Traps

If you live in a warm climate, these steps may be enough to convince the cockroaches to leave. However if your climate is cooler, they'll be more difficult to remove. Cockroaches simply can't tolerate cold weather, so you may need to lay out baits or traps to eliminate them completely.

The problem is that cockroaches are extremely resilient, and most substances that are toxic to cockroaches are also toxic to humans and pets. If you choose to use pesticides or poisons to get rid of a cockroach infestation, it's absolutely crucial to take all precautions suggested on the container of the pesticide, and to make sure your children and pets cannot access any baited or trapped areas.

There are some excellent, safe alternatives to the traditional pesticides and poisons that make them a great option for any home that includes young children and pets. One very simple and completely non-toxic solution is a mixture of equal parts of sugar and baking soda. Place this mixture in flat dishes, and then place the dishes in areas where you know roaches are traveling. They'll be drawn to the bait thanks to their love of sugar, but baking soda is lethal to cockroaches, and they'll die after ingesting only a little of the mixture.