ROACH CONTROL




Roaches are every homeowners nightmare. If given the opportunity, Roaches will become a permanent family member! There are different ways of dealing with this pest, but three qualities you will need include:

1. Patience
2. Persistence
3. Knowledge

Patience is needed because you cannot spray one time and expect to never see another roach. Egg cases will hatch and follow-up treatments are necessary. When sightings occur after treatments, use these sightings to your advantage. There must be a nest or two you missed so attack that area.

Persistence is needed when dealing with roaches because of their biology. Roaches develop rapidly and studies confirm they will develop faster when their population is under stress. Many of you have experienced a population explosion within two to six weeks after a major clean out. This is nature’s way of preserving the species. A treatment schedule must be made and then strictly adhered to when you decide to clean out a roach infestation. Think long term and schedule treatments for the year. This insures your commitment.

Knowledge is another key ingredient when combating these creatures. If you hire a professional, ask questions. Learn what products they are using. Make sure to monitor your problem areas. Ask if extra treatments are needed. If you adopt an in house program, keep mental notes of problem areas. These will prove invaluable for identifying patterns of roach problems throughout the year.

As I stated above, patience and persistence are needed when dealing with roaches. However, these are skills I cannot teach within the confines of this article. Knowledge, though, is something I can share. I have had a good deal of experience working in apartment buildings, town houses, condominiums, duplexes and homes. The methods I have had success with vary with the conditions I am forced to work within. Let me outline some guidelines and options for anyone serious about roach control.

Every homeowner must make a decision regarding pest control. Your decision will be one of three choices.

1. You may choose to use a pest control company full time for all of your pest control needs.
2. You may hire a pest control company for spot treatment. I have seen homeowners hire a service to treat certain problem areas and then supplement that treatment to help keep costs down.
3. You may choose to do all your roach control in house. If that is the case, read on. The rest of this article is designed for do-it-yourselfers. You will now have access to the information required to get complete roach control – including the professional strength materials needed to do the work!

If you decide to treat your home in conjunction with a service, implement a program which will compliment the service. Work with them, not against them. Some homeowners I have dealt with pay a service to handle termite or bee problems only. The homeowner handles the preventative spraying. Pest control companies generally do not like this as it cuts into their profits but as a good paying customer, you may hire whatever service type you want!

In general, there are two methods of handling roach infestations. These are spraying or baiting.

ROACH CONTROL SPRAY

First, lets discuss spraying. Traditionally, we chemically treated as many of the cabinets, wall voids and appliances that roaches like to hide in. This involves a lot of preparation. You will need to empty cabinets and make voids accessible. Only then can treatment’s be complete and thorough. Once these areas are prepared, there are two types of products needed for the application. First, treat with a concentrate that is mixed with water. This concentrate should be mixed in a pump sprayer and applied to baseboards, behind appliances and around the infested room being treated with the intention of creating a barrier that roaches will not be able to cross. There are many active ingredients available, but the one most active on roaches is ORTHENE WP. If the barrier is complete, roaches will not be able to migrate from one room to another. Use one of our SPRAYERS to do your treatments.

These new trends became known as “crack and crevice”. Basically, c/c means applying the chemical into the cracks and crevices suspected of harboring roaches. There are two types of products commonly used for this purpose: dust and aerosol. I have always been able to get control with dust. In fact, a good pest control technician should be able to get roach control with nothing more if he or she knows where to do the application.

ROACH CONTROL DUST

With the use of DRIONE DUST, I have solved many roach problems. Apply it in cracks and crevices, behind cabinets and major appliances, in wall voids and electric outlets. This requires a lot of work and this product can be messy to work with, but provides the fastest results possible when used properly. Use a CRUSADER HAND DUSTER for the application.

ROACH CONTROL AEROSOL

Since dust can be messy to work with, aerosol products became popular throughout the 1980′s. A company called Whitmire offered the pest control industry products in a can which were easy to apply, economical and went a long way. Although not as popular as when they first came out, aerosols offer a clean, ready to use formulation which is effective. PT-PHANTOM uses a unique active ingredient which doesn’t work fast but does work thoroughly. Basically it takes several days to “kick in” but when it does, the local roach population will be affected big time.

ROACH CONTROL BAIT

Although spraying has long been the main method to get roach control, baiting has become a legitimate method as new baits hit the market. These products have been tested and proven effective. Baits have always been available, but roaches seemed to be indifferent to them. Although some roaches would feed and die, it was not likely that you would be able to control infestations with baits alone. Now, we have products like MAXFORCE and ADVION. These materials are deadly for roaches. First, they love it as seen here in this short video.



Second, roaches are cannibalistic. They’ll readily eat dead roaches. And when they eat a roach that died from either of these gels, the roach doing the eating will die too!

If you own several properties or apartments and intend on doing a lot of baiting you should consider getting the BAIT GUN. Advion is in a cartridge that fits this gun and the MAXFORCE CARTRIDGE ROACH GEL fits it too.

The great thing about using gel baits is that if you’re careful, you should be able to apply either without having to remove anything from your cabinets.

The drawbacks to these products is that they do take a little longer to work. It may take several days before you see dead roaches. Another disadvantage is that you must be careful not to spray the bait placements with traditional materials. They will contaminate the bait and roaches will simply ignore it. In fact, roaches will ignore bait placements that have been made over treated surfaces, so make sure to apply Maxforce or Advion where you are certain no residual pesticide has been applied.

In general, make your placements about 2 – 3 feet apart. In the average cabinet, you will need to make 6-8 placements. And where possible, use both Advion and Maxforce at the same time. By having two flavors available, the roaches are more likely to find one of the products. Since roaches will change their diet, having an option ensures they will find one if they don’t’ like the other.

ROACH CONTROL TRAPS

Regardless of the treatment method you choose, another tool which can be a great help when treating roach infestations is the use of ROACH TRAPS. These rely on roach pheromones to attract all types of roaches but they work particularly well for and several of the large roach species. Place them where roaches have been seen. The pheromones will attract males ready to reproduce, females in search of nest sights (the odors emitted signal a roach gathering place or nest) and young roaches which are looking for a colony to mix and mingle. The great advantage of these traps is that they are not toxic; the pheromones are not detectable by people and pose no hazard to food, people or pets. Traps can be placed in pantries, food cabinets, desks, dressers, closets, countertops or anywhere roach activity is present.

The second advantage for using these devices is that they are able to let you know where roach activity is greatest. It is common to focus on wrong areas when spraying or baiting and the use of these traps can help identify just exactly where the roaches are located. By setting two or three in a room which has roach activity, you can learn exactly which part of the room is the “hotspot” which needs extra attention.

The only disadvantage of these traps is that used alone they will not control the problem. It is easy to be mislead into believing all the roaches being trapped will stop the infestation. Since roaches will be reproducing more rapidly than the traps can catch them you should not rely on them alone if you want to get control. Ideally, they should be used as another tool to help control this pest; using them as a solve all will certainly keep numbers down but not eradicate existing populations.

ROACH CONTROL IN THE HOME

Whatever form of pest control you choose to implement for your home, try to follow these guidelines. Knowledge is essential and with it comes an understanding of why roaches are so hard to control. As difficult as it may seem, you can gain control with patience and persistence. Once control is acquired, preventative maintenance will stop future infestations. In the United States, we have the very best the world has to offer for pest control. Orthene, Drione and Phantom can control the toughest roach population. Advion and Maxforce gel baits are simply irresistible and if used together, will eradicate any infestation. You only need to decide first if you want to hire someone to do the work or do it yourself. If you hire someone, make sure they use the products mentioned above. If you do it yourself, employ these same products and you will be able to control the toughest pest problem.