German cockroach infestation

German cockroach infestation

One of the most common cockroach species known to invade human space worldwide is the German cockroach. Like other roach species infestations, German cockroach infestations could pose serious threats to your health when they enter your space. While they’re primarily harmless, they’re capable of spreading germs and illnesses that could threaten your health and that of your children and pets.

Read on to learn more about German cockroaches, their habitats and threats, and of course, how to get rid of German cockroaches for good.

What Are German Cockroaches?

Adult German cockroaches (Blattella germanica) are small cockroach species, usually about one-half to five-eighths of an inch in size. They possess an oval-shaped body, six legs, two antennae, and wings. While their wings are well developed, they rarely fly. Instead, this species of roaches prefer to run or glide when disturbed.

What Do German Roaches Look Like?

German cockroaches are recognized by their color, ranging from light brown to tan. In addition, they feature two dark, roughly parallel stripes that run from the back of the head to the base of the wings. However, female German cockroaches are darker than their male counterparts.

Female German roaches breed rapidly and can produce up to 40 German cockroach eggs at a time. A female german roach can reproduce up to seven times in one year, depositing hundreds of eggs in human space. The eggs hatch, and nymphs come out of the cockroach egg case. German cockroach nymphs are just like the adults but wingless, smaller, and darker in color.

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Where Can You Find German Cockroaches In Your Apartment?

German roaches are found in residential and commercial buildings in Canada. However, this cockroach species searches for warm (700F/210C) and humid habitats to hide and breed. Thus, they’re mostly found in residential and commercial kitchens and bathrooms.

German cockroaches will enter any area in human space where they can have access to food and water. This explains why they are also found in dining rooms, restaurants, food processing facilities, hotels, nursing homes, and institutional food facilities.

German roaches also target cracks and crevices near a food or water source and make them their homes. Thanks to their small size, they find it pretty comfortable to fit through any tiny opening, even if it’s as small as 3/8 inch in width.

They can also be found around your wiring and electronics (like televisions and computers), inside or under your appliances (refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers, and microwaves). Sometimes they hide in your walls and ceiling pipes during the daytime.

German roaches would eat just anything they could find in your apartment, ranging from foods to soap, glue, or toothpaste. They can establish an infestation faster if you give them free access to your food source in your apartment.

What Are The Health Threats Associated With The Presence of German Cockroaches?

German cockroaches do more than cause a nuisance when inside an apartment. Generally, roaches are serious public health pests, and their presence in the human environment is significantly detrimental to human and pet health. They could spread different bacteria (including E. coli and Salmonella species), parasitic worms, and many serious human pathogens.

Roaches can pick up germs with the spines of their legs and bodies from sewage or other unsanitary sites while crawling around and carry them into food or onto food surfaces. Thus, causing food poisoning when humans or pets consume such food.

Roaches have been suspected in many individuals’ outbreaks of serious diseases and allergic reactions. With this in mind, German roach allergen is known to trigger allergic reactions, especially in children with asthma symptoms.

Thus, the control or complete extermination of German cockroaches from your space is incredibly vital to keep you, your family, and pets safe from the life-threatening infections of their infestations.

What Are The German Cockroach Infestation Signs?

German roaches are nocturnal and spend most of their time hiding during the day. They only come out at night from their hideout in your apartment to cause trouble. Thus, the chances that you’ll come across an active german roach in your apartment at the early stage of an infestation is quite low. However, there are signs these unsanitary pests leave behind that can help you detect their presence in your space as early as possible.

German roaches often dwell in residential and commercial kitchens and bathrooms where they can easily access food and moisture to survive. Thus, German roach infestations are more likely to occur first from places they frequently dwell. Inspect where they love to live in your building for German roach droppings. Their droppings are usually small, dark, and appear like “pepper-like” material.

Look out for signs of fecal staining (dark spots) or smear in the corners of your rooms, around small cracks and crevices in your walls. German cockroaches also produce a musty odor, but you are more likely not to detect this strange smell until the population has burgeoned in your apartment. Also, look for shed German roach’s skin, dead bodies, German cockroach eggs, and oval-shaped egg cases in your building.

What is the Best Way to Get Rid of German Roaches?

Wondering how to get rid of German roaches naturally from your residential or commercial building? The solution is good sanitation. Maintaining a clean kitchen, bathroom, and outside environment could do a lot to make your space less inviting to cockroaches.

Do not do if you have cockroach infestation

Do NOT seal off openings if you have cockroach infestation. They can stock indoors for a short time, multiply, and show up later on a bigger number.

Remember; Home remedies may not be enough to effectively handle a German cockroach infestation due to their high breeding rate and hardy nature.

Notice some signs of roach infestation? Your next step should be to contact a German cockroach pest control company like Provincial Pest Control (PPC), which specializes in German cockroach extermination.

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Is There Any German Roach Exterminator Near Me (Ontario, Canada)?

Provincial Pest Control (PPC) is a licensed pest control company in Canada. We offer customized German pest control 2 mandatory visits treatment for homes and businesses including Toronto, Ottawa, Vaughan, Richmond and other nearby towns.

We provide free German cockroach pest inspection (if necessary) and next day treatment (since home & business owners need to do preparation for residual spray & actisol machine treatment. Preparation takes a minimum of 1 day or longer) for residential and commercial buildings. We boast a team of professionals who can help recommend proven German cockroach control treatments and solutions that eliminate german roaches with their eggs and remove their infestations for good. Contact us today for your pest extermination services for your apartments. We’ll be glad to put an end to your pest problems and reclaim your space for you as soon as possible. Click here to schedule your free pest inspection today.