Oriental cockroach infestation

Oriental cockroach infestation

How to get rid of oriental cockroach infestation in your home?

Oriental cockroaches are one of the most unsanitary household pests throughout the world. These roach species naturally crawl around damp areas and typically feed on garbage, filth, and decaying materials that harbour germs. They can pick germs with their body and limbs through their dirty feeding habits and spread to human homes, predisposing people to life-threatening diseases. Thus, the control of oriental roach infestation is superbly vital in homes where these roach species are present.

Read on to learn more about an oriental cockroach, signs of oriental cockroach infestations, and oriental cockroach treatment and control.

What are Oriental Cockroaches?

Oriental cockroaches (Blatta orientalis) are large cockroach species, slightly above one inch long when fully grown. Adult male oriental roaches measure between 0.71 – 1.14 inches in size, while adult females range from 0.79 – 1.06 inches in length. There are usually recognized with their dark reddish-brown or black color with a shiny oval-shaped body.

In terms of appearance, the adult males typically have short non-functional wings (about three-quarters long), while the adult females appear to be wingless. However, both the males and the females are flightless.

Oriental cockroaches are also known as “waterbugs” because of their special preference for dark, damp areas. Their smooth, dark appearance also makes people refer to these roach species as “black beetle cockroaches.”

Where are Oriental Cockroaches Found?

Whether indoors or outdoors, oriental roaches prefer to live in dark, moist locations. They are primary and outdoor cockroach species that could be found in bushes, beneath mulch, in leaf litters, under stones, or pile debris.

Oriental cockroaches can be found indoors in your basements, sewers, cellars, porches, drains, and around decaying organic matter. They love to crawl around service ducts, toilets, bathtubs, sinks, radiators, pipes, and other cool, damp areas in the human building.

Oriental roaches usually gain entry into human homes or structures through the openings or gaps beneath the threshold of doors, porches, wall voids, and crawl spaces. They could also get in your home through your utility lines, pipes, open drains, or sewers. They tend to assemble in large numbers near water sources because water is vital to their survival. While Oriental roaches can survive for up to a month without food, they cannot live without water for more than two weeks.

What are the Oriental Cockroach Infestation Signs?

Early detection of signs of an oriental cockroach infestation is crucial to effective treatment and control of this cockroach species. It’s believed that understanding the signs that indicate the presence of black beetle cockroaches in a home could help individuals know earlier when an infestation is just occurring. So if you’re wondering if these pest invaders are sharing your space with you, look out for these three signs in locations they live:

• Their egg cases

When indoors, female oriental cockroaches often leave behind egg cases during an infestation. Their egg capsules range between 8-10mm in size, and each egg case could hold up to 16 eggs. Oriental roaches’ egg cases appear dark brown or reddish in color and are often deposited in a protected place in the human environment before hatching. Inspect all the possible areas in your space these waterbugs frequent for any evidence of their egg cases. A home where these egg cases are found is believed to have an oriental roach infestation.

• Presence of live oriental roaches

As with any roach species, oriental cockroaches are nocturnal, and they hide well. However, their large size makes them less difficult to see than other species of cockroaches found in residential and commercial buildings. Check their preferred staying areas (including your sewer, storm drain, open pipes, outdoor damp gutters, and other moist locations inside and outside your space) for an active oriental roach. Seeing a live one with your eyes is the most obvious evidence that you have an oriental cockroach infestation in your home.

• Their odour

If the infestation of a cockroach species has burgeoned in size in your space, their unpleasant smells will alert you. The presence of oriental cockroaches in a large number often come with the worst smell of all the common roach species that invade homes and other buildings worldwide. Oriental roaches produce a chemical with a notorious musty odour that they use to communicate with each other. If you smell this strange odour from a hidden, dark corner of your home, it’s another obvious sign of an infestation caused by oriental cockroaches.

How to Get Rid of and Control Oriental Cockroach Infestation?

The best DIY preventive remedy for oriental cockroaches control is to practice good sanitation. Keep a clean home and outside surroundings to make your space inhospitable for these unsanitary insect pests. They love to crawl around garbage, filth, and decaying organic matter near or outside your building; thus, keeping your surroundings as neat as possible could help make your space less inviting to them.

It’s also important to cut their access to food and moisture sources. Sınce oriental roaches can’t survive for long without water, reducing moisture attracting them to your space could help shut them out. Try to fix your leaky pipes, reduce vegetation, correct issues that may result in trapped moisture in your home, and allow proper ventilation. Also, cover vents that lead indoors and gaps beneath your doors, porches, and crawlspaces. These are good DIY practices that can help prevent oriental roaches from gaining entry into your building.

However, most DIY remedies featured on DIY websites are not effective enough to handle oriental cockroach infestation once their signs are evident in your building. So if you found live or dead oriental roaches, their egg capsules, or you smell their strange odours in your space, it’s time to contact a reliable pest control company for immediate treatment and control.

An oriental infestation is best handled with professional pest control customized treatment plans. Here at Provincial Pest Control (PPC), we have well-trained pest exterminators who can help locate pests’ entry points, identify an infestation, and provide customized treatment plans for effective control of any roach species disturbing your space. In addition, our exterminators can also provide you with the best advice on how to get rid of oriental cockroaches for good.

Oriental Cockroach Exterminator Near Me (Canada)

If you have a home or office infested with an oriental cockroach in Canada and you need immediate help, Provincial Pest Control (PPC) is your best shot.

We provide professional pest control services to homes and offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Vaughan, Richmond, and other cities across Canada.

We could help inspect your space and apply proper oriental cockroach treatment methods to permanently eliminate these cockroach species with their eggs and nymphs if an infestation is identified. Moreover, we offer free pest inspection, in which we inspect your building for over 30 pests and offer same-day treatments. Call us for free oriental roach inspection or free recommendations of effective treatment methods for oriental cockroaches control.

You can schedule your free pest inspection here.