Severe cockroach infestation in Neptune - Cockroach Removal and Control in Neptune, NJ

Challenge

I was contacted by my commercial account, a garden-style apartment complex in Neptune. According to the property manager, a number of tenants clustered in nearby units had reported seeing random cockroaches. All signs indicated an infestation in a particular unit because there were random roach sightings on both sides of this unit as well as the unit below. The management company contacted the tenants who acknowledged that they were trying to deal with an ongoing cockroach infestation for a period of time on their own.
Apparently, the tenants were fearful of eviction for “causing” a roach infestation throughout the building and avoided reporting the problem to the management. As things got worse, they became more afraid to notify management.

The tenants were using household over-the-counter “roach killing” products. Unfortunately, the reality is that despite their claims, these products are ineffective, especially when used to resolve a large, entrenched infestation. Even worse, these OTC products tend to cause exactly what you want to avoid. They “chase away” the roaches into wall voids or pipes, forcing them to relocate elsewhere and spreading out the infestation. Here, the roaches started showing up in other apartment units affecting more tenants.

Cockroaches are resilient, requiring multiple fronts to bring the infestation under control. Because these insects favor warm, humid areas close to food and water, they typically infest kitchens and bathrooms. However, with a severe infestation, they quickly spread to other areas of the home in their search for food. And it doesn’t take long for a minor infestation to turn into a major one. A female carries around a light tan egg case, and each case contains about 30 offspring. A female produces a new egg case every few weeks, so with successive generations, a roach population can easily climb into the tens of thousands within a year if the problem is not resolved early on. With cockroaches come sanitation issues. They contaminate food and eating utensils, destroy fabric and paper products, and impart stains and unpleasant odors to surfaces they contact. Cockroaches, which come into contact with excrement in sewers or with pet droppings, transmit salmonella and other bacteria that cause food poisoning. Residential infestations expose the home occupants to cockroach fecal material, saliva, and body fragments. All are potentially severe asthma triggers, especially for children.

Solution

With a heavy infestation like this, we brought out the “big guns” and performed an intensive service. We used an Actisol machine that delivers a fine mist through a pinpoint tip, enabling the chemical to penetrate the many cracks and crevices that cockroaches use for harborage. The roaches are “smoked out” from these inaccessible hiding areas,and chased into other areas that have been treated with a residual pesticide. A major lesson from this job is education. We also talked to the tenant about the potential sanitation issues that promoted the infestation in the first place, and the importance of making the home environment hostile to a cockroach infestation by restricting available food, water, and harborage areas. Tenants must be educated to report infestations early and without fear of reprisal. When a roach problem is delayed,a few roaches can quickly multiply, first into the hundreds, and then into the thousands. The problem soon becomes too overwhelming for a homeowner to handle on his own. A roach infestation is a serious health hazard. Every day that the problem is not resolved is another day for them to breed and spread disease.

The results of our treatment were astounding. The tenants, including the “ground zero” apartment, reported seeing almost no roaches, and those that were seen appeared impaired and in the process of dying from the treatment. A followup visit has been scheduled to use a bait that will kill any surviving roaches. There is no worse publicity for an apartment building than tenants spreading the word that an apartment complex has a roach problem. Because the property managers of this Neptune apartment complex jumped on the problem quickly and decisively, Cowleys was able to resolve the infestation before it could spread to even more units.