Roaches: The Rudest, Dirtiest, and Most Unwelcomed Pest in South Amboy - Roach control and removal in South Amboy, NJ
Challenge
I often work with Nick, another pest control technician at Cowleys Pest Services. Together, we’re a great team — the undefeated tag team champions against any and all insects that dare to challenge us. Today, we were called to a home in South Amboy to resolve a severe cockroach infestation. Cockroaches are one of the most resilient pests that invade our homes. It is said that they can even survive a nuclear explosion! They often require multiple treatment strategies to bring the infestation under control. These insects are attracted to warm, humid areas close to food and water, so they typically infest kitchens and bathrooms. However, with a severe infestation, they will soon spread to other areas of the home, including bedrooms. It’s hard to think of anything more vile than a dirty roach crawling on your skin while resting in bed.
With their exponential breeding rates, it doesn’t take long for a minor roach infestation to turn into a major one. A female lugs around a light tan egg case until the eggs are ready to hatch. She can produce a new egg case every few weeks, and each case contains about 30 offspring. With successive generations, a roach population can easily climb into the tens of thousands within a year if the infestation is ignored in its early stages. With roach infestations, just like with bed bugs, homeowners need to take action at the first sign of trouble. Roaches will continue to breed and become more entrenched in your home if the infestation is not timely and correctly treated. Attempted DIY methods are usually ineffective, and sometimes even make matters worse by spreading the insects to other areas of the home.
Upon arrival, we spoke with the homeowner to get as much information as we could before conducting our inspection to help us target our efforts in order to quickly get rid of this roach infestation. First, we always want to know the trouble spots, asking “Where have you seen them the most?” We also want to get a rough idea of the level of infestation, asking “How long have you been seeing them for and how many have you seen?” We always start our roach treatments with a small questionnaire for the homeowner to give us a good indication of the scope of the problem and to make sure we are going in the right direction. The most effective way of treating a roach infestation depends on the level of infestation and how widespread it is thought the home.
After gathering the preliminary information from the homeowner, it was time to inspect. Nick and I pulled out our most important inspection tool for locating roach harborage areas — our flashlights. Nick headed to the bedroom area where the homeowner reported significant roach activity while I inspected the other hotspot, the kitchen on the lower level. We carefully inspected all potential entry points and harborage areas,thoroughly inspecting every single crack and crevice.
Solution
We began a spot aerosol treatment that flushes out the roaches in all the hotspot openings. When not foraging for food and water, roaches look for tight spots to hide. They especially seek out warm heated spots. Common kitchen hiding areas are nearby heat-generating sources such as nearby refrigerator motors, microwaves, and dish-washing machines. This flushing method is highly effective to force the roaches out of their hiding spots. We also placed glue board and point source monitors throughout the home to monitor the pest situation.
We are confident that we went a long way in eliminating the roach problem for this homeowner, and after our initial visit their population was substantially reduced. Of course, there can always be a few stragglers lucky enough to escape the first treatment. We will return for a follow-up in two weeks to inspect and treat again, and we look forward to seeing the progress from our initial treatment. The homeowner was pleased that we were able to accomplish so much on our initial visit, and he was visibly relieved that he was well on his way toward getting rid of this infestation that had gone on for far too long.
