American Cockroaches in Spring Lake, NJ

Challenge

I went out on a follow-up inspection for one of our commercial accounts, an adult community in Spring Lake, NJ. The property previously had an issue with pavement ants and mice infesting their cellar. While performing my inspection, I did not find any signs of pavement ants or mice but I did find American cockroaches on the glue monitors that I installed in my previous visit. 

The American cockroach, also known as water bugs, are between 1.4” to 1.6” in length and are reddish brown in color with a yellow band that outlines the area behind their head. Both males and females have wings and can fly short distances. They prefer cool, damp locations and can be found in basements and cellars. They exhibit unique survival tactics, including the ability to live for a week without their head! They pick up germs on the spines of their legs and body as they crawl through decaying matter or sewage, and then transfer the germs onto food or cooking surfaces.

Solution

After I concluded my inspection I began treating the baseboards, cracks, and crevices with a product for any scurrying insects in order to cut off their escape. The product is an EPA registered growth regulator that affects their reproduce system so they can’t reproduce. The growth regulator is less toxic than pesticides and just as effective. Doing this will knock down the cockroach population to a manageable level.

The next step is to use a microinjection machine which sprays a very fine mist of an oil based product into the cracks and crevices where the cockroaches may be hiding. What this product does is chase the cockroaches into the growth regulator that was sprayed earlier. That way we are ensuring that the cockroaches are treated with the growth regulator and most effective long-term treatment method is applied.

I then disposed of all the glueboards and placed new ones throughout the cellar. Finally, I scheduled a two-week follow-up inspection to determine if any more harborage areas exist and if additional treatment is needed.