Cockroach Prevention Manchester

How to recognise a Cockroach:

Unfortunately, the warmth, shelter and ample food sources that your home or property can provide are extremely inviting to cockroaches. Once they have entered your home, they can breed incredibly quickly and an infestation can soon grow out of control. As carriers and spreaders of disease, cockroaches pose a significant risk to you and your family or co-workers health and it’s important to be able to recognise and deal with a problem quickly.

There are three main species of cockroach found in the UK:

• Oriental – these enjoy damp environments and will be found around your drains and outside
  bins.
• German – these enjoy high humidity and therefore will be mainly found in your kitchen and
  bathroom areas.
• Brown-banded – happy to live anywhere that provides an ample food supply.

Cockroaches can enter your property in any number of ways. From cracks in pipes, walls or doorframes, through to floorspaces around pipes and cable-work. Often, they will already be present in a neighbouring property and will spread from that location in search of new food sources. Alternatively, they can be brought in through packaging from already-infested properties or inside goods from affected areas.

Most cockroach egg capsules are around the size of a small bean but will contain up to forty individual eggs. Once hatched, the cockroaches are around the size of an ant, but will grow swiftly. Due to their small initial size, it is easy for cockroaches to be brought into your property unseen and then go unnoticed for several weeks until they are fully grown – at which point the infestation will be well-established and harder to deal with.

Health risks:

Cockroaches are renowned disease vectors and will easily spread germs and illness through
contamination of surfaces and foodstuffs. The main risks are food poisoning related, such as:

• Salmonella: Cockroaches spread this bacterium which can be potentially life threatening.
  Symptoms normally go away within 4-7 days with no treatment, but in some cases the illness can
  lead to severe dehydration and hospitalisation.
• E. Coli: A bacteria responsible for food poisoning which can be life threatening.
• Asthma: The faeces of cockroaches can trigger an allergic reaction in people who suffer from
  asthma.

If you develop any of the listed symptoms associated with food poisoning you would be strongly
advised to consult a doctor or medical professional:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Abdominal cramps and discomfort
• Diarrhoea
• Weakness and lack of energy
• Muscle fatigue
• A high fever
• Chills

So what should you look for when dealing with Cockroaches?

As they are nocturnal, it can often be difficult to spot any signs of activity, meaning infestations can easily go unnoticed during the early stages. Even when fully grown, cockroaches will spend most of the day hidden in cracks and crevices well away from any predators or undue attention. They will tend to mass together so you will often spot clusters of cockroaches at the same time rather than individual insects.

They will normally be found close to food sources or storage areas such as kitchens, pantry's or warehouses, but can also be found in humid or damp areas such as bathrooms, laundry rooms, basements.

There are a number of things that you can look out for as signs of a cockroach problem:

• Live cockroaches – the most obvious sign of an infestation, common places to find cockroaches are behind fridges and freezers where they are attracted to the heat of the motors, under or around kitchen sinks and appliances such as microwave ovens and kettles. If you find a cockroach nesting site, you will often discover a number of adult cockroaches of different sizes and the juvenile nymphs which vary in size.
• Night-time activity– If you examine your property at night you are more likely to see cockroaches foraging as this is the time when they come out to feed.
• Cockroach Faeces – Depending on their current diet, cockroach faeces can be either liquid or solid.
  The solid faeces will appear as numerous small black droppings, less than 1mm in size, and the liquid faeces as small dark smear marks.
• An unpleasant and untraceable smell – Cockroach’s do emit a distinguishable odour, but this is only really noticeable where there are large numbers of cockroaches present, so you will probably see them before you smell them.
• Shed skins and egg capsules – The cockroach nymphs shed their exoskeleton as they grow into larger sized nymphs and into adulthood, and there will be numerous shed skins amongst a cockroach infestation. The female cockroaches also carry and drop egg capsules, known as ootheca, which contain numerous eggs.

Preventing a Cockroach infestation:

As with most pests, prevention is often better and easier than treating an established infestation. Making sure that food is used and stored safely and securely, as well as food waste being disposed of efficiently and correctly will reduce the appeal of your property as a food source. Maintaining a good level of hygiene and cleanliness in your property will also reduce the risk of attracting cockroaches as they have been known to feed on human waste and rubbish. It is also worth taking steps to ensure that cracks and gaps in walls and around window and door frames are filled, as well as drain and pipe entry points, in order to prevent easy access.b Finally, it’s also worth only accepting goods or items into your home from properties that you can be reasonably confident are cockroach-free themselves.

So, here’s what you can do to prevent an infestation:

• Clean your house thoroughly and regularly
• Seal up cracks
• Fix leaks and drains
• Remove easy access to food sources.

It might not seem like much, but it can make all the difference.

Cockroach FAQs

Are Cockroaches dangerous?
Although cockroaches are not immediately dangerous, they can be a health hazard to you and your family. Cockroaches will not attack humans, however their presence within the home can make you sick, due to their contamination of food and surfaces.

Can Cockroaches bite/hurt you/make you sick?
They do not bite but they are insanitary and the pathogens they carry can make you sick.

How many eggs will a Cockroach lay?
At a cockroaches’ fertile peak, they can lay two egg cases in one week, together these cases can contain up to 30-40 eggs. After an egg has been laid it will hatch in the next 100 days.

Where do Cockroaches come from?
Cockroaches usually live anywhere they can feed upon sewage and decaying matter, however a welcoming home that offers up easy access to sugary or starchy food is a haven for cockroaches.

Where do Cockroaches live/hide/nest?
If you have cockroaches in abundance, it’s likely they’re nesting in a crack or crevice of your home. This is why it’s important to seal your home throughout to keep out unwanted pests

Treatment & Extermination:

Cockroach infestations can be difficult to deal with without access to the right equipment and insecticides – they are notoriously hard to kill and making sure that you have dealt with every single cockroach can difficult. Here at Protec Pest Control we have years of experience in dealing with all sizes of infestation and our highly trained technicians have access to top-of-the-range equipment and techniques.

If you suspect or discover a cockroach problem in your property, contact us as soon as possible to arrange a visit from one of our technicians. They will conduct a thorough assessment of your property and identify the extent of the problem before employing the most appropriate treatment, most often bait traps and the spreading of insecticides to ensure that all cockroaches and eggs are destroyed.

Protec Pest Control are fully accredited by the British Pest Control Association and approved by Safecontractor and Trading Standards. Our treatments conform to the highest regulatory and safety
standards and our technicians can visit at a time suitable for you.

You can contact us via our website www.protecpestcontrol.co.uk or via telephone on 0161 448 1782 to arrange a visit and treatment as soon as possible. We cover the entire Manchester and Stockport areas and will be more than happy to provide you with fast, efficient and cost-effective treatments and advice.