Understanding and Combating Roaches

It takes knowing roaches to defeat roaches. Roaches are dirty, creepy and evasive. They are also prolific at reproduction. One response in popular culture to these negative attributes is an attempt at humor.Take the 1996 feature film “Joe’s Apartment,” about a messy bachelor pad invested with singing roaches. The movie starred Jerry O’Connell, who is also known for his roles in the movies Jerry Maguire and Stand By Me and the TV show Crossing Jordan. While Joe’s Apartment includes funny scenes, such as the roaches beating up on intruders or ruining a date, the roaches are still disgusting! Another attempt at roach humor was an old advertising campaign for a roach trap marketed as a hotel for these six-legged foes. Still gross!There’s really nothing funny about roaches and for good reason. To put it mildly, they are dirty buggers that carry and create filth. Our response to roaches is to take an educated response by understanding their habits in order to defeat them.What they need to survive:Water and food. They don’t need to live in squalor. Any home with ready access to food and water suffices. The key is to keep them out of a house. We do that by spraying the perimeter of the structure. Trivia: Roaches do not need their heads to survive! They do not breath through their heads, so they can carry on for about a week in a headless state. Also, their nervous system controls extend beyond the brain. Eventually though, they will expire from dehydration because they use their mouths to drink water.How roaches make their moves:Some roaches have wings, but not all roach species. All roaches have six legs. A roach can flatten its body to as thin as about 3 millimeters. This makes it easy for them to slither through cracks in walls and under cabinets, etc. They prefer to move about at night because they are nocturnal. This is why many humans have experienced the horror of turning on a kitchen light switch at night to see hordes of roaches scurrying for cover. Trivia: Roaches have a nerve that can sense air movements, which explains how they can evade attempts to squash them!How they reproduce:Roaches lay eggs which are dispensed by the female in a sac known as the ootheca. Generally speaking, it takes about a month for hatchlings to emerge. Thus, if your house has a roach infestation, it is likely to take more than one initial spraying to combat the problem. We also recommend scheduling quarterly spraying to keep them at bay outside the home. Trivia: An ootheca can hold 50 eggs and, depending on the species, the females can each dispense anywhere from one to 90 oothecas. Hence, they can exponentially reproduce.Which Species of Roaches Live in Texas:We routinely find the following species of cockroaches in the Houston area: American Cockroach (Periplenata americana), German Cockroach (Blattella germanica), the Oriental Cockroach (Blatta orientalis), the Brown-banded Cockroach (Supella longipalpa), and the Smokey Brown Cockroach (Periplaneta fuliginous). All of these species secrete a musty odor when they gather in large masses. This is caused by their pheromones, and can also make people ill.How We Exterminate Roaches:All Solutions All Pests (TPCL 733861) performs pest control in according with Texas’s Structural Pest Control Act, which in practice means that our employees who provide treatments at homes and businesses are licensed by the Texas Department of Agriculture. We provide inspections and recommendations to our clients, which when it comes to infestations and prevention, centers on treating the home or business with pesticide. We only use pesticides approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use in such settings. We also advise clients on best practices for securing waste materials, such as garbage and grease, and maintaining cleanliness, especially in kitchens, both residential and commercial.If you have concerns or questions about roaches in Houston, call ASAP at 713-322-PEST.