No facility manager or building occupant likes to see insects crawling around inside a building, especially cockroaches. Cockroaches can contaminate food with the pathogens they carry, causing food poisoning, dysentery and other serious diseases. Droppings or body parts of cockroaches can also trigger asthma. In order to control them, it’s important to know which species are present and where they are lurking.

Preventing a cockroach infestation means that a facility needs to start by keeping its kitchen clean. Make sure food debris and spills are tended to promptly and make sure floors are vacuumed and thoroughly cleaned. Cockroaches are attracted to water, so also make sure there are no dripping faucets or leaks. It’s also important to seal cracks in cabinets, window moldings and around pipes in restrooms and kitchens. This takes time, but the payoff is great because it eliminates most of their favorite hiding and breeding places.

Modern bait formulations such as sticky traps with pheromones are often effective when placed near refrigerators, stoves, garbage cans and under sinks. Micro-encapsulated products are also very effective against cockroaches. If these methods fail, don’t be afraid to call in a pest control expert before the problem gets worse.


posted on 3/23/2011