How to Keep Cockroaches Away from the Home

Handling the cockroach situation – one of the most common unwelcome guests in Indian homes – and preventing them from coming back might be easier than you think.

All you need to do is to keep your home clean and tidy (roaches hate a clean home) and get the right products into your pest control arsenal, so you are ready to handle any that show up in your home. We have some tips given below, so you can learn how to prevent cockroaches from entering your home and to keep them away too!

How to Prevent Cockroaches from Coming Into Your Home

The best way to keep cockroaches away is to ensure that your home is as unattractive to them as possible. Fortunately, roaches and humans have very different ideas as to what makes an attractive home.

To avoid a cockroach infestation, make sure you cover any cracks on the floors and walls, as they can get into your home through the smallest of gaps. Seal gaps in walls using fillers and use foam or rubber strip products to seal around doors and windows. You may also want to use a good disinfectant on your floors, so your home is as clean as possible.

Another place to check is your bathroom and kitchen drains. Make sure you take necessary steps, such as sealing your drain pipes, fixing leaky faucets, and sealing the crevices and holes that surround your drain pipes too.

For people who own pets, it may be worth ensuring that their bowls are clean and dry overnight, to prevent your pets from having to share their food with the crawling menaces.

How to Prevent Cockroach Infestations in the Kitchen

The kitchen is probably a cockroach’s favourite room in the house, filled with tasty morsels and little pools of liquid that they can fill their bellies with. Of course, if these tiny pests are in your kitchen, they are probably in, behind or below the microwave, fridge, or oven. Roaches can spread germs and diseases and contaminate your food, so it is important to take steps to keep cockroaches out of your kitchen.

Cockroaches are also nocturnal, which means that they will be coming out at night when everyone is asleep and roaming in your kitchen in search of food and water. All the while, carrying 33 different kinds of bacteria that could contaminate your homes and food.

So, keeping your kitchen cockroach-free is imperative for you and your family’s good health. There are several ways in which you can protect your kitchen from cockroaches:

- Keep Your Food Covered: Whether your food is in the refrigerator or on the counter, keeping it securely covered helps protect it from airborne bacteria and crawling roaches. Cockroaches themselves carry bacteria that can contaminate your food and leave you with all manner of nasty problems, including diarrhoea, food poisoning, and infections. Ensure that you store all food in airtight containers to stop pests from getting to them.

- Empty Your Trash Regularly: Your food scraps and garbage bin are major reasons why cockroaches may thrive in the kitchen. Make sure that you are taking the garbage out of the kitchen every night and putting it in the appropriate bin outside. Any bins in your kitchen should always be covered with a tight lid, so no small creatures can sneak their way through.

- Do Not Leave Dirty Dishes in the Sink: Leaving dirty dishes in the sink overnight is a sure-shot way for inviting roaches inside. Wash your dishes immediately after eating so cockroaches are not attracted by the smell. If you cannot wash them immediately, leave them in soapy water to soak instead of dry on the counter. And finally, make sure that your kitchen drain is clear of food remnants and as dry as possible before you go to bed.

Roaches are sneaky creatures, so they may still slip into your home, despite your best efforts. Make sure you know how to kill cockroaches if they do make an appearance, and use products like the Mortein 2-in-1 Insect Spray to instantly kill any cockroaches that you find in your home. Simply shake the can and spray it towards the scurrying roach to kill the creature.