Cockroaches are a serious infestation. They are often found mostly in the kitchen and bathroom but live throughout the house. They are difficult infestations to treat domestically with dust, gel bait and permethrin. This is why doing a regular monthly inspection of your home is so important. Cockroaches leave clear signs of their presence. Their feces looks like a stain the size of a fragment of pepper and they lay egg sacks or ootheca, which looks like a tiny leathery purse. Some cockroaches can only fit five or six eggs in the sack, species like American cockroaches and brown-banded cockroaches. If it has a blackish appearance maybe German cockroaches and their egg sacks can contain up to forty eggs in one sac. This is why it is important to identify the species that are infesting your home. Larger cockroaches like the American, the brown-banded and the oriental cockroaches are an infestation that can be dealt with by domestic treatments in their early stages. German cockroaches which are much smaller and more prolific must be treated professionally by a licensed technician using a commercial treatment. The reason you are seeing them mostly in the kitchen and bathroom is that they are looking for food, and most importantly, water. Water is the driving force of cockroaches. They can survive on almost nothing, crumbs from bread and baked goods can sustain them for months and they can even eat the glue on cardboard boxes. The most important first step in prevention is to clean regularly and to store food in tightly sealed containers, preferably glass or metal. Domestic treatment can be done and involves very simple and basic tools. A three-pronged approach is recommended.
The first step is insecticide dust. This is a fine white powder that can be purchased from a grocery store and is food safe, so mammals can eat it without it harming them. This is the safest and best way to deal with cockroaches if you have children and pets. It can be sprinkled around the floor by the walls as a perimeter treatment and on the counters where they meet the walls as well as in cupboards both top and bottom. For a more extreme approach which will be necessary if you are still seeing activity you will want to include permethrin spray. It is a safe and easy-to-access pesticide derived from the chrysanthemum flower and while it is dangerous to inhale it is safe and non-toxic when it dries. The spray should be held far away from your face and one foot away from the surface you are spraying. Use it as a baseboard spray along the base of the wall where it meets the floor. It can also be used along the wall where it meets the counters and like the dust it can be sprayed on the walls of cupboards. This treatment is highly effective and will kill cockroaches faster. Finally, once you have secured all of your food items and ensured there is nothing for the cockroaches to eat you can lay down gel bait in tight areas the cockroaches like to roam. This can be behind large appliances and the microwave. You can even take off the top of the oven’s back panel and put a drop in there and in the corners of the bathroom behind the toilet and by the sink. They will have nothing else to eat so will dine on the gel bait which will kill them after a short time. If this does not work within a month you will need to call a professional.