What Attracts Cockroaches to Your Home?

Finding cockroaches in your home can be stressful. A cockroach infestation needs to be taken care of as soon as possible to prevent health concerns in the future. Roaches spread diseases like dysentery, salmonella, cholera, leprosy, and other serious diseases. The saliva that is secreted from roaches carries tons of allergens and can cause a serious allergic reaction to those with sensitive allergies. If roaches are not taken care of right away, they can quickly get out of hand since cockroaches reproduce very quickly and in large numbers.

What Attracts Cockroaches to Your Home?

Like many pests, cockroaches are attracted to places that offer both food and shelter. If your home offers both of those things, it’s likely that roaches will enter your home. To make sure your home isn’t appealing to roaches avoid the following:

Food Scraps or Crumbs

Cockroaches eat just about anything from human food to cardboard to book bindings. However, they are most attracted to food scraps and crumbs left behind from human food. To make your home less appealing to roaches, make sure your home is free from discarded food and you don’t leave crumbs on the ground.

Dirty Dishes

Since dirty dishes often contain leftovers from food, cockroaches can sometimes be attracted to the dishes piling up in your kitchen. Cockroaches are especially attracted to decaying or spoiling food, so if your dishes have a lot of discarded food on them, roaches may be especially attracted to them if the food has been sitting out for awhile.

Uncovered Garbage Cans

Much like dirty dishes, uncovered garbage cans that have a lot of decaying food or other trash in them will attract roaches to your house. Roaches are attracted to more than food in trash cans, however, and may also creep into your uncovered garbage cans if they contain hair, dust, glue products, drywall, or dandruff.

Moisture or Damp Areas

Many species of roaches need a dark, moist environment to thrive. This is why you often find cockroaches in your kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and crawlspaces. If you have a leaky pipe somewhere, it can also cause cockroaches to gather in that area.

How to Prevent Roaches From Entering Your Home

The best way to prevent cockroaches from entering your home is to keep it extremely clean and tidy. Clean up any spills as they happen, make sure there are no crumbs on the floor, and keep your trash cans covered. Roaches are less likely to make their home in a clean house since there is nothing there for them as far as a food source. If you have any leaky pipes or any areas that tend to collect moisture, try to keep those areas as dry as possible to keep roaches out.

Get Rid of Roaches From Your Home For Good

If you need some extra help getting rid of cockroaches in your home, Classic Pest Control and Insulation can help keep roaches from your home for good. Contact us to schedule a service.