The last thing you want to find in your Baltimore home is a bug-eyed, creepy-crawly cockroach skittering around your kitchen. Its grubby little insect legs touching all of your food, counters, and dishes are just asking for illness and a constant feeling of being repulsed.
While cockroaches are common in Baltimore households and dare, we say – restaurants – you don’t have to live with these nasty little pests. Fortunately, there are effective methods to get rid of cockroaches from your home.
In this article, we’ll discuss both store-bought and home remedies you can use to get rid of cockroaches and keep them out for good.
Identifying a Cockroach
Before you get started on expelling these creatures from your home, it’s important to correctly identify them as cockroaches. While there are thousands of different cockroach species, there are three common types that crawl around Maryland.
American Cockroach
Even though the American cockroach originated in Africa, it is easily identifiable due to its size and color. These insects are about two inches long and are brown or reddish-brown. You can also identify these because you’ll see them scurrying around your home, especially when turning on the lights in the kitchen.
German Cockroach
The German cockroach is smaller, with its length ranging from half to 5/8 of an inch. Their coloring is a light brown to olive green. They also like the feeling of pressure on their bodies; you can often find them in tight spaces.
Oriental Cockroach
The Oriental cockroach is about an inch in length, and its color ranges from a shiny black to reddish-brown. Its body is also a little rounder looking than the American and German cockroach.
Cockroach Traps
Now that you know you’re dealing with different species of cockroaches here in Baltimore, it’s time to get down to business. Our first option to getting rid of cockroaches is with traps. You can find these in most hardware stores and even your local supermarket.
These traps contain bait or emit a scent that attracts cockroaches to them. Once inside, they can’t escape. One example of a cockroach trap is a Roach Motel. Simply open the box and place it where you see cockroaches the most. When they’re inside, just throw out the trap!
Liquid Deterrent
If you don’t want to kill the cockroaches and would prefer simply keeping them away, you may want to use a liquid deterrent. You can also find these at your local hardware or grocery store.
Spray the liquid along the perimeter of the room, in cracks or holes in the wall, and mop it on the floor. The smell will keep the cockroaches from coming into the room.
Insecticide Bait
There are some cockroach baits you can buy that will kill the entire nest. These insecticide baits are disguised as food, which the cockroach will carry back to the best for its colony to feast upon.
However, this will be their last meal due to the chemicals the bait contains. With just a few pieces of this bait, you can successfully exterminate an entire colony of cockroaches in your Baltimore home without ever seeing or touching one of them.
Seal Cracks and Holes
Cockroaches can be pretty sneaky getting into your home. Oftentimes, they come through cracks and holes in the walls. If you notice cockroaches in your home, prevent more from entering by sealing these cracks with caulking.
It’s especially important to search for these openings in your kitchen as it’s the food and water that attract these pests.
Clean Your Home
One of the most common reasons cockroaches find their way into a household is due to their uncleanliness. Whether you have dirty dishes sitting in the sink for too long, food crumbs on the counter or floor, or sitting dirty water, cockroaches are attracted to homes with these qualities.
Give your home a thorough routine cleaning. Avoid letting dishes sit in the sink for more than a few hours, and be conscious of any food dropping, or that’s left out on the counters.
Boric Acid
A home remedy you can use to get rid of cockroaches is a mixture of boric acid, flour, and sugar. When equal parts of these ingredients are mixed together, it forms a dough-like substance.
Break off pieces of the dough and leave it around the area where you see cockroaches roam. They’ll eat the dough because they’re attracted by the sugar, but the boric acid will kill them quickly.
Baking Soda
Another easy way to get rid of cockroaches is with baking soda, which you probably already have in your pantry. Chop up an onion and sprinkle some baking soda on it. Place it in a dish and wait for the cockroaches to come searching for their next meal.
Ingesting the baking soda will cause the cockroaches’ stomachs to expand and eventually burst due to the chemical reaction.
Lemon Juice
While we humans love a great citrus fruit smell, cockroaches are absolutely repulsed by it. This is excellent news for those who want to get rid of cockroaches.
Simply mix lemon juice and water and spray it around your home. You can also add lemon juice to your cleaning product when mopping the floor to be even more effective. It’s also safe and chemical-free!
Call Brody Brothers Pest Control
The most effective way to get rid of cockroaches in Baltimore is to call a professional exterminator to come and solve your problem.
Brody Brothers Pest Control is Baltimore’s leading exterminator, and we’re ready to help get rid of any cockroaches that may have entered your home.
With our state-of-the-art technology and extermination methods, we promise to keep our clients and their families safe while repelling pests from their homes as we take the necessary precautions.
If you have a cockroach problem, contact us to schedule your first consultation so we can create a game plan to get these roaches out of your home.
