Once you treat your home for cockroaches, either with a professional pet control agency or at home, you may wonder, “Do roaches come back after extermination efforts?”
Typically, cockroaches stay away following a treatment or service, but sometimes these pests may return with a vengeance!
Keep reading to learn more about recuring cockroach infestations and what you can do to prevent these pests from returning.
Why You Have Roaches
There are many reasons why you may have roaches in your home. If you have a German cockroach infestation, these pests may have invaded your home from a grocery store run, newly delivered packages online, or nearby locations.
Once inside, German cockroaches will quickly and prolifically reproduce, soon filling your home with dozens or hundreds of invading pests! And once they invade, they’re very hard to eliminate them alone.
Also, American cockroaches and other common species can overrun your home from the outdoors. Typically common in sewers, American roaches stick around damp places, flocking to showers, tubs, and kitchen sinks.
Any roaches that enter your home from the outdoors will come inside for shelter, food, or water. They won’t want to leave the comfort of your home if you have substantial amounts of available food.
Do Roaches Come Back After Extermination?
Once you’ve invested time, money, and effort into your roach elimination alternatives, it’s disheartening to see one of these six-legged pests waltz back into your kitchen.
Occasionally, roaches can come back after an initial extermination, especially if the initial treatment wasn’t successful. There are multiple reasons a treatment could seemingly fail, but we’re here to help you out!
You Used the Wrong Products
If you used DIY options, you might have partially eliminated the roaches. Without strong or highly effective products, your at-home solutions may not do the trick.
Roaches aren’t easy creatures to beat and will turn their nose up to anything they don’t find appetizing, like many pesticides or baits. Some roach species are even becoming quickly immune to pesticide treatments.
Unless you try the right products guaranteed to eliminate an infestation, they will continue to come back night and night again. Plus, the infestation will continue to grow back to its original population.
You Haven’t Waited Long Enough
These things can take time!
Even if you’ve recently applied a pesticide treatment throughout your home, it won’t work immediately. You often have to wait an extended period to completely eliminate everything in your dwelling.
Here at proof., our cockroach services often require at least two treatments. Because roach elimination needs patience and effort to eradicate a flourishing population, you can only expect results after a period of time.
Our first treatment consists of thoroughly inspecting where the roaches have nested indoors. After we’ve found the location of the pests inside, we’ll place bait and treatments around the crevices they reside in.
Plus, we’ll add a solution that prevents roaches from reproducing successfully, keeping growing populations to a minimum. Our insecticides will also target other adults roaming through your home.
While our products work their magic, you may see a few roaches here and there until most of the colony is wiped out. Don’t panic if you see a few emerging from their hiding spots, as this means our treatments are working!
Two weeks later, we’ll return to your home for secondary treatment. During this service, we’ll focus our efforts on removing eggs, lingering adults, or any newly developed roaches.
More Roaches Were Accidentally Introduced
Unfortunately, despite your best efforts, cockroaches can return if they come back through other locations, especially if you live in an apartment complex.
For many apartment residents, roaches can easily exploit cracks and crevices between units, crawling through rooms and stealing food from any kitchen they please. Plus, if the units share ventilation or plumbing, the roaches can travel with ease!
These pests can also hide away in used appliances and delivery packages. Some homeowners notice a cockroach infestation following a thrift store or used goods purchase. If the insects resided in the other home, they could hitch a ride over to your property.
German cockroaches can’t exist in the wild, so you’ll only obtain this pest problem from other infested areas. Even after you’ve gotten rid of their ranks, you’ll continue to suffer from the pests if they’re piling in from different locations.
They’re Still Attracted by Food
So, do roaches come back after extermination? They may if you’re still encouraging them to invade!
Other roaches may reappear indoors if you have food readily available for them to consume. Open trash, food containers, or messes will encourage these pests to invade, especially if they’re also searching for shelter.
Here’s a list of food products that may entice roaches to return to your home following a tough invasion:
- Cookies
- Bread
- Pasta
- Rice
- Sugar
- Grains
- Cereal
- Granola
Leaving these products uncovered in your pantry or cupboards will encourage pests to come indoors. If you have open spaces or cracks, they’ll sneak into these areas to take a bite out of your available goodies.
Place your edible pantry items in hard plastic or glass containers to avoid a growing cockroach infestation. While they can chew through paper or cardboard packaging, cockroaches can’t puncture other rigid materials.
Plus, use a tightly-closing lid to prevent these pests from crawling into your jars or containers. This will protect your food and eliminate another potential cockroach food source.
Eliminating Roaches After a Treatment
If you notice roaches following pest control, consider contacting a pest control agency, primarily if you’ve only relied on DIY methods.
Remember that spotting a few pests after your first treatment is normal. Even strong pest control services can take time to go into effect.
But if you’re still finding roaches a few weeks later, consider giving us at proof. a call! With our treatment plan, we can quickly eliminate any creepy crawlers sticking around in your home.