What To Do About The Roaches In Virginia Beach

We love to hear good news. Nothing is more exciting than when a child living in a different city calls and tells us she is coming home for the holidays. It is a great feeling when we receive an unexpected refund check. We feel good when we go to the doctor and get a clean bill of health. Nothing is more encouraging been receiving good news. Conversely, we do not like to hear bad news.

When you talk to a neighbor in the neighborhood, and she informs you that she has cockroaches in her house, that is not good news. When you get up in the middle of the night and stumble into the kitchen to get a cold, refreshing glass of water and then see cockroaches scrambling away when you turn on the light, that is not good news. Opening the pantry door and seeing a cockroach dark behind a can of food is unsettling.

Cockroaches in your house are not good news. When you see a cockroach in your home, it is time to take action by securing the Virginia Beach pest control team from Hawk Mosquito & Pest. Integrity is the core value that drives our family-owned and operated company to provide you with the best pest control in the area. We have removed cockroaches from Virginia Beach homes for several years and will do the same for you. The following information will help you understand the gravity of a cockroach infestation and will give you five action steps to keep these nasty creatures away from your home.  

Habits And Behaviors Of Common Cockroaches

Five types of cockroaches infest homes in the Virginia Beach area: German, American, brown-banded, oriental, and wood cockroaches. Cockroaches are cold-blooded creatures (ectotherms) which means they rely on an external heat source to maintain body temperature. Depending upon the species, cockroaches prefer temperatures between 59? to 95?. German, American, and wood cockroaches are in the Virginia Beach area and prefer temperatures ranging from 70? to 80?; brown-banded cockroaches above 80?, and oriental cockroaches prefer temperatures between 68? and 84?. If cockroaches are in your yard when the temperature begins to cool in the late fall, they will try to find ways to stay warm, and homes are an enticing option. 

All cockroaches need moisture to survive, and some need more than others. If you encounter cockroaches scurrying across the floor at night, see them around your bathroom drains, or in areas with high humidity, they are likely oriental, German, or American cockroaches. On the other hand, if you notice cockroaches in the upper cabinet areas or the corners around the ceiling, the culprits are brown-banded cockroaches. German, American, and oriental cockroaches prefer high-moisture areas, whereas brown-banded cockroaches enjoy drier and hotter areas. Wood cockroaches typically do not invade Virginia homes (like the American, oriental, and German cockroaches) and prefer to live outside in moist areas like under mulch, wet leaves, and firewood piles. 

A general behavioral characteristic of cockroaches is that they are nocturnal. While it is dark, cockroaches actively move throughout the house and forage for food. For this reason, you generally only see a cockroach when you surprise them by turning on the light when going to the kitchen for a late-night snack. When you get up in the morning, the cockroaches are nestling into cracks as small as 3/8 of an inch underneath furniture, between baseboards and walls, and inside appliances, cabinets, drawers, and outlets to get rest. 

When cockroaches actively move through the house at night, they search for fermenting foods. Because cockroaches like rotting food, you often find them around garbage cans, crumbs, drains, garbage disposals, and sewers. Cockroaches are not picky and eat anything from meat to plants, making them true omnivores. German cockroaches take their food preferences beyond traditional rotting food choices and consume toothpaste, glue, soap, and other items. 

In addition to foraging for rotting food at night and scaring the daylights out of homeowners, cockroaches enjoy reproducing. While Virginia Beach is home to five cockroach species, German cockroaches are the most common in homes. Unlike other species that can thrive outdoors, this species is almost an exclusively indoor pest. In addition to its propensity to dwell in houses, German cockroaches are the fastest reproducing species. Female cockroaches produce egg capsules filled with eggs, and German cockroach capsules (ootheca) contain the most eggs (30 to 40). When you consider that just one female German cockroach can produce up to 400 offspring during its 100-day lifetime, it is no wonder a few can quickly turn into an infestation! 

Our technicians at Hawk Mosquito & Pest are roach pest control specialists. They are not only familiar with the habits and behaviors of cockroaches, but they can identify the species infesting your Virginia Beach home. 

The Diseases Cockroaches Can Spread

Cockroach control is necessary because they are dangerous to have in your Virginia Beach home. Cockroaches forage in unsanitary areas such as sewers, garbage cans, compost piles, drains, and on animal feces. Unlike other insects, cockroaches have spines protruding from their six legs. These spines on their legs attract disease-causing organisms; bacteria, viruses, and parasitic worms. When cockroaches move throughout a house, the disease-causing pathogens fall off and contaminate countertops, food products, utensils, and more. 

When cockroaches forage in these disgusting areas, they not only attract disease-causing pathogens with their legs but also consume them as they eat the organic matter in these areas. Like all living creatures, cockroaches produce feces. When their waste lands on eating and cooking areas, bathroom towels, exposed foods, and food products, it contaminates them. Later, when household members consume food in contact with those areas, use contaminated towels to wipe off their hands, or eat using unsanitized utensils, the infectious organisms may spread to them. 

Cockroaches spread over 30 kinds of bacteria and several parasitic worms, such as: 

• Salmonellosis
• Typhoid fever
• Cholera
• Gastroenteritis
• Dysentery
• Listeriosis
• Giardia
• E.coli infection

Illnesses produced by these organisms cause fever, cramps, nausea, diarrhea, and other flu-like symptoms, which in some cases, may require hospitalization.

In addition to spreading disease-causing organisms through shedding and feces, cockroaches produce a protein that may trigger an allergic reaction or an asthma attack in some people. The protein spreads when their pepper-like (German) or rod-shaped (American) feces dries and becomes airborne. When household members inhale the particles, a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, and difficulty breathing may result. 

Pest control for roaches from Hawk Mosquito & Pest is necessary to ensure protection from diseases spread by cockroaches. Our technicians have the tools and products to remove cockroaches from your Virginia Beach house so you can enjoy a clean and safe environment. 

Five Tips To Keep Cockroaches Away From Your Home

Once a highly trained technician from Hawk Mosquito & Pest applies professional, safe cockroach control products to stop the infestation, these five ideas will prevent a future infestation: 

1. Remove yard debris: American, oriental, brown-banded, and wood cockroaches invade houses from the outside. Outdoor dwelling cockroaches live under leaf and wood piles, damp mulch, clogged gutters, and in poorly drained areas. Eliminate excess stones, wood, leaves, and junk from the yard; provide drainage to landscaping and low-lying areas; elevate firewood piles and clean the gutters. If you have animals, periodically remove their waste from the yard. 
2. Prune shrubs and branches away from the house: Cockroaches climb trees and shrubs and use limbs to access your roof, window sills, and unscreened vent openings. In addition to preventing access to the upper areas of the house, trimmed shrubs and trees allow more airflow and sunlight and reduce moisture on your property, which attracts cockroaches. 
3. Seal entry points: Inspect the foundation and roofline to identify cracks and seal them using caulk. Close any gaps between incoming pipes and wires and outdoor utility boxes. Install door sweeps on all exterior doors to prevent entry into the house.
4. Cover vents with screens: Use a fine wire mesh over the crawl space, attic, and chimney openings to prevent entry into the house. Fix holes in window and door screens to stop cockroaches from entering your home when windows and doors are open during the fall season because it is during that time of the year when dropping temperatures encourage them to seek out warmer venues.
5. Keep garbage containers sealed: Rotting food in garbage containers and compost piles attracts cockroaches, so keep these containers tightly closed. Also, place all trash inside and outside the house in sealed containers.

Maintaining a clean, dry environment along with the services of Hawk Mosquito & Pest is how to get rid of cockroaches for good. 

Should I Call Hawk Mosquito & Pest About Roaches In My House?

Call us today at Hawk Mosquito & Pest because we are the local professional cockroach remedy to your problem. When you partner with us, a trained technician will conduct a complete inspection of your Virginia Beach property to detect signs of a cockroach infestation. We identify entry points, hot spots, and attractants as we develop a customized plan to remove the cockroaches. We stop the infestation using gel baits, foam, dusting, and other appropriate and safe methods.

Contact us today for a free quote to get rid of cockroaches.