Clutter control is an essential part of cockroach control.
Clutter is the perfect habitat for the cockroach. They love to live in
cramped quarters and will take up residence anywhere they can happily
eat and breed.
What Attracts the Cockroach to Your Home?
It
is the food in your home that attracts this household pest. Like any
living being they need food and water to survive, so any building where
food is prepared and stored will be an attractive living area. The
cockroach can easily live off the food from unwashed dishes, bits of pet
food on the floor and even the glue on postage stamps or book bindings.
One
cockroach will lead to many. With an ongoing food and water supply
there is no reason for them to leave your domicile. They will continue
to live and breed in your home as long as conditions are favourable.
Health Problems Associated with Cockroach Infestations
Once
the cockroach come into your home you have more than just an unsightly
pest. For more than two decades it has been recognized that cockroach
parts are highly allergenic.
There is an established connection
between an infestation and the development of asthma in children.
Children are more vulnerable because they crawl around on the floor and
come into contact with the feces, larvae, eggs and other cockroach parts
that are embedded in the carpet, baseboards, and the household dust
that has settled there.
The connection to allergy induced asthma is clear:
- 60% of people with asthma test positive to cockroach allergens.
- asthmatic children who are allergic to cockroaches are 3 times
more likely to be hospitalized for asthma if they have significant
exposure to large cockroach populations in their environment (National
Cooperative Inner City Asthma Study, 1997)
- even if other allergies such as dust mites are present it is the
level of cockroach allergens in the environment that is most closely
associated with the severity of the asthma in children.
Additionally these pests carry various types of bacteria
in their gastrointestinal system which are deposited all over your house
whenever they defecate. Bacteria isolated from cockroach droppings
include salmonella. Food poisoning, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal
illness in human are associated with infestations.
Clutter Control for Cockroach Control
Pest
management experts call the living areas for pests "harborages". While
the cockroaches will come out at night when you are asleep they will
seek out dark places to hide during the day and particularly like to be
almost "coccooned" when they are resting. In other words they like to
have all surfaces of their body touching something. This makes them seek
out very, very small cracks and crevices where they can hunker down
undisturbed for their daytime sleep.
The recommended strategies
for cockroach control includes clearing clutter and useless debris.
Stacks of newspapers, cardboard boxes, and piles of clothing are ideal
harborages.
Clutter control strategies that help to reduce cockroach harborages include:
- Use plastic storage bins (not cardboard) if you must store items
like seasonal clothing and make sure the lid fits tightly and the
storage bin is not cracked.
- Do not store newspapers in your home, take them directly to an outdoor recycle bin
- Do not leave out pet food dishes with food and water. Feed your
pet at a regular time, then take the dish and wash it after your pet has
eaten.
- Do not store unused plastic bags under the kitchen sink. They make a perfect cockroach coccoon.
- Discard unused corrugated cardboard immediately. The crevices in
corrugated cardboard are ideal harborages for the cockroach and they can
live off the organic matter of the box so they will breed prolifically
in cardboard boxes.
Clearing clutter also means clearing the exterior clutter
from around the house. Things like firewood, recycle boxes, and garbage
cans can attract roaches, and provide ideal harborages. Once the
cockroach has taken up residence outside your home moving inside through
tiny cracks and crevices around plumbing and electrical conduits is an
easy task.
Another way that this pest gets into your home is by
hitch hiking on something else. If your shopping habits include
frequenting flea markets, auctions, or purchasing goods by the "lot" or
"by the pound" make sure that these items are unpacked and carefully
scrutinized for cockroach carcasses and egg casings before you bring
them into your home. Kill any live eggs that may be present by washing
used clothing before it goes into your closet.
If you build
clutter the cockroach will come and it will stay. Clutter control is not
just a mantra for organized living. It is also a strategy for health
promotion.