When you enter your house at the end of the day, the last thing you need to feel is stress from a pest. No one wants to check their favorite easy chair for cockroaches before sitting down. You certainly don't need the tension of wondering if you will step on a cockroach as you walk barefoot into the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Masters Touch Pest Solutions provides pest control in West Chester, PA, so you can rest easy when you come home at night. We are a locally owned and operated pest control company that has been serving the West Chester area since 1991.
Our family-oriented values combined with decades of pest control experience make us the perfect solution for ensuring your family is kept safe from the dangers cockroaches bring to homes. When one of our pest management professionals arrives to treat your home and remove the cockroaches, you will receive professional pest control with a personal touch. This article answers common questions and gives you tips to prevent future cockroach infestations so you can win the war against cockroaches.
What Does A Cockroach Look Like?
How do you know if you have seen a cockroach in your house or if it is a beetle, cricket, or water bug? There is a difference in behaviors, habits, and health risks between cockroaches and these other creatures. It is easy to confuse cockroaches with these bugs because they are all insects, and as insects, they have six jointed legs, three body segments (head, thorax, abdomen), a pair of antennae, and compound eyes.
However, the following are significant differences that will help you identify cockroaches and distinguish them from other insects:
- Spines on legs: Unlike other insects, cockroaches have spines protruding from their legs. These spines are part of the reason cockroaches are dangerous to have in your West Chester home because they attract the disease-causing pathogens present in the filthy areas cockroaches forage.
- Long antennae: Although the other insects have a pair of antennae, cockroaches have thin, constantly moving antennae nearly as long as their body, which they use to sense objects and other items nearby; the antennae of the other insects are shorter and not as active.
- Head shield: While the other creatures have a three-segmented body, it is more difficult to see the divisions on a cockroach because a covering, called a pronotum, conceals its head, and it is difficult to distinguish the segments. The pronotum makes the cockroach appear to have one long body.
- Lack of pincers: A feature distinguishing cockroaches from beetles and water bugs is the lack of mouth-like pincers.
The size and color of the cockroach depend on the species. American cockroaches are 1 1/4 to 2 1/8 inches long, while the German cockroach has only a 1/2-inch body. The other cockroaches in West Chester are the oriental cockroach, Pennsylvania wood cockroach, and the Australian cockroach, which are around 1 inch in size. Except for the oriental cockroach, which has a shiny black body, the other roaches have light tan to dark brown bodies.
All cockroaches have wings or wing pads, but that does not mean they all fly. Male Pennsylvania wood cockroaches, Australian cockroaches, and male and female American cockroaches fly or glide short distances. Although German cockroaches can fly, they prefer to run; oriental cockroaches cannot fly.
Masters Touch Pest Solutions provides roach pest control. When you schedule an inspection, our highly-trained pest management professional will identify what insect type is infesting your West Chester home.
How Long Do Cockroaches Live?
According to some estimates, cockroaches have crawled on this planet for over 280 million years. The longevity of cockroaches is not surprising when you consider some interesting facts. For example, did you know that a cockroach can live without its head? Cockroaches have an open circulatory system that uses hemolymph spread throughout the body, and they do not breathe through a nose but through tiny holes spread throughout their bodies. Thus, cockroaches do not need a head to get air; the only reason a cockroach dies without its head is that it cannot eat and starves to death.
Another reason cockroaches seem to live forever is that they can survive for a month without food because they are cold-blooded insects. Unlike warm-blooded creatures that maintain constant blood temperatures, cold-blooded animals cannot regulate their body temperature, so it varies depending upon the environment. When outside temperatures are low, the body temperature of cockroaches lowers, and they become sluggish, preserving energy and reducing the need for food intake.
Although cockroaches can survive without food for up to a month, they have an Achilles heel because they cannot live without water for more than a week. Because of their need for moisture, the cockroaches in West Chester gravitate to high moisture areas like bathrooms, crawl spaces, attics, and laundry rooms; they also reside near water heaters, leaking pipes, and around kitchen and bathroom drains.
Two factors affect a cockroach's lifespan, food, and water. Assuming an abundance of these two necessities, adult cockroaches live an average of one-and-a-half years; however, reaching adulthood may take an additional year or two. For example, it takes 600 days for an American cockroach to mature from egg to adulthood, and it may live another 400 days as an adult, so the total lifecycle of an American cockroach is over three years. The most prolific cockroach, the German cockroach, reaches adulthood 100 days after birth and lives for about 30 weeks afterward for a total lifespan of just over one year. Australian, oriental cockroaches, and Pennsylvania wood cockroaches, which are species common in our area, require about one year to mature and live for about six months after they become adults.
If you find a cockroach in your house, it may have been maturing for more than a year. Masters Touch Pest Solutions destroys adult cockroaches, nymphs, and their eggs to stop the cockroach infestation in your West Chester house.
How To Get Rid Of Cockroaches?
You do not have to live with cockroaches in your West Chester home. If you wonder how do I get rid of cockroaches in my home, these tips are the answer:
- Vacuum the house regularly to remove food sources.
- Suction corners and cracks with a vacuum cleaner wand attachment to remove egg capsules.
- Keep all indoor and outdoor garbage cans closed to restrict food source access.
- Remove pet food from bowls at night.
- Store food in airtight containers, preferably thick plastic or glass.
- Wipe down eating and cooking surfaces after each meal.
- Repair leaky pipes and drains in the crawl space and bathrooms.
- Dehumidify the crawl space, attic, and basement.
- Provide adequate airflow to bathrooms to reduce moisture.
- Remove unused cardboard, magazines, and clothing from the garage, basement, attic, and interior.
Food, moisture, and warmth attract cockroaches to West Chester houses; eliminating these items will deter cockroaches from staying.
Cockroaches enter homes from the outside, so you should take steps to discourage their presence on your property. Maintaining a clean, dry lawn by providing adequate drainage for ditches and low-lying areas and keeping the yard free from debris will stop cockroaches from living around your house.
If cockroaches enter your property, stop them from entering your home by closing foundation cracks and gaps from incoming wires and pipes and covering attic and crawlspace vents with screens or wire mesh. Install sweeps on all exterior doors, repair holes in the window and door screens, and keep bushes trimmed away from the house to prevent the cockroaches from using the branches as a highway to your home.
Unfortunately, once you have a cockroach infestation, it is difficult to remove them due to their high reproduction rate. For example, the most common cockroach to infest West Chester homes is the German cockroach; this cockroach species can multiply to over 10,000 in one year. When cockroaches enter your house, the best way to kill cockroaches is to use Masters Touch Pest Solutions. When our pest management professional examines your property, he will identify attractions, entry points, and hot spots.
Why Everyone In West Chester Ought To Consider Cockroach Control
Everyone needs cockroach pest control in West Chester from Masters Touch Pest Solutions because cockroaches are dangerous in homes. Cockroaches forage in filthy areas picking up bacteria, viruses, and parasitic worms on their leg spines, and as they move through the house, the pathogens contaminate surfaces spreading disease. Salmonellosis, typhoid fever, cholera, and E. coli infections are just a sampling of illnesses spread by cockroaches. Another reason for the roach control is that cockroaches produce a protein that creates allergic reactions and can cause asthma attacks.
The Healthy Home Solution plan from Masters Touch Pest Solutions is a customer favorite because we treat the interior and exterior of your West Chester home. With this option, we eliminate the cockroaches inside the house and create an exterior barrier to prevent them from entering the home. Please reach out to us today to learn more and ask for your free quote. We have guaranteed solutions for cockroach problems.
