Black cockroaches in an apartment: how to get rid of them, where they come from, folk remedies

Description of the black cockroach, differences from the red one

The black cockroach is a large insect whose body is covered with a shiny chitinous shell.
The pest is painted black or dark brown. Adult cockroaches reach 5 cm in size; males have real wings, although they do not fly, and females do not. Females look slightly larger, but their whiskers are shorter. With the help of long, mobile whiskers, males are excellent at navigating in space, finding food and avoiding traps. The gnawing type mouth apparatus consists of powerful jaws with sharp teeth. With its help, the insect is able to bite off pieces of food, and taste buds are located on the sides of the mouth opening. The fusion of the primary and secondary cavities forms a single body. The body consists of three main segments: head, thorax and abdomen.

The black cockroach has a complex digestive system consisting of a mouth, pharynx, crop, chewing stomach and esophagus. The digestive secretions below process the food, which is then passed out of the hindgut in the form of excrement. The nervous and circulatory systems of the cockroach are well developed, which makes it practically invulnerable.

Black parasites are larger in size compared to red ones, but they reproduce more slowly. In addition, red cockroaches feed on the eggs and larvae of black cockroaches, which significantly reduces the populations of the latter. If two types of pests simultaneously inhabit a house, then the red Prussians will soon destroy their neighbors.

Body parts or what is inside them?

Parts of the body
The body consists of the head, abdomen and chest. There are antennae on the head that extend while moving forward and act like antennas, subtly capturing all odors and the smallest vibrations in the air. The thoracic region is divided into segments: prothorax, metathorax and mesothorax.

The black cockroach has 3 pairs of legs. The foot has claws and a suction cup, which allows the cockroach to move across different surfaces.

There are wings at the top. The abdominal region consists of segments. The first seven sections are large, and the rest are reduced. On the last segment is the anus, where the sensitive processes, the cerci, are located.

The male has protrusions called styli on the ninth segment. They provide protection to the genitals. Cockroaches do not use their wings for their intended purpose. Females have no wings. The oral apparatus is represented by powerful jaws. Throughout the intestines, food is digested with the help of enzymes.

The chewing ventricle is an organ in which food is thoroughly crushed and processed by special bacteria. Such digestive organs allow them to eat solid food (cardboard, leather shoes). An insect can live without food from two weeks to six months

Lifestyle of a black cockroach

Black house cockroaches prefer to come out of their hiding places at night in order to freely obtain food for themselves. During the day, you can notice signs of their presence - excrement in the form of small black grains, usually cockroaches leave them next to food waste. Among all household pests, these large cockroaches are considered the most dangerous. Living in garbage dumps and basements, they carry pathogens of many diseases.

Reproduction, life cycle, lifespan

The lifespan of a black pest may vary depending on living conditions. Its life cycle is quite long, because from the moment of birth until the death of an insect it can take about 5 years. Immediately after mating, an ootheca, a capsule with eggs, is formed in the female’s body. The female carries it with her for about 3–4 days, and then discards it in a secluded warm place. Each capsule contains up to 60 eggs, but in poor conditions the larvae can remain in it for several years.

Hatched larvae can survive without food and water for up to 2 months. In a comfortable environment, the larva grows, goes through several stages of molting, gradually reaching sexual maturity. Interestingly, for these domestic parasites, the entire process of growth and transformation from larva to adult takes about 4 years. This is why black parasites are much less common in apartments and houses than red ones. They simply do not have time to grow before people destroy them. Red Prussians reproduce much faster, which is why they are more common.

What does an insect eat, how does it get food, what do the larvae eat?

Thanks to the unique structure of the digestive system, cockroaches eat literally everything. Their body can easily digest even cardboard and wood, although they prefer to eat ordinary foods and food waste - bread crumbs, vegetable peelings, etc. Long-term absence of food does not frighten the parasites - they begin to absorb their own larvae, the remains of dead insects. In extreme cases, they can feed on particles of epidermis on shoes, paper, etc.

In the absence of food and water, cockroaches can bite a sleeping person. They chew the cuticles on the fingernails and toenails, and bite the face, eyelids and lips. Worst of all, their saliva contains the toxic substance tropomyosin, which causes a severe allergic reaction, the signs of which are swelling and itching. Small larvae eat the same things as adults, but they rarely bite people.

Do domestic black cockroaches have natural enemies?

Black and red cockroaches have many natural enemies that quickly destroy pests. In nature, lizards, hedgehogs, frogs, snakes, crickets, and birds feed on them. Spiders and shrews are also not averse to eating cockroaches, but they do not specifically hunt them. In addition, there are some types of bacilli that kill adults and larvae of the pest within 2–3 days.

The most terrible enemy of cockroaches is eulophids, small bugs that search for hidden oothecae and lay their eggs there. The larvae hatching from these eggs instantly destroy all the offspring of cockroaches.

The emerald wasp is terrible for cockroaches, feeding its larvae with adult parasites. In an apartment or house, black pests can be destroyed by mice and rats, as well as red Prussians.

Methods for exterminating pests

Over the years, people have come up with different ways to remove cockroaches. But not everyone knows how to get rid of black cockroaches in an apartment for a long time. There are a variety of methods to combat these arthropods. The most common types of pest control are presented below.

1. Freezing - in winter, the room is not heated for two to three days, thereby destroying all types of insects that lived in it. The method is very reliable and safe, but in an apartment building it is impossible to implement it due to the central heating system. It is also necessary to consider at what temperature cockroaches die.
2. Folk remedies. Repelling with strong odors (bay leaf, ammonia, elderflower, orange peels) is not the most effective way to get rid of huge cockroaches. After some time, they may get used to it and not react to a particular smell. Baits with boric acid are considered more effective.
3. Insecticidal preparations are chemical substances that poison all living organisms into which they enter. The most effective method of controlling cockroaches, but it is also the most dangerous for pets and humans. Insecticides are presented in the form of gels, creams, crayons, dusts, powders, and sprays. Such methods require increased caution during their application. Among the popular products are Global, Dohlox, Raptor, Combat, Get, Clean House, Fas, Raid.
4. Mechanical extermination and traps are effective if one or more insects accidentally entered the apartment and have not yet managed to acquire a colony.
5. Ultrasonic exposure is a method that temporarily paralyzes the nervous system of a cockroach. After using ultrasonic repellers, you need to quickly get rid of the affected insects before they come to their senses.

Types of domestic cockroaches

Of all the diversity of cockroaches on the planet, only three species are domestic: black, red and American.

Black

The hard chitinous cover reliably protects the insect from damage, and the flat structure of the body allows it to hide in very small crevices; it is distinguished by:

• shiny black color;
• body sizes from 2.0-3.0 cm;
• life expectancy up to 6 months;
• clutch of up to 16 eggs;
• formation of up to 2-3 oedemas per life;
• inability to fly;
• fast movement;
• specific unpleasant odor.

Note! The spread of the black cockroach does not occur as quickly as the red one due to the fact that it eats eggs from the edema of its fellow tribesmen, thereby reducing the population size.

Ginger

The red cockroach or Prussian is very often found in houses and apartments, it is characterized by:

• red or brown color;
• two dark stripes on the pronotum (between the head and thorax);
• body size from 1.0-1.5 cm;
• life expectancy 1 year;
• clutch of up to 40 eggs;
• 10 capsules per life;
• the presence of wings and the ability to plan.

Note! Males differ from females in having narrower body shapes and the absence of wings on the edge of the abdomen.

American

American pet cockroaches originally lived in the Americas, and over the past decades they have been introduced to Europe.

Insects have characteristic features:

• colors from red to brown;
• light stripes on pronotum;
• sizes from 3.5-5.0 cm;
• can fly;
• during the life period they form from 15 to 90 ootheca, each containing 14 to 16 eggs;
• live up to 2 years.

Female American cockroaches can have up to two oothecae at the same time.

Note! Interestingly, in the 80s of the last century, the US Department of Defense, after many years of fighting American cockroaches on submarines, ships and aircraft, admitted defeat and refused to finance the costs of their destruction.

What does he look like

Appearance
The black cockroach looks, in principle, almost like a red cockroach, only black, but it also has its own remarkable features.

The main feature of Go is its impressive size.

Body length reaches 30-40 millimeters , but there are individuals up to 5 centimeters in length. The body has a black shiny chitinous shell. It is very hard, so it is difficult to crush it and when pressed, a characteristic crack is heard. The flat body of the cockroach allows it to quickly penetrate any narrow crevices. They love the dark, have good eyesight, and can distinguish smells.

It is noteworthy that the male and female differ significantly from each other.

The female's abdomen is much wider, while her wings, on the contrary, are much smaller. The male's antennae are shorter and the pronotum smaller than those of the female.

Body parts

Where do black cockroaches come from in an apartment?

To effectively combat cockroaches, you need to know where these creatures come from in your living space. Black cockroaches in an apartment can occur as follows:

• from the basement, especially if it is flooded;
• with postal items;
• with household appliances or clothes purchased secondhand;
• through the sewage system in the toilet and bathroom;
• from the entrance through the open door;
• from a garbage chute;
• together with products purchased in a store;
• with vegetables purchased at retail outlets;
• from neighbors through cracks in the wall;
• when buying new furniture in a store;
• in the bag you carried your lunch in to work.

Important! If large cockroaches appear in your apartment in small numbers, do not flatter yourself. Very little time will pass and they will pull their many relatives there too.

Why do cockroaches appear in a clean apartment?

Sometimes even in a perfectly clean apartment, home parasites appear. This means they came from other places. If there are no comfortable conditions for them, they will not stay. Household parasites are constantly migrating. Cockroaches reproduce around the clock; the new generation requires territory, which they have to search for. Even if the owners are confident that the house is clean, they need to take preventive measures. Uninvited guests may like the apartment.

Cockroaches may appear in a clean apartment:

• through common sewerage or water supply pipes;
• through general ventilation;
• from a common garbage chute;
• with old things when moving;
• with the things of someone who came to visit;
• with postal parcel;
• with delivery of furniture from a furniture store;
• with things from the trip.

There are many options for insect entry. It is important to notice this in a timely manner and begin extermination.

In some cases, after treating the premises with poisonous agents against domestic parasites, they appear again. The owners blame it on low-quality poison and unscrupulous work of specialists. Although the reason may be different.

Not all toxic substances act on parasite eggs. Only adult individuals die, the clutches of eggs remain intact, they are in special hard shells - larvae. It is difficult for toxic compounds to penetrate there.

After a certain time, a new generation of pests is born. They scatter around the area. They come to the attention of apartment owners who think that their old cockroaches have returned to them.

Corrugated cardboard and newspaper

Cockroaches are attracted to papers, and for a very specific reason. They communicate with each other through chemical pheromones that they secrete; the paper absorbs these pheromones. Essentially, paper helps cockroaches find each other and get organized.

What to do:

Replace all cardboard boxes with plastic containers, and do not take or store cardboard products in your home. Don't keep piles of newspapers in or around your home - recycle!

Drains and basements

Basement cockroaches are sneaky enough to find their way in and out through drains and pipes. This is a serious problem in apartment buildings where drainpipes are used as mains between apartments.

What to do:

Place stoppers and metal baskets over all sinks and shower stalls in the house. If you have a shower stall or laundry sink in your home that is not used regularly, cover it completely when not in use. Above all, keep all drains clean!

Cracks in the foundation and external walls

Although cockroaches can grow to quite large sizes, some species are able to move through cracks and holes as small as a millimeter and a half wide! This means that any holes in a building's foundation or exterior walls are an open invitation for cockroaches. Any other gaps around pipes, windows, vents will also allow cockroaches to enter.

What to do:

The best measure to prevent cockroaches from entering through cracks is to seal any gaps you can find with caulk.

Under the doors

This is one of the most common entry points for cockroaches as some species are attracted to the light coming from interior buildings and the space is often large enough for them to slip through.

What to do:

Changing the light bulbs near doorways from white to yellow will curb the attraction. On the doors themselves, you can add a seal between the door and the threshold.

Breaking in with guests' belongings

In some cases, guests bring more insects with their belongings. This does not happen on purpose, because small parasites do not get into bags for the purpose of traveling. Insects are constantly looking for food and water, this leads them to different places, including into human bags. They emerge in a completely different apartment.

Don't be afraid that if you put your hand into your bag, you might stumble upon a cockroach. If he is there, he will hide and not reveal his presence. His task is to go unnoticed. Domestic cockroaches are nocturnal parasites. They prefer to go out in the dark, when everything is quiet.

“A friend, a student, came to visit my daughter in the summer. Apparently she brought us cockroaches with her things, because we didn’t have any before. In the student dormitory, of course, there are a lot of them, we were students ourselves, we remember. Cockroaches do not take root here; we know how to prepare boric acid for them. They don’t like it, but the students weren’t happy, they all died.”

Dry pet food

Cockroaches are not that picky about what they eat. Your bag of dry puppy food or cat food could be what attracts an infestation of cockroaches.

What to do:

Do not store pet food in garages or sheds before bringing it into the house. Once inside, be careful to store it in a plastic airtight container rather than in an open package.

Brought back from a trip

It is quite possible for travelers to bring parasites from a business trip, travel, or vacation. A female cockroach could choose a suitcase or travel bag to lay eggs. There is no guarantee that your hotel stay or train stations or airports will be free from cockroaches. Wherever there is food, parasites can live.

Parasites are constantly poisoned. All organizations that deal with products must do this. But cockroaches can appear again if the place is comfortable and the poisonous substances are not too poisonous.

“At the train station I noticed cockroaches that were not on the second floor, where there was a buffet, but near the tracks. I asked the guides, it turned out that these parasites have adapted, they can already eat any kind of lubricant that they use to coat sleepers, as long as there is water. In the buffet they are poisoned, the water is removed, they are dried. There is a lot of water outside after rain.

When moving

Penetration of cockroaches is possible when moving from an old apartment to a new one. This way you can take over the old tenants along with your belongings. It is enough to take the eggs of parasites, not adults. Insects love to settle in the folds of upholstered furniture and mattresses. There are a lot of them in wooden cabinets, boxes, and books.

When moving, it is difficult to maintain cleanliness. And patient parasites can survive long journeys in poor conditions. For food they will find something inedible, but suitable to satisfy their hunger.

Where and how does the black cockroach live?

He lives next to people, forming a small colony. They often settle in basements and garbage dumps. They choose the lower floors for housing; they can rarely be found in houses above the 5th floor . They give preference to warm and humid places, as they cannot go without water and food for a long time. They die at temperatures below 0 degrees.

The life cycle of these insects includes three stages :

1. Egg.
2. Nymph.
3. Imago.

Individuals at different stages of the life cycle
After the fertilization process, the female lays eggs in a special capsule ( ootheca ). It is located at the end of the abdomen and holds up to 16 eggs . The female bears the offspring for a short time, and then leaves them in hidden places. The incubation period usually lasts 44 days . After which white larvae are born. Over time they darken. As the nymph grows, it molts approximately 10 times . The period of transformation of a nymph into an adult cockroach lasts from 6 months to a year . The average lifespan of black cockroaches is 2-3 years . During this period, the female manages to produce 1-2 offspring.

Insects feed on what falls from the dining table onto the floor, for example, crumbs. A lot of their food is in the trash. If they cannot find anything edible, they begin to eat leather goods, paper, and plants.

Reproduction

To attract a male, females in the imago stage secrete a special enzyme. Fertilization occurs through the lower sternite (genital plate) on the male's abdomen - the gynandrium.

After copulation, an ootheca matures in the female - a kind of bag with many (from 20 to 50) eggs. The mother sheds it approximately 40 days after fertilization in a secluded place. In this case, the female no longer needs to look for a partner for new offspring: the seed material is stored in her body forever.

Then she can “give birth” to 8 ootheca.

If small cockroaches appear: what to do?

An effective drug in the fight against cockroaches is the Dichlorvos aerosol, which ensures the rapid death of insects provided that they are outside their burrows at the time of treatment. The surviving individuals, after the chemical wears off, will calmly return to their previous way of life. The disadvantage of using this method is the risk of poisoning pets with toxic chemical vapors, for which such treatment can sometimes even lead to death.

Small cockroaches in the bathroom, kitchen and apartment in general can be destroyed with gels (“Dohlox”, “Liquidator”, “Killer”, “Raptor”), sold in large syringes and ready for immediate use. The product should be applied along the baseboard around the perimeter of the room in small drops at a distance of about 10 cm from each other. In just a week, cockroaches will not come to stay in the apartment they have lived in and will leave it forever.

Where do they come from?

The closest relatives of black cockroaches, distinguished by their impressive size, are widespread in the south. These settlers moved to Europe and Asia relatively recently – about three centuries ago. In Rus' there was a very interesting belief - it was generally believed that the appearance of large insects in the house was a favorable sign, indicating that the owners were not in need.

However, today, when such unpleasant tenants appear in a home, almost everyone asks a reasonable question - where are the black cockroaches in the apartment from? You should know that these unpleasant guests can appear even in places where almost sterile cleanliness is maintained.

The main reasons for this are the following:

• As the name suggests, sewer cockroaches can easily enter from the sewer pipe system. This is due to the fact that insects can stay in water for a long time.
• Basement cockroaches especially often live in the basement floors, where it is quite warm, dry and humid. It is from there that insects especially often enter apartments located on the first floors.
• Also, a black cockroach can get into the house when moving, purchasing used equipment or furniture.

But the most common scenario for the appearance of black cockroaches in the bathroom, living rooms, and kitchen is the following: insects simply move from neighbors.

Curious facts

Those who like to kill cockroaches in a sudden way should be aware of the extreme resistance of such insects to physical damage. Therefore, swatting it down is not enough; you also need to either grind it thoroughly, or sprinkle it with boric acid while still half-dead and release it to its relatives.

Interesting information: thanks to a specific gene, called “knockdown” by scientists, cockroaches can imitate their own death. Smelling the smell of poison, the insect loses consciousness, falls with its paws up and stops breathing.

After lying down for a certain period, he comes to his senses and calmly continues his sabotage activities.

Reasons for appearance

Ideal, sterile cleanliness in a room does not guarantee the absence of cockroaches. It is enough for them to appear at their neighbors’, and soon the entire apartment building will be covered by the epidemic. True, unlike their red-haired relatives, they rarely choose the upper floors for permanent habitat. Often a person is completely bewildered - it seems that cockroaches have nowhere to come from, because the neighbors have not changed, and the SES regularly carries out treatment. Very often, insects “enter” a house with furniture or household appliances that were previously used in another room.

5 main reasons for the appearance of cockroaches in the house

A person’s apartment seems impregnable only in appearance. But in fact, all moves are open to the black cockroach. They climb through any openings:

• sewer passages;
• ventilation shafts;
• cracks under entrance doors.

Insects feel great in a cluttered room. Just like in an apartment where the trash is taken out a couple of times a week, and dirty dishes sit in the sink for days. Having quickly multiplied in it, they crawl to neighbors and easily penetrate other entrances and houses.

Attention! If cockroaches live at a person’s place of work, then sooner or later they will appear in his apartment, for example, simply by crawling into a bag, backpack, or even a pocket in search of food.

Why are they dangerous?

Any type of cockroach can be a mechanical carrier of infection. But the black cockroach is more dangerous than the usual red cockroach. In urban dwellings, the oriental cockroach prefers sewer lines. It's warm, dark, humid, and there's always food. Climbing out of the sewer into an apartment, an insect can carry any infection on its legs, including dysentery and worm eggs.

In villages, this type of pest often lives in cesspools in the summer, and moves into the house in the winter. The danger from the rural population is no less than from the urban one.

Do pet cockroaches bite?

In rare cases, domestic cockroaches can inflict minor bites on the mucous membranes of a person's eyes and lips.

Basement cockroaches: photo

Cellar cockroaches are not a separate species of synanthropic insects, as the photo proves. These are the Prussians known to everyone, who relatively recently caused discomfort to the majority of the population with their presence in the kitchen and bathroom. Previously, a black cockroach was found in apartment buildings, but today it has been replaced by a red-haired relative. They are the ones who live in the basements of apartment buildings.

How to get rid of black cockroaches?

The real truth is that cockroach control is ALWAYS in professional hands. While you're lining your kitchen with cockroach traps and trying to kill the little pests, the breeding continues behind your cabinets and baseboards, faster than you can imagine. Pesticides only help you waste precious time while the advantage is still on your side. The glue trap can only serve to determine the degree of infestation. And insect sprays, as a rule, do not even reach those depths, cracks and cavities where parasites have settled and enjoy life.

In addition, the cockroaches themselves and their oviposition are extremely sensitive to almost all over-the-counter poisons. By the way, you can add to the problem: if you step on a cockroach with an egg capsule, they will stick to your shoes and you will distribute them throughout the apartment.

Prevent cockroach infestation

While a cockroach infestation is not necessarily a sign of uncleanliness and lack of hygiene, someone who leaves food in the cupboards and pantry, only cleans every few weeks and rarely airs it out, creates an almost heavenly environment for pests.

Therefore, you must be careful, and evil scanners should not even have a reason to disrupt their relationship with you. So the cockroach killed you before:

• Thorough Cleaning: Cockroaches love dark, dusty corners under cabinets and kitchen appliances. You should give your kitchen and pantry a thorough cleaning every few weeks—especially in areas you don't usually look at!
• Safe food storage: cockroaches bite through plastic, paper and cardboard. Therefore, you should store food in airtight containers made of solid material (glass or enamelware).
• Indoor climate: Cockroaches love warmth and moisture. Therefore, you should ensure that the humidity in your apartment never exceeds 60%, and also ventilate for at least 10 minutes daily (ideally if there is a draft). You can check the humidity using a hygrometer.

How to prepare for the arrival of special services

In the event of a cockroach infestation, you will need a special service. While she arrives, there are many things you can do to make the fight as fast and efficient as possible.

You need to prepare your apartment to fight cockroaches:

• Remove products. Only when there are no other food sources available do insects respond to the poisoned bait.
• Remove any remaining molt and egg ootheca. Thoroughly vacuum all baseboards, cabinets, crevices and joints with a high-powered vacuum to remove as many egg packets and empty capsules as possible. You then dispose of the removable dust container outside your home.
• Basic Cleaning: Clean all contaminated areas thoroughly! It makes sense to hire a professional cleaning service.

What does a cockroach trap do?

A cockroach trap can only tell you how bad the infestation is. But no matter how many small pests get into the glue, you will not radically solve the problem. The problem is not with the adult insects, but with the eggs and larvae that have already spread throughout your kitchen.

If you want to buy a cockroach trap, then it is only for you to feel that you have taken steps to control cockroaches.

Mechanical disposal

A rag and a vacuum cleaner will help you. It is better to invite a cleaning company. At a minimum, you need a removable dust container that you dispose of far outside your home.

Chemical attack on black cockroaches

Chemical methods of controlling Crimean cockroaches involve the use of toxic substances and insecticides.

Chemicals effectively destroy these insects, but have a number of disadvantages:

• cockroaches quickly develop immunity to any type of poison and become immune to them;
• cockroaches can hide and wait until the poison is no longer dangerous;
• chemicals fill your apartment with an unpleasant odor;
• toxic chemicals can be harmful to human and pet health;
• the use of chemicals is harmful to people with allergies;
• When using chemicals, you must leave the room and then ventilate it.

Folk remedies for cockroaches

You can try making the following product yourself.

Recipe

What you will need:

• Boric Acid Powder
• Honey, maple syrup, sugar and water simple syrup
• Any flour you have on hand
• Ice cream stick
• Mixing bowl

Quantity:

• 2 parts boric acid
• 1 part flour
• Syrup or any sweetener you choose to make the mixture thick

Important Note:

Boric acid powder is dangerous to inhale, it should not get into your eyes, it should not be swallowed, so mix it all outside. Wear a respirator. For a 130 square meter home, take and mix a cup of boric acid with half a cup of flour and half a cup of syrup.

Heat treatment

Pesticide-based methods for controlling cockroaches indoors raise safety concerns. Nowadays, there are professional, affordable heat treatment systems that allow you to fight cockroaches without fear of toxic chemical residues in your home.

Heat can be used to kill all types of cockroaches and their eggs, even in areas where pesticide fumigants and sprays cannot penetrate. Insects are resistant to many pesticides, but cannot withstand high temperatures for long periods of time. In addition, heat can kill bacteria and viruses.

Cockroaches are crawling out of the basement

Preventive measures do not always help. Sometimes there are so many cockroaches in the basement that they enter the apartments by any means. In some cases, the cause is an ill-organized protective barrier or an ineffective insecticide. What to do if cockroaches crawl out of the basement?

To combat Prussians, mechanical and chemical methods are used. The first group of methods is the use of glue traps and other similar devices. With their help you can get rid of single individuals.

Household insecticides, the effectiveness of traditional methods

If the population of cockroaches in an apartment reaches an alarming scale, household or professional insecticides will help to remove the pests. The store offers a wide selection of chemical preparations against synanthropic insects. To treat small holes, cracks, and space under the baseboard, it is better to choose a product in the form of an aerosol. The remaining routes of movement and habitat of cockroaches can be treated with an insecticidal preparation in the form of a gel, spray, chalk, or powder.

Recommended Links

What types of remedies are there for cockroaches - see here
Recommendations and safety measures when using household chemicals:

• Before processing the apartment, put all food products in the refrigerator or sealed containers;
• strictly adhere to the dosage of the drug;
• apply the product with gloves and respiratory protection;
• prevent pets from eating chemicals and poisoned insects;
• apply the insecticide strictly in accordance with the instructions;
• observe the holding time;
• After treating the room, carry out the measures recommended by the manufacturer: carry out wet or general cleaning using household detergents, remove all the corpses of cockroaches, if necessary, leave the insecticide for some time in hard-to-reach places (behind the stove, under the refrigerator, behind the baseboard).

If cockroaches regularly enter your apartment from the entrance, you should periodically change the type of insecticide. It is necessary to use preparations with different active ingredients to avoid adaptation of insects to a certain group of chemicals.

Are traditional methods based on the use of herbs, essential oils and solutions with strong odors effective? These control methods are not capable of clearing the house of synanthropic insects. Perhaps they demonstrated good results several decades ago, when cockroaches had not yet developed protective mechanisms. Today, many Prussians have tolerance even to strong chemicals, not to mention traditional herbal preparations. The maximum effect that herbs and essential oils with a pungent odor can have is repelling individual individuals.

Methods of professional control of cockroaches

Professional treatment of an apartment using the fog method by sanitary service employees is an effective way to get rid of any number of cockroaches. Experienced experts will analyze the situation and develop an optimal strategy for exterminating synanthropic insects. The use of modern disinfestation equipment allows you to thoroughly treat all surfaces and hard-to-reach spaces of the apartment in a few hours. If necessary, experts will talk about preventive measures and organizing a protective barrier against the reappearance of cockroaches.

Preparing the room for processing

The effectiveness of professional treatment is significantly influenced by the quality of preparation of the premises for disinfestation.
The apartment must be wet cleaned, garbage and unnecessary rubbish must be taken out, furniture must be moved away from the walls, and specialists must have free access to all corners. Even a small amount of dust on the surface reduces the effectiveness of the chemical several times. Depending on the method of disinfestation, the strategy of action after the event changes. If an insecticide with a prolonged action is used to kill cockroaches, after returning to the apartment, door handles, bathroom fixtures, countertops and other surfaces that household members touch most often are wet treated with detergents. In corners, behind the refrigerator and stove, under cabinets and baseboards, cleaning is carried out only after 1.5-2 weeks, when the insecticide destroys all or the vast majority of synanthropic pests.

Prices for treating cockroaches in a basement in Moscow

SES "Des Group" offers services for disinfestation of residential and non-residential premises. The company cooperates with individuals and legal entities. It is possible to conclude a long-term contract or an agreement for one-time provision of services.

To treat basements and other premises, the Dez Group sanitary service uses a fog generator and a certified insecticidal preparation with proven effectiveness.

What you need to know when choosing cockroach control products

First of all, you don't need to limit yourself to just one method. Insects can adapt to some poisons over time, especially if neighbors are also fighting cockroaches.

Try different options. Of course, before starting the fight, access to new individuals should be blocked.

What to consider when purchasing cockroach repellents

When you need to eliminate a small outbreak of beetles, one spray is enough. If cockroaches “climb out of all the cracks,” you should use concentrated preparations that take a long time to erode.

Long-lasting products also include gels, crayons, traps and powders. Combine both.

When using any chemical, be sure to study the composition. Not all manufacturers sell products that are harmless to humans.

If there are pregnant women, children

It would be ideal if the expectant or nursing mother settled in another place while fighting insects. The same applies to older people and children under 12 years of age. The composition of the nebulizers may be harmful to their breathing.

The best means

There are a lot of cockroach repellents on the market. The author of the article was helped at one time by the following products.

1. Dichlorvos.

A domestic sprayer can be purchased for 100 rubles. It acts instantly, and “unkilled” insects can easily transfer the poison to their fellows. They can destroy nests.

The owners attribute the disgusting odor and harm to the respiratory system as disadvantages: dichlorvos contains phosphates. Use with protection.

1. Concentrate Regent.

Needed when there are too many cockroaches. The powder or capsules are dissolved in a bucket of water, after which the room is wet cleaned. The poison begins to act within an hour, and precipitation will force insects to avoid the apartment.

The disadvantages include, first of all, the price (from 2 thousand rubles), toxicity for humans and pets, as well as very sensitive handling. We need protective equipment.

1. German gel Globol.

A tube costs 250 rubles. It must be applied to hard surfaces. After contact with the substance, the cockroach quickly dies. This is a reliable barrier protection product, it is durable (1 month) and harmless to people. Unfortunately, it is often counterfeited.

Ways to fight

When large cockroaches appear in an apartment, there is a risk of contracting dangerous diseases. Insects, crawling in trash cans and ventilation shafts, carry bacteria on their limbs. Once in a person's house, a cockroach can move around the dining table, toothbrushes, and dishes. To prevent the unpleasant consequences of cockroach raids, you should get rid of the pests once and for all.

Methods for controlling cockroaches

There are several ways to fight black cockroaches:

1. Chemical - the use of insecticides in the form of aerosols, gels, powders, traps, concentrated spray solutions, crayons, poisonous baits. Chemicals are affordable, quite effective, but harmful to human health or pets. Before treating the room, you should carefully read the instructions for use.
2. Mechanical - the use of glue, electric traps, homemade traps. This method is harmless to others, but it is advisable to use it only with a small number of pests.
3. Professional – call specialists from the pest control service. Professional employees use the most effective cockroach repellents, spraying them through fog generators. The result is noticeable immediately after treatment.
4. The folk method is to repel insects using plants (wormwood, geranium, bay leaf), household chemicals (vinegar and boric acid, borax, soda), essential oils (eucalyptus, mint, cloves).
5. Thermal – extermination of cockroaches by freezing. In winter, all windows and doors are opened indoors. In such extreme conditions, cockroaches die. The method is useless in apartments with central heating.

Each method is good for a specific case. Whether to poison pests yourself at home or pay for the expensive services of pest control workers - the choice remains with the apartment owner.

Folk remedies and recipes

Folk remedies for fighting cockroaches are perhaps the oldest method. Its advantage lies in the safety of use. To do this, prepare bait and place it in places where arthropods can accumulate. The bait is prepared using the following home remedies:

• borax;
• boric acid;
• vinegar;
• ammonia;
• other strong-smelling substances.

Some of the most popular home recipes include:

1. Recipe with boric acid. Take the same mass of boric acid and sugar and mix them. Add flour, egg and water to the mixture. Next, you should knead the dough and make balls with a diameter of 1-2 cm from it. Place the balls in the habitats of cockroaches.
2. Recipe with borax. Mix a tablespoon of this substance with chopped boiled eggs and mashed potatoes. Make balls and place them where traces of cockroaches are found.
3. Recipe with vinegar. Dilute 2 tbsp in 300 ml of water. l. vinegar, adding 5 drops of eucalyptus oil. Spray the resulting solution in the room with a spray bottle.

We have already noted earlier that cockroaches cannot tolerate strong odors and retreat from rooms that smell bad. This property of arthropods is used by homeowners to expel parasites. The following are used to repel insects:

• essential oils;
• ammonia;
• Bay leaf;
• pharmaceutical camomile;
• elderberry branch;
• geranium in a pot;
• kerosene.

Important! Kerosene is rarely used because its smell is unpleasant. They wipe the front door, baseboards and thresholds with it. Its smell is so strong that it is rare for cockroaches to re-enter an apartment.

Reasons and sources of black cockroaches appearing in an apartment

Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution have served cockroaches well, providing them with excellent vision and the ability to detect any odors, so finding a new source of food and the water so necessary for life is not a difficult task. Human apartments are by no means impregnable citadels, but habitual places of residence, and there are several established ways to penetrate them:

1. Garbage chutes, basements and ventilation shafts are the most common sources of arthropods entering an apartment . It is interesting that throughout the summer insects can calmly live in these parts of the house without being detected, and only with the onset of the first cold weather do they begin to migrate en masse closer to humans.
2. The sewer system is an acceptable habitat for cockroaches. Resistance to water (the ability to not drown for a long time) allows them to travel through pipes, unexpectedly appearing in kitchen sinks, bathtubs, and toilets.
3. Neighbors' apartments are an eternal source of cockroach migration. One or two “bad” apartments in a building are enough to cause trouble for all residents. However, there is one caveat - the higher the floor, the lower the likelihood of cockroaches appearing . The distribution of humidity in the building plays a significant role in this; as a rule, all floors above the fifth are drier, and therefore not so tempting for insects.
4. Things brought home can sometimes become a source of infection in the apartment. For example, furniture and household appliances purchased second-hand, returned from a repair shop, or brought from the dacha. Even a book borrowed from friends (or borrowed from the library) can harbor a fertile resident under the spine or between the pages. Therefore, you should carefully inspect every new item in the house.
5. Hotels, hostels, transport. You can bring cockroaches into your apartment after returning from a trip, for example, in a suitcase or with hand luggage.
6. Various retail outlets located on the ground floors of apartment buildings. Not all of them strictly comply with sanitary standards. Increasingly, the source of the problem is not neighbors, but a convenience store or small cafe.

The fact that a cockroach enters an apartment does not indicate its permanent residence there. In a clean and well-kept house, where cleaning is carried out regularly and garbage is taken out, an insect may feel like an unwelcome guest and go in search of a more “comfortable” home.

Prevention of occurrence

There is no better prevention against cockroaches than perfect cleanliness in the apartment. Here are the conditions required to prevent cockroaches from colonizing your home:

• wash dishes immediately after eating;
• store bread and rolls in sealed plastic bags;
• collect crumbs of bread and other products that have fallen on the floor from the table;
• take out the trash promptly;
• Clean kitchen cabinets regularly;
• do not clutter the apartment with unnecessary items;
• ventilate the apartment every day;
• Perform daily wet cleaning of the apartment and weekly general cleaning;
• plant a geranium in a pot and place it in the room, it will act as a repellent.

Attention! Water should not drip from the tap if it is closed. Deny cockroaches any access to water, especially at night when they are most active. Insects will not live in an apartment where there is no way to quench their thirst.

Having discovered black cockroaches in your home, you first need to find out where they came from. Next, depending on the number of arthropods, it is necessary to develop a strategy for combating cockroaches and immediately begin exterminating them.

Preventive measures

To get rid of black cockroaches in an apartment, sometimes it is enough to find out the reason for their appearance. There are few options for where harmful longhorned beetles come from: they came from neighbors, found a reliable source of food in the apartment and made a nest there, were brought in with food from the store, or brought with things from the dacha.

Prevention

To prevent cockroach attacks from neighbors, you need to take the following measures in the apartment:

• seal all cracks and holes in the walls;
• treat ventilation grilles with poison;
• eliminate sources of power and water - take out the trash, carry out general cleaning, repair leaking taps and plumbing;
• place twigs of plants with a repellent odor in places where black longhorned beetles have been spotted.

On a note!

The fight against uninvited guests should be carried out jointly with neighbors in the apartment and floors. If you carry out disinfestation in one room, insects will easily crawl into the next one.

To prevent the reappearance of huge cockroaches in the apartment, it is necessary to regularly take out the garbage, clean with disinfectants and set special traps for prevention.

Domestic cockroaches are species rarely found in human homes.

Central Asian cockroach

The Central Asian cockroach can be found in southern Russia. Its abdomen is brown, almost dark, and its head is yellow. The “Asian” has a peculiarity - it is very jumping and even flies short distances.

Photo of the Central Asian cockroach

White cockroaches

The white cockroach is not an albino, but a nymph that has just become an adult. For several hours, its body is soft and painted white, although it does not leave the shelter; it is rare to see the insect, but it is still possible.

Photo of a white cockroach

Egyptian cockroach

The Egyptian cockroach lives in addition to African countries in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. This specimen is scary because it eats paper and wood. Its body is flat, oval, 20-25 mm long (male) 40-45 mm (female), dark or reddish-brown in color. Males have developed wings, while females do not have them at all. In appearance they resemble turtles.

Egyptian cockroach photo

Madagascar cockroach

This type of domestic cockroach can be brought into an apartment by travelers returning from exotic countries. The insect does not have wings, its difference is in its chitinous hard cover, and also in its impressive size. An adult insect can grow up to nine centimeters! The color is different - from a red tint to blue-black. As the insect ages, it becomes lighter in color. Males' antennae are always broken (like real men, they fight for a lady), while females' antennae are intact and even. People call them hissing because when they are in danger and fighting for a female, they make a loud sound reminiscent of a snake hissing. Despite its threatening appearance and size, this cockroach is absolutely harmless, it is not poisonous and does not bite.

We looked at common types of cockroaches living in apartments, but it is possible that you may come across a specimen that is not on this list.

Watch a video about the Madagascar hissing cockroach

Sources

• https://VrediteliSOS.ru/nasekomye/chernyj-tarakan.html
• https://deziplan.ru/tarakany/o-tarakanax/domashnij-tarakan.html
• https://GdeKlop.ru/tarakany/izbavitsya-ot-chernyh/
• https://sichovka.ru/vrediteli-doma/kanalizacionnye-tarakany.html
• https://KlopVred.ru/tarakany/bolshoj-chernyj-krymskij-tarakan/
• https://dezvredexpert.com/tarakany/raznovidnosti-i-vsyo-o-tarakanax/malenkie-tarakany/
• https://FB.ru/article/266664/tarakanyi-malenkie-kak-vyiglyadyat-sposobyi-borbyi-s-nimi-ryijiy-tarakan
• https://geradez.ru/raznovidnosti-domashnih-tarakanov-kak-oni-vygljadjat-ru

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Appearance of an insect

Large black cockroaches in an apartment will never go unnoticed. They are quite large (up to 3 cm), and move somewhat slower than their red counterparts. The insects look like beetles, powerful and wide, with a strong shiny shell. The color of the durable chitinous shell varies from coal-anthracite to dark brown. The body is somewhat flattened, which allows black cockroaches to easily penetrate narrow crevices, for example, under baseboards.

Effective ways to get rid of black cockroaches forever

The chitinous shell reliably protects the internal organs and supports the muscles attached to it, so insects do not need an internal skeleton. They inherited a segmental structure from their ancestors. However, in the process of evolution, the division of the body into similar metameres repeating along the longitudinal axis was lost. Now the body of the black cockroach is divided into three tagmas:

• Head. In a male cockroach, the forehead smoothly turns into a rounded crown. On the convex part there are eyes of a yellowish-amber color, and they are set closer to each other than those of the female. The prominent part of the head of both sexes is the antennae. They help the insect navigate in space and smell food, which can be located several tens of meters from the cockroach. A distinctive feature of the female’s head is that the distance between the eyes is significantly greater than between the antennae.
• Breast. This section of the insect's body resembles an oval teardrop with a wider rear part. The shell here is convex, dome-shaped, and more glossy. In males, the dorsal edges merge into the sides in a somewhat smoothed manner, while in females they are sharp and pronounced.
• Abdomen. In the male, above the genital appendage, the abdomen is equipped with a genital transverse plate, the back of which resembles an arch. And the anal plate is similar to a short rectangular protruding blade. In the female, it is roof-shaped, triangular in shape with oviposition on the convex part. Entomologists easily distinguish it from the male by its reddish lower half rings.

Neither the house nor the sewer black cockroach can fly, even for short distances. However, they do have wings, but only the males. These are thin miniature brown plates, equal in length to the elytra (12–15 mm). When folded, the wings cover the delicate abdomen by almost two-thirds, protecting it from damage. Females have no wings, but sometimes the elytra can be mistaken for them - thin, elongated, but short (about 5 mm).

Interesting! Black cockroaches have a very complex oral apparatus, consisting of upper and lower jaws and lips, tongue, mandibular and maxillary tentacles. But they cannot bite a person, although they try. There is only a feeling of light scratching, absolutely painless.