Unless it is a surprise birthday party or a notification that you are the recipient of a long-lost relative's estate, no one likes surprises — especially when they occur at night. Few things are more upsetting than stumbling into the kitchen for a late-night snack, flipping on the lights, and witnessing cockroaches running across the floor for cover.
If you recently had that experience, or one similar, you need cockroach control in Salt Lake Cityfrom Uinta Pest Solutions. As a local, family-owned company, we will give you the best pest control experience by not asking you to pay for services you do not need. We offer eco-friendly products and solutions that are pet and human-safe and affordable.
We know you probably found this page because cockroaches are in your home, so please keep reading to learn how to end your cockroach problem and what you can do to prevent a future issue.
Visible Signs Of Roaches: How To Identify An Infestation
Cockroaches are nocturnal insects that rummage through your house while you sleep. Although they hid during daylight hours, they cannot help but leave behind these signs of their presence:
Droppings
Stains
Egg capsules
Discarded skins
Musty odor
Live cockroaches
We know you may not understand what the items on our list mean, so please keep reading, and we will explain.
All living things produce feces, and cockroaches are not an exception. These droppings may be rod-shaped with blunt ends and ridges or look similar to coffee grounds. You will notice these in cabinet drawers, behind appliances, and other dimly lit areas where cockroaches hide.
In addition to fecal matter, you may see staining that looks like spots or smears. If you suspect an infestation, search in room corners, door tops, and around small cracks in the walls.
Like all insects, cockroaches produce eggs, but unlike other pests, they do not deposit exposed eggs. Instead, cockroaches create a purse-like structure (ootheca) containing individual eggs. Cockroaches use saliva to glue these structures near food sources underneath cabinets and behind appliances.
From the moment a cockroach hatches to adulthood, it progresses through a series of growth stages known as instars. Since its skeleton is on its exterior, it must shed (molt) the skin to move to the next growth phase. Discarded skins along kitchen, laundry, and bathroom baseboards, cabinets, and behind appliances indicate cockroaches are present.
Have you wondered how insects communicate? Since they cannot talk, they use chemicals, known as pheromones, to indicate the desire to mate, danger, and food sources. When you have a dense infestation in a confined area, you may notice a musty odor from cockroach pheromones deposited throughout the room.
Although cockroaches are active at night, you may be reading this article because you stumbled on a few when you got out of bed to go to the bathroom. Or, you may have seen a few run across the floor when you rearranged cabinets in the kitchen or moved things in the bathroom.
The two most common cockroach species in Salt Lake City are German and oriental cockroaches. Due to their high reproduction rate, German cockroaches are the most prevalent in houses in Salt Lake City and throughout the country. These pests have a 1/2 to 5/8-inch light brown to tan oval-shaped body with two dark stripes on their backs. It is easy to distinguish between oriental and German cockroaches because oriental cockroaches have jet-black shiny bodies.
When you see these signs of cockroaches in your home, you need Uinta Pest Solutions to come to the rescue.
Health Hazards Of Cockroaches: Protecting Your Family
Cockroaches are insects, but unlike other pests, horizontal spines protrude from their legs. Also, cockroaches forage for food in warm, humid locations like sewers, drains, garbage, and compost piles, and on animal feces. The combination of warmth and moisture promotes decay and the growth of disease-causing organisms. When cockroaches move through these areas, pathogens stick to their leg spines and bodies.
When they traverse in the house, the bacteria, viruses, and parasitic worms on their bodies and legs transfer to surfaces and objects. Unfortunately, most cockroaches gravitate to humid, warm areas of a home like the kitchen, bathroom, basement, and laundry rooms. Of course, these areas often have exposed foods, eating utensils, packaged products, towels, and other objects that come into contact with our bodies.
In addition to the pathogens cockroaches leave on these surfaces, they deposit feces and saliva. When cockroaches eat rotting foods in pathogen-infested areas, they ingest pathogens into their bodies, which later pass through their feces and saliva. Cockroaches leave excrement inside kitchen cabinets, bathroom towels, wash clothes, and other items that contact our bodies.
As a result, a cockroach infestation can spread disease to household members.
Salmonellosis, typhoid fever, cholera, gastroenteritis, dysentery, listeriosis, giardia, and E. coli infection are examples of diseases caused by the 33 different kinds of bacteria, seven other human pathogens, and the six parasitic worms cockroaches carry on their bodies. These infections cause flu-like symptoms and, in some cases, require medical attention.
Another problem with a cockroach infestation is it affects those with allergy sensitivities and asthma. In the 1940s, researchers discovered that some people developed a rash when cockroaches contacted their skin. This realization led to the discovery of a protein produced by cockroaches that causes an allergic reaction in some people. Cockroaches progressing through their growth phases shed their outer shell (exoskeleton), and when these discarded shells deteriorate, particles become airborne and circulate through the home and trigger allergic reactions.
Cockroach feces is another source of allergic and asthmatic reactions. Similar to their discarded shells, when the excrement dries, particles flake away and float through the home. When occupants inhale the floating feces, they may experience coughing, runny nose, watery, itchy eyes, and shortness of breath.
The best way to protect your family from cockroach-induced diseases or allergic reactions is to secure cockroach pest control in Salt Lake City from Uinta Pest Solutions.
Professional Roach Extermination: Call The Experts Right Away
When you notice cockroaches in your home, call for help. Cockroaches reproduce rapidly; there are likely ten more in hiding for every one or two you see scurrying across the bathroom floor. For example, cockroaches produce egg capsules (ootheca) that contain many eggs. Within two months, offspring in those eggs will mature into reproducing adults that will begin depositing oothecae throughout the house. In a short time, you can go from one or two cockroaches living in your home to hundreds; the longer you allow the infestation to continue, the worse it will become.
House cockroach prevention begins with partnering with Uinta Pest Solutions. When you contact us, we will email a preparation sheet to maximize our visit and schedule a service. We will dispatch a highly-trained technician to inspect your property for attractants, entry points, and likely hot spots. Our technicians know the signs of a cockroach infestation and can determine the species invading your home.
After our inspection, we will give you a prep sheet to maximize the treatment effectiveness. Since we tailor our process to the species infesting your home, we may use gel baits and other treatment solutions that target the pest. For those with heavy infestations, we offer a cockroach clean-out service. After 30 days, we return for a follow-up to ensure the cockroaches are no longer an issue.
Although we will eliminate the cockroaches in your home, we recommend you set up a recurring service to ensure you don't have a problem in the future.
Cockroach Prevention: Proactive Tips To Prevent Reinfestations
Whether we like it or not, cockroaches are here to stay. After Uinta Pest Solutions eradicates cockroaches from your house, do the following to deter these pests from entering your home in the future:
Remove overgrowth, junk, and debris from the property.
Provide proper drainage for puddles, ditches, and gutters.
Prune tree branches and shrubs away from the structure.
Seal foundation and roofline cracks.
Dehumidify the crawl space or basement.
Repair any leaking pipes and plumbing fixtures in the home.
Cover indoor and outdoor garbage containers.
Install mesh over drains and vents.
Fix holes in window and door screens.
Install door sweeps on exterior doors.
These suggestions will discourage the cockroaches that travel through your property at night from remaining; they will also deter these pests from entering your home. However, if cockroaches sense the presence of food in your house, they will try to enter.
To further prevent cockroaches from reinfesting your Salt Lake City home, you should wipe down cooking and eating surfaces after use, store food in airtight containers, wash and put away all dishes before bedtime, and remove pet food from bowls before retiring to bed.
While these suggestions will deter a future reinfestation, the best way to ensure you never have a cockroach problem again is to have reoccurring pest control from Uinta Pest Solutions.
We are your cockroach exterminator in Salt Lake City. We will end your infestation and work with you to identify attractants and openings in your home to keep cockroaches from bothering you in the future. Our recurring pest control service will maintain a barrier around your house that defends against not only cockroaches but many other common pests. Contact us today to learn more and get your free quote.