Step 1;
Clean Everything from top to bottom! Mostly this will mean the kitchen and bathrooms but should include ALL areas where you’ve seen them. Leave no stone unturned. Bleach, sweep, wash, discard unwanted clutter and just go to the extremes. Clean cabinets, pantry, drawers, and floors, under sinks and behind appliances.
This is the most crucial of all 3 steps and can produce the most results. When this task is finished you will have immediately put the German roach population under serious stress which will affect, feeding habits, harborage points and availability of water. Without these 3 key elements the roach population will decline very quickly, the roaches will turn to cannibalism and it will make the other 2 steps so much more effective.
Step 2;
Baiting is the next most logical procedure now because the German roach will be on the move for food and water which use to be so readily available. There are hundreds of baits to choose from at this point and while you can’t go too far wrong with your choice I recommend using gel bait. The gel supplies the roach with both food and the so desperately needed moisture and assures you of quick acceptance with equally quick results. One other nice feature is that it is dispensed using a syringe so you can put it almost anywhere you like. (within reason-read the label) Du Pont makes an excellent bait called “Advion”. This delicious roach treat not only kills those who feed on it directly but also the nymphs (younger roaches) who don’t travel out much at this stage but get their food by eating the fecal matter of others. The Advion gel in the fecal feast will kill them as well and even goes further as others feed on the nymphs waste.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to use 2 or even 3 different kinds of baits as well. You don’t have to break the bank on baits especially since syringe gels go along way and you should have a lot left even from one tube for follow up treatments. The small disc baits such as “Maxforce” work nicely and usually have a sticky strip so they’ll hang just about anywhere. Attacking roaches through their stomachs can be very effective.
Step 3;
Treating your home with a chemical barrier will be the finishing touch. This should include sprays and dusts. One note about this step, if you treat and your spray touches the bait placements, you have just ruined the bait and no roach will touch it at this point. Try to steer clear of those areas and if you need to, mark the baited areas with a post it note or something similar to remind you where they are. The most important dusting areas will be the voids where the plumbing enters the wall under your sinks. For instructions on dusting see our article “How to kill bugs using dusts.”
Set your sprayer as best you can on ‘pin stream’ so you can be very accurate as to where the spray goes. If you have the squeeze trigger spray that is popular at the big box store the spray tends to be messy so use caution. Treat the base of the cabinets, cracks and crevices, behind and under appliances as well as any areas you know the roaches to be hiding. You must be careful with this so as not to spray food contacting surfaces such as counter tops, dishes, etc. As always Read the label.
There you have it, 3 easy steps you can take to rid yourself of German roaches. I purposely made it as simple as I could but I would warn you. German roaches have been around for 350 million years and may not go down so easily for everyone. I’d be willing to bet however if you did these 3 steps as thoroughly and completely as you could you would have great success.
