6 Tips for Keeping Florida Roaches Under Control

Florida is the ideal climate for roaches. The pests love humid, warm conditions and they thrive outside and indoors. Florida is home to several types of roaches, and two of the most common are the German roach and the American roach.

Keeping these roaches out of your home requires vigilance and year-round pest control treatments. Here are six tips for protecting your home against these invaders.

1. Keep Damp Mulch Away From Your House

Landscaping near your foundation is attractive, but if you use leaf or wood mulch, you may attract roaches. American roaches live outdoors in damp places. If you turn over a clump of wet leaves, you may see the roaches scurry out. When you have damp vegetation near your home, the roaches don’t have far to travel to get inside.

2. Close Gaps Around Your Windows and Doors

American roaches, also called palmetto bugs, can fly. They’re attracted to lights so they’ll fly toward the light above your door. If you have a gap around your door frame, the bugs crawl on through.

Rain drives the bugs out of their hiding places, and they might swarm up the side of your house to seek shelter by squeezing through a window frame. These roaches gather in groups so you can have several trying to get in through your door or windows.

Keep them out by sealing all the gaps in your home’s exterior so they can’t squeeze through. Seal cracks and gaps inside your house too. Roaches like to hide inside cracks. Cracked baseboards in humid areas are perfect places to stay hidden during the day.

3. Examine Boxes, Sacks, and Used Goods

German roaches have different behavior from American roaches, but they are just as annoying. German roaches don’t live outdoors. They depend on humans to keep them alive and they stay indoors. If you have German roaches, then you picked them up from somewhere else.

Examine paper sacks and cardboard boxes from the grocery store to make sure roaches aren’t hiding under the flaps or in seams. Be careful when buying used furniture and other items secondhand because they could have roaches inside. Try to examine them as best you can before taking them inside your house.

4. Put Away Food

Roaches love pet food, especially the canned variety. Empty your pet’s dish after meals rather than let it sit on the floor to entice roaches. Don’t leave food out on the counter overnight when roaches might roam the kitchen.

The food provides nourishment for them, and it exposes you to germs if you eat it after roaches have crawled on it. Keep food sealed and covered so you cut off their food supply.

5. Dry Out Moisture

Roaches seek damp parts of your home, and that’s often in your kitchen. Your refrigerator collects condensation so it is usually damp and humid under the appliance. It’s a favorite hiding place for roaches. Check that the water evaporates and the pan isn’t dripping onto the floor.

The sink cabinet is another place roaches hide when there’s a drip that keeps the wood damp or when you splash water frequently that leaves moisture near the sink. Have plumbing leaks repaired promptly to prevent attracting roaches.

Also, consider using your air conditioner to pull humidity out of your home and to keep the air cooler and lest inviting for pests.

6. Schedule Regular Pest Treatments

Roaches multiply fast, so don’t waste time on home remedies that don’t work. Some roach sprays require you to spray the roach directly in order to be effective. This exposes you to pesticides unnecessarily, so sprays you buy at the store may not be a good choice.

Professional treatments are safer and more effective. Combine those with practices around the home that prevent the pests and you can keep roaches under control.

Call Southern Greens Pest Control for prompt help with any pests you have or when you just want to prevent a problem. We provide monthly pest treatments that keep roaches, ants, mosquitoes, and other bothersome insects from ruining your Florida lifestyle.

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