Where Do Roaches Hide? 10 Common Hiding Places for Cockroaches
Trying to eliminate a roach problem, but not sure where roaches may be hiding around your home? The following 10 places are the most likely areas you'll find these unwanted pests creating mayhem around your home.
Knowing where roaches hide is one of the most important initial steps in eradicating them from your home. These insects don’t hide randomly. They have specific places that they constantly go back to because of their need for moisture, food and darkness.
Not knowing where they hide can lead you to wasted time, money, and frustration. Identifying exactly where they are at is the first step in getting them out of your home for good.
Below are the most common hiding places for roaches. Learn about them, and you’re one step closer to having your home roach-free. Roaches have flat bodies that help them hide in small spaces.
Kitchen
If you’re planning on eradicating these insects, always start with your kitchen. This place is a haven for roaches. It has ample water sources. It’s filled with food and leftovers. It’s warm. And it has a lot of hiding spots.
Check your stove. Look for roach droppings and egg casings at the back. Look out for their unique smell, too. Clean out the things inside your pantry and your cabinets. Inspect your refrigerator and your trash. Roaches love to frequent these places because there’s always food inside them.
Also, you should look for roaches under the sink. Leaking pipes can provide these insects enough water to thrive. Set up traps and baits, and you’re bound to catch a lot of them there.
Bathroom
Roaches love water, and your bathroom is a place with virtually unlimited sources of it. It also gets humid and damp when you take a shower. With all this moisture, you can bet that you’ll definitely find roaches lurking there.
Pipes
Speaking of bathrooms, our plumbing system links us to other houses or apartments. The pipes are filled with moisture, so roaches use them to spread from one home to another.
You can stop this by replacing broken drains, fixing loose ones and buying drain plugs for your tub and your sinks.
Basement
Basements are dark, cool and moist with plenty of hiding spots, just perfect for roaches. There might not be abundant sources lot of food down there, but roaches can survive eating anything. They can feed off other insects and dead roaches, so they’re perfectly capable of thriving in your basement.
To discourage these bugs from living in your basement, keep unwanted things inside big plastic organization boxes. It’s better to use these than those boxes made from cardboard because they don’t deteriorate over a short period of time. Cardboard also absorbs moisture, acts as a host for fungi and can even be eaten up by roaches themselves.
Take care of washers, dryers and freezers in your basement. Keep your washer closed at all times, and always wipe it dry after using it. You should also hang your wet clothes outside. Water dripping into the floor will attract roaches.
Lastly, regularly clean your basement. Seal cracks on the wall, and set baits in dark corners.
Attic
Like your basement, the attic also houses a lot of unwanted things. So put them inside plastic boxes for safe keeping.
This place is a lot dryer than your basement, but it does get humid during rainy days. Always check the roof for any signs of leaking, and regularly clean the area to keep roaches away.
Ceiling
You’ll know if your have roaches in your ceiling if you hear them scurrying at night. Roaches love the dark, so they usually set up nests in ceilings. You’ll need to find an access point to see how they got there, and ensure that you’ve cut it off so they can’t continually come in your home after they’ve been dealt with.
Furniture
All species of roaches like to hide in shelves, cupboards, tables, cabinets, wardrobes and dressers. Meanwhile, tiny roaches like the German cockroach can hide themselves in couches and chairs.
These insects are good at slipping through cracks and tight openings because of their specially designed flat bodies. And they attach their egg casings at the back of your furniture. So if you suspect that roaches are in your house, regularly check your furniture for those egg casings, droppings and the occasional signs of chewed wood.
Bookshelves
We singled out bookshelves because there are particular kinds of roaches that just love paper and book bindings. Take out your books. Inspect their pages if they’ve been eaten, and also look for eggs casings at the back of the shelves.
Eletronic Appliances
Aside from furniture, roaches can also hide and lay eggs in electric boxes and unused electronic appliances. They can hide inside microwaves, coffeemakers, steamers and even ovens – as long as you don’t use them anymore.
Wall Decor
Don’t forget your picture frames, wreaths, clocks, and artwork. Wall décor can give a cockroach a nice little hiding spot just until nighttime where it can go and scavenge for food. Usually, insects will gather behind wall art, or inside areas that may allow for less light to shine through.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, where roaches hide depend mostly on how convenient the place is for them. They need moisture, food and a little bit of darkness to thrive. So now that you know where they are, it’s time to take these conveniences away and drive them out. For the best results, use a commercial roach bait to get rid of them for good.
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