What To Do About A Cockroach Infestation In Your Lawrenceville Home

After a long day of working or running errands, you return to the house for a relaxing night. Your homes are your refuge, and you want to feel safe and unstressed inside as you recline on the couch and read or watch television. A few hours later, you go to bed and look forward to a restful night to rejuvenate.

However, you awaken a few hours later and go to the bathroom. Clicking on the light, you gasp as you respond with horror and surprise as you witness cockroaches running across the floor and darting into the shower tub drain and behind cabinets. In only a second, your entire night changes into a nightmare. Your mind wonders if the roaches are in your bed. Are they crawling around in the kitchen? Your home no longer feels like a refuge because an outside force has invaded it.

If cockroaches are in your house, you need pest control in Lawrenceville from ProCare Pest Services. Our family-owned, local, independent company has eliminated cockroaches from Lawrenceville area homes for nearly a decade. Since our humble beginnings, we have grown to two locations that serve thousands of satisfied customers across the Atlanta area. When you partner with us, you will find that we live up to our motto: "The best care is Procare." 

We know no one wants to live in fear. In this article, we provide information you need to get control back from the cockroaches in your house so you can enjoy relaxing in your home.

How To Tell If You Have A Cockroach Infestation

You probably found this article because you want to understand what you saw run across your bathroom, kitchen, or bedroom floor. Many times, bug sightings are at night when it is dark or when we are blurry-eyed from sleeping. To help you understand if you witnessed a cockroach or not, the following are signs of cockroaches in your home: 

• Cockroaches
• Odor
• Droppings
• Stains
• Egg capsules

Let's look at each of these indicators to help you determine if cockroaches are your problem. 

Lawrenceville is home to several cockroach species. The most common cockroach in Lawrenceville to invade houses is the German cockroach. This insect often invades homes by hiding in used furniture, appliances, storage boxes, and clothing. These 1/2 to 5/8-inch light brown or tan cockroaches have two lines running from their head to the end of the body. They prefer to live in dark corners or underneath furniture in humid locations in laundry rooms, bathrooms, kitchens, etc. 

The American cockroach that occasionally invades homes has a reddish-brown body with a figure-eight pattern on its head. If you were to stand this cockroach against the others, it would be head and shoulders above them due to its 1 1/4 to 2 1/8-inch oval body. When American cockroaches come inside their homes, they migrate to the same areas as German cockroaches. One distinction between the American cockroach and the others is they can and do fly short distances. 

As we move further into darker body colors, our next cockroach is the wood cockroach. This slow-moving cockroach, with its 1 1/4 to 1 5/8 reddish-brown to almost black body, is slightly smaller than the American cockroach. It does not have wings but has two short, tail-like projections on its rear (abdomen). These cockroaches typically gain access to homes through firewood or other items transported into the house. 

The smokybrown cockroach is the next stop on our Lawrenceville species list. These cockroaches are about the same size (1 1/2 inches) as wood cockroaches with dark mahogany or brown bodies. Many cockroach species can live several days without water, but smokybrown roaches are the exception. Because these cockroaches must be near a water source, they live in bathrooms, kitchens, basements, or crawl spaces near leaky pipes and drains.

Unlike other cockroaches that like damp, warm areas, oriental cockroaches enjoy cooler temperatures. Some call these cockroaches "water bugs" or "black beetle cockroaches." While the other roaches have a reddish hue to their bodies, oriental cockroaches have shiny, jet-black bodies. These cockroaches do not have wings and don't fly.

Our final cockroach, the brown-banded cockroach, literally stands above the others. Unlike other Lawrenceville cockroaches that live on ground level, brown-banded cockroaches are 1/2-inch long with bands across their wings that live in hot areas with temperatures above 80? on the top of kitchen and bathroom cabinets and fixtures in the ceiling.

If you see cockroaches in your Lawrenceville home, you should be able to identify them by their body color, size, and markings. If you do not see cockroaches in your house, but suspect they are running amuck at night, then we need to look at the other indicators on our list. 

Outside of witnessing live cockroaches, droppings are the next prominent indicator. Cockroaches produce fecal matter that appears pepper-like or blunt, rod-shaped with ridges. Small cockroaches (brown-banded and German) produce droppings resembling coffee grounds, while the larger ones produce cylindrical, ridged pellets. Look for feces in cabinets, corners, underneath appliances, and furniture. Sometimes the fecal matter leaves stains or smears in room corners, the tops of doors, and around cracks. Be sure to investigate on top of cabinets if brand-banded cockroaches are the culprit. 

Cockroaches reproduce rapidly. Instead of laying individual eggs, females produce egg capsules (ootheca) which contain many eggs. German cockroaches have up to 48 eggs in each ootheca, while the others have more than ten. The female coats the egg-containing structures with a sticky substance so they will stick hidden underneath ledges in furniture, shelving, or in cracks in dark, undisturbed areas. 

Cockroaches release musty-smelling pheromones to communicate with each other. Individuals with sensitive noses will notice the depreciated air quality when an infestation is significant and confined to an enclosed area.

When you see these indicators, you need a professional cockroach remedy from ProCare Pest Services. Our trained technicians know all the signs of an infestation and can determine the species, entry points, attractants, and hot spots in your Lawrenceville house.

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