How To Spot Early Signs Of Roaches In Your Ventura County Home

If you have a noticeable cockroach infestation in your Ventura County home, you may have lifted an eyebrow when you read the title of this article. Why? Because cockroaches are easy to spot. All you have to do is lift a pillow on your couch or flick the light on in your bathroom at night. They're everywhere! But seeing cockroaches is not an early sign! Do you know that Ventura County cockroaches don't want to be seen? If you're seeing lots of cockroaches, especially during the day, your home is filled with roaches. In fact, even seeing one roach during the day is a warning sign of a significant infestation. Most residents have lots of cockroaches and don't even know it. How many? According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of American, 78 to 98 percent of homes in urban areas have cockroaches, and each home can have 900 to 330,000 roaches. That is why we're offering up these tips to help you spot early signs of roaches in your Ventura County home. Here's what you need to know.

Dog And Cat Power

If you have a pet, you may be able to tell that roaches are in your home. Dogs and cats can smell and hear better than we can. They'll notice the pheromones of cockroaches long before you will. They'll also hear them skittering in hidden gaps, crevices, and voids. If your pet is acting funny in your kitchen or bathroom, you should do an inspection of your home. 

Droppings

Roaches leave their black feces in many places. Small roaches leave little black specks, but large cockroaches, like the American cockroach, can leave feces that are large enough to make you think you have a mouse infestation. If you know where to look for feces, you can detect cockroaches early.

• Check under your kitchen and bathroom sinks. These are moisture points and cockroaches are strongly attracted to them.
• Look behind and underneath appliances, such as your refrigerator or stove.
• Look at the backs of your kitchen drawers.
• Check dark humid spaces.
• Check compressed spaces, such as between cardboard boxes that are stored in your attic or storage rooms.

Shed Skins

When you go looking for the black droppings cockroaches leave around, you may find other evidence, like shed skins. This will help you weed out mice as a suspect. Cockroaches pass through as many as thirteen developmental stages, shedding their skins each time. You can find them in dark voids, secluded areas, and tight spaces.

Egg Cases or Casings

The egg cases of cockroaches are called ootheca. You may find oothecae in all of the places mentioned above. They are typically a dark, reddish-brown color and look like little coin purses. German cockroaches have cases that are a yellow to orange gradient, but you're not likely to find their cases. They carry their cases with them. But, you may find the casings of those oothecae after the eggs have hatched. It is important to note that this is not as much of an early warning sign as the others because the appearance of these egg cases means hundreds of roaches have hatched in your home. One case can have 50 cockroaches in it. But finding these cases will help you arrest an infestation before hundreds turn into hundreds of thousands. It is well worth the effort to go looking for them.

Cockroach Damage

Roaches feed on glue and paper products. If you find wallpaper that is being eaten, holes in food packages, book bindings that are breaking apart, clothing with holes, or some other type of small, insect damage, you might have a roach infestation. Inspect items in your pantry, attic spaces, storage rooms, and closets. While this sign won't let you know for sure that you have a cockroach infestation, it will be one piece to the puzzle. Combine this with other evidence to get to the bottom of your pest control mystery.

What To Do When You Spot Cockroach Evidence

If you find evidence, or actually see cockroaches inside your home, what should you do? There are a few steps you should take to help to slow cockroach reproduction and protect yourself from sickness.

• Keep surfaces clean and practice good sanitation throughout your home. Pay particular attention to trouble spots such as the area under your toaster. It is also important to deep clean the sides of your oven.
• Put dirty dishes in soapy water. Cockroaches love a dry stack of dirty dishes and dishes that have been put in the dishwasher.
• Put your pantry foods in sealed containers.
• Put your trash in a sealed container.
• Seal gaps around pipes in moisture points.
• Seal entry points in the exterior of your home.

Cockroach Control In Ventura County

Remember that the team at Venture Pest Control is always standing by to assist you with pest control issues. We use advanced, field-tested strategies to make sure we get every roach. Connect with us today to schedule service.