Kitchen Crawlers Such as Cockroaches
Our kitchens are warm, have food and water sources. They are natural places for some pests to thrive. The most problematic kitchen pests are cockroaches, unsavory creatures that disgust nearly everyone.
Ewww, cockroaches in the kitchen! Do not want! But how do you get them out without using toxic chemicals?
Many people mistakenly believe that only "dirty" people get cockroaches, but this is a myth. Every home or commercial kitchen has the potential to have a cockroach problem.
Once a cockroach infestation gets started, its severity is usually determined by the resources available for cockroach survival--food, water and harborage (i.e., hiding places - see photo at right - click on image for larger view)--factors we often control. The biggest cockroach problems are often in homes where there is a clutter problem because, the more stuff people have, especially in the kitchen, the more hiding places for roaches. But, clean, neat and tidy kitchens can still have roaches. For example, cockroaches can hide underneath the labels of canned goods and eat the paste off the labels.
Because cockroaches tend to frequent garbage cans, sewers and other disease-laden locations, germs attach to their body that can transfer to food contact surfaces (utensils, plates) during the normal course of roach activities. These include disease-causing bacteria: Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli, Streptococcus (pneumonia), several helminths (hookwoorm, pinworms, tapeworms), and even viruses (poliomyelitis). If this hasn't convinced you they are bad to live with, cockroaches also produce a powerful allergen that causes allergies and asthma.
In order to prevent cockroaches, you have to keep your kitchen clean - don't leave crumbs or food out in the open. Cockroaches love flour, so take it out of the bag and seal it in a plastic container. They also love bread crumbs and other wheat-based goods, so store them in plastic - you can put the cardboard boxes in Ziploc bags, for example.
It is possible to eradicate cockroaches, but effort and persistence must be greater than their reproductive rate. To be successful, a multi-tactic approach must be used. This means not relying on a single strategy (like sprays), but using several types of control tactics.
Cockroach Possible Control
The standard method of treating for cockroaches has been to spray insecticides on baseboards and in cupboards, with the hope that cockroaches will crawl across the band of dried insecticide and the residue left from the application will kill them. We now know that this type of treatment is not very effective. Reasons why include:
Cockroaches do not live behind baseboards, but live in dark, damp locations near food and water sources. Efforts to locate and treat these hiding places are much more effective.
Insecticides are not 100 percent effective and, unless efforts are made to reduce food, water and harborage, populations of the prolific German cockroach are likely to rebound.
Cockroaches species, including the German cockroach, have developed insecticidal resistance to many insecticides.
Most insecticidal sprays, especially aerosol treatments, don't have much residual activity. This is also true of "bomb" type applications.
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Article Tags: Hiding Places
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