The Trick To Keeping Cockroaches Out Of Your Sycamore Home

Residents of Sycamore, IL see all sorts of pests year-round. Most of these pests are completely harmless, if annoying to deal with. However, if you plan on living in Illinois these coming winter months, there’s one pest you absolutely must watch out for: cockroaches.

Most people know how gross cockroaches are – they look weird, smell funky, and pop out at the worst times. However, cockroaches also pose serious threats to your wellbeing. Let’s go over how to identify these pests, and the havoc they cause in your  home.

Identifying St. Charles Cockroaches

Several different cockroach species live in the St. Charles area, and while each has slightly different features, they all share the same basic characteristics.

Each cockroach has six legs, body-length antennae, and flat, oval-shaped bodies. Some cockroaches have wings, though most do not fly; rather, cockroaches scuttle from place to place. These nocturnal pests scurry from place to place at night, which is why you often don’t see them until dusk or dawn.

Different species of cockroaches mainly vary in size and color. The American cockroach, the largest of any U.S. species, grows between 1-3 inches and has a dark reddish-brown body.

German cockroaches, the most common of the roaches, only grow around half an inch and have tan-to-brown bodies. Additionally, these roaches have two black stripes on their heads.

Brown-banded cockroaches also measure around a half an inch in length. They have a light-to-medium brown color, and they have distinctive bands running across their wings.

Finally, the Oriental cockroach (also known as water bugs) have black, shiny bodies and grow between ¾ and 1¼ inches.

While other cockroaches exist in Illinois, these species are the most commonly found in homes. No matter the roach, cockroaches can wreak havoc on your health.

Problems Caused By Cockroaches In St. Charles

Cockroaches are vectors of a variety of serious pathogens. This is in part because cockroaches hang out in dirty places. Dumpsters, sewers, and alleyways are all common habitats for roaches because although these insects exist naturally in the wild, they congregate anywhere that they can consume organic matter – especially if it’s waste.

Naturally, roaches pick up diseases in the process of living in dirty environments. If a roach enters your house, it probably didn’t come from a soap factory, it came from a disease-ridden environment. Common diseases that roaches carry include salmonella, cholera, dysentery, listeria, giardia, typhoid, and the plague. Name an infectious bacteria, and a roach somewhere has it.

Additionally, roaches can make your allergies worse or even trigger asthma attacks. Roaches release proteins that some people are sensitive to, especially those with asthma. Long term exposure to these proteins result in serious respiratory problems, and these problems persist long after the infestation is over.

Cockroach Prevention Tips

These facts aren’t meant to terrify you, though you should be worried about the presence of cockroaches. The best thing you can do is ward off an infestation before it occurs. Consider the following as part of your cockroach prevention plan:

• Make your house less attractive to roaches. These pests often come into your home because there’s enough trash, compost, or food for them to feast on outside. Over time the foragers then move inside, so clean up your yard of any organic matter that roaches can gorge themselves on.

• Check all bags and packages you receive. Some cockroaches like to hitchhike, meaning you can pick one up in your bag, or stray roaches can scuttle around a package and get in your house surreptitiously.

• Reduce the humidity. Cockroaches prefer warm, damp spaces that they can hide out in during the day. This includes crawl spaces, basements, bathrooms, and the kitchen. Check the humidity in these spaces, and respond accordingly.

• Seal any cracks in your windows, door frames, or home exterior. Make sure there are no air or water leaks in the household.

Having trouble with cockroaches in your St. Charles home? Don’t waste another second trying to get rid of them – call the experts today at Pest Control Consultants.

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