Cockroaches

Control Strategy For Indoor Roaches

For indoor roaches, the best bet is Maggie's Farm Roach Killer bait. Sprays will kill the roaches you hit directly, but won’t do much else. Bait takes advantage of the nasty habits of roaches. If one roach eats the bait and dies, his friends can die from eating him and his poop.

Moist gel baits like our Roach Killer have revolutionized German cockroach control in many ways, and are the main choice for professional exterminators. Place the bait, following the instructions on the product label. You’ll have much better luck if you can clean up any spilled food or garbage roaches might have access to. Also look for water sources, as they prefer damp areas, especially warm ones.

Remember that heat put off by appliances can be very attractive to roaches. If you have a large number of roaches, you can often get a good number of them by vacuuming. Going through the vacuum will generally kill them, but dispose of the bag in outdoor trash right away when you’re done.

One use for a spray, like Maggie’s Farm Ant & Roach Killer or Maggie’s Farm Home Bug Spray is to use it to “flush” them out of hiding places where you can then suck them up with the vacuum. NOTE: Don’t ever put spray down in the same area where you applied bait. The spray will repel the insects from the bait, making it ineffective.

Of course, you can also use Ant & Roach Killer to kill visible roaches both indoors and outdoors. Home Bug Spray is not as effective of a spray on roaches as Ant & Roach Killer.

Dust is also great for long-lasting protection against roaches. Apply Maggie’s Farm Bed Bug Killer or Maggie’s Farm Spider & Insect Dust per the product label to hiding places such as under and behind appliances, in the space - “drawer well” - under the bottom drawer in cupboards, and in wall voids.

Control Strategy For Outdoor Roaches

For outdoor roach control, and to prevent roaches from trying to get inside your home, use Maggie’s Farm Yard Bug Spray to apply a barrier of protection around the perimeter of your home.

Simply attach the sprayer to your garden hose and it automatically mixes with the concentrate when you turn the sprayer to “ON.” Just spray the lower portion of your home’s foundation (but not the siding), and along the ground next to the foundation around the perimeter to about 3 feet out. Make sure to spray mulch beds thoroughly where crawling insects like to hang out.

Checkout Our How to Get Rid of Cockroaches Guide

Cockroach Facts:

• Smaller roaches are most often found indoors, and are called “German cockroaches”.  These roaches prefer the kitchen and bathroom and can really be a problem if there is spilled food, or garbage that isn’t closed up.  Damp, warm areas also attract them, such as under and around appliances.
• Larger roaches live mostly outdoors, but will sometimes come inside. The most common of these is the American cockroach, though there is also an Australian cockroach, an Oriental cockroach, and many others.
• These larger outdoor species are plentiful in warmer climates, and you’ll sometimes see them called “water bugs” or “palmetto bugs”, but they’re mostly just American cockroaches.
• In the really cold climates you won’t see large roaches outdoors much, but they can still be found in urban areas in steam tunnels, sewers, pipe chases, and other places where they aren’t exposed to the elements.