Cockroaches on Ceiling
The sight of cockroaches scurrying away when you turn on the lights is enough to make you cringe. They are one of the most resilient insects on the planet and are difficult to get rid of once they are established. Despite this, they have quite a few amazing abilities. Let’s explore why you might have cockroaches on your ceiling.
Why Are Cockroaches on My Ceiling?
There are nearly 4,000 species in the world, and they are found in almost every environment. Cockroaches are incredibly fast, and the ceiling is a place that feels safe from you and other predators. They use the rough spots on your walls and ceiling like grips on a climbing wall.
Cockroaches can fit through the tiniest spaces, and if you have crown molding, they like to hide between the molding and the wall. They can flatten their bodies to fit into cracks and crevices that are almost too small for us to see. They love to hide in furniture, around pipes, in appliances, and in cupboards.
Do Roaches Live in Walls?
Cockroaches love to build large colonies in walls and ceilings. They love anywhere that is cool and moist. They have a varied diet that includes decaying plants, dead wood, sugary foods, bread, garbage, soap, book bindings, wallpaper paste, and glue. Walls and ceilings have everything they need to make a happy home.
How Do Roaches Walk on Ceilings?
Cockroaches are known for their ability to defy gravity effortlessly seemingly. They can climb furniture, walls and seem to like to hang out upside down on your ceiling. How do they do that?
The first thing you probably wonder is whether they flew up there or climbed. Young cockroach nymphs do not have wings, but adult roaches do have wings. They can fly, but they prefer to crawl and climb.
The American cockroach is larger and rarely flies. The German cockroach is much smaller and is more likely to take flight to escape a predator or other danger. Cockroaches are not the most skilled flyers, and they typically start from a high place and use their wings to glide.
Wood cockroaches are more likely to fly to escape birds and bats. The maximum this type of cockroach can fly is 100 meters. In general, a cockroach’s body has too much mass for its wings to lift efficiently.
Cockroaches are poor flyers, but they are well-equipped for climbing. They have a claw-like structure on their legs that helps them stick to ceilings and other vertical structures. The claw is like an extended toe.
In addition to the claw on the end of the foot, they also have sticky pads on their feet. Rough surfaces, like wood, brick, stone, and drywall, provide excellent grip. They have more difficulty walking on slippery surfaces like metal, marble, and glass, but the rough surface of ceilings are easy to navigate.
How Do I Get Rid of Roaches in My Ceiling?
The best way to get rid of cockroaches in your ceiling is to attack them at the source. If you live in an apartment and the cockroaches are coming from the unit beside you, then you might have a more difficult time unless your neighbors are willing to cooperate. Several methods will work to get rid of roaches.
If you want to prevent cockroaches from climbing up your bed or up your refrigerator, you can put silicone tape on the bottom. Silicone tape is slick enough that it makes it more difficult to climb, even for these masters of scaling seemingly impossible surfaces.
This might give you some temporary peace of mind, but the best way to rid yourself of roaches is to use products like boric acid, borax, or diatomaceous earth.
Diatomaceous earth is a fine powder made from the fossilized bodies of ancient microscopic sea creatures. Boric acid is a by-product of making borax, which is a naturally occurring mineral. Any of these will work for killing cockroaches.
To use them, you can spray a fine powder in the areas where you have seen the insects. Make sure that you cannot see the powder with the naked eye because they must walk through it accidentally. The roach will walk through the diatomaceous earth and take it back to its nest.
When the roach tries to clean itself, it will ingest the powder. The powder will cause tiny cuts and cause them to dry out and die. Other cockroaches will help groom them and will also ingest the powder. Another method is to mix a 1:1 ratio of sugar and the powder and leave it out in a small pile.
The cockroach has an amazing ability to climb and scurry into the smallest cracks. They love to hide in areas like your ceiling or your walls. Now, you have a few easy tricks to help you get rid of them for good.
