Can Roaches Travel From House to House
Cockroaches are durable, frightening, and about the only thing that will survive humanity’s downfall. This, of course, makes them excellent hitchhikers, especially if you are moving into a new home and find them skittering around the walls. How do these roaches get into your house, and where in the world do they come from?
This article will look at where the roaches come from and if they travel from house to house!
How Cockroaches Move
Cockroaches love humid and dark places, and it’s not uncommon for them to hide in furniture, appliances, or other boxes whenever you move. They can also hitchhike on various items you bring from outside into your home, including cardboard boxes and grocery materials. Depending on the item, they are either very easy to see or very difficult to spot and if they can’t be spotted and stopped, they can’t be kept from your home.
Roach species like the American cockroach, german roaches, oriental cockroach, and the brown-banded cockroach travel for one reason and one reason only, for food. If they have infested a neighbor’s house, you can bet they will be coming to yours soon unless you can find a way to get rid of roaches coming from the neighbor’s property.
Can roaches travel on your clothing?
They can get onto your clothing and hitch a ride that way, but it is very risky. There’s a very high chance that you might notice the roach and swat it off or kill it, or remove the outer layers of clothing that the bugs are attached to before you ever enter the house.
A Roach in the House
Cockroaches invade homes to access shelter and food, and these omnivorous creatures will eat just about anything. Along with food crumbs and scraps, they will also eat starch-based non-living matter, including paint, paper, cardboard, and paste from the walls.
Female roaches can lay about 60 eggs in a clutch without any male fertilization, and the population will easily expand if not taken care of.
Once the roaches find a lack of food in a neighboring house, they will travel to yours and squeeze in through gaps and the drainpipes. They seek food and water, which brings them to your new house, which is a buffet. They grab and eat what they can and then carry it back to your neighbor’s house or potentially find a new home on your property!
Even if your house is clean, you can suffer the infestation effects because every single house has food and water that the roaches can access. If they already have a home base established in a neighbor’s house, you want to ensure that your home is secure against an invasion.
How to Prevent Roaches When Moving
Roaches can and will travel from house to house, seeking food as they go. If you want to stop your home from being the next target on the cockroaches’ list, you need to make your home unappealing.
There are several ways to figure out how to prevent roaches when moving. First, inspect all your moving boxes thoroughly, as well as the truck. If there’s a nice space for roaches to get into, they will get into it.
Before you make your move, do a deep clean of your home and continuously inspect your items and belongings for cockroach activity. Also, make sure to store all your clothes and other items in containers that can be sealed rather than using typical cardboard boxes.
Cardboard gives tons of spaces for cockroaches to hide inside, while sealed bins, like plastic containers, aren’t a roaches’ typical hiding place.
Sealing Your Home
Once you’ve made your home unappealing to roaches, you need to make sure that the area outside of your home is secure from roaches moving from house to house. You should walk around the perimeter of your house and seal any cracks or crevice on your property.
A good rule of thumb is that if a small pencil can fit through the gap, then a roach can easily squeeze through. You may also want to apply some roach bait that includes boric acid around the perimeter of your home to get rid of any roaches that may be wandering around your property.
It would help if you also did a deep clean of your home at least every one to two weeks, where you clean anywhere that could hold food and water for the roaches, including Garbage cans, kitchen sinks, your bathroom, the humid basement, and attics.
Also, make sure to avoid having piles of excess paper or cardboard around, as roaches will gravitate towards and eat that. Instead, either recycle the excess as quickly as possible. Cockroaches inform other roaches of where to find food by letting out pheromones absorbed by the cardboard and paper.
Plastic doesn’t absorb as well, making it harder for cockroaches to find your items when they come from another house. The weaker the pheromone, the harder it is for roaches to communicate with each other.
Finally, cockroaches can come into your house through the plumbing, so you should place drains and screens on your outdoor pipes. Drain screens will allow the flow of water while also keeping the bugs out.
Handling The Root Of The Problem
Once you’ve shielded your house from the last cockroach invaders, you might need to talk with your neighbor about their cockroach problem. Ask them if they need any help or plan to hire an exterminator to remove most of the roaches. If they have no plan, then see what you can do on your end.
A Cockroach infestation can move from house to house without any problems, and if your neighbor doesn’t remove the bugs, you can at least be prepared to deal with them. Keep your house airtight and make sure there aren’t any food and water deposits available. Then you can watch the cockroaches move right on past your home and over to someone else’s.
