Pest Control Cockroaches

Cockroach control is best undertaken by a trained pest controller who is able to kill and remove the cockroaches from your establishment and perform the nessasary tasks to help minimise their return.

Hawthorn Pest Control are trained to kill and remove cockroaches in both domestic and commercial environments. As a professional pest control business, we are able to offer an integrated programmed approach to monitor, control and kill cockroaches.

There are over 4,000 different species of cockroach in the world with many having lived alongside man for hundreds of years. Cockroaches are classified as pests and originated in tropical climates. They have become more commonly found across the world, as they are spread by ongoing developing commerce throughout the world. The Oriental Cockroach is considered the most common cockroach in the UK. However, German Cockroaches, American Cockroaches, Australian Cockroaches and Brown-banded Cockroaches are also common.

Cockroaches foul their environment with faeces or castings, and regurgitated food. They taint their environment and materials with their characteristic smell. Infected areas may contain fragments of cockroach exoskeletons and excrement. Cockroaches move from filth to food indiscriminately and are therefore implicated in the transmission of pathogens such as those causing food poisoning and wound infection. They cause great distress to people occupying infested premises.

Cockroaches have long whip-like antennae which are carried reflexed along their bodies. Their heads are hinged under the pronotum (a shield like covering) and their legs are large and bristly. The appearance of each species of cockroach varies. In addition to conventional foodstuffs, cockroaches also feed on paper, vomit, sputum, human and animal faeces, nail parings and other cockroaches. Cockroach activity peaks during the hours of darkness, as they are crepuscular insects.

During the daytime, cockroaches spend most of their time in harbourages, grouped together in cracks and crevices around such areas as sinks, drains, cookers, the backs of cupboards and in refrigerator motor compartments. They especially favour buildings with service ducts and complex plumbing installations. Their behaviour is influenced by them finding the same harbourage and also by them producing an aggregation pheromone which is a chemical messenger to other cockroaches of the same species, who respond by being attracted to the same source of pheromone. This pheromone is also found in cockroach faeces which mean that cockroaches can also be attracted to areas previously contaminated by cockroaches causing re-infestation or ongoing issues.

Cockroaches exhibit incomplete transformation and each cockroach moults several times in its life cycle producing a large nymph and eventually moulting to the adult stage. The development of cockroaches can be affected by the quality of their food, humidity, temperature and day length.

Cockroach infestations may be introduced as egg cases or adults in incoming laundry, on raw materials, in crates and packaging, or arise as the insects enter buildings via such routes as drains or refuse chutes. Cockroaches are potential carriers of diseases such as dysentery, gastro-enteritis and typhoid. Their diet is very varied and can include soiled dressings, hair, leather, wallpaper and faeces. Germs from these materials can be transferred to food for human consumption either on the body of the cockroach or within the droppings it leaves behind. In addition, food may be tainted with the characteristic smell of the cockroach, which is produced by its droppings and secretions.

An established cockroach infestation can be challenging to control as it is likely that cockroaches will be distributed throughout the entire building located in harbourages difficult to reach. Furthermore the phenomenal breeding potential and production of many eggs by the female means that unless a high proportion of the population is eliminated, numbers will continue to increase.

Hawthorn Pest Control is able to offer an integrated programmed approach to monitor, control and eradicate cockroaches in both domestic and commercial establishments. When undertaking pest control for cockroaches we consider both non-chemical and chemical options depending on the extent of the infestation and surrounding environment.