Just the thought of a cockroach landing on your shoulders could send shivers down your spine. What more if there’s a cockroach infestation in your kitchen? This article will show you how to get rid of cockroaches in kitchen cabinets.
If cockroaches make their home inside your kitchen cabinets, a simple dish soap and water mixture will decimate them. Just mix equal parts of water and soap into a spray bottle and shower them generously with it. You don’t have to depend on toxic pesticides to get rid of them. There are other ordinary and natural household items you can use for this purpose.
Cockroaches want to live in dark and isolated places not often disturbed by human activity. Such are the conditions inside your kitchen cabinets. So, that’s where you will see cockroaches very often. They use the small cracks and openings on the cabinets to slip inside.
Read on to learn more about how you can get rid of cockroaches inside your kitchen cabinets, the natural substances you can use, and how to prevent them from entering your house.
How to Get Rid of Cockroaches in Kitchen Cabinets
Combine Equal Parts of Dish Soap and Water
There’s a straightforward way to get rid of cockroaches in cabinets. It is by using a simple mixture of dish soap and water. Just mix equal parts of these two substances in a spray bottle and then shower the cockroaches and the cabinets generously with it.
Utilize Cracked Eggshells
There are other ordinary household items that you can also use for this purpose. For instance, cockroaches are repelled by eggshells. So, after you have cracked some eggs for breakfast, just lay down the cracked eggshells inside your kitchen cabinets. This will discourage the cockroaches from entering the cabinets again.
Thrive in Dark and Isolated Places
Cockroaches love dark and isolated places inside your home where they will not be disturbed. Unfortunately, these are the actual conditions inside your kitchen cabinets. Their flat and tiny bodies can easily slip through the small cracks or slight openings on the cabinet walls and edges.
Regularly Inspect Kitchen Cabinets
You will often find cockroaches inside kitchen cabinets that you don’t inspect and don’t open regularly. So, make it a habit to inspect all your kitchen cabinets regularly. This will discourage cockroaches from making your kitchen cabinets their home.
There are three things that cockroaches need so that they can survive. They are food, shelter, and water. If they find these three items inside your kitchen cabinets, they will stay there. But if they can’t see these three items inside the cabinets, you won’t see them there either.
Use Borax Powder or Sticky Paper
However, if they have already made your kitchen cabinets their home, you can use several household items to kick them out. Some of these common and relatively harmless items are borax powder and the sticky paper that you use as fly traps or mice traps.
You can undoubtedly use pesticides, but they contain toxic substances harmful to humans. So, if you can use ordinary and organic substances to do it, why use something that will harm you?
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Why Do You Have to Kill Cockroaches
Although cockroaches come in different sizes and types, only two kinds of cockroaches are most prevalent in the United States. They are what are commonly called German cockroaches and American cockroaches.
These two types of cockroaches can roam anywhere around a house. But in the bathrooms and kitchens, they do the most damage. They are harmful and dangerous because they carry diseases wherever they go.
Dangers a Cockroach Carries
Some of the dangers cockroaches carry with them are the following:
1. All Sorts of Diseases
When it comes to being disease carriers, cockroaches are some of the worst. People living with cockroaches will eventually be infected with diseases, including:
- Cholera,
- Typhoid fever,
- Dysentery,
- Gastroenteritis,
- Salmonella, and many other serious illnesses.
2. Allergies and Asthma
Cockroaches can send harmful allergens into the air. Typically, these allergens are in cockroach feces, saliva, and shed body parts. The respiratory systems of those who are already afflicted with asthma and allergies will be severely affected.
3. Food Contamination
Cockroaches roaming freely around your house can easily contaminate food, especially uncovered food and water left inadvertently on top of tables and countertops. Ingesting these cockroaches infected food and water can make you sick.
4. Potential Infestation
You may think that just one or two cockroaches are not a problem. But you forget that they don’t just enter your home alone. Cockroaches love to be in a crowd. They’re not lonely creatures. So, if you see one cockroach, you can safely assume that there are a lot more of them hiding somewhere.
Always remember that just like any other pest, cockroaches are free riders. Once they see that your kitchen cabinets offer the things they need to thrive, they will immediately take over that area and turn it into their possession.
If you see one, pretty soon, you will see more. So, if you don’t want to see cockroaches on top of your tables and munching on your food, you have to maintain the cleanliness and hygiene of your kitchen because that’s where they can find the things they need to live.
Type of Cockroaches You’ll Likely See Inside Your Home
Do you know that more than 4,500 species of cockroaches are roaming around the world? What’s worse is that about 69 of these species are active in the United States. The cockroach species that you will likely see in your home if you are living in the United States are the following:
1. American Cockroaches
Largest Species
You will be surprised to know that while they are called American cockroaches, they are not the most prevalent in the United States. But they are the largest species and the longest lifespan. They can live up to two years. Just imagine the damage they can do to your home if they infest your home for that long.
Palmetto Bugs or Sewer Roach
These cockroaches are called “palmetto bugs” and” sewer roach.” The size of an adult can reach from one inch to three inches. Their body colors are often brown or reddish-brown, and their bodies have light yellow edges.
2. Brown-banded Cockroaches
Thrive Inside Cabinets of Electronic Appliances
These cockroaches can fly. They are commonly found inside cabinets of electronic appliances such as refrigerators and televisions and in walls. Brown-banded roaches don’t live in damp or moist places, and they don’t love water either.
Appearance
Adults grow up to 1/2 inch long, and their body color is mostly dark brown. They also have light yellow bands on their abdomens and wings.
3. German Cockroaches
Most Common Roach in the United States
This is the most common roach species you will encounter in the United States. They can breed rapidly. The female roach lay egg cases that can produce 20 to 40 baby roaches for each egg case.
A Single Female Produces 30,000 Roaches in One Year
This means, just one single female that lays egg pouches inside your home is liable to produce over 30,000 roaches in one year. That is what you can call massive infestation. The problem is that the female German roach carries her egg pouch with her up until the eggs are ready to hatch. So, containing the infestation will be very difficult.
Appearance
These cockroaches have flat and broad bodies. They also have long hind legs and long antennae. Their wings are mostly brown or black. They are folded flat, covering their backs. The body color of adult roaches tends to be light brown with two parallel stripes which run their entire bodies from their head to their wings.
Again, how to get rid of cockroaches in kitchen cabinets? To get rid of cockroaches inside the kitchen cabinets, prepare equal dish soap and water parts into a spray bottle. You can also crash eggshells, then leave them inside your cabinets. Eggshells repel roaches.
How to Naturally Exterminate Roaches
The safest way to deal with a cockroach problem is to do it naturally. Natural substances won’t harm you, and they won’t leave dangerous traces in the environment. Aside from the dish soap and water solution and cracked eggshells, I will show you how to eliminate cockroaches using other natural substances in cabinets:
1. Borax Powder
This powder is the most effective substance that can eliminate these pesky insects. Use borax powder in cleaning your kitchen cabinets. You can also sprinkle this powder inside the cabinets to discourage these dangerous pests from coming in.
2. Bay Leaves
These leaves are natural cockroach repellants because of their pleasant aroma. To humans, they smell good, but cockroaches abhor their pleasant smell. These leaves won’t kill roaches, but their pleasant smell will deter them. So, spread these leaves inside your kitchen cabinets to shoo away these annoying insects.
3. Diatomaceous Earth
This substance is a natural insecticide that can kill roaches. It is composed of fossilized algae that are already pulverized. As such, each particle is sharp and can dehydrate any tiny creature that comes into contact with it.
Spread some DE inside your kitchen cabinets. When the roaches get inside, they will contact the sharp DEs and destroy their exoskeletons. When that happens, they will be dehydrated and die.
4. Essential Oils
Essential oils are also good cockroach repellants because of their essence. They are pleasing to humans but are abhorrent to small pests. The best in deterring cockroaches is lemongrass essential oil or peppermint. It will not kill them but will frighten them away.
Mix the essential oil with a small amount of water in a spray bottle. Then spray the mixture inside your kitchen cabinets. This is safe for you, your kids, and also your small pets.
5. Baking Soda
Using the baking soda you have in your kitchen will get rid of cockroaches fast. But you have to mix it with some diced onion and then sprinkle the mixture inside your kitchen cabinets. Roaches love to eat baking soda.
But when it is mixed with onion, that concoction becomes deadly to them. Once the roaches consume this ‘food,’ you will see them fall, lifeless on the floor of your cabinets. Why? When they consume this ‘food,’ it will create gasses inside their tummies. That will cause them to burst. So, don’t allow your small pets to come near this toxic ‘food.’
6. Lemon or Citrus
Lemon has a soothing smell for us humans. But the smell of any citrus fruit is abhorrent to roaches. So, add a few drops of lemon essential oil to the water to clean the floors.
You won’t be able to detect the smell of lemon, but the heightened senses of roaches will. It will cause them to escape your premises instantly. Citrus won’t kill them, but it will make them think twice before they invade your home.
Dealing with Roaches Using Commercially Safe Available Insect Repellants
Of course, you can use commercially available pesticides to eradicate cockroaches. Some of the products that you may use are the following:
Sticky Paper
Sticky paper is also called fly traps or little mouse traps because once the tiny pests land their feet on the paper, they won’t be able to un-stick themselves from it.
Cockroach Chalk
This chalk is made of substances that are toxic to roaches. Just like ordinary chalk, you have to apply them in areas where you think there is roach infestation.
You are to draw lines on the edges of the cabinet door, the cabinet floor, and all possible spots where you think roaches can creep in. Roaches’ feet will pick up tiny pieces of the chalk, which will kill them once they have ingested it.
How to Prevent Roaches from Entering Your Home
Prevention is the best way of dealing with pesky cockroaches. You can do many things to discourage these annoying creatures from entering your home.
Here are some suggestions:
1. Regularly Clean the Kitchen Cabinets
Don’t provide shelter, food, and water to these pests. You can do this by regularly cleaning the insides of your kitchen cabinets and ensuring that no food crumbs are lying around.
2. Sanitize the Area Surrounding Your Home
Make sure that there is no standing body of water near the edges of your home. They are the places that roaches use as bridges to get inside your home.
3. Seal Cracks, Gaps, and Openings
Seal your home. Inspect your home and look for small cracks, gaps, and openings. Seal all these openings because they are the places where these pests can enter your home. Use good quality and durable caulking materials to seal these openings.
4. Ask the Help of a Professional Pest Exterminator
Ask the help of a professional pest exterminator. If it seems that there is already uncontrolled roach infestation in your home, you have to ask the help of a real pest exterminator. What you cannot do, they will be able to do effectively.
Conclusion: How to Get Rid of Cockroaches in Kitchen Cabinets
You can get rid of the cockroaches inside your kitchen cabinets by using simple soap dishes and water mixtures. Mix equal parts of these items inside a spray bottle and spray the mixture generously to the cockroaches and the interior features of the cabinets.
Using commercially available pesticides is not always good because they contain toxic substances harmful to us.
Roaches are there in your kitchen cabinets because of the darkness and quiet isolation they provide. Cockroaches love to live in such conditions. They slip through the small cracks and gaps in the cabinet and its edges. Sealing these gaps is one way of correcting the problem.
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