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Roaches in the Winter
This is Roger Tinker, owner and general manager of ALL STAR PEST CONTROL in
Columbus, Georgia. My topic today is Roaches and the winter time. Having over 45
years in the pest control business, I know that our office will begin to receive calls about
the sudden increase in roaches in their house. The main culprit is usually the German
Roach, although some other species of roaches can have a minor role in this. First, I
want to tell you that the German Roach is about 5/8 of an inch long and can not survive
outside regardless of what time of year it happens to be. They did not come inside your
house when it turns cold because they were already there. An average home will bring
in about 3 egg capsules per year attached to products that you buy at the grocery store
and other sources as well. These capsules will hold up to 50 roaches each. These
capsules need somewhere between 78 and 82 degrees of temperature to hatch.
Chances are that your house stays below 78 degrees in the summer. When it first gets
cold it seems like everybody turns the heat up as high as they can. This raises the
temperature in your house hot enough to trigger these hidden roach capsules to hatch.
You will see as many as 150 roaches all at once if only 3 capsules hatch.
What can you do to avoid this? Some of this will probably happen, but there are
things that you can do to avoid most of this drama. Number one is to keep your
temperature at or below 75 degrees. This should be low enough not to trigger these
capsules to hatch. You probably can’t stop buying groceries, but you do several things
to reduce roach capsules left in the house. Usually, roach capsules are attached in
some way to cardboard. Removing as much cardboard in the house goes a long way to
reducing the roaches found in a home.
Another mistake that people make is placing cereal boxes and other like containers on
the top of the refrigerator. The heat from the refrigerator rises from the motor on the
bottom and creates enough temperature to trigger the roach capsules to hatch. That is
why people see roaches on or around a refrigerator.
Ther are other roaches such as the America roach that live mainly outside. They
are about 2 inches long and do not reproduce nearly as quickly as the German Roach.
Water seems to affect them as much as the cold or heat. They come inside to get away
from the rain and also come inside looking for water if there is none for them outside.
There are other species of roaches, but these are the main 2 that we seem to deal
with the most.
Please feel free to contact me if I can help you in any way.
