Signs of Cockroaches in Your Home
You might be surprised by how much the pest control industry is flourishing. In the United States, this industry has grown by about 7% each year since 2018. The pest control market now earns above $26 billion every single year!
Of course, this market might not make quite as much if more people knew about the common signs of cockroaches. Many people see the first signs of a cockroach infestation without knowing what they are looking at. As a result, they fail to take action and allow their infestation to get worse and worse.
In the long run, that means that they end up having to pay much more for the services of quality pest control companies. On the other hand, knowing how to detect cockroach infestations early can sometimes help you take care of them on your own. So what are some of the most common signs that you might have cockroaches in your home?
Read on to learn all about the top indicators that you might be dealing with a cockroach infestation!
1. You See a Cockroach in Your Home
One of the clearest signs that you might have a cockroach problem on your hands is that you see a cockroach in your home. At the same time, it is important not to overreact to seeing a single cockroach on a single occasion. In some cases, you might just have one isolated cockroach in your home that will eventually go away all on its own.
However, if you are unlucky, the first cockroach you see might be the sign of many more to come. If you do have a cockroach infestation, there is a good chance that you will only see a tiny minority of the total number of roaches in your home.
This goes double because cockroaches have a tendency to avoid places where they might be seen. They often avoid bright lights and wait until people are farther away to come out.
If you think you might have cockroaches but are not sure, you might leave a room like your bathroom or kitchen in the dark for a while. You can then enter without making too much noise and turn the light on while looking around the floor for any signs of cockroaches.
In some cases, you will just barely catch a glimpse of a cockroach as it scurries away to a nearby hiding spot. If you continue to find cockroaches on multiple occasions, it is very likely that you have a much bigger cockroach infestation problem than you might yet realize.
2. Droppings Can Indicate a Cockroach Problem
In other cases, you might be able to detect an infestation without ever seeing a single cockroach. Cockroaches leave behind droppings that you can learn to distinguish from other insect droppings. Many people describe cockroach droppings as looking a little bit like pepper or coffee grounds.
Of course, cockroach droppings tend to be quite small. In most cases, they will be less than a single millimeter wide. That means that you will often need to be looking for them on purpose or you will overlook them.
Consider taking a careful look around your kitchen and bathrooms. If you find any of these droppings, that will increase the chance that you have a cockroach problem. If that happens, you should look for some of the other signs of a cockroach infestation we will discuss in this article.
The more signs of cockroaches you find, the higher the chance you are dealing with a full-blown infestation. On top of that, finding more signs of an infestation can give you some hints as to the size of the infestation you are dealing with. Finding many signs of an infestation often correlates with a bigger infestation.
In such cases, it may be too late to try to handle your cockroaches on your own. If you think you might have a large infestation problem on your hands, you will need to find quality pest control services to help you.
3. Smears Can Reveal a Cockroach Infestation
A lot of people do not know about the smears that cockroaches leave behind. As cockroaches move around, they often leave dark smears or streaks. These markings often have an irregular shape.
At the same time, these smears can be somewhat harder to reliably detect than something like droppings. If you find no other signs of a cockroach infestation, the smears that you think you have found might be caused by something else.
At the same time, if you are finding more and more smears around your house, that can help you realize that cockroaches are beginning to invade your home.
4. A Bug Problem Can Leave an Odor
If you have had much experience with cockroaches in the past, you might remember that they tend to create a unique odor. The bad news is that the odor of cockroaches can attract more cockroaches to join in the infestation. The more cockroaches invade your home, the stronger the odor in your home will become.
The odor of cockroaches tends to be musty and damp. If you are not quite sure if you have an odor like that in your home, it can be helpful to air out your home for a while to eliminate any competing smells. Then, you can wait to see if this musty and damp odor returns.
If it does, you might want to look for other signs that you are dealing with a cockroach infestation.
5. Look for Signs of Cockroach Eggs
If you only have one or a few roaches in your home, they may not leave behind eggs. If you are lucky, that can mean that your minor cockroach problem will take care of itself, especially if you make sure to keep your home clean.
However, once you start finding cockroach eggs around your home, it is likely that your cockroach infestation is self-sustaining.
Cockroach eggs are shaped a bit like a loaf of bread. They are about as long as half the length of a penny. They have a dark and glossy appearance.
If you find eggs like these around your home, it is often a good idea to call for the help of pest control services as soon as possible.
6. Find the Shed Skins of Cockroaches
Cockroaches shed their skins as they grow and mature. That means that you can sometimes find the husk of a cockroach sitting around your home. If you do find a cockroach skin, there is a good chance that you have had at least a few cockroaches for a while now.
That increases the chance that they have settled in and you will have a fight on your hands to get rid of them.
7. You Find Signs of Cockroach Damage
The longer your home has a cockroach infestation, the more damage roaches will do to it. Cockroaches can eat almost anything, so you might find little bite marks taken out of items around your home if you have an infestation.
You might find these bite marks on your furniture. However, you will most often find them on your food or food packaging.
8. You Hear Cockroaches Moving Around
Although cockroaches are often good at hiding from people, they sometimes make noise as they scurry away. If you keep hearing skittering sounds as you walk into a room of your home, then you might have an infestation even if you never see a cockroach.
You might also learn to recognize the unusual tapping sound that roaches make as they move across surfaces.
There is a higher chance that you will hear these quiet sounds at night. During the day, there is often too much ambient noise to pick out such subtle sounds.
Get the Help of Pest Control Services
If you do have a cockroach infestation problem, then you will need to find a great cockroaches pest control service to help you. The longer you wait to work with pest control services, the bigger your infestation will tend to become.
That will also increase the amount of damage that your infestation does to your home in the meanwhile. That is why it is imperative to act fast when you discover that you have a cockroach infestation.
Know the Top Signs of Cockroaches in Your Home
Nobody wants to discover that they are dealing with a cockroach infestation in their home. At the same time, knowing how to recognize the common signs of cockroaches can help you take action as soon as possible to eliminate your infestation. The quicker you take action, the less damage your cockroach infestation will do to your home.
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