Living on the beach may sound like the ultimate retirement home or a perfect weekend getaway, but even the most lavish homes have their problems. Yes, we all have spotted a roach in a beach house, but why?
Roaches are insects from the “Blattodea” order which means they are attracted to moist and humid surfaces. This makes a beach house, in particular, a very comfortable habitat for crawly creatures such as roaches. They mainly lurk around underneath sinks and refrigerators.
Roaches crawl around everywhere they can to find food and their next comfortable habitat, but what makes beach houses more appealing to these insects? Find out more to learn about why this is and how it can be prevented.
What Attracts Roaches To Beach Houses?
There are many reasons why roaches will hang out at your beach house, but the main reasons are that it is generally warmer at the seaside or in coastal regions, making your beach house warmer inside than others, and roaches love warm spots. Because beach houses are closer to the ocean, it naturally has more damp areas in and outside the house.
Beach houses (before renovation) usually have wood flooring. Still, a lot of people don’t know that wood flooring may be a contributing factor not only for other insects to enter your home but also for cockroaches.
Roaches, like most other insects, use pheromones to communicate. Pheromones are hormones that insects release to mark spots for rich food sources and are also used to attract other conspecifics for mating etc. With wood flooring in a traditional beach house, roaches prefer surfaces to embed their pheromones. In this case, cardboard and wood seem to be their surface of choice.
This doesn’t mean that you have to install new flooring. It’s just one of the contributing factors since there are other reasons too.
Another common reason for roaches lurking around in your house is because they are searching for food. We’re all guilty of leaving crumbs behind after fixing ourselves a sandwich or leaving exposed food from the previous night. They will then use pheromones to communicate, marking that spot as a food source.
How To Prevent Roaches From Entering Your Beach House
There are many reasons for roaches to enter your beach house. But there are a lot of ways, if not more, to stop them in their tracks by the front door marking your home safe from roaches.
Keep your house tidy at all times. Do not leave piles of dirty dishes as this is an easy target for roaches to score some food on their scavenging missions. Dirty dishes are usually left by the sink and underneath the sink is a very comfortable habitat for cockroaches since it’s moist by the sink’s sewage pipes.
Move your stove and refrigerator around frequently to check for any trails of roaches, and make sure to clean behind it regularly while you are at it since this will give them no reason to stay around there for much longer.
Having food exposed around the house and kitchen is a big no-no. It gives them more reason to stick around. It will be a good idea to seal or box your food with no gaps for them to enter. Please clean up after making food to prevent leaving food trails for them to follow.
Wash your clothes regularly! Not only do roaches love dirt, but they also love dirty clothes and will use a pile of dirty clothes as a treasure hunt. Roaches can still feast on left-over residue from food or drink stains. This won’t be much of a food source for them, but it will make a comfortable home for them to live in.
Pest control products are a common solution but will only work best when the other methods are done first. It will be pointless to purchase pest control products to use them in a dirty kitchen. Yes, it will kill the existing roaches, but a messy house and kitchen will still be an open invitation to new cockroaches.
Recommended Products To Kill Roaches
When you have spotted a cockroach in your house, it might be the beginning of a frustrating problem. Cockroaches multiply very fast. The moment you spot one, it is time to act quickly.
With so many pest control products on the shelves, it can be hard to decide which one will work best for your home without breaking the bank by hiring a pest control service. Here are some of the products that will get the job done.
Borax is a cheap product and is lethal to roaches. It is a powder that sticks to roaches’ legs once they step in it. When they return to their safe spot, they will clean it off their legs, ultimately entering their digestive system, acting as poison in their stomach.
Another inexpensive household item that is also a roach killing machine is Baking Soda. Used and ingested the same way as Borax, only this causes gas to build up in their system.
Keep in mind that these products don’t kill roaches instantly, but they can be lured easily into the trap. Sugar attracts roaches the most than any other substance or food. You can use grains of sugar as bait to get them to step into Borax or Baking Soda. Once these products are stuck on them, it is game over.
Different Types Of Roaches You’ll Find In Your Beach House
There are different roaches you’ll find in your beach house. Luckily, they are easy to identify. It can be beneficial to know what kind of roach you are dealing with to more or less have an idea of what you’re up against.
German Cockroaches are light brown in color, and they mature fast since they have such a short life span of six months. This species of roaches is known to multiply the quickest. They tend to crawl around in the Ocean Isle Beach area in North Carolina.
American Cockroaches have a yellow figure 8 pattern on their heads and are reddish-brown in color. Another unique characteristic about these cockroaches is that both genders have wings and can fly for short distances.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, the bad news is that roaches are an ”all-year-round” thing. Some places will be worse than others, such as beach houses.
The good news is that it is something that can be prevented and maintained. A clean house with no exposed foods or piles of dirty clothes will less likely have roaches crawling around. Besides, you only want guests inside your house you have invited.
References
- https://dengarden.com/pest-control/How-Do-I-Keep-Roaches-Out-Of-My-House
- https://www.lawnpluspestcontrol.com/blog/5-foods-that-attract-cockroaches/
- https://www.jaytaylorexterminating.com/blog/post/ocean-isle-s-extreme-guide-to-cockroach-prevention
- https://www.pestworld.org/news-hub/pest-articles/german-cockroaches-101/
