Tiny Game Hunting
Environmentally Healthy Ways to Trap and Kill the Pests in Your House and Garden
Hilary Dole Klein and Adrian M. Wenner
| |
The
cockroach has to be the hands-down winner of the award for the most loathed
insect on earth.
Could this possibly be because it has a greasy, crunchy body, six hairy
legs, and eighteen knees? Known as the "rat of the insect world," this
sneaky, obnoxious night scavenger infiltrates our living quarters. Once
it gets behind enemy lines, its numbers increase dramatically, and it
is extremely difficult to rout.
Even though they don't bite like scorpions, and they haven't killed us by the millions, the way disease-transmitting fleas and mosquitoes have, cockroaches are not totally harmless. Because they sometimes enter dwellings through sewer pipes, having them prancing across your food is definitely a bad idea. Roaches have been suspected of transmitting numerous diseases, although this is unproven. They are the second most common cause of allergies, after house dust mites. Their brittle discarded skins turn to fine dust and are easily inhaled, causing misery to millions of asthmatics. In large infestations, they have been known to nibble on children's eyebrows.
The Romans named this insect lucifuga, or "flees the light." Fossilized cockroaches indicate that the insect has existed for at least 250 million years, virtually unchanged in structure. The cockroach bid both hello and good-bye to the dinosaurs, and it is somewhat discouraging to realize what a successful organism it is. With over $1.5 billion spent annually to eliminate them, cockroaches have rightfully been called "the exterminator's bread and butter."
The most common cockroach is the ubiquitous German cockroach. (The Germans call it the Russian cockroach.) It's a real reputation ruiner. This species is the one you are most likely to see in bathrooms, kitchens, and restaurants. One feature that distinguishes this roach--besides the two stripes on the shield that covers its head--is the female's habit of carrying her eggs in a capsule attached to her body. She goes into a safe hiding place before they hatch--thirty to forty of them. It has been calculated that under optimum conditions, one female cockroach could produce 100,000 offspring in a year. Is it any wonder some of us feel overrun by them?
The
large, dark, almost black, oriental cockroach frequents basements, crawl
spaces, and dark, moist areas such as water-meter boxes. It also has the
unfortunate predilection of traveling freely between buildings. People
sometimes call it a waterbug or black beetle.
The smallest and palest household cockroach is the brown-banded cockroach, so called because of the brown bands across its wings. These cockroaches hang out in warm, dry habitats, rather than moist ones, and commonly exist in other parts of the house besides the kitchen and bathroom. Thriving in temperatures around 80°F, they can often be found high up on the walls and in the top folds of curtains. They deposit their egg clusters on vertical surfaces--behind pictures, on curtains, underneath chairs and tables. They also seek out warm places in electric clocks and televisions--thus their other name, the TV roach. The results are particularly disastrous when they get into computers.
At almost two inches long, the American cockroach is the largest of these common pests. This reddish to blackish brown roach likes warmth and high humidity and will even walk through water, especially in sewer systems. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this is the fastest-running insect, having been clocked at about three miles per hour, for a very short distance.
Closely related to the American cockroach, and almost as large, the dark brown, almost black, smokeybrown cockroach is found in the Gulf states and the Southeast. It lives outdoors but has been known to come in from the cold in great numbers. Like all our cockroach pests, it is not native to America.
The Asian cockroach, which hitchhiked into Florida from the Orient sometime in the 1980s, promises to be just as unpopular as its relatives. It resembles the German cockroach, but, unlike many other cockroaches, this one can ßy well. It lives and breeds in huge populations out-of-doors. It is attracted to light, so people find their houses virtually under siege at night. These roaches even ßy into malls. This is a very prolific bug and may well spread throughout the country.
Roaches like the warm, slightly humid, protected environments of our homes and the shelter of extremely narrow cracks and crevices. In fact, they prefer to have both the upper and lower portions of their bodies touching something, which is why they find stacks of newspapers and grocery bags so appealing.
Roaches are true omnivores, and their tastes are broad indeed. Besides any leftover food or garbage you carelessly leave out, they will eat toothpaste residue on toothbrushes, wallpaper paste, bookbindings, the glue in grocery bags, soap, dirty clothes, paper, bed bugs, other live and dead insects, and stale beer. Unfortunately, they can also survive for three months without any food and for thirty days without water.
Although
poisons can kill a lot of cockroaches initially, such poisons have ultimately
proved ineffective. Poisons are virtually useless against the sealed egg
cases, unless they can persist until the eggs hatch, or are administered
repeatedly. Neither treatment really benefits humans, of course, and millions
of gallons of cockroach poisons have been sprayed, squirted, and fogged
around kitchens and bathrooms, places where people spend a great deal
of time.
Despite their broad tastes in food, cockroaches always sample it first with their fine sensory hairs. Dr. Walter Ebeling, formerly at the University of California, Los Angeles, showed that cockroaches are repelled by poison and thus avoid spots where it has been placed. They are one of the few insect species noted for their learning ability. Roaches have also developed resistance to many pesticides.
Control
A book published in 1885 advised holding up a looking glass in front of
a roach. "He will be so frightened as to leave the premises," the author
promised. We feel this method would be too time-consuming: for each cockroach
you see in your home, there may be hundreds lurking in the cracks and
crannies.
Beleaguered chefs in roach-infested kitchens have been known to slice cucumbers and line them up around the perimeter of their work stations to keep the crawlers away. This may work, but it is the desperate action of someone under siege and out of control of his environment. Recently, cockroaches have been found to be repelled by catnip. However, the best method of cockroach control, with special emphasis on sanitation, consists of figuring out where they hang out and killing them with lethal agents that are safe for humans.
Traps A very old cockroach trap consists of dampening a rag or cloth with beer and placing it on the floor in an out-of-the-way place. The cockroaches are attracted to the beer and will congregate under the cloth, where they can be stomped on in the morning.
Entomologists who maintain live roach cultures keep them in glass jars coated on the upper inside with petroleum jelly. You can make this trap by wrapping the outside of a pint jar with masking tape and smearing a good two-inch wide band of petroleum jelly on the inside of the jar below the neck. Put dog food, pieces of banana, or some flour and beer inside for bait. Place the traps along the wall, with a ramp extending from the floor to the rim of the jar. The insect will crawl up and readily drop down inside but can't get out. The trap works even better with a few trapped cockroaches inside. It won't work for the flying Asian cockroach, however.
When
sticky traps came on the market in the 1960s, they were a welcome relief
for many people as an alternative to poisons. These traps (Roach Motel,
Roach Magnet, Mr. Sticky, etc.) can come impregnated with pheromones to
make them even more attractive. By themselves, however, these traps will
not eliminate all your cockroaches. Use them to reduce infestations, to
figure out where they are mostly living, and to prove that you are rid
of them. Be sure to place them along walls.
You can also purchase by mail order, electronic roach zappers which lure the cockroaches in and electrocute them and their eggs with a low-voltage charge.
Predators "The cockroach is always wrong when arguing with a chicken," says an old Spanish proverb. This may be the reason that people used to let chickens move freely in and out of their dwellings. Unfortunately, cockroaches have a chemical defense that makes puppies and kittens throw them up. Other animals that do eat cockroaches include scorpions, wasps, toads, hedgehogs, and birds, which probably led to the evolution of their instinct to hide out of sight.
Dusts Boric acid is the one anti-insect substance that poisons but does not repel roaches, and they haven't developed resistance to it after decades of use. It is much more effective and less expensive than synthetic pesticides, and it will not harm people or pets unless they eat it.
Boric acid was commonly used as an eyewash and antiseptic, and you can still find the powder in drugstores. But better formulations of boric acid are now available, ones that have been electrically charged to keep it from caking. Others have been colored or bitterly flavored to keep kids from eating it.
You can get cockroaches to ingest boric acid by using it in a bait, or you can simply get them to walk through it by dusting it around their habitat with a bulb duster or a narrow-tipped bottle. It has to be dusted extremely finely over the areas where roaches may pass, not dumped in lumps, which they will simply walk around. Having walked through it, roaches will then ingest it while cleaning their feet, because they are constantly and fastidiously grooming themselves.
After using sticky traps to figure out where roaches are living, blow boric acid into cracks and crevices, between walls and under sinks, and along baseboards. Puff it around under refrigerators and stoves and other appliances. You can even add it (or Borax) to water and mop the floor and wipe down walls and counters with it.
You can also treat for roaches by dusting with diatomaceous earth or a silica gel. These dusts scratch the protective waxy outer layer of the cockroach, leading to desiccation and death. Like boric acid, they are applied in such a way that the insect ends up walking through them. Goggles and a mask should be used with all dusts, even though they are nontoxic in the usual sense. This is one treatment that, if undisturbed, does not have to be reapplied.
Baits
Baits
are easy to use, there are no vapors to inhale, and the poisons are less
toxic. Furthermore, back in the roach hangouts, baits continue to kill,
because the nymphs eat the feces of adults.
To make your own bait, use a cup of boric acid or Borax, half a cup of flour, a quarter-cup of powdered sugar, and one-half cup of ground oats. Keep it away from children and pets. It can be used where the humidity is too high for dusting with boric acid alone. Place it inside of folded cardboard to make it even more attractive to roaches.
Commercial baits in little bait stations have the advantage of being child- and pet-proof. (They also come in gel form for out-of-the-way places.) You can find these baits containing boric acid or hydramethylon, also a stomach poison with low toxicity to mammals. Environmentally safe baits also come with insect growth regulators or extracts from a soil microorganism (avermectin). Or look for cockroach-attacking nematodes and a species of deadly (to cockroaches) fungus, which they take back to their refuge, where it spreads to others.
Baits will be most effective if placed right along the edges of walls, between hiding places and food sources.
These baits are not quick-kill and can take from one to four weeks to work. You may even see more roaches for a while, as sick ones start appearing.
Prevention
Cockroaches come into your home looking for two items: food and water.
Deprive them of both. Remember: roaches are odor-driven. Also, baits work
best if the roaches are hungry.
Eliminate their food
- Keep food in tightly sealed containers.
- Never, never leave the dishes undone--especially at night.
- Wipe o¤ counters thoroughly; sweep the kitchen floor.
- After the pet has eaten, wash out its bowl. Or place the pet dish in a bigger bowl of soapy water.
- Use a garbage can with a good, tight lid.
- Wipe up the grease that collects around stoves.
- Vacuum frequently, especially in the kitchen and areas where the family snacks. Vacuuming helps get rid of egg cases and untold future generations. Seal the vacuum cleaner bag carefully in double plastic bags when disposing of it.
Eliminate their
water
Check regularly under sinks and around the house for dripping pipes and
faucets. Look for pipes with condensation, dripping air conditioners,
and leaky toilets. Check for moisture under refrigerators and around houseplants.
Seal
cracks and crevices
A young cockroach can gett into a crevice as small as one-sixteenth of
an inch. Use caulk or steel wool to eliminate every little crack and crevice
along baseboards, shelves, sinks, and utility pipes and inside cupboards.
Remove or reglue loose wallpaper. Before caulking, treat with boric acid.
Check appliances
Roaches love the warmth and dark hiding possibilities of refrigerators,
stoves, water heaters, and dryers. Sometimes a house will become infested
as a result of buying a used refrigerator inhabited by cockroaches. Pull
appliances out from the wall when possible and vacuum thoroughly. Remember:
the minute an overhead light goes on, the roaches are gone, so when you
look for their harborages, do it with a flashlight. When you find evidence
of cockroaches, vacuum well and then wash with a strong soap.
Further tactics
- Make sure doors
and windows close tightly
- Remove stacks
of lumber and firewood near the house
- Put a few inches of gravel in your water-meter box to reduce moisture
- Remove stacks of newspapers, stored magazines, piles of old clothes, cardboard boxes, and used grocery bags.
- In winter try turning off the heat, opening the windows, and letting the cold drive them away.
- Studies have shown that roaches dislike breezes and will flee from moving air. Fans and air vents can be used to create an unfavorable climate.
- Thermal heat treatments can eliminate cockroaches.