4 Reasons Why Large Roaches Love Your Space (& How to Evict Them!)

A large cockroach is walking around the kitchen floor of someones house, looking for food.

Nobody likes coming face-to-face with a roach. But when you suddenly see giant roaches randomly in your house, it’s an issue that needs to be immediately solved. They say cockroaches are the most resilient pests and can survive on anything.

As unsettling as it is to see one huge cockroach, it might not be the only one. There’s a huge possibility of you finding others infesting your property. Finding why you’re suddenly spotting them could help you identify ways to get them out and take preventive measures.

Let’s see what cockroach species could be infesting your home and why you suddenly see big roaches.

Why are roaches attracted to my home?

Our homes are ideal for cockroaches to settle down and multiply further. Cockroaches like warm and humid places. Another factor is the availability of food, all readily available in our homes.

1. Availability of food

As much disgusting as they’re to look at, roaches can survive on anything, irrespective of it being the dirtiest thing in the world to consume. Unlike humans, they don’t even need food and can go for 3 months without eating anything.

A view of a dirty kitchen sink, with lots of food scraps and used plates

Roaches like to consume all kinds of things. But they’re more attracted to starches, sweets, greasy foods, and meats.

Your dirty plates, dirty kitchen, and overall unsanitary house are welcoming spaces for them. They also don’t mind if you have a lot of garbage piled up because that’s what attracts them.

Mentally prepare yourself to find roaches in your washroom drain if you don’t regularly clean it. They can eat anything from soap, hair, and toothpaste.

2. Hospitable environment

Have you ever seen roaches walking around in the middle of the day inside your home? The possibility of seeing a roach in daylight is quite rare because they are nocturnal pests.

They like to walk around at nighttime, and your lights are off. That’s when they come out to find possible food and roam around places you can’t imagine.

During the day, they would remain hidden in dark places where you can’t see them, such as drains, behind picture frames, or areas you don’t clean often or often reach towards, such as attics.

Some species don’t even mind a clean home and would just enter through narrow, open cracks.

3. Humidity and water

Roaches love to live near a place with plenty of humidity and water availability, and that’s why drains are their homes for most of the time.

If you have a leaky pipe or your washroom leaks, that would attract roaches, and they will gather around any moist areas.

4. Outside area

The chances of roaches infesting your home increase if you have a garden space. You could be leaving spare wood around or have a pile of garbage, or even something like a leaky water pipe or hose could be an attraction to them.

From there, entering your home isn’t a big deal for them as they could enter through small holes or cracks and even through the front door if you don’t have a habit of closing it during the daytime.

Identifying the big roach

There’s a huge possibility that if you see a giant cockroach in your house, it’s an American cockroach. These are reddish brown and range in length from 1.5 inches to 2 inches, the largest house-infesting cockroach in the country.

The American cockroach lives outdoors in damp, moist areas with temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

The male can live up to 362 days, and females can live up to 706 days.

Though they like to live in pipelines and drains where suitable living conditions exist for them, during the rainy season, when drains flood, they move out and into homes.

Signs of cockroach infestation

Cockroaches are nocturnal pests and tend to move at night, so you won’t openly see them in broad daylight. During the night, they tend to wander around and get food for themselves. So how will you identify them infesting your home?

A woman picked up a dead cockroach that she found in her house to examine it

You obviously can’t stay awake at night searching for them, but you can look for signs of their presence in your home.

  • Cockroach droppings might differ depending on the species. Look out for their droppings near the drains, behind kitchen appliances, and in food storage areas.
  • Their egg cases are oblong and brown and are found in hard-to-reach places. You might find them behind furniture, in pantries, between cracks in the walls, in books, or other tightly sealed places.
  • If you smell a musty odor, it’s caused by the pheromones that roaches emit to attract other roaches.
  • Seeing live cockroaches is the biggest sign.

How can you prevent a roach infestation?

Invading your home, cockroaches seem to hide in secrecy and grow in numbers without you knowing about their existence. While they’re growing in numbers, they could be damaging your property or secretly causing harm to your health.

Roaches are known to spread diseases due to the unsanitary ways they live and eat.

Understanding why roaches are attracted to your home can help you take the necessary steps to get rid of them.

Sealing cracks and gaps

If you aren’t careful with the structure of your house and its repairments, small holes or cracks could easily form, giving way to roaches inside your home.

These could be anywhere near the windows or doors, inviting the cockroaches to enter.

If you don’t close your doors and windows properly or don’t have a window screen and often leave windows open, then that’s a perfect opportunity for roaches to invade your home.

Clean home

A neat and tidy home would be the best way to avoid roaches and ban their entry. If you’re being lazy about the upkeep of your home, then no wonder you’re finding roaches inside.

  • Avoid leaving dirty dishes anywhere in your home. Don’t even leave them in the sink overnight.
  • Close all the doors and windows. Close the kitchen cabinets as well.
  • Don’t leave food outside; if you do, keep it in an airtight container.
  • Ensure your bathroom has no leakage or anywhere else in your home.
  • Keep your bathroom tidy and dry at all times, and you should air it out daily to avoid the build-up of humidity.
  • Take out your trash regularly.
  • Don’t leave any pile of wood or trash near or around your home.
  • Do a deep cleaning of your entire home once a month so there’s no way for roaches to hide around your house.

Getting rid of roaches

Dealing with small roaches is still fine, as you can use a bug spray. But dealing with giant cockroaches is a different deal altogether.

Big roaches could also mean you already have a big family living inside your home, so dealing with them would mean you need more than just bug spray.

Glue strips and traps

Just place glue strips where you suspect there’s roach activity, or you could just put them where you think roaches could come out during the night.

You can use it instead of using harmful chemicals if you’ve children or pets living with you.

Gel bait

A cockroach gel bait used to attract and trap roaches in the house

It’s a popular way of catching roaches. This toxic substance can be applied in small amounts where you think there’s roach activity. The cockroaches ingest the gel bait and then die within a few hours.

Home remedies

There’re several home remedies that you can use instead of thinking about using insecticide. These are inexpensive ways of dealing with roaches that have infested your home.

Baking soda, boric acid, borax, citrus, essential oils, and caulk are some affordable things that can be used to either kill or deter them.

When to hire pest control service

Let’s say you’re ready and prepared with a bunch of home remedies to deal with the giant roaches in your home, but you don’t know where they’re coming from!

We help get rid of cockroaches, call Tabor today at 877-448-2267

It’s scary to think where those giant roaches must be coming from and where they hide. What’s more alarming is that now you can’t seem to sleep at night knowing that those giant roaches might be on the move during the night.

That’s where Tabor Pest Control comes in and saves the day. This is how we’ll take matters into our own hands:

Inspection is the key

The most important thing is identifying the pests and where they might be living in your home. In this case, our professionals will thoroughly inspect your property and look for areas where roaches might be living.

Along with identifying the species, we’ll also identify places where roaches might be entering your home.

Dealing with infestation

Our professionals are experts and possess in-depth knowledge about how to deal with roaches, including all the different species found on your property.

Based on the inspection, our team will develop a treatment plan and inform you of how things unfold.

Whether using chemical substances would be better or using other ways to deal with the infestation would entirely depend on the initial inspection and the current situation of roach infestation on your property.

Rest assured, we at Tabor Pest Control will find an effective and safe way of dealing with cockroach infestation in your property while ensuring they don’t infest your home in the future.

FAQs

What does it mean if I see a big roach in my house?

Seeing a giant roach in your house could mean a couple of things. Either it could be a single cockroach which also means it’s also pregnant, and that would mean you would see little roaches soon that would be starting a colony.

It could also mean that there are a lot of roaches in your home, but you haven’t been able to identify their living space, so they’ve grown big and also in numbers.

What smells attract roaches?

Roaches could be attracted to anything from the smell of food to anything that’s rotting in your home or even a suitable living condition.

They are most attracted to starch, sugar, grease, meat, and cheese. Rotting food could also be attractive to them.

Are cockroaches harmful to humans?

Cockroaches roam around everywhere and don’t care if it’s garbage, a rotting animal, or food. As disgusting as it sounds, remember that it could also be roaming on your food that hasn’t been covered.

This is why they also carry several diseases, including salmonella and gastroenteritis.

Should I be worried if I saw one cockroach?

It’s definitely a reason to be concerned because a cockroach is a social pest, which means others are present nearby. They can contact others, and that means others are nearby.