Cockroach Removal & Management

Solutions You Can Trust for Removing Cockroaches

In many Poquoson homes and businesses, the cockroach is the unwelcome pest that is most annoying. There are several varieties that inhabit our area, and each has its own set of behaviors. There's no one solution that gets rid of all of them.

If you spot cockroaches in your home or business, bring in the experts from Mares Exterminating. We have over 20 years of experience in identifying cockroaches and removing them with effective solutions tailored to their habits. Call us today for your free consultation.

Cockroach Prevention Begins With Sanitation

If we could offer one bit of advice to all our clients, it would be to keep your homes and businesses clean, clean, clean. The main thing that a cockroach or any insect is looking for is food, and most insects will eat exactly the same things that humans eat.

When you use sealed storage containers and clean up spills and crumbs carefully, you deprive insects of their main reason to enter your home. Be sure to clean under, behind, inside, and around any areas that may accumulate food particles that bugs find delicious.

The second bit of advice we'd offer is to keep the insects out of your home by sealing any means of entry that you can find. After food, the thing insects and rodents seek most often is a warm place to live. If you use putty, plastic wood, caulk, sealants, and other appropriate materials to close up the gaps and cracks, pests will go elsewhere.

A Quick Look at the Cockroaches of Virginia

In our area, there are four main types of cockroaches.

• American cockroaches
• Brown-banded cockroaches
• German cockroaches
• Oriental cockroaches (water bugs)

American Cockroaches

• Adults average 1½ to 2½ inches in length and are the largest of the common roaches.
• They're reddish-brown and have a yellowish margin on the body behind the head.
• They can run rapidly when disturbed, and the adults may fly. They are aggressive, strong fliers. Immature cockroaches (nymphs) resemble the adults but do not have wings.
• American cockroaches prefer moist areas around 84° but will live in dry areas if they have access to water. They cannot tolerate cold environments.
• They typically live outdoors in the summer and move into basements and sewers when it gets cold. They're commonly found in basements and crawl spaces, as well as the cracks and crevices of porches, foundations, and walkways near buildings. They'll enter buildings through sewer connections and gaps around pipes, air ducts, and foundation.
• They feed on a wide variety of animal and plant material, but they prefer fermenting food.
• Nymphs emerge from their egg cases in six to eight weeks and require six to 12 months to mature. They molt around 13 times before reaching maturity.
• Adults can live up to a year.
• The average female will produce up to 150 young in a year. She'll lay egg cases containing around 14 eggs, and she'll produce 12 to 24 egg cases throughout June, July, and August.
• They can coexist with German cockroaches.

Brown-Banded Cockroaches

• Brown-banded cockroaches are more likely to be found at eye level or above, including inside cabinets, on closet shelves, behind pictures, and in warm areas near refrigerator motors, electric clocks, timers, and televisions. They prefer high-temperature areas.
• You may also spot them on chair and table braces, around objects on your walls, and in shower stalls.
• The males fly when disturbed.
• One female brown-banded cockroach can produce about 250 offspring in her lifetime. They live about six months and can deposit up to 14 egg cases, each containing 13 to 18 eggs. The egg cases hatch in about 50 days. They're often deposited in high, inconspicuous places like furniture, cabinets, walls, ceilings, and behind picture frames.
• Nymphs molt six to eight times in five to six month period before becoming adults.
• They can survive in drier areas than German cockroaches.

German Cockroaches

• You'll find German cockroaches in dark places with high humidity, especially if the area contains porous materials (paper, wood, etc.) and has food available. They like kitchens and bathrooms and will be under or around sinks, tubs, showers, and toilets.
• They favor the spaces beneath and behind refrigerators, dishwashers, stoves, washers, dryers, and water heaters. You'll also find them in crevices near cabinets and in wall and ceiling voids.
• They're active at night.
• They eat all types of human and pet food, but will also eat soap, glue, and some other materials.
• Most adults are ½ to ⅝ of an inch long. They're light brown or tan, and most have two dark streaks on the shield-like segment behind their heads.
• The average female German cockroach will produce four to eight egg cases in her lifetime, each containing 30-40 eggs. One female can produce up to 300 offspring.
• The eggs hatch in about three weeks. The nymphs grow quickly and molt six or seven times in 60 to 100 days.

Oriental Cockroaches (Water Bugs)

Water bugs are a type of roach that favors cooler damp areas more than most other roaches do. You may find them under floors, inside walls, and in basements, cellars, or crawl spaces where there are drains or leaky pipes. They may also be found under refrigerators, sinks, and washing machines.

When they live outdoors, they're usually found under decomposing leaves or in mulch beds. In the spring and fall, there may be a mass migration of Oriental cockroaches into your building, although they're more likely than other roaches to remain outside or in an unheated building during the winter.

Their diet is primarily decaying organic matter.

Oriental cockroaches are shiny and black, and they're larger than many other common roaches. Females average 1¼ inches, while males are about an inch long and more slender. Both sexes have non-functional wings. The nymphs are darker than the adults and similarly shaped and wingless. Their egg cases are the largest of the common cockroaches — they're about an inch in size and resemble a small, dark reddish-brown ladies' handbag.

Water bugs are most active during the late spring and early summer, and they tend to be more sluggish than other roaches. They stick to dark, damp places, so you are unlikely to find them in upper floors, on walls, or in cabinets. They can live for a month without food if they have access to water, but they will die in two weeks if they cannot get water.