The Most Effective Cockroach Control Solution For Kittitas County Homes

Cockroaches are oily, greasy, and not something you want hanging around your Kittitas County home. Here’s what homeowners should know about the type of cockroaches they might deal with, how they can trigger allergies and spread bacteria, how to get rid of cockroaches and how pest control in Kittitas County can help.

Types Of Cockroaches That Invade Homes In Kittitas County

There are numerous types of cockroaches found in Washington. Identifying which roach you’ve got in your Kittitas County house is essential to understand what attracted them to your home in the first place.

American Cockroach

American cockroaches are the largest and most common house-infesting roach in the country. American cockroaches quickly grow over an inch long, making them a big pest to deal with - literally. Their sheer size is a large part of what makes them so unsettling to people they come into contact with.

Along with their size, you can usually recognize American cockroaches by their unique yellow figure-eight marking on the back of their heads. Unfortunately, they're also one of the few cockroaches capable of flight, which can lead to some scary surprises if you startle them. As adults, they can use their wings to fly or glide short distances.

While American cockroaches don't mind living outside, they’re likely to venture inside homes in search of food and water. Indoors, they typically gravitate towards bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms in search of sustenance.

German Cockroach

German cockroaches are brown in coloration and typically don't grow larger than an inch in length. However, they generally make up for their smaller size with their sheer numbers. German cockroaches reproduce more quickly than most other types of cockroaches, so infestations can quickly grow out of control if steps aren't immediately taken to eliminate them.

You can identify German roaches by their brown coloration, with dark stripes down their thorax. While they have wings, they aren’t capable of flight. They prefer to live in the warmer, humid areas of your home, like your bathroom or kitchen, but are also known to infest exterior gutters and drains.

Oriental Cockroach

Oriental cockroaches have darker coloring with a glossy or greasy-looking sheen. While they are occasionally mistaken for beetles, oriental cockroaches are much more dangerous due to the various diseases they can spread. They can grow over an inch in length, but not as long as American cockroaches, and they cannot fly like American roaches either.

Oriental cockroaches are among the most unsanitary types of cockroaches on earth. They live outdoors during the summer, but once the lowering temperatures in fall and winter can push them into homes, especially dark, moist, and humid areas like cellars or basements.

Brown-banded Cockroach

Brown-banded cockroaches typically only grow up to half an inch long, with brown bodies with dark brown bands running across them, giving them their name. Both female and male brown-banded cockroaches have wings, but only males can fly.

Brown-banded cockroaches are most often found outside, but can typically be found in attics or wandering around appliances.

Wood Cockroach

While wood cockroaches are often mistaken for American or German cockroaches, they can be distinguished by the translucent stripe on their wings. While wood roaches are primarily found outside, they are still known to invade residential homes, especially in search of a mate in the springtime.

Cockroaches Can Trigger Allergies And Spread Disease

Cockroaches may be unsettling, but they’re more than just a nuisance in your home – they can also threaten human health, and here’s how.

Bacteria: Are cockroaches dangerous? While cockroaches don’t directly carry diseases like many pests do, they can still spread various harmful bacteria and pathogens which could lead to disease transmission. In addition to salmonella, cockroaches are also carriers of microorganisms that can cause dysentery, cholera, and even typhoid fever. Cockroaches spend a lot of time in unsanitary places, like trash cans, sewers, and drains. Every surface they touch, they pick up bacteria and spread it to subsequent surfaces.

Allergy and Asthma Triggers: People with allergies or asthma can have a more difficult time dealing with cockroach infestations. One enzyme in cockroach saliva, droppings, and skin is known to worsen allergic reactions or even trigger asthma symptoms in people. As the infestation grows, this condition will only become more difficult to live with.

Scratching: Unlike many pests, cockroaches are generally not direct danger, in that they don't typically bite or become aggressive with people. However, they can sometimes scratch you if they come into contact with them due to their spiny legs. If one of the spines breaks the skin, it could be an entryway for bacteria.

While cockroaches are not aggressive pests there are plenty of reasons why they are dangerous to have in your home.