How to Prevent and Control a Roach Problem

Don’t invite roaches into your home:

• Caulk, weatherstrip, and repair holes around water pipes, baseboards, doors and windows. This is important in apartments, where roaches can move from unit to unit along pipes.
• Put screens over windows, vents, floor drains and ducts. They can be roach highways and hideaways.
• Remove old boxes and papers. The fewer places roaches can hide, the better.
• Keep areas outside your home free of trash, wood piles and leaves.
• Use sticky (glue) traps to find areas where roaches may be hiding.

Don’t feed roaches:

• Store food in sealed containers. Never leave food, crumbs or trash uncovered anywhere in your home. Do not leave uneaten pet food out overnight. If you must leave dirty dishes out overnight, put them in the sink and cover them with soapy water.
• Use a trash can with a tight lid. Avoid placing your trash can under the sink. Empty the trash can often. Put garbage in closed plastic bags.
• Rinse beverage and food containers before you recycle or throw them away.

Don’t give roaches water:

• Fix leaky faucets and drains.

Safely and correctly use pesticides:
Follow instructions on the pesticide label. If you have not used a stored pesticide recently, reread the label before use.

Tips for Using a Pesticide Yourself
After applying the tips in the checklist, if you decide to use a pesticide yourself, you will need to decide what pesticide to buy, where to buy it, and how to use it.