Cockroach

Cockroaches

Cockroach Control Melbourne

While few countries may consider cockroaches as a delicacy, the residents of Melbourne consider them as a nuisance and detest their presence within their property.

Being petite in size allows these insects to invade your property and sneak into the most unnoticeable nooks and corners of your home.

Lack of a protection system that ensures their control and removal exposes your investment and your business to hazards and monetary loss, not to mention the health hazards involved.

Due to hygiene purposes, having a cockroach-infested house will only bring diseases and illness to yourself, your loved ones, and your pets. This is why a protection plan is needed. To avoid such diseases, it is essential to get regular pest control and removal inspection conducted for your home.

If you are looking to get the best pest control and removal services in Melbourne, then call us today and book a slot with our Cockroach pest control and removal inspection and protection experts to bid goodbye to those roaches taking over your home.

Types of Cockroach Species in Melbourne

Setting a system in place for their control and removal is no easy task because of the difference between species and their behaviour/habits. Did you know?

Australia is known to possess a total of 450 species of cockroaches out of the remaining 4000 species worldwide! With an amount that high, it is essential to know the various types of cockroaches residing in Melbourne and other places within your radius. The various species found in Melbourne are:

German Cockroach

  • Grows up to 12-15 millimeters long.
  • It has two dark longitudinal stripes on their pronotum.
  • 40 days to fully develop from hatching to an adult.
  • It has wings but does not fly.
  • Consumes any organic material, including crumbs and built-up grease.
  • It can survive a whole month without food, but water is a necessity.

American Cockroach

  • Grows up to 35 – 40mm long.
  • It is shining red-brown or dark brown in colour.
  • The adult lifespan is 6-12 months.
  • Its wings are longer than the body in males; only overlap abdomen in females.
  • Runs but can fly at very high and hot temperatures.

Oriental Cockroach

  • Dark brown or black in colour.
  • Grows up to 20 -25mm long.
  • It has wings but does not fly.
  • Undeveloped wings in females and the wings cover ¾ length of the abdomen in males.
  • The adults live for 3-6 months.

Brown Banded Cockroach

  • Grows up to 10 – 15mm.
  • Nymphs and females are broad when viewed from above, but males are slender.
  • Have yellow-brown stripes across the abdomen.
  • Male’s wings extend beyond the abdomen, but the female’s wings are smaller.

Australian Cockroach

  • It is darkish-brown in colour.
  • It grows up to 35 millimeters long.
  • Adults live for 4-8 months.
  • It has yellow markings on the upper part of the thorax and the fore margins of the forewings.

Smoky Brown Cockroach

  • It grows up to 3-35 mm long.
  • It runs but can fly at very high and hot temperatures.
  • It is shining dark brown in colour.
  • The wings are longer than the body in males; only just overlap abdomen in females.

How to Identify a Cockroach Infestation in Melbourne?

Everyone wants a protection system in place against an infestation. But many people aren’t able to identify if they should regularly schedule inspection, control and removal services.

Cockroaches being nocturnal creatures hide from plain sight and only come out of their hiding spot at night to look for food, making their control and removal that much more difficult. However, they do leave behind evidence of their presence whether in your business warehouse, building, or home.

If you spot any one of these signs before spotting an actual roach it will be beneficial for you because it allows you to take precautionary measures early on save you the hassle of an infestation.

You can identify the presence of an infestation by looking for these signs:

Roach Dropping

They are black in colour and appear like ground coffee. The droppings can vary in length but are less than 1mm wide.

Smear Marks

If water is abundant, then the roaches will produce irregular shaped brown smear marks as they rest or crawl from one place to another. Naturally, many smear marks equal an infestation to hand calling for immediate control and removal services.

Egg Capsules

Eggs are laid in a capsule known as ootheca, and each capsule contains multiple eggs. If you have an infestation you will find these egg capsules in damp and dark places like inside the cupboard, near the drains, or the garbage.

Shed Skin

In a lifetime, this insect sheds its skin at least 6-7 times while transforming into an adult. You can find such skin dropping in the damp and dark regions of your home or building if it has an infestation.

Damaged Items

You may notice damage not just to your food packaging but also to your books and items made from leather due to the presence of an infestation in your building/residence.

Unusual Odor

They produce a pheromone while defecating in their sleep that attracts more roaches to congregate there. However, this comes off as a musky odor to humans and taints items that it contacts.

Live Cockroaches

You might catch a glimpse or catch a live one in the basement, cupboard, drain, and kitchen skin area of your home or building as they live in the dark and damp areas of your home.

Cockroach Treatment in Melbourne

Bear in mind that protection services start with a systematic inspection of the building/property and then moves on to propose which control and removal protection plan would work best.

Cockroach Bait

The control and removal treatment is effective due to exploiting the cannibalistic nature of the cockroaches. The bait comes in solid, liquid and gel formats and is placed in areas that are common for roaches to dwell.

Once the roach consumes the bait, it then goes back to the colony and defecates. In this manner, further population growth is multiplied and removal of the current population is also taken care of.

Any other insect that comes in contact with its saliva, droppings carcass will also die, enhancing the protection of your building/residence. This is known to be an effective solution to eliminating cockroach colonies and is also commonly used by many residents in Melbourne for inspection, control, and removal.

 Fumigation

This control and removal process of using an insecticide in a gas exterminator is useful for business warehouses with an infestation that needs effective and immediate protection of their building/property.

This control and removal service method is effective for businesses such as agriculture, manufacturing houses, and milling too.

Heat Treatment

If you are looking for an environment-friendly and chemical friendly control and removal treatment for your building or business, then heat treatment is it!

This protection treatment is useful for the control and removal of roaches of every form, whether it is an egg or an adult roach.

Entotherm Heat Treatment

This control and removal treatment is completely pesticide-free, and consists of a mobile system that provides dry heat in a container between 50°C and 60°C for a monitored period.

This treatment eliminates all the roaches without damaging your building’s property or business quarters. It is suitable for use in hotels, restaurants, schools, businesses, etc.

However, the success of all these treatments heavily depends on how thorough and systematic the inspection is because that will determine the usage of the control and removal method being applied.

Cockroach Control & Removal Services in Melbourne

After you book a pest control and removal service in Melbourne, 3 main steps will be conducted by a pest exterminator for the inspection and treatment, those three steps are:

Inspection

First, your house and surroundings will be inspected thoroughly by a professional to determine the seriousness of the infestation as well as the type of species that has invaded your property. Once the inspection has been conducted, he will go on to the next step, the treatment.

Treatment

Depending on his inspection, he will deliver an effective dose of the treatment that should last up to 4 weeks. Although this treatment kills roaches, it is very safe and won’t harm your family members and pets.

Prevention

After successfully terminating the cockroaches, you can follow a set of prevention steps to prevent the recurrence of an infestation and do your bit for their effective control and removal.

Tips to Prevent Cockroaches in Melbourne

Following these basic and easy steps can help you prevent a cockroach infestation:

  • Eliminating Food Sources:  The best way to avoid an infestation is by eliminating any food sources from lying around in our house. Roaches can live without food but not without water which is why removing any standing liquids like a bucket of water from your house is important.

    It is essential to dispose of the remaining food in cans and plastic as well as to regularly empty your bin as it attracts pests. Since pests are attracted to smell, it is advisable to store your food in air-tight containers rather than cardboard or plastic bags.
  • Clean:  Remove your pet’s food bowl before sleeping and keep your work-station clean from stored food and your kitchen clean from any food spills, doing so will keep your surroundings pest-free.
  • Declutter:  Removing excess clutter like cardboard, newspaper, magazines, and plastic bags will result in fewer hiding spots for pests.
  • Maintenance:  Maintenance of your property prevents pests from entering and moving around your house as well as reduces places for them to hide. Repairing your damaged pipes, unclogging the drains, painting your shelves, and sealing cracks and crevices in the wall and kitchen sink, etc can prevent pests from infesting your home.

Cockroach-borne Diseases

Due to residing in filthy places like sewers and drainage areas, cockroaches are known to be unhygienic pests carrying many diseases that can easily be transferred onto the food and surfaces that they crawl through. Some of these diseases are:

Salmonellosis

Cockroaches are known to transmit the Salmonella bacterium on to anything that it touches, which can lead to salmonellosis, a disease with symptoms similar to food poisoning.

E.coli Infections

This is a bacterium commonly found in the gut of humans and in some cases can cause serious food poisoning. Common symptoms of an E. coli infection are watery diarrhea, abdominal cramping, fever, chills, nausea, and muscle aches.

Typhoid Fever

This is a bacterial infection caused by Salmonella typhi Bacterium and is highly infectious. Cockroaches acquire this disease by consuming feces infected with the bacterium. If you experience any of the symptoms for typhoid fever, then you should seek medical treatment, if not treated immediately, it could lead to more complications.

Cholera

This is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by Vibrio cholera bacterium. This infection occurs through the ingestion of food and drinks contaminated with the bacterium. If the cockroaches are exposed to the bacterium, they can spread the disease through their feces and vomit.

How can a cockroach spread this disease?

A cockroach can spread these diseases through its dropping, physically contact with your food or water, or through their vomit.

If a cockroach’s droppings or vomit comes in contact with your food, utensils, or water, you could easily get sick and infected with any disease.

How can you catch a disease from a cockroach?

You can easily catch on to a disease from a cockroach by consuming any infected food and water that has come in contact with this pest.

The transmission of diseases is done either by directly coming in contact with a roach or by coming in contact with an infected object. That is why having a pest-free house can prevent you from any cockroach-borne diseases.

How to prevent cockroaches from spreading diseases?

If your air supply is infected with the vomit and feces of the cockroach, then you could still fall sick. Therefore, to prevent these diseases from spreading, it is essential to make your home pest-free.

You can avoid these diseases from spreading by following proper hygiene of your hands and your environment, by thoroughly cleaning your home regularly, by decluttering your home and sealing the cracks in the walls and drains.

What to Do Before & During a Pest Control and Removal Service in your House?

When a professional arrives at your doorstep there is a list of things that you will need to do. The process includes inspection, analysing the extent of the damage to figure out which control and removal protection service would work best.

Here’s how you need to prepare the place:

  • Remove the things placed in the corner of your house as the professional will need to spray the chemical at every corner of your house. Waiting for the service to start and then removing it will take up too much of your time and prolong the work.
  • In case anyone in your family is allergic, then they must wear a mask and gloves at all times during the pest control and removal service.
  • Shut your doors and windows while the service is on to prevent any cockroachs from escaping.
  • Most pests are found beneath the rugs and floor mats, therefore, remove your rugs and keep them to hang in the sunlight.
  • Remove any of your heavy objects or furniture in the house to prevent any damage.

Why Choose Protech Pest Control Melbourne?

If you reside in Melbourne, Australia, and are looking for the best pest control and removal service, then you should call us to avail of our efficient pest control and removal services. Some of the benefits that we provide are:

  • You can get a vast range of services all in one go!
  • We provide the best professional and budget-friendly pest control and removal services!
  • We provide Environment-friendly services all across Melbourne.
  • Our professionals are the finest in Melbourne and provide instant solutions to your problems.
  • We render quick and effective pest control and removal services for your home and business.

If you have any further doubts, call us, and we will provide you with the best response and the best solution to your problem.

Frequently asked questions

How can I tell if I have a cockroach infestation in my home?

Cockroaches leave behind evidence. If you spot their droppings, smear marks, casts, cockroach eggs, or an unusual odor you can be sure of an infestation. Kitchens, laundry roof voids, and basements are areas you might actually spot them.

How many types of cockroaches can be found in Australia?

Australia has quite a few species like the German cockroach, Oriental cockroach, American cockroach, Brown Banded Cockroach, Australian Cockroach, and Smoky Brown Cockroach. You can find more information on them in the section titled Know your Cockroaches on our page.

Do cockroaches fly?

Yes some species which are stronger than others do fly. However, the commonly found ones like Oriental and German cockroaches do not fly.

How do I prevent cockroaches from entering my home?

The first step to keeping them at bay is to cut out their access to food and water. When they are starved they will automatically begin to search for a new home.

How can I make my home cockroach-proof?

You can purchase products from stores or make DIY’s that deter them from entering your home. But professional treatment is what will get rid of an infestation. It will also prevent things from getting worse at your home or office.

What treatments do professional services use?

Professional services use treatments which are sprays, gel, baits and dusting powders. These are inserted in cracks and crevices which are most likely to house cockroaches.

Can a cockroach bite me?

Being omnivores, cockroaches eat anything that is edible. They aren’t powerful enough to fight and so will attack only when you are asleep. Only the larger and stronger species could actually bite through your skin.

Client Testimonials

I have been using Protech Pest Control for five years and year after year they provide an outstanding quality of service to protect my house all year round. Protech Pest Control have carried out treatment at my residence in the Northern Suburbs and at my families holiday house located near the Mornington Peninsula without any issues.

– Chris Lacopino