If you live in an apartment or a row home, you may begin to notice the occasional roach when you flip on a light in the middle of the night. If you haven't had any previous issues with roaches in your home, it's likely that they were unwittingly brought inside or are coming from a neighboring home or apartment in search of better living conditions. 

You may also experience a spontaneous infestation of roaches, which is an indication that your neighbor is performing roach eradication procedures and that the roaches are fleeing for their lives.

One roach in your home is too many and is a harbinger of a future infestation, so you will need to secure the borders of your home as well as create an atmosphere in which roaches cannot survive to keep them out.

Common Types of Roaches

The most common type of roach found in the home is the German Cockroach. A fully grown adult is approximately 1/2" long, medium brown in color, and has a long thin body. An adult female may have an light brown egg sac attached to the rear of its body. Younger roaches are darker in color, with a shorter and wider body.

American cockroaches are much larger, up to 3 inches long, with the same color and body proportions as adult German cockroaches, but with added wings. You can hear their feet tap as they scurry along walls or counters, and they may fly for short distances when threatened.

Even if you don't see the roaches themselves, you may notice the evidence of their passage. German roaches leave light brown clusters of excrement as well as discarded egg sacs, while American roaches leave darker hardened liquid excrement. Both the roaches and their traces are most often found in kitchens and bathrooms, because they need both water and food to survive.

How Can You Keep Roaches Out of Your Home?

If you have an infestation, you should focus on eradicating the roaches before focusing on prevention methods. Contact a pest control service for more info.

Once a large amount of roaches has been destroyed, then you can focus on prevention. Remember, anything that you bring into your home may have roaches inside. This includes grocery and shopping bags, book bags, and anything else that sits in another location, such as on public transportation, for even a short period of time. Check bags carefully after they are emptied.

You can dissuade roaches from entering from a connecting home by removing the bottom molding from the walls and sprinkling diatomaceous earth along the perimeter before restoring the molding. You can also sprinkle it under your stove and refrigerator, since both are ideal hiding spots for roaches. Diatomaceous earth is a desiccant that kills everything with an exoskeleton (including roaches), but is completely harmless to humans and pets.

It must be kept dry to be effective and shouldn't be applied in open areas, because it has a powdery consistency which can be messy and a possible irritant if inhaled,

You must also be vigilant about food crumbs and spills or dirty dishes left in the sink. Check your bags, create a border, and eliminate food sources to remove roaches from your home and keep them out.