If you hate the thought of roaches scurrying around your kitchen, then you'll probably want to treat your home all year to keep them away. Roaches are common pests that crawl in from outside or hitchhike home in your groceries. They're a constant threat, so you always have to be on guard against an infestation. One way to do that is to have regular treatments from a pest control company. The professionals may use roach bait to kill an infestation and prevent another one. Here's how roach baits work.
How Bait Kills Off Roaches
Roach bait is a combination of an appealing food and a deadly chemical. The chemical is weaker than that found in a contact spray so that the roach won't die right away. Instead, the roach has plenty of time to return to the nest and mingle with other roaches to spread the poison around. While baits kill roaches slowly, one exposure can kill off multiple roaches, so the baits are very effective at keeping roaches under control.
Where Baits Are Placed In Your Home
Roach bait can be placed outdoors or indoors. It's best to place the bait where roaches are usually looking for food, such as the kitchen, or looking for moisture, such as the bathroom. If you have a heavy infestation and see roaches in other rooms of your home, you can place the baits anywhere they are needed. A pest control company usually applies roach bait in the form of a gel that comes out of a bait gun. This method allows for precise application in cracks and gaps around plumbing where the roaches are likely to travel. The gel bait can be placed under kitchen appliances, in cabinets, under sinks, and near the area where you store your trash cans.
Why Baits Are Safer For Your Home
Baits can be a safer form of pest control when you have kids and pets in your house. It isn't necessary to spray pesticide all over your kitchen when baits are used. Contact spray might even drive roaches away from the bait, so it shouldn't be applied in the same area where baits are placed. Only a small amount of bait is used in each location, and it is placed in a hidden area where kids on the floor or pets snooping around won't be able to reach it. Baits don't have a strong odor like sprays either so baits won't bother you if you can't stand the smell of pesticides.
Roach bait is designed to kill roaches. And with fewer roaches, you may have fewer predatory bugs like spiders. However, roach bait won't kill other insects directly. You'll still need other treatments for other bug problems when they develop. The baits lose their effectiveness in a few months when the gel gets hard, so it needs to be reapplied on a continual basis to keep roaches from multiplying in your home.