- When baiting cracks, don’t fill the crack. Leave room for the cockroach to sit and feast. Cockroaches like to enter tiny cracks and crevices where they’re protected.
- Avoid placement in areas warmer than 100°F. Overly warm temperatures can cause gel baits to run, and shorten the useful life of the bait.
- Avoid placing bait in the open in dusty or windy areas. The material will dry too quickly. Dried baits can harden and become less palatable or attractive to cockroaches.
- Suit your bait placement to the type of cockroach you intend to control. Use many small placements for German cockroaches, for example, and larger placements for American cockroaches. While there might be more than one type of cockroach present at some account locations, avoid using a one-size-fits-all approach.
- Remove old, dried bait wherever possible. Once baits become old, hardened and dried, they’re not attractive to cockroaches. Such baits should be replaced as needed.
- Don’t fill cockroach bait stations with gel. Solid baits are for the bait stations. Think of the bait tray as a tank and the gel placements as individual soldiers scattered around the protective area. Filling such stations with gel might prevent cockroaches from entering to feed.
- Don’t apply liquid pesticide on top of gel baits. You can only kill each cockroach once. But it’s a not a good idea to contaminate your cockroach bait placements with insecticide applications because they might render the baits nonattractive.
- To apply in hard-to-reach areas, use a straight wire (from a hanger). Cover the tip with a small piece of tissue or a paper towel secured with a rubber band. Smear with the bait. Paint the corners with the treated tip. Some bait applicator guns are available with extension application tips, but sometimes we need to be resourceful.
- Use a bait gun for precise application amounts. Commercially available bait guns are fine application tools that offer adjustable dispensing, which helps apply baits in an optimal fashion and avoid waste.
- After placement, take a few seconds to see whether the cockroaches respond positively and eat the bait. If not, you might have behavioral resistance and need to switch bait products. Manufacturers have conducted extensive studies on cockroach feeding preferences to provide the best cockroach bait products available. However, cockroaches are masters at the art of survival, so it’s wise to watch for any abhorrent feeding.
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