Our industry focuses so much on German cockroaches (Blattella germanica) that it’s easy to overlook training on other species. Here are two American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) accounts that posed unusual problems.
Bring in the big drums
Several residents in a cluster of homes began to complain they were seeing American cockroaches in their yards and homes. It was summertime in Northern New York.
The best time to observe American cockroach activity is after dark. I like arriving during the day to see what is happening and returning after dinner that night.
But for these homes, no nighttime inspection was necessary. They were located near a landfill that was home to an enormous American cockroach population. As with most pests (except birds), the activity is not where the fresh material is being dumped, but on the fringes. We are talking about thousands of cockroaches — if I disturbed some material, they poured out.
Solution: Power spraying was not the solution. There was no way the material could penetrate deeply enough into the debris to reach the cockroaches. Baiting was the answer, but a couple of rat bait stations filled with bait would not even put a dent into the population. We would have to improvise.
We modified clean 55-gallon drums into large bait stations by cutting six 4-inch-long gashes about 4 inches from the bottom. We poured granular cockroach bait into the drums, then inserted each filled drum into a slightly larger truck tire — where, by gravity, the bait flowed out of the slits and into the inner void of the tire. The cockroaches ate nearly all the bait within one night!
After a few days, the bait consumption lessened but was still occurring. After about two weeks, the bait stations only had to be replenished about once every two months during the warmer months.
The homeowners engaged pest control services, where technicians baited perimeters and sometimes interiors. We recommended a monthly night inspection during the warmer months.
When a building is built directly on an old landfill, American cockroaches can show up in the crawlspace for years. Fortunately, by baiting ahead we can stop most of the population from migrating into public spaces or living quarters. Let me emphasize most.
Conclusion: Never underestimate the tropical American cockroaches’ ability to survive outdoors in the cold North. When you have a large population, you need vast amounts of bait. Control becomes more likely than elimination.
Noncompliant clients
A hospital kitchen had hundreds of American cockroaches at night, but none observed in the daytime. The hospital had a very long crawlspace, only 3 feet high, under the entire basement. Sewer pipes were broken years ago and never repaired.
Solution: It was time to bite the bullet and inspect. Human fecal material was caked a foot high in some areas. There were so many American cockroaches that they were hanging vertically on the pillars. Others were clinging on their backs. When I touched the dried fecal material, cockroach nymphs scurried in all directions.
The cockroaches were feeding on dead rats and human fecal material. I could never get the same person to go with me into the crawlspace twice. We kept bringing more bait, but it did not matter. Hundreds to thousands more cockroaches came bubbling out of the caked sewage each visit.
After several months, we were able to reduce the number of cockroaches significantly, but nowhere near zero. We told hospital management the cockroaches would persist until they repaired the pipes and removed the caked fecal material and dead rats. They agreed but never took action.
Conclusion: You will encounter situations where, based on the cost and customer cooperation, you cannot achieve pest elimination. However, you must still cover your bases. Document the noncompliance and set a price that will allow you to apply lots of bait and require many visits, particularly in the first six to nine months.
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