Is My Knoxville Home At Risk For A Cockroach Infestation This Summer?

Is My Knoxville Home At Risk For A Cockroach Infestation This Summer?

Cockroaches are pests that are particular and predictable about the locations they prefer to inhabit. If your Knoxville home is desirable to cockroaches you may be at risk for an infestation this summer. You may be wondering what makes a home attractive to cockroaches and how you can avoid attracting them to yours. There are mistakes homeowners make that can put their homes at risk. Learn what you can do to avoid becoming a target for cockroaches this summer.

 

Why do cockroaches thrive around Tennessee in the summer?

Cockroaches are inherently tropical by nature and thrive in hot, moist conditions. The Knoxville, Tennessee area provides the perfect climate for cockroaches. Add in tourists, entertainment, crowds, food, excess trash, and close living quarters and you have a recipe for increased cockroach activity.

 

Factors that Lead to Infestations

Cockroaches live and breed in filthy conditions. Consider the most disgusting things you can think of and cockroaches will call them home. This includes garbage dumps, animal feces, trash bins, gutters, sewers, pipes, and drains.  Cockroaches also like to hide when disturbed, so cracks, crevices, and clutter are key.

 

Mistakes Homeowners Could be Making

Stockpiling excess trash and clutter in and around your home is one of the biggest mistakes homeowners make that plays a big part in attracting cockroaches. Dirty drains, backed up garbage disposals, and leaking or cracked pipes can attract cockroaches, as well. Food that is not stored properly or a home in disrepair may also act as an invitation to cockroaches.

 

Professional Treatment

Cockroaches are vectors for several diseases and pathogens.  When they invade your home, you run the risk of you or your family members becoming ill.  Even if you keep your home spotless and follow all of the tips for keeping cockroaches out, you may still find yourself with an infestation.

 

Don’t waste time using DIY treatments and harmful chemicals. You may make the problem worse by choosing the wrong products or missing some of the cockroaches and causing them to scatter and become more difficult to eliminate.

 

Contact Russell’s Pest Control at the first sign of cockroaches, or even before you have a cockroach problem, for preventative treatments. We have over 40 years of experience eliminating cockroaches and protecting Knoxville-area homes from infestations.  Keep your Tennessee home cockroach free this summer with the help of Russel’s Pest Control.

How Do Cockroaches Get Into Knoxville Homes

How Do Cockroaches Get Into Knoxville Homes

Cockroaches are commonly considered the nastiest insect that can invade your home. Knowing the risks they pose, and their lifestyle, there is nobody on this earth that would ever want a wild cockroach, let alone many of them, scurrying around their kitchen or pantry. The biggest reason for this is how filthy and disease-ridden they are. Roaches will forage for food in garbage cans, feces, and worst of all, the sewer. They pick up bacteria on their bodies, that can contaminate surfaces and food sources that can cause diseases like salmonella that can cause diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. The shed exoskeleton and dried feces can also cause asthma in some people. You’ll want to keep them far away from your home and family at all costs.

These germ riddled insects enter homes across the country through tiny spaces in walls, foundations, pipes, and drains looking for warmth, moisture, and food. Sometimes they get brought in on packages, bags, furniture, or appliances. Regardless of how they got there, you will need to get rid of them right away! You can take some steps to help stop them from coming inside in the first place, but you’re much better off with the help of a professional pest control company.

Cockroach Prevention Tips

  • Keep your kitchen clean

  • Take out trash regularly

  • Keep outside trash stored away from your house and with tight-fitting lids

  • Close off all entry points by sealing cracks and gaps in your home

  • Block off space around utility pipes, cables, and drains

  • Eliminate ventilation and moisture problems

  • Carefully examine packages, boxes, and furniture before bringing them inside

These tips are helpful, but the only sure way to get rid of cockroaches completely once they’ve infested your property is to enlist the services of an experienced pest control company in your area. Those DIY extermination tips that can be found all over the internet seldom work. They are time consuming, messy, and can be dangerous themselves. In Knoxville, Tennessee, you can count on Russell’s Pest Control, your trusted home pest control professionals, for successful cockroach solutions. Our home pest control programs offer relief from cockroaches. We know how important your family is to you, so contact us today for more information on how we can help you protect them from cockroaches in your home. We can tell you about our year-round residential Power programs that cover those unsightly roaches and other pests that plague your Knoxville, TN, home.

Holiday Cooking And Cockroaches

Holiday Cooking And Cockroaches

We realize this is an unsavory topic. The last thing you want to think about while getting ready for some holiday cooking is cockroaches. That is unless you’re already dealing with cockroaches. If you’re already seeing a cockroach here and there, cockroaches may be “all” you’re thinking about right now. Here are a few tips to protect your holiday foods from contamination.

Cockroach Protection

  • If you’ve seen a cockroach running across your kitchen floor or zipping up your wall, there is a good chance there are many more living inside your walls, and crawling around in places you can’t see, like your silverware drawer. The last thing you want to do is use a piece of silverware that has had a cockroach crawling on it. Keep these items safe by putting silverware in plastic containers or hard plastic bags. It may be inconvenient to retrieve these items when you need them, but it could prevent harmful bacteria from getting onto foods.

  • Cockroaches love pantries. It is important to make sure your pantry is protected. If you have cockroaches digging in your trash, nibbling on rotting organic matter under your fridge or on the side of your stove, and crawling on your toilets, they will spread harmful bacteria to your pantry items when they chew through paper or cardboard protected items. Protect these items by storing them in sealed plastic containers.

  • Since cockroaches love trash, and your trash can is one of the places they will pick up bacteria, it is a good idea to buy a trash can with a lid that seals. This will keep those cockroaches from coming and going as they please.

  • When you’re sleeping, cockroaches will be walking around on everything. Be sure to clean all food prep surfaces before you start your holiday cooking. Make sure to also clean cutting boards and dishes that will be used in the preparation of foods.

These tips can help to protect your family from the diseases and harmful bacteria that can be spread by cockroaches, but it is much better to live without cockroaches. If you live in our Tennessee service area, and you would like to get those roaches out of your home before you start your holiday cooking, we’d be happy to assist you. You can probably live with cockroaches, but you and your family will be a whole lot healthier if you don’t. Reach out to Russell’s Pest Control for complete cockroach exclusion. Our team of educated pest specialists know what is necessary to exterminate these dirty bugs and seal them out of your home.

Nobody Wants Cockroaches Sharing Their Home

Nobody Wants Cockroaches Sharing Their Home

Have you ever heard about what happened in the early 2000s? As people watched a television commercial play out, suddenly a cockroach began crawling around on their television screen. One man threw his shoe at his TV and broke it. Another person threw a helmet. But the cockroach wasn’t even real. It was just part of the television commercial! It got taken off the air fairly quickly. Wouldn’t it be nice if getting rid of cockroaches was really that easy? Well, actually, it can be, with a little help.

Before we tell you how you can get rid of cockroaches easily, let’s review some things you can do to keep cockroaches out in the first place. Here are some simple steps you can follow:

  • Dry up any moist/humid areas in your home with fans or dehumidifiers. Don’t leave standing water around sinks, tubs or toilets.

  • Carefully clean your home, paying close attention to areas where food is present.

  • Place dirty dishes in a sink full of soapy water instead of in a stack on the counter.

  • Store all food in the refrigerator or in tightly sealed containers.

  • Only put pet food down at mealtimes.

  • Carefully inspect the outside of your home and seal up any gaps or cracks.

  • Make sure all of your screens and door sweeps are in good working order.

  • Trim back bushes and trees from your home.

  • Keep a dry area around your home by creating a barrier of crushed rocks.

  • Do not leave pet food, or any other food outside.

  • Make sure all garbage cans are properly sealed and stored away from your house.

Get cockroaches out and keep them out!

If you have discovered that cockroaches have already invaded your home, Russell’s Pest Control can help. Having been in business since 1971, we’ve learned a few things about cockroaches. We’ve learned that, if left unchecked, cockroaches can multiply quickly. And we’ve learned that they spread diseases and illnesses such as salmonella, staphylococcus, polio, and many more, which is why we have developed year-round pest control plans, like our Power Package. This powerful plan is specifically designed to wipe out more than 30 harmful household pests, including the difficult-to-eradicate cockroach. At a low monthly rate, the Power Package offers quarterly pest service, year-round protection, and Russell’s Pest-Free Guarantee. This means that if we service your home, and pests return in between visits, we will gladly return and take care of the problem at no extra cost to you.

Get help today by calling the experts at Russell’s Pest Control and the only cockroaches you’ll see in your home are the ones crawling around in television commercials. A pest-free* home is a happy home.