Few things are more unsettling than spotting a cockroach skitter across your apartment floor. These resilient pests are not only creepy—they can also spread germs, trigger allergies, and multiply quickly if not dealt with properly. The good news? You can eliminate them with the right approach and a little persistence. In this guide, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step process to get rid of cockroaches in your apartment and prevent them from coming back.
3 Signs of Cockroaches in an Apartment
Spotting roaches isn’t a pleasing sight—especially if they’re on the kitchen counter or near the toilet in the bathroom. No one wants to deal with these pests, but unfortunately, they’re clever critters that find sneaky ways to get inside your apartment. Cockroaches are attracted to moisture leaks, food left out, trash, paper products, and anything else they can eat (basically everything in your apartment).
Unfortunately, if you spot one, there are probably more hiding out around your space. Besides spotting cockroaches crawling around, here are # other signs of a possible cockroach infestation:
- Cockroach Droppings: Roach droppings sprinkled around your apartment are a tell-tale sign of an infestation. Cockroach poop looks like coffee grounds or black pepper, and you’ll probably spot it around your kitchen, bathroom, and other moist areas.
- Unpleasant Odors: Some cockroaches emit stinky smells, such as a strong, oily, or musty odor. Dead roaches found around the apartment will also emit these unpleasant smells.
- Roach Eggs: Oval-shaped egg cases are sometimes visible behind furniture or other hidden spots, including between books or behind the toilet. Look out for these eggs to determine if you’re dealing with a cockroach infestation.
When searching for cockroaches, inspect hard-to-reach areas, including small gaps behind cabinets or countertops, underneath the kitchen sink, around pipes, inside electronics like TVs and clocks, or behind books on a bookshelf.
How to Remove Cockroaches From Your Apartment: 5 Tips
If you don’t want to go through the trouble of telling your apartment building manager about the cockroaches, you can employ a few DIY methods before calling in the big guns. Try out these strategies to remove cockroaches from your apartment:
1. Set Baits
Baits are an effective way to get rid of cockroaches in your apartment, and they’re highly successful due to how cockroaches eat. Cockroaches eat on the go and leave droppings along the way, scattering them rather than concentrating them in one spot. Since they consume each other’s feces, any bait they’ve eaten can be passed along this way—one roach ingests the poison, excretes it, and another eats the contaminated droppings.
The best way to set up baits is to scatter small droplets in areas prone to cockroaches. This will ensure they consume more since the bait is catered to their feeding habits. Some of the best cockroach baits include Advion, Alpine, Maxforce, and Vendetta.
2. Make a Baking Soda Mixture
Baking soda is a common household item that can be used to kill cockroaches. If you’re experiencing a roach infestation in your apartment, fill one small container with water and another with equal parts baking soda and sugar. Place these containers in an area with cockroaches and let them do the work for you. After cockroaches consume the baking soda mixture with water, it kills them from the inside out. Remember that it only kills one cockroach at a time since they die immediately and don’t spread droppings for others to consume.
3. Spray Surfaces With White Vinegar
Another way to remove cockroaches from your apartment is to spray surfaces with white vinegar. While this method doesn’t kill them, it does repel them. Cockroaches are attracted to dirty spaces, so wiping down kitchen and bathroom counters with white vinegar keeps them clean and unattractive to these pests. This method may be less effective if you’re dealing with an extreme infestation. However, if you’ve spotted one or two roaches, it may be early enough to repel them using a white vinegar solution.
4. Try Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous earth (DE) is a fine powder made from the fossilized remains of diatoms, ancient sea-dwelling algae. DE is soft to the touch, but for insects, like roaches, the fine grains have tiny jagged edges that can kill them. When dealing with a cockroach infestation in your apartment, scatter DE in cracks and crevices where you’ve spotted the pests. As roaches pass over DE, it will cut them, shredding their waxy outer layers and causing them to become dehydrated and eventually die. DE can be found in most grocery stores and is an accessible and affordable method for eliminating roaches from your space.
5. Contact Building Management
If you’ve tried the abovementioned methods and are still dealing with cockroaches, it may be time to call in the professionals. Cockroaches are stubborn and won’t go away with DIY methods. Additionally, if you’re dealing with cockroaches in your unit, it’s likely a building-wide issue. Roaches spread quickly, so it’s essential to act fast. Contact your building management to inform them about the infestation. They should call a professional roach exterminator to tackle the issue promptly.
4 Strategies For Cockroach Prevention in Apartments
Whether you’re wanting to prevent a cockroach infestation or have just dealt with one and want to avoid the issue again, here are 4 methods to stop roaches from entering your apartment:
- Maintain a Clean Unit: Clutter, food, and trash can attract roaches. These pests thrive in messy environments, feeding on scraps of paper or leftover food, and hiding in damp, hidden spots to survive. To prevent cockroaches, consistently clean kitchen and bathroom surfaces, vacuum rugs, sweep the floors, put food away in airtight containers, and maintain a clean unit. Cockroaches won’t be attracted to your space without excess clutter and leftover food.
- Apply Natural Deterrents: Several natural smells repel cockroaches. Spraying lemon water around your home can effectively keep these pests at bay. Essential oils, including peppermint and cedarwood, can be diffused in different rooms to ward off cockroaches. Employing these natural deterrents keeps your apartment smelling fresh and safe from cockroaches.
- Seal Entry Points: Cockroaches can fit through the smallest cracks to get inside your space. In an apartment, seal cracks around windows and door frames. Ensure that the escutcheon plates (small metal plates that seal the holes where water lines pass through) are correctly placed and sealed tightly to prevent a roach infestation. If they’re not properly caulked, contact your building maintenance team.
- Inspect Items Entering Your Apartment: Cockroaches can sneak in between papers or books, on food, and other items. Before bringing things into your space, ensure that roaches are hiding out on or inside them.
Contact Preventive Pest Control in Las Vegas For Apartment Cockroach Control
Dealing with cockroaches in an apartment isn’t an easy task. These pests are widespread in warm regions like Las Vegas, Nevada, and surrounding areas. If you’ve employed DIY strategies without success, it’s time to work with the professionals. At Preventive Pest Control, we know how to get rid of cockroaches and keep them from invading your apartment again. Our Las Vegas cockroach control team’s proactive approach ensures these pests are dealt with and your space is safeguarded from future infestations. Sign up for our services and benefit from lasting cockroach control solutions in your apartment.