Assured Environmental

Cockroaches (blatteria)

Features and habits

Cockroaches once seen are never forgotten. Depending on which variety they are, they vary from a dark brown colour with almost a smooth liquorice look to them, through to light brown, yellowish brown or reddish brown colours, please see the pictures below. Again depending on which variety, they can be anything from 10-44mm long approximately.

It is quite unusual to find them about the normal household nowadays; sometimes an infestation can be a link to careless feeding of an exotic pet. Due to the amazing success of gel baits, cockroaches are now on the decline due to the gel bait’s high palatability and efficiency. They are often found in commercial buildings and other large premises where there are often warm and humid areas aplenty. We have also seen them in large numbers on pig farms and semi-derelict houses. They emerge as nymphs and moult several times until they become a full sized adult.

How do we control them?

When a customer phones Assured Environmental Services we take their details and try to evaluate the extent of the problem through our conversation. At this point we shall also try to give an example of the possible cost involved. We arrange an appointment to visit the site and we can then fully assess and advise the problem.

After this, with the customers’ agreement we can proceed with the work if they wish which we do so in a safe and effective manner. We try to help by advising on conditions or actions that can be taken to promote a successful outcome of our treatment and help prevent the problem arising again.

Assessment of a cockroach infestation is key to the success of the treatment and access to all areas especially voids and other normally inaccessible places always make for a more effective treatment. As previously mentioned, the gel baits have transformed the way cockroach infestations are treated but in certain areas control with insecticidal dusts in voids and cavities and surface residual sprays in other areas may still provide very adequate control. A plan for control of cockroaches may take not only months but years to totally eradicate the problem.

Before & after treatment advice

Try not to do any cleaning or altering of the environment prior to our survey as you may be destroying items that are crucial to deciding how our treatment is to be carried out.

Once the successful treatments be they sprays or baits have been applied, usually some housekeeping measures can be put into place. These vary from site to site as each site is unique and taken as such.

Monitoring devices can be useful after a treatment to ascertain whether the population is moving steadily downwards. Anybody, especially night porters doing their rounds or security can possibly report on what they see.