Cockroaches Prefer High Humidity Areas

As the number of cockroaches increases and favorable harborage is filled, roaches are forced to leave the aggregation or remain in less favorable harborage. They are most active just before dawn and after dark.

To cockroaches, the most desirable harborage is in and around refrigerators, stoves, under sinks, and undisturbed cabinets, which provide both protection and food. Kitchen areas with high humidity, sink traps, leaking faucets, standing water and wet sponges are attractive to cockroaches. They also may be found in washrooms, because of their toilet bowls, sinks, wet wash cloths, and sometimes, water heaters. While there is less food in washrooms, food areas are usually nearby or available through holes around plumbing pipes. These pipes provide additional harborage and areas where cockroaches can enter adjacent rooms.

In schools, German roaches are often found in student lockers or gym lockers. The two principle reasons for this are food left in lockers and roaches transported from home in the student's book bag or coat. In kitchen areas, roaches are most often brought in on supplies. What may be overlooked is that often nonfood supplies are a greater source of roach infestations than food supplies. Vending machines and recycling bins can also provide a frequently overlooked source of roach problems.

German cockroaches are not likely to leave favorable harborage unless conditions change. Such changes can be caused by:

• increase in the cockroach population,
• intensive cleaning,
• reduction of temperature or humidity,
• mechanical exclusion or
• pesticide applications.

If cockroaches find new locations with favorable conditions, they can move from one harborage to another, or develop new infestations. Outdoor infestations are found only outside heavily infested structures from which steady cockroach migrations occur and near dumpsters and garbage cans.

Cockroaches also need favorable places to live to successfully live and reproduce. You can reduce cockroach numbers when you eliminate favorable sites.

• Remove boxes, especially if they're made from corrugated cardboard, newspapers, bags, and other unnecessary items that can clutter rooms. When storing items, leave space between the packages.
• Use caulk to seal spaces and cracks where cockroaches hide. When an infestation exists in a home, concentrate on areas where cockroach numbers are the highest.
• Seal spaces, e.g. with steel wool, in apartments and other multi-unit dwellings where plumbing or electrical wiring goes through walls. Placing escutcheon plates at points where plumbing enters the wall will help prevent cockroaches moving to other areas in multi-unit dwellings.

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