How To Identify Oriental Cockroaches

Cockroaches are one of the oldest and most formidable pests around. In fact, they date back over 200 million years ago. Their ability to adapt to their environment has given them the ability to survive in all different conditions.

There are over 4,000 species of cockroaches around the world, and one of the most common roaches in the greater Katy area is the Oriental cockroach. Sometimes referred to as “water bugs” or “black beetle cockroaches,” the Oriental cockroach is believed to originate from Africa. It’s a unique roach species with its own distinct habits and behaviors. Here are some things to know about Oriental cockroaches:

Oriental cockroaches have smooth bodies with wings, but they cannot fly.
Their bodies are shiny black or dark brown in color, and they have six legs coming out of their abdomen.
As one of the larger cockroach species, Oriental cockroaches measure about one ¼ inch in length.
They emit a foul odor to communicate with other members of their colony.
Adult male and female Oriental cockroaches differ in appearance, the males growing to 0.9 inches in length and the females growing to 1.2 inches long.
Males have shortened wings and are ¾ length, while females have no wings.
Females have wing pads that hide their body segments, while the males have exposed abdominal segments.

These invaders are attracted to your property, looking for harborage areas, moisture, and food. Their presence can cause widespread contamination, leading to various health consequences.

If you’re dealing with Oriental cockroach activity around your property, it’s a good idea to reach out to the pest professionals for ongoing pest control services. Contact the experts at Modern Pest Control for quality cockroach control services in Katy and the surrounding areas.

Do Oriental Cockroaches Bite?

When it comes to the dangers of Oriental cockroaches, there are some threats to consider. Though oriental cockroaches don’t really bite, they can have a negative impact on your health through contamination.

You may see roaches crawling in the garbage, feeding on food scraps. It’s highly unpleasant to discover a roach running around the kitchen, spreading germs throughout your space.

Oriental cockroaches feed on all kinds of decaying organic matter, eating things like garbage and starchy foods. They thrive in filthy environments, often hanging around garbage cans, sewers, dumpsters, and all types of unsanitary areas covered in germs. When they bring these pathogens into your home or business, it puts you at risk. Not only that, but they leave shed skin and feces as they travel, causing even more contamination throughout your property.

This widespread contamination can trigger asthma, allergies, and other adverse health conditions like dysentery, salmonellosis, typhoid fever, gastroenteritis, cholera, listeriosis, and all kinds of viral diseases.

Always Check Damp Areas For Oriental Roaches

If you’re wondering where to look for Oriental cockroaches around your property, you should know that sources of excess moisture and humidity will draw them in. They are very dependent on water, and in fact, they can’t survive more than two weeks without it. That’s where they get one of their other names, “water bugs.” They’re also sometimes called shade roaches, as they like to live in shaded, damp areas.

They are mostly outdoor scavengers with a tendency to live in areas with wet, decaying matter. You can often find them in sewers, drains, dumps, mulch, flower beds, and underneath piles of leaves.

Oriental cockroaches live at or below ground level, entering local homes and businesses under doors and through gaps in siding, pipes, sewers, and drains. Once they’re inside your property, cool, damp areas attract them. They often hang out in moisture-rich areas like the basement, crawl spaces, bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms.

This is why we encourage our customers to check damp areas for Oriental cockroach activity and why we always check moist areas once we get to the property for our inspection. Checking moisture-rich areas around your home or business is the best way to detect Oriental cockroach activity. If you see a roach coming out of a drain or exposed pipe, it’s most likely an Oriental cockroach, and there are most likely more of them lurking around.

If you want to be able to detect signs of Oriental cockroaches, there are some common indications to be on the lookout for around your home or business. Firstly, you may see cockroaches around landscaping beds or near gutters, sewers, and storm drains. You may also spot egg cases if you have an infestation. These casings measure around 0.3 inches. These egg casings hold approximately 16 eggs.

Lastly, if you detect a musty odor, you may have Oriental cockroaches around your property. This smell comes from chemicals that the Oriental cockroaches secrete as a method of communication with each other. If you detect any of these signs around your Katy property, the best thing to do is get in touch with your local pest experts and secure ongoing cockroach control and prevention services.

Oriental Cockroach Control For Katy Homes

When it comes to keeping your Katy home protected from Oriental cockroach infestation and the serious contamination that comes with it, the best thing you can do is be as proactive as possible in your prevention efforts. The best way to do this is to address all attractants.

Addressing conducive conditions around your property, like dampness and moisture problems, will prove very helpful in reducing your chances of experiencing an Oriental cockroach infestation. To eliminate cockroach attractants around your property, you can implement a variety of precautionary measures that will help minimize your exposure to these filthy pests. Here are some preventative tips to help you be proactive in addressing your roach control needs:

Always inspect items before bringing them inside, like deliveries, used furniture, cardboard boxes, potted plants, and appliances. Look for signs of roaches like shed skin and feces.
Be conscious of your sanitation efforts, reducing clutter and overall mess and disorganization around the home. Frequently tidying up and vacuuming the area helps reduce harborage areas for Oriental cockroaches.
Don’t leave out any food sources, and store all food in sealed, airtight containers to help eliminate exposure to food.
Get protective screens to fix any torn screens in windows and doors to prevent roaches from entering the property.
Get rid of any rotting leaves around windowsills as roaches are drawn to these damp areas and often hang out there.
Install dehumidifiers or vents in moisture-rich areas of the house like kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms, basements, etc.
Keep your kitchen clean and maintain functional household appliances.
Regularly take out the trash, and store it outside in lidded bins away from moisture when you do. This will help eliminate access to food sources, giving Oriental cockroaches less of an incentive to infest.
Repair any leaky pipes, faulty faucets, and any other dysfunctional plumbing to reduce excess humidity.
Sweep under the stove, fridge, and other larger appliances on a frequent basis.
To prevent entry, seal spaces around wires, cables, pipes, and other utilities that enter from the outdoors.
Use silicone-based caulk to fill cracks around doors and windows to prevent roaches from entering the property.

While it’s always a good idea to be proactive, and all of these prevention methods can certainly reduce your chances of experiencing Oriental cockroach activity, none of them are entirely effective on their own. Moreover, simply taking preventative measures doesn’t really address the problem at large.

For large-scale solutions to your Oriental cockroach problems, the best thing to do is reach out to your local pest professionals. Here at Modern Pest Control, we’ve got your back. We’re here to address all your cockroach control and prevention needs, whether you’re dealing with Oriental cockroaches or any other local area species.

Since 1952, Modern Pest Control has been providing complete cockroach control solutions to homes and businesses throughout Katy and the greater Houston, TX area. Our philosophy is to deliver prompt, personalized pest control our customers can trust.

All of our pest management professionals undergo rigorous training because bringing you the absolute best pest control is our number one goal. We are proud to be Quality Pro Service providers, and the Texas Department of Agriculture fully licenses us.

You can count on us to bring you the lasting results you’re looking for, with over 70 years of experience in the pest control industry. We use the latest pest control strategies and most advanced methods to tackle your cockroach infestation from the inside out.

With our effective cockroach solutions for your property, you can effectively protect yourself from the nightmare of infestation. We’re familiar with local area species like Oriental cockroaches, and we have decades of experience dealing with them. Our cockroach control process includes the following steps:

Inspection – We start with a thorough walk-through of the property’s interior and exterior. Our team conducts a thorough inspection to determine areas where cockroaches are active, as well as any conducive conditions and potential entry points around your property. We look for any areas with water buildup and old food and garbage sources. After we finish inspecting the premises and detecting the scope of the infestation, we develop a customized treatment strategy to effectively tackle your cockroach pressures from the inside out.
Service – Our treatments are customized to meet the needs of the individual customer, their specific property, and the level of cockroach infestation in their home. Our team of expert pest technicians will treat your home, garage, and the perimeter of your structure to eliminate cockroach activity, conducive conditions, and entry points. We develop our treatments to cater to your needs, whatever they are.
Follow-Up - Once we finish treating your property, we come back for re-services to make sure things stay pest-free throughout the year. We offer ongoing pest control services to keep your home protected from cockroach infestation on a continued basis.

Our service technicians are here to bring you superb customer service and lasting results from start to finish. In addition to servicing residences around Katy, we also work with all kinds of commercial properties. Our commercial cockroach control solutions protect the local community from infestation and contamination. Some of the local businesses we’ve worked with include multi-unit housing, restaurants, hotels, commercial lodging, food processing facilities, office building and management properties, healthcare facilities, retail stores, daycares, schools, and supermarkets.

We also work with organizations such as B.O.M.A. (Building Owners and Managers Association), the Greater Houston Restaurant Association, and the U.S. Green Building Council. Not only that, but our staff receives training from professionals from Food Industry Sanitation Auditors (F.I.S.A.) and the American Institute of Baking (A.I.B.), giving us a high level of expertise for pest issues in food handling facilities.

Call in the team at Modern Pest Control today at the first sign of any Oriental cockroach activity on your property. We will come up with the perfect approach to tackle your infestation and will bring you results you can feel good about by working diligently.

If your cockroach problem returns between scheduled service visits, we’ll come back to re-treat the area at no additional cost to you. We treat each and every one of our customers like they’re part of the family, working hard to protect the entire community from cockroaches. We are passionate about the future of Katy and the ongoing health and well-being of everyone in the neighborhood. Clearly, that leaves no room for Oriental cockroaches.

Between the odor they emit and the feces they leave around the house, there are a lot of reasons why Oriental cockroaches are unpleasant and unwelcome in our homes and businesses. The team at Modern Pest Control is ready to help you keep them away from your property.

Call today to discuss your Oriental cockroach control needs, and we will set up your initial inspection as soon as possible. We look forward to helping you guard your property against roaches.