Cockroaches are disgusting – no one wants them in a home, let alone a kitchen where food is kept. But how do you stop cockroaches from wrecking your kitchen without spraying dangerous toxic chemicals everywhere? Here we take a look at how to get rid of cockroaches in kitchen cabinets!
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Why Are Cockroaches In My Cabinets?
You’ll often find cockroaches in your kitchen cabinets, especially if they happen to be under the sink. But why do cockroaches love these environments so much?
- Cockroaches like dark, enclosed spaces
- Your cupboard is a source of food and water
- There are multiple potential food sources
- They are nocturnal (the kitchen is usually empty at night)
- Debris and small spills are common
- You don’t touch your cabinets very often
When it comes to cockroaches, the cupboard is like a magical grocery store full of things to eat and drink.
If your cockroach problem keeps cropping up, check that your kitchen cabinets are clean and tidy so the problem doesn’t recur.
The danger of Cockroaches in Kitchen Cabinets
Like other such pests, cockroach control is necessary to protect your home. To illustrate why this is so important, here are some of the dangers of having cockroaches in your kitchen cabinets:
Asthma and allergies – Cockroaches send allergens into the air in the form of saliva, feces, and shed body parts. These can irritate a person’s respiratory system, especially if they already have allergies or asthma.
Signs of infection – You might not think seeing a cockroach or two is a big deal, but they usually don’t exist alone. Even a single cockroach can indicate signs of an existing or potential cockroach infestation.
Cockroaches Carry Disease – When it comes to carrying diseases, cockroaches are one of the deadliest pests. They are known to infect people with dysentery, cholera, salmonella, gastroenteritis, typhoid and many other dangerous diseases.
Food Contamination – If you come into contact with cockroaches, in addition to spreading disease, they can also contaminate your food and water supplies with bacteria. Ingesting anything they contaminate can make you very uncomfortable.
How to Get Rid of Cockroaches in Kitchen Cabinets
Here are 9 ways to get rid of cockroaches from your kitchen cabinets!
1. Borax powder
Borax powder is a common household cleaning product used in the kitchen to help reduce mold, mildew, and other common kitchen cabinet problems.
However, the borax powder also helps kill insects such as ants and may also help eliminate cockroaches.
If you have a problem with cockroaches, try emptying your kitchen cabinets, washing them thoroughly with borax powder, and putting everything back together.
2. Glue catcher
Ever wondered how to get rid of tiny cockroaches in your kitchen cabinets? Glue traps won’t necessarily keep roaches away, but they can help you monitor the number of roaches left in your home.
Glue traps are best used in combination with other pest control methods to see if they are effective. If you find a dead roach stuck in your glue trap, then you need to continue your roach-killing method or try something more effective.
If a cockroach gets stuck in a glue trap, it will usually starve to death when you find it.
3. Cimexa dust
Cimexa dust (or powder) is an insecticide product used for pest, insect, and cockroach infestations.
This dust is a great solution because the effects are physical, not chemical. This means you can spread it around your house and kitchen cabinets without causing the toxic substance to get into the air.
The dust destroys the roach’s exoskeleton, essentially causing the roach to dry up and die. This dust can kill insects and cockroaches for many years, and in some cases up to 10 years.
Apply it evenly around cracks in your home, especially around cabinets and kitchen sinks. Cockroaches will avoid it if it spreads unevenly, so make sure it’s evenly covering your cracks and crevices rather than patching.
4. Bay leaf
Bay leaves are often used to address pest problems – many pests and insects hate the smell of the essential oils these leaves naturally release
This natural method of insect control may be effective against some pests, although some argue that the smell is not strong enough to keep roaches away.
Either way, it’s worth having a few bays leaves in your home and kitchen cupboards – they smell great.
5. Aerosol insecticides and vacuum cleaners
This is a great way to make sure you get rid of roaches in hiding places, but it’s a little tricky and best done with two people, if possible.
First, get an aerosol insecticide that is effective against baby and adult cockroaches. Buy one with a straw attachment, similar to a compressed air can.
Spray insecticide into cracks, crevices, and places you suspect roaches are hiding. When they come out, vacuum them dry immediately. You may need another person standing by with a vacuum cleaner, as cockroaches can quickly escape from these areas.
Ideally, use a vacuum with a HEPA filter installed – cockroaches carry allergens and disease pathogens, and we don’t want to destroy our vacuums!
6. Cockroach Killer Spray
When you think of a cockroach infestation, you probably think of a cockroach-killing spray.
There are many roach-killing products you can buy from the grocery store, and most of them do work.
However, you need to be careful spraying these products around your home – many are toxic and dangerous if inhaled, especially if you have pets or young children.
You should also be careful when spraying these products in kitchen cabinets near a food source – you don’t want to get food poisoning by accidentally spraying pesticides on your food.
7. Soap and water spray
While it’s not a permanent solution, this simple trick is great for killing cockroaches when you see them appearing.
Just mix soap and water in a spray bottle, making sure you have enough soap in the water. Then spray the mixture directly on the roaches – the soap will clog the roach’s breathing holes, causing the roach to suffocate and die quickly.
It’s a bit cruel, but it’s one way to help reduce roach infestations.
8. Boric acid
Try using boric acid dust to kill cockroaches that plague your home. Put some boric acid powder around kitchen cabinets, crevices, and surfaces that cockroaches like to walk on.
The pesticide gets into their bodies, and when they try to clean themselves, they ingest boric acid and eventually die.
If you don’t want to see cockroaches happen to you, or don’t want to do it yourself, here’s an easy way to kill cockroaches.
9. Gel cockroach bait
Gel-based roach baits are great for getting rid of roaches in kitchen cabinets and other parts of your home.
Dab the roach bait on the bottom of kitchen cabinets, under the sink, and anywhere else you think roaches might be hiding.
Gel bait is the best because it’s not dust or aerosol that easily spreads to your food items and destroys them – it stays contained as a gel. You can also place the gel bait on a piece of paper or card to make cleaning easier.
Check back regularly to see if your roach bait has been removed – and if so, replace it. If you find that roach baits are not attracting roaches, try different brands and formulations of roach baits until you find something they like.
Once a roach gets the bait, it will steadily spread it to other roaches. Cockroaches eat vomit, body parts, and each other, so they can quickly spread toxins among themselves, although only one cockroach ate the original bait.
Tips on How to Get Rid of Cockroaches in Your Home
While killing roaches is an obvious way to make them disappear, there are a few extra things you can do to spot a roach infestation, stop its trail, and prevent future infestations.
Here are our top tips for dealing with cockroaches in your cupboards!
Use a flashlight to see your cracks
Cockroaches love darkness, which is great because it helps them fly under your radar and hide more easily. When checking your area for roaches, be sure to use a flashlight to look through cracks and crevices to spot any roaches that are particularly well-hiding.
You might be surprised at how well cockroaches can hide in the dark.
Check your kitchen cabinets at night
Cockroaches are nocturnal, so you’re more likely to find them at night than at noon.
If you suspect you have a cockroach infection but aren’t sure, tiptoe into the kitchen quietly late at night and check.
If you have a cockroach problem, you’re more likely to spot them at night.
Rinse it out with compressed air
Similar to the aerosol insecticide method we mentioned earlier, use a can of compressed air and a straw to help fly roaches out of your sink, cabinets, or any other similar area in your home.
This is an easy way to check if you have a roach infestation in certain areas, but be prepared for the possibility that they escape quickly! Remember to always clean out the cupboards after the cockroaches are killed!
Check under ovens, refrigerators, and large appliances
If you’re having trouble finding roaches, be sure to check under the oven, refrigerator, cabinets, and sink.
Cockroaches prefer dark, secluded places that tend to have lots of leftover food particles and nutrient detritus that they can eat.
Store food in airtight containers
Cockroaches, like everything else, need food and water to survive.
Buy air-tight containers to store food in kitchen cupboards to keep cockroaches out of the food.
If you do this and clean up the crumbs and spills, they’ll quickly run out of food, move elsewhere, or starve.
Don’t forget to clean up pet food!
Pet food, whether it’s a dog or cat food, is just as delicious for cockroaches as it is for humans.
Even better, we often leave pet food in bowls on the floor unattended for long periods of time. This is especially true for cat food, as cats tend to eat gradually over a few hours.
Make sure to clean out your pet’s food and water bowls regularly.
Seal your cracks
If you can, consider sealing off areas of your house, walls, and cabinets where cockroaches can easily enter. Cracks and holes in walls can be signs of infection, so consider packing them or plug them again with some kind of filler.
If cockroaches can’t get into your house, they won’t cause you any problems.
Seal your trash
If you have a trash can in your kitchen, make sure it’s airtight – find one with a tight lid and keep the smell of rotting food firmly in the trash so roaches and other pests can’t smell it It smells and then rushes to your kitchen.
Most importantly, make sure you change the litter regularly so the food doesn’t rot in it for too long.
Quickly clean up spills and debris
We usually spill stuff in the cupboard and get little crumbs that we might not even notice because they are so small.
However, cockroaches and insects did notice.
Whenever you see a spill or crumb in the kitchen, no matter where it is, make sure to clean it up quickly before it attracts bugs and cockroaches.
The less food and drink you have spilled in your cupboards, the more likely you are to avoid a roach infestation because there is nothing to attract roaches in the first place.
Repair leaking pipes
Without water, cockroaches die like any other creature. They have to get the water from somewhere, most likely you have a leaking pipe under your sink cabinet.
If this is the case, fix the leak as soon as possible to eliminate the critical water source where cockroaches are causing you problems.
This may not make them disappear completely, but it will make it difficult for them to survive every day.
Call a Pest Control Expert
If you’ve tried all of these cockroach-killing solutions to no avail, it might be time to call in a team of pest control professionals to help you get your life back on track without cockroaches.
While professional pest control services can be annoying, if all else fails, you may need to call your local pest control site.
Conclusion
As frustrating as cockroach infestations are, they’re not impossible to get rid of. If cockroaches are in your kitchen cupboards and use them as a hidden space, by following the steps in this article, the cockroaches won’t be around you for long. By cleaning out your cupboards, cleaning your kitchen thoroughly, plugging cracks and crevices, and treating with strategic pesticides, your cupboards will once again be your food instead of disgusting cockroaches. Once you have a cockroach problem in your kitchen cabinet, there is no easy fix, but we hope this guide and product recommendations will help. As with all pest prevention is always the best policy, so try to prevent roach infestations in the first place.
