Cockroach Problem at Property

Building with Infestation Requires Treatment

A significant level of cockroach infestation at a property was identified. This posed a health and safety risk to the St Mungo’s clients and members of staff. It was reported that activity began in one room and consequently spread to the entire 2nd floor.   

Due to the buildings structure (cracks and gaps) and clients moving around the building cockroaches have had free movement and thus the entire building had become infested. A number of treatments have been carried out in individual rooms in the past however to contain and control the infestation, treatment needed to be considered for the entire building cockroaches will continue moving around and their levels rising.  In the building, there was evidence of hoarding in some of the rooms which gives the cockroaches an ideal environment to establish in and consequently infest the property which created lots of harbourage opportunities not just for cockroaches but other pests too.

Cockroaches reproduce at an alarming rate. A single female during a lifetime will carry from 4 – 8 ootheca (egg case) containing 35 – 40 eggs inside each one. Each egg will hatch in approximately one month and in favourable conditions, such as your own, will develop into the nymph stage after 6 weeks. The German cockroach nymphs reach sexual maturity quicker than other species of cockroach and so the lifecycle begins again.

Cockroaches can live by eating virtually anything. Apart from the food we eat, they also feed on dead plants, animals, faecal matter, glue, soap, paper, leather and even strands of fallen hair. While crawling around at night they contaminate open food by defecating on it, leaving behind hair and dead skin and depositing empty eggshells.

Our Solution

Our London team's strategy to deal with the infestation was a combination of treatments over a period of 12 weeks. The treatment carried out was to the entire building which contains 32 rooms, 6 showers 3 kitchens and one main reception and after 12 weeks a review to assess the situation. Treatments included using the following products;

Hormone Growth Regulators – HGR’s work by providing the cockroach with gel bait which when ingested prevents the cockroach from reaching sexual maturity thereby breaking the reproductive cycle. It also has the added benefit of the ‘cascade effect’. Cockroaches will eat both the dead cockroach and the faeces of the individual that has ingested the bait which means that the active ingredient is widely transmitted through the colony. HGR’s are generally a very effective way of dealing with cockroach infestations.

Diatomaceous Earth - Diatomaceous Earth is a non-toxic powder that consists of fossilized remains of diatoms (a type of hard-shelled micro algae or plankton) which can kill any insect with an exoskeleton. Microscopic razor-sharp edges cut through the insects protective covering drying it out and killing them. It is completely un-harmful to mammals.