What do roach droppings look like? Cockroach droppings, depending on how fresh or not, are around one millimeter in diameter or smaller. The feces are also circular or spherical, often mistaken as rat’s feces. The size and shape of droppings are different, depends on the life stage and size of the roach. The colors may vary as well from black, light brown, dark brown, or brownish-green, depending on the food roaches’ eat.
Picture of Roach Droppings
Real Cockroach droppings look similar to rats’. The resemblance is uncanny. The major difference between the two is that roach droppings are curved from one end to the other while mouse feces have no curve. Also, rats’ droppings have fine hairs and are slightly larger.
Cockroach feces are stinks. It also has an acrid, oily odor, but it’s not all we smelled. Because the odor roach droppings give off harbors a threatening secret. It conveys signals to other cockroaches, provides a trail to follow, and helps them track each other. This means that the smell of roach’s droppings is not just bad, it also attracting more roaches.
One way to tell if you have an active cockroach infestation is to clean up all the dropping you’ve found, then watch carefully to see if there are some more cockroaches coming. If it stays dropping-free, there’s no infestation. However, if you found the dropping, you can exterminate those cockroaches by using an exterminator or insecticide.
Where to Find Cockroach Droppings
Unlike any other insects that droppings can be found everywhere, cockroaches droppings are likely to be found in the infestation area. In this case, the droppings together with odors are the sign of cockroaches nest. Well, here are the places that cockroach invaded:
Bathrooms
Take a look at the back of your bathroom cabinets (especially if they are full of soaps and toiletries that have been stored for a while) or medicine cabinets. Also, check your plumbing behind sinks, baths, and toilets, anywhere they can hide in sheltered dark spaces with access to water even if it’s running little. Cockroaches will happily eat toiletries residue, toilet paper, and tissues – even our dead skin cells and hair, as long as it’s organic.
Kitchens
Check your cupboards, cabinets, and other hidden areas with pipework such as under sinks and behind dishwashers. Sometimes cockroaches can be found in the upper or lower inside corner of cupboards; hanging upside down out of sight, sometimes to shed their skin. The other spots you need to check are the kitchen appliances like microwaves, coffee makers, toasters, and blenders that could accommodate cockroaches.
But, why do they stay in the kitchen appliances?
Some kitchen appliances leave debris in the form of leftover foods that cockroaches look for. Here, they are looking for crumbs, crust, or any edible foods for them. So, no wonder they would infest those areas, especially if there are some hidden spaces available for their nest.
Laundry Rooms
Check the corners of the wall and cupboards under sinks, where the plumbing is leading to washing machines. Check your drainage and the areas near the motors and the dryers because those spots are warm. So, there’s a possibility that roaches can shelter in there.
The other reason is that those spots provide water that cockroaches need. It is well known that these insects need a steady water supply to survive. So, sometimes, they can be found in the corner of your laundry rooms, hiding and waiting the right moment to drink water.
Basements
Search along the corner of the walls in cellars for any gaps cockroaches could fit into. Cracks and crevices in wood baseboards or floor cavities are convenient areas for them to hide, even the area is narrow. Cockroaches will nest in and eat cardboard and newspapers, so check your boxes and piles of paper stored for a long time.
So, a very full of stuff and dirty basements can be a serious problem. It will be wise to throw away the unused stuff or even sell them for more bucks. No one would expect the infestation of any insects there, but sometimes you cannot deny the movement of those creatures. Then, cleaning them regularly is necessary.
Drains
Some species like Oriental cockroaches can survive in drier and cooler areas. So, you might want to check around under pipes for cracks, as well as damaged drain covers where they can possibly hide. Also, check your pipe ducts and any opening beneath porches or decking. Undisturbed areas of garages and outbuildings also give cockroaches an opportunity to settle in. Also, they are also known to survive in landfills.
Checking the drains is important because this is one of the reasons why they can travel to your house. It is like a big gate with free access for them. Letting them in from the outside will increase the possibility of disease movements because they may carry bacteria from the outside. Here, no one knows what they eat and where they do live.
Cleaning Roach Droppings
Cockroaches bring us nothing but diseases. Their droppings and shed skin contain proteins that trigger allergies and asthma attacks in some people. Cockroaches shed their skin 5-8 times while growing through various lifecycle phases. If there are cockroaches, you will likely see these shed skins of varying sizes around your places. They may even cause children to develop asthma. These proteins can linger in the home even longer than the feces themselves, remaining dangerous for years after the roaches have gone.
Here, we all know cockroaches eat everything and have a mutual symbiosis with bacteria and germs. So, can you imagine the damage they caused with those germs? If you ever got cockroach infestation, there’s a possibility that you’re ingesting cockroach excrement. For example, food poisoning can be caused by roach feces. The bacteria could be spread into your digestive system by cockroaches, they could potentially even kill you.
Of course, we wouldn’t want to be killed by some insect’s droppings, right? Here are some tips for you to clean the roaches’ droppings as follows:
Carpets
Here are the following cleaning tips for carpet.
- Remove any dried, stuck-on cockroach pellets before vacuuming to get most of it off first.
- Next, you can use a carpet detergent (read the label to determine how much to dilute it) then mix it with warm water in a spray bottle.
- Or, you can mix up white vinegar with dish soap and water (one teaspoon each of vinegar and soap to a full spray bottle of water).
- Spray the area.
- Scrub to work the soap into the carpet.
- Let it fully dry before vacuuming again.
Walls/Floor/Deck
Sometimes, the cockroach droppings can be found on the corner of the walls or floors. So, choose a disinfectant spray that is safe for the material of your walls, flooring, or decking. Spray the affected area and leave it on for a while, then scrub to get out the stains.
If the stains are so hard to be cleaned, you can use a combination of baking soda and vinegar. This technique works best to clean the tile stains. Here is the technique as follows:
- Mix warm water and baking soda.
- Pour it to the tile stains.
- Spray the tile stains with vinegar.
- Brush it.
- Rinse with water.
Clothes
Cleaning clothes with roaches droppings is easy. If your clothes get dropped, first scrape off any dried poop there. Then, treat stains and wash it with soap in the warmest water that is safe for the fabric. It is an easy thing to do, right? Well, as an additional tip, you may need to soak your clothes longer in the soapy water. Sometimes, it needs hours to get rid of all the stains and odor. So, you must be patient.
Mattresses and Beds
Cockroaches can also infest mattresses and beds. As with clothing, the first step is to remove the dry feces. Next, pour the disinfectant in a spray bottle, mix it with warm water, spray the area, and scrub with a rough sponge. Spray again with water to rinse the soap out, then let the mattress/bed dry under the sun.
Since cockroach feces are harmful, you’ll want to wash or throw away anything that comes into contact with it. When you’ve done cleaning, make sure to wash (or throw away) your gloves and work clothes, and dispose of rags and vacuum bags, preferably in sealed plastic trash bags that animals or other people can’t get into.