How to Get Rid of Wood Roaches Naturally & Using Insecticides

Wood roaches are known to occasionally, invade homes and infest firewood as well. So, in this article, you will learn how to identify and how to get rid of wood roaches on your property. 

Before proceeding let’s learn what wood roaches are and how to identify wood roaches;

 

What are Wood Roaches?

In eastern and central North America, wood roaches are a common cockroach species. Males are dark brown with golden margins on the sides of the thorax and the front half of the wings.

Adult males have completely functional wings, whereas females have noticeable wing pads really short wings similar to those of the female oriental cockroach.

The male’s wings are longer than its body, whereas the female’s wing pads only cover one-third to two-thirds of the abdomen. Males can fly quickly, but they lack the ability to stay in the air for long periods of time.

 

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How to Identify Wood Roaches

The first thing you should do in any pest control plan is to identify what exactly you’re dealing with. Carelessness with identification can lead to wrong treatment methods costing you time and money.

Wood roaches look similar to the American cockroach. However, they are smaller with most wood roach measuring about 3/4 of an inch in length for comparison.

The adult American cockroach measures 1½ inches or longer male and female wood roach look different from one another. If you’ve spotted both on your property, you might think your home was infested by 2 different roach species, but this likely isn’t the case.

Males are strong fliers with long wings and females are unable to fly as they have shorter wings and a stouter body shape as a wood roach reaches maturity. It will gain a light-colored band along the edges of its wings.

 

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Pictures of Wood Roaches

Below are pictures of wood roaches;

 

Where Do I Find Wood Roaches?

The next phase of any good pest control plan is knowing the right place to find your pest. Once, you know what your pests look like, check around your property to confirm their presence or find hot spots of activity.

1. Begin by checking around the outside of your home for wood roach or for any harp urges.
2. Native to North America wood roaches live in moist woody areas.
3. They can be found in wood piles, mulch, under loose bark, branches, or decaying logs.
4. These roaches need a moist environment to survive and won’t survive for very long without moisture.
5. When invading indoors, wood roaches can occasionally invade through cracks and crevices and in your entry points.
6. Another way to get a wood roach indoors is by bringing in infested wood.
7. Unlike other roach species, male wood roaches are actually attracted to light. You may be able to find male wood roaches gathered around outdoor lighting, around windows, or around vehicle headlights.
8. When you’re inspecting for wood roaches around your property, be sure to note any entry points pests can use to invade your structure.

After identifying, your pests and inspecting for activity on your property, It’s time to start treatment.

 

Read also: How To Get Rid of Brown Banded Roaches

 

How to Get Rid of Wood Roaches

There are two ways to get rid of wood roaches: naturally or using insecticides and sprays. We’ll look over both of these alternatives and see which one best suits your needs.

 

How to Get Rid of Wood Roaches Naturally

Below are effective steps on how to get rid of wood roaches naturally:

1. Get rid of decayed wood and other sources of standing water in the garden.
2. Repair and caulk all of the holes and gaps in your windows, doors, and walls.
3. Use the door kick plates instead of the porch lights at night.
4. Wooden logs should not be kept in the house or near the front or back doors. Use a separate outbuilding if at all practicable;
5. You can keep the wood roaches at bay with a large lawn that they won’t be able to cross, even by air.
6. Keep the kitchen and bathroom tidy, and take the trash out more frequently.

 

How to Get Rid of Wood Roaches Using Insecticides

When dealing with any chemical treatment, be sure to wear your personal protective equipment or PPE and remember to keep all people and pets off the treated areas until dry.

To get rid of a wood roach infestation on your property. You’ll need to use an insecticide that will kill roaches and a wide variety of pests like Reclaim IT. Reclaim IT as a bifenthrin-based liquid insecticide concentrate that will control-treated areas for up to 90 days.

How to Apply

1. Let’s just have a fluid ounce. You can treat 1,000 square feet of area and protect your home from a wide variety of insects and pests.
2. To protect your property from wood roaches, you’ll apply Reclaim IT as a perimeter treatment around your home at the labeled rate of 0.321 fluid ounces per 1,000 square feet of the treatment area.
3. Use one fluid ounce, If you’re experiencing heavy pest infestations, we recommend you use a handheld pump sprayer since it will make mixing and spraying quick and easy.
4. To mix Reclaim IT, fill your pump spray with half a gallon of water and add your measured amount of products.
5. Add the rest of the water up to the 1-gallon line, and close the sprayer.
6. Shake to ensure even distribution.
7. Pump the sprayer a few times to produce a low-pressure spray.
8. To conduct a perimeter treatment around your structure, Spray all entry points around the outside of your home, like doors, windows, vents, openings, and other voids in the wall.
9. Then start at one point along your structure’s outer perimeter and continue to treat along the outside by spraying 3 feet up the structure and 3 feet out.
10. Avoid overlapping this application with your prior treatments.

 

Caution

Do not allow people or pets to cross their treated areas until the product dries. When applied properly, Reclaim IT will leave a long-lasting chemical barrier.

This will affect wood roaches and other labeled pests that may come into contact and will have their nervous systems impacted and will die within the hour.

 

How Do I Prevention Wood Roaches From Returning?

Prevention is essential to keeping pests in check, even after you’ve applied pesticides, the right way to stop wood roach activity is to make sure it can’t return to your property.

After you’ve applied chemical treatments, you’ll want to monitor for further activity by:

1. Setting up glue traps around common pests’ entry points. We recommend you use Solutions Pro glue boards, using these is simple just peel off the trap’s paper, seal and set it close to an entry point. Ensure it is out of reach of any children or pets. Its flat design allows you to set it discreetly underneath most furniture. Regularly, check your glue traps to see when pest activity is on the rise. If a child or a pet gets stuck, you can use any cooking oil to loosen the stickiness.
2. To prevent pests from invading any small cracks and crevices around the inner and outer perimeter of your home. You will need to seal with copper mesh and caulk.
3. You may also need to repair any damaged windows, or screens or install weather stripping further protect your home from would roaches and other invasive pests.
4. We recommend you apply some Integrated Pest Management strategies IPM to make your property less conducive to pest activity.
5. Clean up your yard by raking up any fallen leaf litter or by picking up any wood debris like bark or branches.
6. Wood roaches like eating decaying wood and other plant matter. So this removes any harper dishes as well as all of their food sources.
7. If you keep firewood, you’ll need to start stacking it properly as far away from your structure as possible.
8. If you have any indoor moisture issues such as leaking pipes or faulty air conditioning, you will have to fix them as soon as possible.
9. The extra moisture will continue to make your home a desirable hotspot for pests during the summer and winter.
10. When night falls ensure to switch off any unnecessary lights as these will attract any male wood roaches to them.
11. Finally, you’ll want to reapply Reclaim IT every 3 months to maintain full control of wood roaches on your property.

 

Conclusion

You won’t have to hire a pest control company if know how to get rid of wood roaches naturally and using chemicals. Wood roaches are frequent nuisance pests for anyone living out in rural areas, but there are ways to manage and control an infestation. 

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