American Cockroach, Periplaneta americana (L), The American Cockroach is the largest that infests buildings in the United States.  Commonly found in sewers, basements, crawl spaces, and boiler rooms particularly around pipes. This roach  will  be up to 2 inches long  and a  reddish brown color.  The American Cockroach may be recognized by a yellow (figure 8) pattern on the shield on the front of it's body. In Florida you hear palmetto bugs and other parts of the nation you will hear water bugs. This is still the American Roach. In many areas it will be found thriving and breeding outdoors.  Areas of heavy growth, and landscaped areas with low growing vines such as Ivy, Vinca and others are usually a hot spot.

The American Cockroach will often glue her egg capsule to surfaces so as to blend in for protection. In Florida egg capsule are often found covered with paint and other building materials.

Like all cockroaches, it is omnivorous and will eat virtually anything people will and many things we won't.

• Treat the outside with a residual liquid such as Demand CS, Demon WP,  Suspend SC, and Talstar P.  Be sure to treat at least one foot up the foundation wall. You should also spray all entry points into the house such as window sills, door jams, weep holes, and any other hole in the building exterior. Spraying the roach harbourage areas such as under mulch, black plastic, holes or cracks in cinder block walls, retainer walls or hollow trees will also help
• Using Talstar PL granules in a 5 to 8 foot perimeter band around the building will help, you can also treat areas away from the building that habor the American Cockroach and other insects
• Treat the inside with Demand CS, Suspend SC. These products work very well and are total odorless and won't stain anything unless water will stain it
• Using Cy-Kick CS, D-Force, or MotherEarth 2% PY, applied to cracks and crevices where these insects hide. Be sure to pay attention to plumbing areas, wall voids, and under cabinets. Pay special attention to any areas of your home where there is water. This includes the refrigerator, air conditioner, dishwasher, laundry room and all of the plumbing
• Delta Dust can be used as a Crack and Crevice in the areas as the Aerosols but can also be used to dust in the crawl space and any other void areas where moisture is a problem
• Using Glue Boards located in areas of entry and infestation will catch a lot of American Cockroaches as well as other insects
• Baits such as Niban Comfort Grip and Maxforce Granular Insect Bait offer a more environmental approach and can be use indoors and outdoors
  

German Cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.), The German cockroach has been described as the "worlds most successful commercial traveler" having a worldwide distribution (Cornwell 1968). It is the most prevalent species in and around homes, apartments, supermarkets, food processing plants, and restaurants. They eat food of all kinds and may hitchhike into your home or business by traveling on personal effects of persons who have an infestation of their own. They also come in on soft drink cartons, beer cases, sacks of potatoes or onions, used furniture or appliances, etc. Produce departments (most grocery stores will want to know if they have a problem so it can be taken care of; most larger stores don???t usually have a problem), pawn shops, nursing homes and many other such places are constantly fighting German roaches (most of these businesses have a monthly pest control service) and are notorious for being the source of residential infestations.

Most cockroaches have a flattened, oval shape and about 5/8" inch long. Immature stages (Instars) are smaller and resemble the adults. Adult German cockroaches are light brown except for the shield behind the head marked with two dark stripes, which run lengthwise on the body. Immature roaches are nearly black with a single light stripe running down the middle of the back.  German cockroach females carry the egg case protruding from their abdomen until their cases are ready to split open. Each egg case will hatch between 30 to 40 baby roaches. During the last three or four days prior to dropping her egg case, the female German cockroach does not forage for food or water. The female places the case in a secluded location, with the nymphs emerging sometimes within the hour or as long as a week. (This is why we recommend Gentrol, Gentrol will make the female abort her egg case and resume eating, effectively killing quite a lot of roaches.) A female may produce four to six cases during her lifetime, each containing 30 to 40 eggs (thus only a few roaches are needed to develop into a troublesome infestation). Eggs hatch in 28 to 30 days, and nymphs develop into adulthood between 60 to 65 days. Female roaches can live up to 200 days.

Once they reside in your home , German cockroaches usually infest the kitchens and bathrooms because the moisture, food and harborage areas are the most abundant. During the day, these roaches may be found clustered under and behind baseboard molding, pictures and clocks, in cracks around cabinets, closets and pantries, and under and around your stoves, refrigerators, and dishwashers.German cockroaches do not like motion,(the German cockroach is sensitive to air currents and will avoid them) and usually avoid light, so if you are seeing them in the daytime this may mean, you probably have a much larger population than you realize. These pests also prefer to hide within two feet or less of their food and water source.

Inspect sacks, cartons and boxes, etc., brought into the home, and destroy any roaches. Sanitation is critical in roach control. Clean up spilled foods and liquids, avoid leaving scraps of food on unwashed dishes and counter tops, keep food in tightly sealed containers, rinse cans and bottles before disposing of them in garbage cans and then transfer garbage to outdoor receptacle.

We at A & E have added Advance Cockroach Gel Bait, and Alpine Cockroach Gel Bait, to our arsenal, this new bait formulation is working out very well for us and our customers. After using the Advance Cockroach Gel Bait we have noticed a very quick kill (a few hours for some), and great control. Advance Cockroach Gel Bait has helped us to get some major problem accounts under control, when we service a new account that has a major problem with German cockroaches, on the next service call the customers tell us they love what we had done. They will even tell us that other pest control professionals had come in and only sprayed around the room and they had more roaches after they left than they had before. We have noticed that even on very severe infestations that we seem to get them under control quicker than ever before. The new bait is non-repellent and and will also act as a contact kill.

Another new bait on the market is Advion Cockroach Gel Bait by DuPont. Many of our Professional Pest Control buddies are using this bait and achieving great control.

Maxforce FC Magnum is Bayer's newest and best bait on the market. This one will give you great control and really make you happy you bought it. According to Bayer Maxforce FC Magnum will last up to a year or until it is all consumed. We have heard from our competitors that this is their product of choice, as they see a good kill and long lasting control.

The use of Maxforce Professional roach bait along with Gentrol is a combination of product used by many pest professionals.  Aerosols such as Cy-Kick CS, MotherEarth 2% PY, or D-Force are some of the best to help control your roach problem. Residual liquid insecticide concentrates can be used to eliminate German cockroach infestations. Some of the better ones for killing German cockroaches are CY-Kick,  Demand CS, Demon WP, DemonMax, Suspend SC, and Talstar P.  Mop Up can also be used when mopping kitchen floors and is used primarily in restaurant roach control. If you prefer to use a professional dust, Delta Dust is one of the better products (used inside walls and voids) for roach control.  

As we use and recommend the use of  glue  boards  placed  in areas of activity can help you locate the worst areas. We will use our glue boards as monitors to help us find the hot spots. Also if you use small amounts of gel baits on the glue boards it will attract other roaches to the board where they will be caught. Glue boards can be a great asset in any roach control program.

Yes you can do your own pest control and save.

• Treat the outside with a residual liquid such as CY-Kick cs, Demand CS, Demon WP, Suspend SC, and Talstar P.  Be sure to treat at least one foot up the foundation wall. You should also spray all entry points into the house such as window sills, door jams, weep holes, and any other hole in the building exterior. Spraying the roach harborage areas such as under mulch, black plastic, holes or cracks in cinder block walls, retainer walls or hollow trees will also help
• Using Talstar PL granules in a 5 to 8 foot perimeter band around the building will help, you can also treat areas away from the building that harbor the American Cockroach and other insects
• Treat the inside with Demand CS, Suspend SC. These products work very well and are total odorless and won't stain anything unless water will stain it
• Using Cy-Kick CS, D-Force, or MotherEarth 2% PY, applied to cracks and crevices where these insects hide. Be sure to pay attention to plumbing areas, wall voids, and under cabinets. Pay special attention to any areas of your home where there is water. This includes the refrigerator, air conditioner, dishwasher, laundry room and all of the plumbing
• Delta Dust can be used as a Crack and Crevice in the areas as the Aerosols but can also be used to dust in the crawl space and any other void areas where moisture is a problem
• Using Glue Boards located in areas of entry and infestation will catch a lot of Oriental Cockroaches as well as other pests like scorpions
• Baits such as Niban Comfort Grip and Maxforce Granular Insect Bait offer a more environmental approach and can be use indoors and outdoors