Cockroach Exterminator and Pest Control Services

Viking Pest Control is the leading pest control provider and cockroach control expert serving New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Cockroaches can be a major concern in homes and businesses. Besides being unsightly and creating an unclean feeling, cockroaches carry several diseases and can cause real sanitation problems, especially when it comes to food safety and air quality. Our decades of cockroach control experience and use state-of-the-art treatments to help get rid of these hated pests for good.

Table of Contents

• What is a Cockroach?
• How Did I Get Cockroaches?
  • What attracts cockroaches?
  • Why do I have cockroaches in my clean house?
  • When to call a cockroach exterminator
• How Do I Identify a Cockroach?
  • Types of Cockroaches
  • What do roach droppings look like?
• How Do I Prevent Cockroaches?
  • Professional Vs. DIY Cockroach Control
  • Integrated Pest Management for Cockroaches
• What are the Effects of a Cockroach Problem In and Around My Home or Business?
• How Long Do Cockroaches Live?

What is a Cockroach?

Cockroaches are possibly the most ancient insect on Earth, dating back around 320 million years. Cockroaches are a generalized insect without special adaptations like sucking mouthparts (such as aphids or cicada). There are about 4,600 species of cockroaches, about 30 of which are known to live around humans. Viking Pest Cockroach Exterminators explain that only four or five of those are the well-known pests most of us have encountered. The most common in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware are the American cockroach, German cockroach, brown-banded cockroach, and the Oriental cockroach.

Cockroaches have come to develop perhaps the worst reputation of all pests. The presence of cockroaches does severe reputational damage to businesses and causes panic for homeowners. Particularly large cockroach populations are considered to be a public health threat. Suffice it to say, cockroaches are a perennial pest that keep cockroach pest control technicians busy every month of the year.

How Did I Get Cockroaches?

Cockroaches Can Get Indoors Through the Following Methods:

• Crawl in through cracks in the walls
• Squeeze through gaps under doors
• Enter through pipes and outdoor spigots
• Hitch a ride on backpacks, purses, grocery bags, take out food, or other items
• Through walls and pipes of adjacent units in multi-family housing

The above list is not exhaustive. Cockroaches are nothing if not opportunistic, and it’s difficult to take too many precautions to keep them out.

What attracts cockroaches?

Cockroaches are very good at finding food, so if you have left food out, have not cleaned up recently, or have open trash cans, you are more likely to attract these pests.

Cockroaches will also seek the warmth and shelter of your home or business during the colder months, and you may see more of them during this time.

Viking Pest cockroach control experts remind us it’s reasonable to expect to see at least a few cockroaches around from time to time, so don’t beat yourself up if you see one, but do try to keep your home or business clean and free of openly available food that may attract them and encourage them to stick around.

Why Do I Have Cockroaches In My Clean House?

The idea that cockroaches are less attracted to clean homes is unfortunately a myth. The presence of food and water is what makes your home attractive, not a buildup of filth. While taking reasonable precautions to keep food and water contained can definitely help reduce the risk of cockroach infestation, the unfortunate reality is you can do everything right and still get a cockroach infestation.

When to Call a Cockroach Exterminator

Cockroaches can breed quickly and hide easily. Further, cockroaches are typically nocturnal, which means their most visible activity is likely to occur when you are asleep. If you see a cockroach in your home during daylight hours, it’s extremely likely that you already have many more cockroaches in your home and possibly a significant infestation. It’s best to nip the problem in the bud and call a professional cockroach exterminator immediately. A cockroach control professional will help you eliminate your current cockroach problem and help to prevent further issues.

How Do I Identify A Cockroach?

There are thousands of different kinds of cockroaches in the world, but cockroaches are generally identified by the following features:

• Long, flat, ovular bodies
• Long antennae
• Six spiny legs
• Most cockroach adults have wings, though few local cockroach species can actually fly

Types of Cockroaches

The most common types of cockroaches seen in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware are the American cockroach, German cockroach, Asian cockroach, brown-banded cockroach, and the Oriental cockroach.

German Cockroaches

American Cockroaches

Oriental Cockroach

Brown-Banded Cockroach

What do roach droppings look like?

Cockroach droppings are often described as looking like coffee grounds or black pepper. Larger species can leave larger, more rice-shaped droppings that can be confused for mouse droppings by laypeople.

How Do I Prevent Cockroaches?

The best way to deal with cockroaches is to deny them access to your property in the first place. The following steps can reduce the odds of a cockroach infestation:

• Sealing gaps and cracks in your wall
• Filling in space around external pipes and spigots
• Close and seal your garbage containers
• Make sure your grocery bags are completely empty when you go home
• Remove packages from your home immediately after opening
• Regularly vacuum carpets and clean floors to reduce the presence of food debris

Professional vs. DIY Cockroach Control

When it comes to cockroach control, calling Viking for Cockroach Pest Control is far more effective than relying on DIY products. Roaches are resilient pests that hide in hard-to-reach areas and reproduce quickly, meaning store-bought sprays and baits often only eliminate the ones you see—not the larger infestation behind the walls. Professional technicians can accurately identify the species, locate nesting sites, and implement targeted treatments that break the breeding cycle. Viking’s comprehensive approach not only eliminates existing cockroach populations but also helps prevent future infestations, saving you time, frustration, and the risk of ongoing contamination in your home.

Integrated Pest Management for Cockroaches

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a highly effective and environmentally responsible approach to cockroach control used by Viking Pest Control. Rather than relying solely on reactive treatments, IPM focuses on long-term prevention by combining thorough inspections, targeted treatments, and proactive measures such as sanitation, exclusion, and moisture control. Viking’s technicians identify the specific cockroach species, locate hiding and breeding areas, and address the underlying conditions that allow infestations to thrive. By reducing food, water, and shelter sources while applying precise, professional-grade treatments only where needed, IPM delivers lasting results while minimizing environmental impact and disruption to your home or business.

What are the Effects of a Cockroach Problem In and Around My Home or Business?

Exterminators understand cockroaches can cause several problems if left unchecked. Cockroaches don’t bite and they don’t tend to damage your home like termites or carpenter ants, but they can pose a serious health risk.

Cockroaches can be a vector for diseases such as salmonella, e. coli, dysentery, or staph infections, among others, by contaminating food or food preparation surfaces with their droppings or simply by mechanical transfer (a.k.a. walking on things and spreading viruses and bacteria). Cockroaches have also been known to exacerbate asthma and allergies, as their skin and droppings can be breathed in.

“In poorly sanitized communities, cockroaches, their droppings, and shed skins are an allergen,” Says Craig Sansig, Public Health Entomologist and Viking Vice President of Operations. “They are responsible for many hospitalizations due to asthmatic reactions.”

How Long Do Cockroaches Live?

Cockroaches have very different lifespans and reproductive cycles depending on their species and gender. Male adult American cockroaches can live up to about a year, whereas females can live up to 700 days. Before that, though, it takes around 600 days for this species to fully mature.

German cockroaches, on the other hand, live about 200 days. Oriental cockroaches are slightly shorter-lived with males living about 160 days and females living around 180 days. Brown-banded cockroaches live an average of 206 days and Asian cockroaches are very short-lived. Males live around 49 days and females live about 104 days.

All these species reproduce proficiently. Cockroaches can produce anywhere from 100 to 250 offspring during a female’s lifetime, so they can get out of hand quickly.

Learn More About Cockroaches

• Protecting Your Brand: Pest Control Solutions for High-End Retail and Grocery Stores
• What Does a Cockroach Look Like?
• Cockroaches Can Make You Sneeze
• The Tawny Field Cockroach: The “Cute” Roach Appearing in the Northeast
• How to Get Rid of Cockroaches and Keep Them from Coming Back
  

Other Frequently Asked Questions about Cockroaches

Protecting Your Home or Business From Cockroaches With Viking Pest Control

Viking Pest offers expert treatment designed to effectively and efficiently control and prevent pests from invading your home or business in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. Our use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques focuses on finding the core of the pest concern and controlling Cockroaches from the source. Through IPM, pest control materials are selected and applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, pets, and the environment. Call Viking today for your FREE and NO OBLIGATION estimate at 1-800-618-2847 or Schedule Online today!