American Cockroach

Where it lives

Sewers, service ducts, boiler rooms, lift pits, laundries and any warm humid void. Travels long distances through drainage systems and enters buildings through ducting and service risers.

Signs

• Very large reddish-brown cockroaches, sometimes flying towards lights
• Droppings with ridged sides, roughly 2 mm long
• Egg cases glued near warm pipework and behind equipment
• Sightings in plant rooms, lift pits and basement corridors

Risks

• Transfers sewage-borne pathogens to food and clean surfaces
• Allergen source in hotel and hospital environments
• Damages books, fabrics and packaging
• Highly visible failure point in hospitality and food premises

Prevention

• Seal service risers, duct penetrations and lift pit entries
• Maintain drainage and keep interceptors and traps in good order
• Reduce humidity and fix leaks in plant rooms and laundries
• Keep external lighting away from doors, or switch to warm-toned lamps

Treatment

Control combines residual treatment of harbourage in ducts, risers and plant rooms with gel baiting, dusting of voids and proofing works. In hotels and blocks we treat the whole service infrastructure at once and install monitoring in basements to catch reinvasion early.