We call them in many ways but these different types of insects belong to the same family, the Cockroaches. They can vary in size, colour and characteristics, but they all carry the same hygiene problems.
Inside the kitchens of restaurants and houses, as far as Italy is concerned, the most common species are the Blattella Germanica and the Blattella Orientalis.
To learn more about who we are dealing with, we will briefly introduce their characteristics, their behaviour and where they usually hide.
THE GERMANIC COCKROACH
This type of insect is brownish in color, quite light and a few millimeters long. The size depends on the age of the specimen, which in the adult phase can reach 1.5 cm. It prefers to live in warm and humid interiors with availability of food, in particular we find it in small spaces/scracks in walls, walls, drains, furniture, equipment, power boxes etc.. It moves easily on all horizontal and vertical surfaces without problems.
It must be considered that even a small crumb of bread and/or any other food are a source of food for him.
COCKROACH ORIENTALIS
This type of insect is very dark black/dark brown and long in adult form up to 2.5/3 cm. It runs very fast, but hardly ever climbs up walls and/or furniture/equipment. It prefers cool but protected environments such as drains, biological pits, pipes, cellars, warehouses etc.
HOW THEY BEHAVE
Both species of cockroaches and cockroaches, have a strong and prevalent nocturnal activity (they are lucifugal) and go in search of food moving from their dens even several meters. Their simple passage contaminates surfaces and may leave excrement and/or parts of their outer ‘shell’ (the exoskeleton).
Both lay their eggs in protective containers (egg stores) in sheltered places where food is available so that once hatched the small insect can grow quickly.
From a pair of cockroachs/blats, if you do a quick count, you can have about 300,000 specimens in a year.
Yes you got it right 300,000!
That’s when we understand how important it is to keep these nasty little enemies under control.
WHAT WE HAVE TO DO
The first operation to do is Prevention. You’ll have to check it out:
- the drain traps that must seal well;
- the presence of holes and/or cracks, even very small ones;
- the boxes and/or other packaging before bringing them into the house (it is better to open them before entering and check that there is no unwelcome presence);
- the biological and fat separation pits where the kitchen water ends up, which are regularly checked and cleaned;
- the cleaning of all the rooms, in particular the parts under furniture/hoofs/footpeds, avoiding the creation of shaded areas inaccessible to our cleaners.
Once we’ve done the checks, you won’t have to wait to see them! By the time they show up it will already be too late: being insects that move in hidden spaces and at night it is very difficult to see the first specimens.
THE SOLUTION
ADHESIVE TRAPS
A good monitoring method, very simple and economical, without the use of insecticide, involves the use of Trapline adhesive traps. It will be enough to place some of them in the areas where they prefer to stay (those we talked about before), to be sure to catch cockroaches and cockroaches.
Once positioned, you have to check them and replace them periodically. They are extremely functional: in case there is even a single insect you will see that it will be caught immediately.
For professional activities, the adhesive traps will be placed inside the Multi-Capture Traps, so that they will be protected from splashes, dirt, etc.. In addition, these traps serve as a monitoring station for HACCP (in addition to cockroaches they allow the capture of other crawling insects and mice).
Once the cockroach or cockroach has been caught, it is a good idea to check the species, age and quantity of cockroach and decide on the strategy to eliminate them.
INSECTICIDE GEL FOOD BAIT
Once you understand the extent of the problem, you will not have to use the classic spray insecticides and / or liquids that do not serve much: these in fact kill only the adult insects that can hit, even in the case of those with residual effect (ie remain effective for a few days). Once the effect disappears a few days later, the eggs will hatch and we will be back to the beginning. We will have spent money, polluted our environment and the insects are still there.
On the contrary, the only really effective product in these situations is a GEL FEEDING: you can choose between two very similar products such as Advion gel cockroach insecticide and Blattoxur gel cockroach insecticide.
These are products formulated as ready-to-use gel, they should not be sprayed and therefore do not pollute. They should be placed in very small quantities (2-3 drops of 5 mm, as large as the tip of a pencil) and remain active for 40/60 days.
The food gel is very attractive for the Cockroaches (it contains food substances and additives that attract insects until they come out looking for it and eat it. But its strength and peculiarity lies in the slight delay in mortality that allows the insect to consume the bait and return to its shelter, so as to contaminate the other cockroaches present in the colony, thus allowing a significant reduction in infestation levels.
Remaining active, it acts also at the hatching of the eggs due to the long period of activity of the product: it will be effective also against the new specimens.
Once the gel has been applied, within a few days the first dead adult specimens will be seen and then also the smaller cockroaches and cockroaches will follow until the extinction of the problem.
These treatments must be carried out following the technical data sheet, with periodicity functional to the seriousness of the infestation.
Where there are structural conditions in which preventive operations cannot be carried out, it is advisable to do a gel treatment every 40/60 days throughout the year.
N.B. Very important indication: put the gel without any residue of previously used insecticide and do not use other products at the same time.
Finally, for greater precision and effectiveness we recommend the use of a Top Gel Dispensing Gun, useful to apply the product and usable with all the products in cartridge (for example also the anti-form gel).