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Today I would like to touch on such a pressing topic as repeated treatments .
Due to our activities, we often have to deal with requests from citizens who have already ordered disinfection or carried it out themselves. However, this did not produce the desired effect. Let's try to understand the possible reasons for this phenomenon.
Looking for a nest of pests
The first thing to consider when fighting cockroaches and bedbugs is that for treatment to be successful, it is important to destroy not only individual individuals, but also their nest , where they gather and reproduce.
Bedbug nest
To do this, you first need to find their nesting places and then treat them with poison. At the same time, sometimes you have to disassemble the furniture and carefully examine the entire room in search of places where insects accumulate and live.
If you call trusted disinfection specialists, they will cope with this task. However, in the case of self-processing, special attention must be paid to this. If you destroy only some individuals, but do not affect the entire family, then the population of cockroaches and bedbugs will quickly recover and become even stronger and more resistant to pesticides. So-called resistance will arise - resistance to poisonous drugs.
Reproduction of cockroaches
Cockroaches reproduce sexually. Moreover, to successfully breed offspring, a female only needs one mating in her entire life, thanks to the mechanism of preserving the male’s seminal fluid in special sections inside the abdomen. These sperm reserves will fertilize eggs throughout the female's life.
After mating, the female begins to lay eggs, enclosed in a special protective capsule , which is called an ootheca. The ootheca of cockroaches perfectly protects the future offspring of the insect from all types of unfavorable factors, including poison dissolved in water, since it does not allow moisture to enter, and it is not so easy to crush it.
In such a strong capsule, the larvae quietly develop for a couple of weeks, and before the immediate hatching of the offspring, the female will hide it in a safe place. to find cockroach eggs in an apartment , because they are hidden in places that are difficult or completely inaccessible to humans. Consequently, if you destroy adult cockroaches in an apartment, then soon new offspring will hatch in secluded places and another pest takeover of the apartment will begin.
Life cycle of a domestic cockroach
The average lifespan of a domestic cockroach is 10-12 months. During their lives, cockroaches actively feed and reproduce. The female is capable of bearing from 5 to 20 oothecae, in each of which from 15 to 60 larvae can develop.
In total, in one year the female is capable of replenishing the colony by 500 individuals! Cockroaches reproduce constantly, regardless of the time of year and the weather outside, because ideal conditions are created in the apartment next to a person.
Features of cockroach population regulation
Cockroaches have learned to regulate their numbers in a single apartment, which once again confirms the presence of intelligence in these parasites. It would seem, why do they need this when they can reproduce until they lose their pulse? Everything is very simple, cockroaches maintain a certain number of colonies in the apartment for their comfortable existence.
For example, as soon as cockroaches get into a new apartment, where there is a lot of space and food, they begin to multiply intensively and take over the apartment as long as they have enough food and secluded places. The maximum number of individuals is reached and the growth of the colony stops; reproduction is reduced to maintaining the existing number.
Why did there become more cockroaches after treatment?
The destruction of cockroaches usually leads to two consequences: there will be no cockroaches at all or there will be even more of them . In the first case, the disinfestation of cockroaches was successful - the entire colony was infected with poison and destroyed. After persecution, sometimes at first you get the impression that there are more cockroaches on the contrary, but this is not so, it’s just that under the influence of the drugs, all the infected individuals crawled out of secluded places and catch your eye. Soon all the insects will die.
In the second case, the baiting simply failed and not all cockroaches or their larvae were destroyed, then the insects switch on a signal to reproduce. Cockroaches understand that they are trying to be destroyed and therefore begin to reproduce with double effort.
If after the persecution at least 3-5% of the population survived, then in just a month the previous population will completely recover, adding 15-20% in number compared to the previous number.
Why is cockroach control unsuccessful?
Disinfection against cockroaches may fail in the following cases:
- the apartment is in a deplorable state - there is chaos and complete unsanitary conditions - treatment alone is not enough, since there are so many cockroaches that there is not enough poison for all of them, or the individuals hidden deep in the cracks have completely developed immunity;
- saved on processing - “the stingy pays twice” - turned to , which means a cheap drug was used, or very diluted with water, professional ULV equipment ( killing cockroaches with fog ), which means the drug did not get into all the cracks and live cockroaches remained;
- the residents did not at all comply with or neglected the rules that were specified in the memo (agreement) before and after treatment. For example, there are a lot of things and rubbish in the apartment; the treated surfaces are washed immediately after treatment.
Therefore, in case of unsuccessful baiting of cockroaches, you should not immediately make claims to the SES service; the overwhelming majority of failures are the fault of the apartment owners themselves , who neglect basic hygiene rules and after treatment or skimp on the services of real professionals .
We destroy not only adults, but also their eggs
The eggs of most insects, as a rule, are much more protected from external adverse conditions than adult representatives. And even if active participants in the colony die, it often happens that after some time a younger generation is born from the surviving eggs, which continues the work of their ancestors .
For this reason, it is often recommended to repeat preventative treatments after two weeks . During this time, new insects hatch from eggs appear. If they are not destroyed, then, unfortunately, after some time, these “uninvited guests” will be active in the house again.
Ammonia
Cockroaches have an extremely negative attitude towards the smell of ammonia in the apartment. Ammonia is nothing more than an ammonia solution, which can be easily purchased at any pharmacy. To repel insects, one teaspoon of ammonia solution is added to a bucket of water intended for wet cleaning of the room. This is an effective measure, but it is better to resort to it only as a backup option.
Not every housewife can withstand the pungent smell of ammonia, but she will have to treat the entire apartment with the solution, and after cleaning is complete, the smell lingers for a long time. Therefore, a respirator should be used during cleaning and windows should be kept open. This type of treatment should be done weekly.
We use high-quality trusted products
There is now a very wide variety of all kinds of drugs on the market to combat cockroaches and bedbugs. Some have proven their effectiveness in practice, while others leave much to be desired. However, the choice is huge. There are also many folk, quite effective recipes for removing pests from your home.
The choice of proven means is very important
We will not consider individual disinfestation agents in this article. This material is too extensive. However, I would like to note that the choice of suitable drugs is a very important point in the entire insect baiting procedure .
Therefore, when independently selecting products, it is always better to first consult with people who have already successfully used some drugs, as well as with disinfection specialists or sales consultants in stores.
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We talk about the different types of pest control products here:
– How to choose a remedy for bedbugs and other insects?
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Calling a specialist from the disinfection service, unfortunately, also does not always guarantee success in this case. In our work, we have repeatedly had to deal with a situation where we were contacted for re-treatment after unsuccessful disinfestation by other “disinfectors”.
There are newcomers and scammers in every field. They are also found in the field of disinfection. As a rule, such “specialists” work with very cheap drugs, which often turn out to be not only useless, but also dangerous to the health of people and animals .
Therefore, when ordering disinfection from specialized services, you need to exercise common sense and not chase cheapness . Free cheese is only in a mousetrap. It’s better to call trusted disinfectors once and do a high-quality treatment, rather than order the service again and overpay.
Preparing for disinfestation
The extermination of cockroaches with the help of professionals is carried out in several stages. First of all, they coordinate the time of the visit with the owners and tell them what work needs to be done. The apartment should be prepared as follows:
- Close kitchen utensils in cabinets, cover other items with foil.
- Place the products in the refrigerator, packing them in airtight containers.
- Remove all pets from the home.
- Go through the books - if you find dark spots on the pages, bedbugs live in the lower cabinets. When processing, tell the professionals about this.
- Put all clothes, children's underwear and toys in the chest of drawers, and first place them in bags.
- Remove all personal hygiene items from the bathroom.
- Cover household appliances, paintings and furniture with polyethylene.
Preparation for disinfestation should be carried out globally
Processing methods are equally important
We poison bedbugs using the irrigation method.
There are also a great variety of methods for removing cockroaches and bedbugs. These include gels, powders, various aerosols, adhesive tapes, ultrasonic devices, etc. Among professional methods, spraying, special disinfestation gels, cold and hot fog, etc. are often used.
The list goes on. However, we wanted to point out that not all of these methods are suitable for, for example, baiting cockroaches or bedbugs . For example, spraying poison with a cold mist can harm active individuals of the colony, but almost does not affect the main nest with growing “babies” and eggs. In addition, such methods are often prohibited for use in confined living spaces.
What is the level of neglect of the situation?
One of the factors that needs to be taken into account when starting pest control work is how much the pests have multiplied and spread throughout the apartment/house. Of course, the earlier measures to combat insects are started, the greater the chances of getting away with “little blood” .
However, if the situation has already gone too far and mustaches or bloodsuckers are freely running around the room for their own pleasure, then you need to understand that it will be difficult to get rid of such an invasion at once. In these cases, sometimes two or three treatments are required to achieve a more or less stable result .
We take into account preventive measures
The destruction of pests must always be accompanied by the elimination of the causes that contributed to their spread . Sometimes these are constant crumbs on the table, sometimes cracks in the walls, and in some cases - a dripping faucet, which serves as a life-saving source of life-giving moisture for pests.
All such moments need to be eliminated . Otherwise, a favorable environment for repeated reproduction of the colony will remain in the home . Of course, if a random cockroach crawled into your home from your neighbors, or you brought a bedbug from a trip, it will only be enough to carry out high-quality treatment. However, if the premises itself have favorable conditions for the spread of insects, then there is a high probability of their reappearance.
What to do to create unbearable conditions for pests to exist, read here:
– Cockroaches in an apartment: how to get rid of them?
– Why is it so difficult to kill cockroaches?
– Prevention and control of bed bugs
What about heat?
Cockroaches, like many other living creatures in nature, love warmth . It is not for nothing that with the onset of cold weather their mass migration into human homes is often noted and their appearance even in those houses where they were not visible before. However, warmth is not a sufficient condition for their justification in the apartment. In other words, not every warm place has cockroaches. Still, food, water and secluded, neglected places are more important for their arrangement.
Therefore, you should not “freeze out” your home , as is sometimes recommended to do to get rid of insects. Many pests are quite tolerant of short-term drops in temperature, hiding from the cold in cracks or hidden corners of the room. Most likely, using these methods you can achieve the eviction of the residents themselves from the house, rather than the cockroaches :) However, regularly ventilating the premises is very useful. This will not affect the survival rate of the baleen in any way. But it will definitely help maintain the health and good mood of the residents themselves!
Afterword
We have not listed all the possible reasons for the repeated reproduction of bedbugs and cockroaches after the treatment. There are others. However, these points need to be paid attention to first . If you take them into account from the very beginning, then the chance of carrying out successful disinsection treatment increases greatly. That's what we wish for you!
Properly get rid of bedbugs and cockroaches and do not let them occupy your living space again!
An effective and environmentally friendly method of fighting cockroaches: KNOW-HOW: a modern method of exterminating cockroaches!
