We all want our home to be a place that everyone finds comfortable and welcoming. Everyone, that is, except roaches. These small and wily creatures can easily intrude into any residential or business property and quickly start an infestation that is a mess to deal with. While it is disgusting to even think about, few of us will be too surprised or overly shocked to find these pests lurking in the kitchen, but where do roaches come from in the bathroom? Also, what does one have to do to get rid of the sickening freeloaders? Read on to find out!
Guide to Fighting Roaches in Your Bathroom: Where to Find and How to Stop
The prospect of finding roaches in a bathroom at night is horrifying. Here are the reasons why they could be there:
- Bathrooms are a great living space for cockroaches – hot, wet, and nourishing.
- Cockroaches came through ventilation vents from your neighbors.
Why are there cockroaches in my bathroom?
When you know what it is that cockroaches find so irresistibly attractive inside your house, you will be able to take timely steps to remove those attractions and avoid an infestation entirely, sparing yourself the need to use potentially dangerous pesticides to treat the problem radically.
Why do cockroaches migrate indoors?
The prime factor driving cockroaches to enter residential buildings is their quest to find food, water, and refuge. Let us look at all three attractions a little closer:
Food
The omnivorous creatures that they are, American cockroaches will gladly devour almost anything they can find inside your house – from breadcrumbs and pizza leftovers to soap, toothpaste, glue, and (brace yourself for this one) animal waste.
Considering this, not just your kitchen and cupboards can be a perfect shopping lane for these irritating pests, but so is your bathroom and, basically, any other space within your house.
Water
While they can do just well without eating anything for extended periods, roaches cannot survive without water for longer than seven days. Clean or dirty, your home will only appeal to cockroaches if they can find water in it. From this perspective, any space inside the house where there is easy access to water, like the kitchen, the basement, or the bathroom, might be more roach-friendly than other rooms.
That said, it does not mean the tiny creeps will not try to explore other parts of your home, especially when their number increases and the competition pushes them to go looking for new sources of food/water.
Hiding places
Another reason why roaches might choose to invade your home is to create perfect conditions for breeding. They prefer to do so in warm, humid, poorly ventilated places hard for humans to reach. The most popular cockroach hideouts include areas like kitchen cupboards, space around your kitchen sink or beneath the fridge, floor drains, and around water heaters.
How do roaches enter bathrooms?
The question homeowners ask most frequently is: “why are there cockroaches in my shower?” Cockroaches enter bathrooms by climbing up the drains, seeking openings in the baseboards, sneaking through cracked pipes, and slipping under doors and via plumbing and electric gaps in walls. In addition, roaches may travel to this room from other areas around the house and even from outside.
Roaches find bathrooms attractive for a variety of reasons. Firstly, there is plenty of water to drink, which is the number one requirement for the survival of the cockroach population. Secondly, the bathroom tends to stay dark a lot and has many nooks for these pests to hide in from anything that presents itself as a threat. A steamy, moist, and warm environment from the shower is also ideal for roaches to breed.
Finally, whatever they say, the bathroom is as good a feeding spot as any, so roaches will not have a hard time finding something to nibble on here. A potential bathroom-restricted diet for cockroaches may include toothpaste, used sanitation items in the trash bin, soap, toilet paper, and skincare products with natural ingredients such as honey, chocolate, or mud.
How to prevent roaches from entering bathrooms?
If you are informed about how cockroaches come to your bathroom, you will be better equipped to deal with the problem at its earliest stages and cut the intrusion before a full-fledged infestation begins.
Ideally, to find the most efficient way to control the nasty pests, you will have to know the biology, behavioral patterns, and preferences of a specific species invading your home. However, that would require you to catch one and take it to an entomologist, which is quite a hassle.
Unless the invasion has gone too far (in which case you will have no other option than to call professional exterminators), you can make do with the following universal recommendations. All of them are geared towards making food and water sources inaccessible to roaches and giving them no shelter within your walls.
So, when looking for practical tips on how to get rid of cockroaches in the bathroom, here are some you can start using right away:
Remove sources of food. Starch-based soap bars, skin products, toilet paper, trash, and even a brush with your hair on it – all can be excellent sources of food for roaches. Place any organic bathroom products in tightly closed containers for safekeeping.
Eradicate sources of water/excess humidity. Sweep and mop the floor in your bathroom after each use, and make sure to use a bathroom fan to vent the room properly after taking a steamy bath or shower. Also, hang your mat up to dry well before returning it to the bathroom.
Eliminate their hiding and entering spots. Deal with leaky pipes, clogged drains, gaps in the plumbing, cracked baseboards, and broken insulation between the piping and walls.
Clean your bathroom. De-clutter the space by getting rid of unnecessary items like empty boxes and wrappings, stacks of magazines, old toothbrushes, etc. The less messy your bathroom is, the less likely it is to invite unwelcome guests in the form of roaches.
Modernize your bathroom sink with a water trap. The one reason why roaches cannot get in through modern toilets is that they are designed with a water trap that makes it impossible for water, smells, and insects to get in from the sewer. Consider installing a P, J, U, or S-bent water trap on your bathroom sink, as well, to deter cockroaches and lower the possibility of clogging.
Roaches can spread easily and quickly around your house. If they do not feel welcome inside your bathroom anymore, they will likely start looking for other places to crash for a while until you drop your guard again and let them squeeze back into the warm, dark, and humid heaven that is your bathroom.
So, when dealing with a cockroach problem in the bathroom, it would be wise to treat the entire house to ensure that small rogues have no room to hide. Luckily, most of the recommendations mentioned above apply here as well.
FAQ
Spotting a cockroach in the bathroom during your morning shower or, worse, stepping on one with your bare feet at night can be an experience that causes one to look for practical pest control tips. This FAQ section answers the main questions regarding cockroaches, their control, and elimination.
How do I keep roaches out of my bathroom?
Sufficient information on the subject is available in the main section of this post, so here is just a quick rundown on the main recommendations:
- Take away possible sources of food and water.
- Fix issues with your leaking pipes and faucets.
- Use bathroom fans to remove excessive humidity and heat after taking a shower.
- Seal any cracks and holes where electrical and plumbing installations come in through the walls.
Can cockroaches come up through the toilet?
While it is unlikely, considering that modern plumbing is built to keep most sewer pests out, some of the older toilet models can serve as an entry point for bathroom cockroaches. It is also true for toilets whose water traps have dried due to infrequent exploitation.
Do roaches come out of shower drains?
Cockroaches can easily squeeze through the tiniest openings, so drains and pipes connected directly to the sewage serve as excellent entry points to your shower or bath drain, kitchen and bathroom sink, and even toilet.
Do cockroaches come from sewers?
Yes, roaches are opportunistic and intrusive pests that feel most comfortable in the sewage system. As a result, it is possible for cockroaches from the sewage system to enter your house.
Better to Prevent Infestation From Happening
Now that you know which tricks roaches use to make their way into your home and bathroom, you can take a proactive approach to avert the infestation. And if you are past preventing, this guide also contains some excellent extermination pointers from pest control professionals.
Have you ever had a roach problem in your house and, more specifically, your bathroom? What caused it? What did you do to get rid of the invasive insects? Feel free to ask questions in the comments below and share this information with your friends!
Also read:
- Wood Roach vs. Cockroach: What to Be Aware Of
- How Does Baking Soda Kill Roaches? Through Physics!
- Does Boric Acid Kill Roaches and How to Get Rid of Roaches for Good?
- Does Bleach Kill Roaches? Let’s Find Out!
- Why Do I See More Roaches After Bombing and How to Fix This Issue
- How to Attract a Cockroach Out of Hiding: Easy Steps
- Can You Kill a Cockroach by Stepping on It & Is It Safe?
References
- American cockroaches (Wikipedia):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cockroach
- Water trap (Wikipedia):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_(plumbing)
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