Cockroach Detective

Where To Look When Things Get Bad

It would be hard to list all the places where cockroaches might reside, for they can live in all places except the most extreme of heat (blowtorch) or cold (outside at the South Pole) or in areas where there is extreme, constant, and complete activity. I don’t even know where this last location might be, I’m just conjecturing that there might be such a place and that roaches would not fare well there.

Once you begin to see roaches, you just have to learn what KIND of places to examine. Be a cockroach detective! Usually they are in some handful of predictable locations in the kitchen and bathroom, but if you live in an old or seldom-cleaned place full of spills and crumbs and dirt—such as the college rooms or apartments of some fraternity brothers who can’t be bothered with cleaning—the bugs could be Everywhere. German roaches especially like to be in tight locations; they like to feel surfaces close against them on all sides, such as in a crevice. Anywhere that two elements of constructions fail to completely meet could contain a cockroach of some size. It makes them feel safe. Let’s search those school boys’ living quarters—roaches may live and breed in the following locations (plus others). These items are especially suspicious if they’re in the kitchen or otherwise adjacent to food and drink areas:

1. backside and underside of refrigerator
2. backsides, undersides of storage racks.
3. bathroom crevices
4. behind and inside clocks
5. behind kitchen calendars
6. bottoms of chairs
7. computer
8. desk
9. electrical outlets
10. false bottoms in cabinets
11. hidden corners of closets
12. hollow legs of tables, appliances
13. in clothing stored out of sight
14. inside and under upholstered chairs
15. lamps
16. lighted beer or Coke decorations stolen from bars
17. molding of door frames, even closet doors
18. night stand
19. overlap of building materials (wood, metal, etc.)
20. pantry
21. radio
22. same for oven as for refrigerator
23. seldom-opened storage areas or boxes
24. shelves
25. stereo
26. storage areas where supply boxes are not “rotated”. You know, oldest materials are not used first, therefore the older materials are pushed to the back and thus have time to accumulate a roach family (or pantry pests).
27. toasters
28. towel storage
29. TV
30. under sink
31. underside of mattress or box springs
32. underside or back of bread box
33. wall crevices
34. you get the idea

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