What Attracts Roaches To Your Home?

Cockroaches have been around for hundreds of millions of years—they’ve lived through ice ages, volcanic wastelands, and the reign of the dinosaurs. Clearly, they can survive nearly anywhere, so what attracts roaches to your home?

Despite their environmental adaptability, cockroaches love to enjoy the comfort of human-made homes. Let’s review why roaches are drawn into your house, and how you can keep these unwanted pests from taking over your living space.

Common Things That Attract Cockroaches

Check out our comprehensive list of household items that attract cockroaches.

1. Food

Cockroaches love a good meal, and they aren’t picky. In fact, they’re omnivores and will eat any organic food source or scrap they can find. Their adaptable diet is one of the secrets to their survival as a species. If you have a persistent roach problem, don’t hesitate to hire a professional cockroach exterminator to clear the infestation from your home.

Their favorite foods include meats, starches, greasy foods, and sweets, but they’ll also munch on “foods” like:

• Cardboard

• Leather

• Soap

• Pet food

• Human hair

• Human fingernails

• Stamps

• Wallpaper glue

• Feces

• Other cockroaches

• Their own exoskeletons that they’ve shed

2. Spilled Food 

Clean up spills—even in hard-to-reach places, like behind the oven—as cockroaches will find the food source soon enough. Sweep and mop your floors frequently to eliminate any residue of spilled food or crumbs.

3. Rotting Food 

Do you keep potatoes, onions, and other root vegetables in your pantry? Just don’t forget about them. As they decay, they become a tempting source of sustenance for cockroaches, gnats, and other insects. Even dry foods can attract roaches to your pantry if the storage bags aren’t properly sealed. Get rid of roaches in your kitchen cabinets as quickly as possible.

4. Dirty Dishes and Garbage 

Food odors from your trash and dirty dishes can attract cockroaches, so take your trash out and empty your sink regularly. Don’t leave trash bags on the floor by the door with the intent of taking it out later, and never stack food items like pizza boxes next to the trash can if it’s too full.

5. Pet Food

If you have pets in your house, their supplies may be attracting cockroaches. Pet food (which most cockroaches will happily eat) and water stations are standing buffets for roaches. Even snack bugs or treat shooters can easily attract roaches.

Keep pet products, food, and water in clean, open areas. When possible, use timed feeders that keep food as sealed when your pet isn’t eating.

6. Water and Moisture 

Water is just as important to survival for cockroaches, and they can find it throughout your home’s interior and exterior. You may be providing several water sources for cockroaches without even realizing it. 

Common sources of moisture that attract roaches include:

• Leaky pipes

• Leaky faucets and drains

• Outdoor puddles

• Clogged gutters

• Swampy yards

• Wet towels and bath mats

7. Overgrown Yards and Landscaping Debris

Believe it or not, unkempt lawns can attract cockroaches to your yard (and eventually, your home). Tall grass and piles of leaves or sticks are perfect shelters for cockroaches. Mow your lawn regularly in the summer, and dispose of leaves properly in the fall.

8. Clutter

Any type of clutter makes your home or yard more attractive to roaches. Old lumber, collections of cardboard or magazines, piled shingles, a stack of forgotten outdoor toys, bags of unattended garbage, or bricks piled close to a wall are all potential homes for roaches.

Piles of clutter provide protection for roaches, and they tend to gather moisture and create a damper hiding spot to attract even more cockroaches (and other pests). Clean up any clutter or debris around the home to help deter these bugs.

Common Hiding Spots for Roaches

Now that you know what attracts roaches to your home, look for them in these common hiding spots.

1. Furniture

Everyone loves to eat snacks on the couch, but you probably don’t want to discover a cockroach vying for some of your chips. Unfortunately, soft furniture items are ideal places for cockroaches to lay eggs, so keep your couch free of leftover food particles. Keep them away by regularly vacuuming in and around your upholstered furniture.

2. Air Vents 

If you see a roach skittering into your air vent, you’ve got a problem. Cockroaches take refuge in air vents because they thrive in moist, dark environments. However, an air vent infestation can cause serious respiratory problems, including allergies and asthma attacks. Deal with roaches in your air vents by fixing air conditioner leaks, keeping your house cool, and more.

3. Drains

Some cockroaches, especially Oriental roaches, are even more attracted to water than typical varieties. That means they find ways into your house through unprotected drains or even kitchen sink drains. Since they often explore at night, it can be difficult to tell if that’s how the insects are gaining access. Drain covers and filters can help protect these passageways from any encroaching roaches.

4. Appliances 

Kitchen appliances frequently attract cockroaches because they provide food, warmth, and sometimes moisture. Keep an eye out for pests around your refrigerator, oven, and microwave, and keep them free of food debris.

5. Outdoor Crevices

While cockroaches like the safety of indoors, they are happy to move into outdoor spots that offer similar benefits. Those locations include any gaps or crevices in your porch or under your deck, especially if there’s food nearby. Roaches are attracted to cracks or crevices in foundations, even if they can’t immediately get inside. You can also find roaches around wood piles or in nearby sheds for similar reasons.

6. Larger Shipped Goods

Roaches, especially species like German cockroaches, excel at hiding in packing centers or warehouses and sneaking onto items being shipped. Unprotected shipments with lots of pallets, furniture, lumber supplies, and similar orders can contain roaches that will hop into your garage or house to set up residence. It’s even more of a risk if you are purchasing larger secondhand goods that may have been in storage.

How Cockroaches Enter Your Home

There's a reason some say cockroaches would be the last surviving species in the event of a disaster. They are resourceful critters with many tricks up their sleeves for getting into your home—which is why they've survived for millions of years (literally).

Cockroaches usually enter your home through small cracks and holes. Sealing these areas off is important for prevention but won't guarantee you keep them out. Open doors and windows are also easy ways for them to get in. Some cockroaches can even fly through open windows.

Unfortunately, roaches are also good at reproducing in new areas. So if someone outside your home unknowingly enters your house with roaches or roach egg sacs in their clothes, the roaches could possibly spread to your home.

How to Get Rid of Roaches

Roaches reproduce quickly. One set of mating cockroaches can start a chain reaction that creates 400,000 offspring—in a year. If you spot a roach in your home, it’s important to act fast.

But how do you get rid of roaches? You can try to tackle the problem yourself with glue traps, bait traps, and natural roach repellents, like Diatomaceous earth. But for more serious infestation, it’s better to call in a professional extermination service.

If your roach problem is out of control, hiring an exterminator is your best option. Dealing with the issue now and then practicing better hygiene in the future can help get the roaches out of your home and keep them out. The cost of a cockroach exterminator is between $100 and $600, depending on the size, severity, and location of the infestation. The expense is worth your peace of mind knowing that the pest control pro successfully removed those unwanted guests from your home.