Cockroach Poop: How It Looks Like, the Risks, and Ways to Remove It Completely

None would love to search for cockroach poop inside their home or building. However, this disgusting task could be helpful to stay away from roach infestation and possible diseases that it carries.

Just as some other living creatures do, cockroaches also poop. Pooping has always been a simple method to get rid of the waste from cockroach bodies. Interestingly, roach feces could be used to indicate where this cricket is assembling around your living spaces.

Furthermore, cockroach poops are also enough to help you learn where the cockroach usually gains its water and food is. Knowing all of these would make it easier for you to face the battle of combating roach infestation inside your home.

You could find cockroach droppings anywhere around the house and they would provide you with a starting point to begin your roach control management.

The Right Way to Identify Cockroach Droppings

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Luckily, it is not difficult to classify cockroach droppings. That is why it often becomes the most usual method to say if there is a cockroach around you.

Tinier cockroaches typically leave behind black and brown specs. The specs vary in appearance from finely ground black pepper to coarse coffee grains. In some cases, they may look like black or brown fecal stains as well.

You might also see them in a form that seems like dark ink. The point is that specs’ appearance often depends on the roach species and the surface. It is possible to see the stains look raised or appear like smears.

Meanwhile, bigger cockroaches will leave solid feces that have a cylinder-like shape. Similar to smaller roaches, waste from bigger roaches also has a black or brown color, but it is dependent on the kind of species as well.

The droppings from bigger cockroaches usually have ridges crossing the length of the waste. Thus, the ridges come out from tip to tip.

Even though mouse droppings may look similar to roach droppings, they usually do not have any ridges. Moreover, mouse droppings are a little bit bigger and tend to possess short hairs in them.

Brown-banded cockroaches and German cockroaches are known as the smaller species of roach. Besides, these two are the most common cockroaches to invade homes in many countries.

When it comes to larger species of cockroaches, there are smoky brown roaches, Oriental roaches, and American roaches. Both smaller and bigger species of roaches could be intimidating in terms of size.

Young cockroaches from smaller species typically depart the tiniest droppings and frequently known as specs. On the other hand, young cockroaches from the bigger species will still depart cylindrical, ridged feces.

Nevertheless, they could be smaller than the droppings created by the mature species since it could be as big as a rice grain.

How to Differentiate Cockroach Poop from Other Poops

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If you never were aware of cockroach feces, it would be hard to tell the difference between its poop and other critters’ feces. Poops from mouse and rodent are commonly mistaken to cockroach feces at first glance.

Cockroach Poop VS Mouse Poop

Rat and mouse droppings are characterized by their pointed ends. When it comes to cockroach wastes, they do not come with such ends.

It would be easier if the roaches living around your home were the German species since it typically excretes smaller waste that looks like ink stains. However, if the roaches are Oriental or American species, you may need some time to determine if what you see is roach or mouse poop.

Larger roaches like American and Oriental species typically excrete larger feces that seem similar to rodents. They have a similar cylindrical shape, but rodent poops tend to slightly bigger than cockroach poops.

Cockroach Poop VS Palmetto Bug Poop

Many people use the term ‘Palmetto Bug’ to refer to various big cockroach species and even several beetles too. Most of them refer to the palmetto bug when talking about American roach species.

However, Florida wood roaches and other bigger species of these pests are often called the same. Thus, when it comes to palmetto bug poops, they would be big roach droppings. In this case, the droppings would have a solid cylindrical appearance and come in brown or black color.

Additionally, it is possible to discover roach poop in your living spaces without seeing the cockroach itself. When something like this occurs, it does not mean that you locate feces from other pests. It could still hint a roach infestation in your home.

You probably do not see any cockroaches around your house since they are usually more active during the night. Moreover, roaches will prefer to emerge from their nest in the dark to avoid busy activities.

The appearance of almost no roaches following the discovery of cockroach poops could mean a low infestation level. Instead of overlooking this problem by doing nothing, you should consider looking for the nest to avoid any future roach issues.

Where to Spot Cockroach Poop around You

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Unbelievably, roaches could defecate anywhere around you since they do so whenever going somewhere. Different from humans, of course, roaches do not have a dedicated place for defecating. However, there are still some spots where they more likely to defecate.

You are more likely to see their defecation close by the nest and food sources. Roaches tend to defecate around their congregation areas as well. The bad news is that their defecation may contaminate your meals.

The food source of cockroaches is typically close to your meals, considering they eat leftover foods or other things you leave behind. Consequently, your food may be contaminated and diseases are probably spread to you.

You could find cockroach feces in any place where this critter is discovered. For instance, you tend to locate cockroach poops behind a picture on the wall if you previously saw this critter in the same place. Besides, here are some common spots to discover cockroach droppings.

  • Inside your pantries, drawers, cabinets, closets, and other areas where you typically store foods
  • Behind and underneath your stoves, refrigerators, dryers, sinks, and washers
  • On top of cabinets, doors, shelves and other objects that hang high and have concealed passage
  • Kids’ toy chests, playpens, and other things that seem sticky when you touch
  • Any openings or cracks in the walls, structures, and floors
  • Along the baseboards and in the corners of your rooms
  • In storage spaces, particularly where you usually keep organic materials like papers and cardboard boxes

The Reasons Why You Need to Discover Cockroach Poop

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Roaches are omnivores and they are not fussy about where to get their foods. Whether it is carrion, crumbs, sewage, or garbage, cockroaches would be happy to make it their food sources.

Consequently, roaches have digestive systems that preserve disease pathogens from everything they consume. Then, cockroach poop will still contain these microbes.

Besides, your kitchen surfaces, badly sealed containers, or pantries could be polluted by roach droppings too. When it happens, all the bacteria contained in the poop could be spread to you as well.

There is another explanation of why you should be aware of any cockroach poops around the house. Some have found that cockroach feces can increase the harshness of asthma. The EPA even acknowledged cockroach feces as one of the asthma triggers.

The feces could increase the potency of the telltale fusty odor of this insect’s infestation. Moreover, you will not need your kids or pets to touch roach poop, will you?

If some of the reasons above cannot convince you yet, keep in mind that ignoring roach droppings will eventually attract more of them. It happens because roach feces possess an aggregation pheromone that plays a role to summon other roaches to come to a particular place.

You can say that roach feces are a sign used by this insect to call the other to congregate. This behavior is often employed by pest management professionals to control roach infestations.

In this case, they will put bait in particular areas where cockroach poop are found. Thus, other roaches that approach the poops could make contact with the poison.

Once more roaches respond to their natural attractant pheromone abandoned by other roaches set by pest management professionals, there will be more roaches died possibly.

Furthermore, other roaches’ body parts including saliva could trigger allergies too. When you use HVAC ducts or fans inside the home, the symptoms may get worse since the debris could mix with the air.

How to Deal with Roach Droppings

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Luckily, you could effortlessly get rid of cockroach poop from your environment. First, simply take a vacuum and use it to clean any loose droppings around the house. It would be better if you could use a vacuum with a HEPA filter.

By using a vacuum with such a filter, you may reduce contaminants on the air too. Then, start vacuuming from inside the cabinets, the top of appliances, around the kitchen, bathroom, containers, drain pipes, and other possible spaces where you probably see roaches.

When using a vacuum to get rid of cockroach poops, make sure to dispose of the contents carefully. Keep in mind that you need to maintain sanitation. Next, always make sure to maintain the cleanliness of your environment since roaches prefer to settle in dirty places.

Always remember to wear proper protective tools when cleaning roach droppings since cleanup without such gears may only lead to infection.

Second, employ hot, soapy water to double-cleanse any surfaces. If there are smears and stains caused by roach droppings, remove it as thoroughly as possible.

Wiping down the surfaces with hot, soapy water not only helps you get rid of unsightly roach poops, but also is useful to reduce the allergens from the surfaces, attractant pheromones, and musty odor caused by the feces.

In some cases, you may need to add disinfectants to help clean the surfaces. Disinfectants are useful to get rid of bacteria and germs that may be released by roaches and contaminate your things and belongings.

Indeed, you need to look for the roach droppings comprehensively before doing this step. For your information, roaches could roam around any part of the house. They may even travel and defecate inside the walls.

Considering this possibility, some areas of roach infestations are just not possible to reach and clean. Thus, finding and cleaning all the roach waste in your home does not automatically make you stop seeing this critter around your home.

For this reason, the best way to get rid of cockroach poop is by removing the cockroaches themselves. This way you will not need to deal with the roach feces anymore.

How to Keep Cockroaches Away from Your House

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Getting tired of cleaning cockroach feces regularly? Consider getting rid of the main problem: the roaches themselves.

Cleaning your living spaces thoroughly is the first thing you could do to keep roaches away. After cleaning your home, some next steps would be necessary to remove cockroaches completely.

Recognize the issue

It is crucial to identify what kind of cockroach appears in your house and where it is usually present. You could recognize the type of roach by seeing its poop.

As mentioned previously, American roach poops are typically bigger than German roach feces. Depending on where you find the cockroaches are, the right way to kill them is probably different.

For example, when you locate roaches inside the kitchen, using killing sprays might not be a good idea since the insecticide may accumulate in the air, making it possible to contaminate your foods and utensils.

Take the roach food source away

The next step would be removing the roach food sources. If you locate the roaches in the kitchen, make sure to store your foods in properly sealed containers. Moreover, never store organic wastes like vegetable and fruit leftovers without sealing.

Eradicate the roach hiding place

You may not see the roaches throughout the day since they hide somewhere inside your house. By tracing the cockroach poop, try to discover where their hiding place is.

Once located, you could attack the roach nest or simply block it, so you will not see this critter roaming around your home again.

Utilize cockroach killers

It is no secret that you have many options when it comes to roach killers. A problem may occur when you do not use a reliable roach killer.

Aside from spray killers, consider using baits to attract cockroaches and kill them at once with roach poisons. It would be an ideal option if you do not want to kill roaches one by one.

If you want to keep using roach sprays, it would be better to use them only in the bathroom or other rooms except for the kitchen.

DIY methods to remove roaches naturally

In case using over-the-counter roach killers is not your style, you can benefit several home remedies to keep the roaches away. Nevertheless, home remedies are not always effective, especially when compared to commercial products.

Borax is one of the best home remedies to get rid of roaches. You can also consider baking soda when trying to eliminate roaches from your home.

When to Call Exterminator after Seeing Cockroach Poop

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The right time to call an exterminator for your roach problem depends on this critter activity around your living spaces. The number of cockroach droppings you locate could become another factor to be taken into account.

In case you only see a few roach droppings and they are seen not too often, it should be okay to deal with the problem yourself. However, if you often locate roaches around the living spaces and there are many cockroach poops found, calling exterminator would be an ideal choice.

It does not mean that you should wait until a huge cockroach infestation invades your house. You could consider asking professional help to reduce any opportunity of bigger infestation in the future.

If you are afraid that contacting roach exterminators may require hundreds of dollars, make sure to check the market first. Some pest management professionals offer reasonable price rates for their services to eliminate roaches in your home.

Consider shopping around first before deciding to call a particular roach exterminator. Take your time to find the best professionals for cockroach infestations around you.

Do not forget to learn further about the specific details of their services. If budget is the matter, find accurate quotes from good exterminators in your area first before proceeding.

The Final Thoughts

In conclusion, you probably never think that cockroach feces are such big issues in the house. However, your thought must be changed after considering that cockroach poop can transmit various kinds of diseases, including diarrhea and Staphylococcus infections.

Cleaning your houses from cockroach poop thoroughly and keeping foods in sealed containers could help to avoid the diseases. In some points, you are suggested to eliminate the roaches themselves to keep the risks away.

A good understanding to identify whether feces discovered around your house are from roaches or not might be needed. Your good understanding about this matter would make it easier to eliminate the risks of cockroach poop and other problems related to this critter completely.