When German Cockroaches Crash the Party: Pest-Proofing Lessons from a Little Sister

If you handle food, chances are you have had some interaction with German cockroaches. And working in a food, packaging or holding facility guarantees you are around food.

Most of you reading this know the basics of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and cockroaches: identification, inspection, sanitation, monitoring, exclusion, treatment and follow-up. But what happens when a really tricky German cockroach situation comes along that is utterly confounding? When these issues arise, it’s helpful to look at the situation through a different lens — a new perspective.

START AT THE SOURCE.

I recently dealt with a German cockroach problem at Facility X. There was so much going on that it was hard to know where to even start.

Suddenly, my little sister popped into my head. She’s a pest. She’s difficult to deal with. And there’s certainly a lot going on with her! What can be learned from situations with my pesky sister that can be applied to Facility X?

Since the problem has already been identified (German cockroach/my little sister), let’s start with food sources. Sanitation is one of the tenets of IPM; without it, problems can’t be resolved.

Like my house, which probably has enough food for three months (who can resist the 10-pound bag of chocolates from the big box store?), Facility X had food nearly everywhere. It’s a food facility — of course it does! German cockroaches (and my little sister) can find plenty of food resources. It’s not as if all that food in my house can just be thrown away and my cupboards left bare.

So, how do I deter my sister from popping in and eating my food? It’s important to remember that sanitation is not always about removing all the food — we’ve already established we can’t do that. Minimizing the food source can be a huge help. Instead of having my ridiculously large bag of chocolates scattered throughout my house, I can put just a few of them out at a time and secure the rest. That means there is less attraction.

Same with a food facility: Cleaning more often, or having less product loss, limits how many pests can find it. In this case, the facility was able to fix multiple pieces of processing equipment, so there was less overall spillage available.

Sanitation is often about making it harder to get to the food. So, locking up the food and containing as much of it as possible in sealed containers is a great option. Facility X’s management installed partitions within the site so the incoming goods, processing lines and finished products were more isolated. This limited the amount of food that was accessible (instead of allowing pests free rein throughout the site).

Because of sanitation, my little sister (or German cockroach) has to work extra hard to get at the 10-pound bag of chocolate I just bought. There will be a lot more competition and less chocolate food for all of them.

USE MONITORING AS YOUR EXTRA EYES.

Facility X has a lot of open spaces connecting the inside to the outside, so exclusion isn’t much of an option. Like giving my little sister a key to my house, this facility has open doors that provide German cockroaches with easy access.

Ideally, we want to seal up and prevent sisters pests from getting in, but the access points can’t be completely eliminated. However, we know that pests won’t get in through every access point. My sister isn’t going to climb up and get in through a second-floor window.

Openings that can’t be sealed can be fortified with other control methods. Sticky traps can be placed near these doors so cockroaches are captured when they enter. Targeted treatments can be done around these openings to knock down the pests before they get in. Products can be relocated so foods aren’t present close to these particular openings. If my sister gets in, she will have to run a gauntlet of traps, spend extra energy getting further into the site and hopefully won’t get to the prize.

Monitoring when and where the pests come and go is valuable. I want to know when my little sister is coming so I can prepare for that. And by observing the history of her visits, I can be a little proactive and predict her better.

In Facility X, we know there are German cockroaches. Additional information can be gathered. That way, we know where their presence is heaviest, where they are increasing in population size and any new areas they’re inhabiting.

Monitors can also point to sanitation issues that might need to be dealt with (e.g., not leaving the chocolate out on the counter) or other conducive conditions that can be remedied or minimized.

When you have a small, sneaky pest, you may not see them. You can’t keep your eyes on everything at all times. Monitors become our extra eyes, running 24/7 in the background. Businesses like Facility X likely will always have German cockroaches (as I will always have to deal with my sister), but monitoring will allow for earlier responses and help create a more manageable situation. We found that early fall, especially after a rainstorm, was the top time cockroach populations were high. Knowing my sister has a summer holiday means I can do extra prevention, while the rest of the year, the “typical” methods were enough.

EXPLORE TREATMENT OPTIONS.

Obviously, preventing pests, like my little sister, is the first and best line of defense, and treatment ideally is the last step. At last check, there were no EPA-registered pesticides for little sisters. There are, however, many treatment options for cockroaches, including liquid residuals, baits, aerosols and IGRs, to name a few.

At Facility X, because of the conditions, there is little opportunity to broadcast residuals (just like I can’t spray my sister down!), so heavy use of baits at this site is required. We were also able to do small amounts of spraying in the cracks, crevices and edges. An IGR was also added, which affects the immature stages and prevents them from getting to the adult stage and multiplying. We want to keep the number of little sisters as low as possible.

In a food facility, there are typically many options for different foods. However, if we are baiting, that’s a single food source, and we need to rotate. Think of it this way: my little sister loves my chocolate. But no matter how much she likes chocolate, if that is the only thing she has to eat for weeks or months, she is going to get sick of it and start avoiding it. She’s not going to take the bait. That’s why it is essential to rotate cockroach baits often, so the cockroaches don’t build up a resistance or an aversion.

Follow-up often gets overlooked. This is where the data from the monitoring devices will help. Monitoring devices, combined with comprehensive documentation, provide proof of efficacy, spotting trends and changes in activity. When my mom yells at me that I never let my sister come visit, I can pull out my records and show her exactly how many times she has been to my house. There may even be a record of how much food (bait) she has consumed (as shown by my grocery bill!) to show an increase or decrease in occurrences.

Careful documentation and ongoing communication with customers experiencing these difficult situations, like Facility X, are key. Otherwise, it’s easy for Facility X to say, “The cockroaches are getting worse; you’re not doing your job!” And if there’s no documentation to support that claim either way, it will be difficult to argue with them.

FINAL THOUGHTS.

Facility X (like my little sister) is a challenging situation because there is a lot of basic IPM (mainly sanitation and exclusion) that is just not possible. While totally eliminating German cockroaches at this site is not likely, minimizing their impact is. It requires thinking about the problem a little differently and a little outside the box.

Sure, I could choose to not buy that massive bag of chocolates, and that would solve the problem. It would also take away my will to live, and in a food facility, that would put you out of business. Sometimes, relating a challenging scenario to a different problem can lead to creative thinking and problem solving.

Full disclaimer: I do have a little sister, and she is very nice, and I swear I like her (most of the time)!