You may have been driving towards your office and suddenly you have seen a cockroach going under the car seat. You yelled! What the heck! How come a cockroach gets into your car.
After the long tiring day at the office, you are now inspecting the vehicle and found that not only one but there are a bunch of the cockroaches that are residing in your car for a while!
Now that you have no option rather than finding a way to get the roaches out of your car, we are here to assist you!
In this post, we’ll share with you the safest way to remove roaches out of the car without harming the car or yourself. Stay with us!
How to Identify Roaches in Your Car?
You can identify roaches by their black dotted shits under the car seat and the eggs in the corners. Eggs of the roach keep attached to the surface where they were laid. So, eliminating the roach egg is another key problem when you need to get rid of a bunch of them.
Dangers of Having Cockroaches in the Car
The main danger of having cockroaches in the car is they pose a serious health risk to the people coming in touch with them. Roaches carry 30 different types of bacteria that can cause serious illnesses like polio, diarrhea, typhoid, salmonella, etc.
So, when you see roaches running in the car, you must start planning to eliminate them as soon as possible to keep yourself and your family safe.
How to Get Roaches Out of Car?
As you are worried about your health and can’t drive the car comfortably without removing the roaches from the car, here are some of the effective methods of getting rid of cockroaches from the car. The methods are equally effective for both home and car. So, you can do the same for your home too in case your home has some.
1. Cut the Food Source
Roaches get attracted to the food. They come to your car to find food. So, removing the food from the car is a great method to get rid of roaches. However, this method won’t eliminate roaches overnight. They will stay in the car for a week or a little more before they start leaving it.
Cutting the food source includes taking out all the packs of snacks you have left in the car, and the leftovers poured in the car when you were eating something previously. So, thorough cleaning is a necessity to completely remove every tiny bit of food from the car. This will also help you to keep the ants away from the car.
2. Use a Portable Vacuum
Next, you can vacuum clean the whole interior of the car to remove roaches. They hide under the seat and in the trunk. So, carefully deal with them. And in case you don’t know, mature cockroaches can fly too. So, don’t be afraid if some of them start flying when cleaning it. Use a respirator and safety goggle to protect yourself from furs and broken legs of the cockroaches when cleaning.
Usually, roaches don’t love the heat. So, they don’t go under the engine hood. But to be on the safe side, check under the hood too. They can temporarily take shelter under the hood to come inside the car again when you leave.
3. Spray Soapy Water
After vacuum cleaning the interior, you should be able to catch a bunch of roaches. But not all of them! So, mix detergent with the water to make soapy water. Put the mixture in a sprayer and spray directly to the roaches and their eggs.
Roaches should be suffocated to death within moments if you can spray soapy water directly to them. However, the result of this method depends on how you mix the soap with the water and how you spray it onto them. You need to find every one of them for complete eradication.
4. Use Boric Acid or Diatomaceous Earth
One of the most effective methods of getting rid of cockroaches is using boric acid or diatomaceous earth. Sprinkle boric acid or diatomaceous earth on the surface and leave them for a week. When the roaches will walk on the sprinkled surface, they will be intoxicated and die within moments.
Although diatomaceous earth is a safe thing to use, boric acid is dangerous for children and pets. Boric acid can do serious harm to the child or pet if ingested. So, we don’t recommend using the material where children and pets go.
5. Use Bug Bomb to Get Rid of Roaches
If nothing worked getting rid of roaches from your car, use bug bombs as your last resort. These contain poisons with other filling materials. So, these are harmful to any animals if inhaled. You must be very cautious when applying them.
Get your pets and children out the reach of the car, put the bug removing fogger inside the car, and carefully block every entrance from where air can pass through.
Use a respirator and safety goggles when you apply them.
After application, leave the car for a day. And then, open all the doors to get rid of all the trapped air from the interior. Leave the air conditioner and the heater turned on for 10 minutes before you get into the car. Following these steps will remove all the harmful residues from the car. To be on the safe side, you can use a blower or a high-speed fan to blow fresh air in the car.
6. Use Cockroach baits & Traps
Roach baits and traps are the best options for those who want to be on the safer side and don’t need a quick solution. Baits and traps will take weeks to remove all the cockroaches from the car but this is safe and require nothing from your end except buying the bait and placing it under the seat.
Traps with highly adhesive glues work best in the vehicle as they leave no mess. Roaches are dragged to the trap because of the attracting food or smell, and then get trapped into the glues where they breathe their last.
How to Keep Roaches Out of Your Vehicle
As you are now successful in removing roaches from your vehicle, it is necessary to ensure that they don’t come back again. Here are what you can do to keep your car out the roaches’ reach-
1. Don’t Eat in the Car
As we’ve talked about this option in the first part of the post. Food is what drags the roaches into your vehicle. If you don’t keep food and eat in the car, roaches won’t be attracted to your car. So, keep your food away from the car. Especially the sweets. Insects don’t love spicy food by the way!
2. Don’t Leave Open Food in the Car
Plus, you shouldn’t carry open food in your car. Always put your food in an airtight pack so that no smell or food content can come out. This will help you to keep the roaches out of your car.
3. Clean the Interior Regularly
The last but the most important thing to do for keeping insects away from your car! Clean daily. Most of the insects like roaches love dirty surfaces. If you can keep the car interior clean, they won’t be comfortable being in your car.
So, keep a portable vacuum cleaner your car to clean the car daily. Plus, you should go for an all-out cleaning process once in a fortnight to remove any dust that was accumulated in the hard to reach corners.
Should You Hire a Pest Control Guy for Roaches?
I don’t think so. You can do all the works by yourself that we have discussed in this post. If you fail to remove the roaches from your car after following all the methods described here, you can go for an experienced pest control guy to help you.
Final Thoughts
Cockroaches are not good for health, both yours and your car’s. Roaches may cut the rubber coatings of the car seat and the wires. So, it is risky to allow the roaches to live in your car.
By following this cockroach killing guide for your car, you can completely get rid of roaches. However, be careful when working with poisonous bug foggers, and acid type of staffs.
And don’t forget to clean your car interior daily to keep the insects away from the vehicle. Stay clean, stay safe.