My first concern is what you mean by the word “issue”. Here’s why. In my house, we will see 1-2 roaches every fall as the weather turns and gets cool. These are Pennsylvania wood roaches foraging in from outside our home which is surrounded by lots of trees. No matter how much I spray outside, these guys fly and can effectively bypass my treatments. In the end, one or two will be seen no matter what I do and my family has accepted this fact. But these guys won’t be able to live inside so there is little risk involved by not doing anything unless this number was increase significantly.

But if we were seeing one every 2-3 weeks throughout the year? To me this would be an “issue”. And if we ever saw just one german cockroach, it would be an even bigger issue!

Which leads me to your question. Based on the way you phrased it, I’m thinking what you’re asking is if the roaches you see every 2-3 weeks are a sign your unit is infested or if they’re coming from a neighboring unit? If this is the question, I’m sorry but there is no way I can tell for sure where they’re coming from. But here’s what I do know.

Roaches exist for three things. Food, shelter and sex. Food is first. This means if you’re seeing activity during the day as described, the roaches involved are either very hungry foraging for food or they’ve been affected by some kind of treatment which is causing them to forage in broad daylight. More importantly, the 1 you see is most definitely NOT the only one. That means the ones you’re not seeing are what’s really important. And if you have roaches foraging throughout your unit what do you think they’re doing? First, looking for food and second, looking for a place to live.

Second, if these foragers find a good meal and start to nest, what do you think is next? That’s easy; they’ll start to multiply. So for obvious reasons just seeing 1 german cockroach a month on a regular basis is reason enough to do a treatment whether they’re nesting in your unit or not.

So what type of treatment is needed? I would go with the ROACH GEL for sure. It’s easy to apply, lasts 2-3 months per application and won’t make a mess like most any spray. All you need to do is apply 1/2 tube (as explained on our product page) every 3 months and that will do it. If a roach forages into your unit, he’ll no doubt be hungry which means he’ll find your offering, eat some and die. More importantly, if any start to nest in your town house, they too will find your offering, eat some and die. Either way you’ll be avoiding a much bigger “issue” which will no doubt be a lot more costly and time consuming to resolve.

Hope this helps; here are direct links to the information and products listed above:

Roach Gel:  http://www.bugspraycart.com/bait/gel/maxforce-magnum-roach-gel-1-oz

Roach Control Article:  http://www.germanroaches.com/roach-control

But yet ever time I visit to do work, I find roaches all over the place.

Why are they coming in to the house when there is no food to be found???

Love your website by the way.  Also had a chance to visit your store last week.  Great service, great help.  Thanks!

There are several reasons why this happens. First, roaches don’t do much except look for food and nest sites. When food is scarce, they are forced to forage more than they’d like. I suspect this is happening at your second house. When food is plentiful, roaches are able to get their fill when they feel most secure and will spend more time hiding out of sight. But if the local food supply is limited, they’ll have to come out more and forage more so in the end, there is a greater chance of them being seen. Clearly this is happening at your location.

Second, as explained in our GERMAN ROACH CONTROL article, roaches can live 6 months or longer without food. So even if you removed all there was for them to eat, you would still expect to see them foraging around for a good 6-12 months under normal conditions expected life spans.

Third, roaches are cannabilistic. They love to eat other roaches. I’m sure there are lots of dead roaches hidden behind walls and under things which are providing ample nutrition and food for the local population. These carcasses can conceiveably sustain an active roach population indefinitely.

Fourth, roaches will commonly feed on things people don’t consider to be food. These items include fabric (furniture, drapes, carpets, etc), paper products (boxes, paper plates, paper), wall paper, wall paper glue, insulation and basically most any construction component found in most homes these days.

In summary, roaches are great survivors. They’re both adaptable and persistent. They’re able to survive on material commonly found around most any house that most people don’t consider to be “food”. With this in mind, it’s no wonder they can remain active in an abandoned house indefinitely. So if you wish to get rid of them, you’ll need to do some baiting and the ROACH GEL is ideal for this type of problem. Since it’s so much more attractive to what they’ve been forced to feed on, the gel will readily be accepted and in most cases, the population will be knocked out in 3-6 weeks once it works it’s way into the bulk of the population.