Cockroach Control: Which One You've Got and How to Get Rid of It
Benefit Pest Management provides cockroach control for homes and food businesses across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter. We work out which cockroach you have and where it lives, then treat it there. Australian and American cockroach treatment carries a six month warranty, subject to the weather and to following our recommendations. German cockroach treatment is generally covered for three months at most, because that’s as long as the product lasts. Our head technician holds pest management technician licence 5083379.
We get back to every enquiry within one business day.
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Pests we treat
Where cockroach control starts
The cockroach you saw tells us less than where you saw it.
A big brown one crossing the kitchen floor late at night, at a speed that seems unreasonable for its size, has usually come in from outside or up from the drains. It’s a disgusting thing to find in a kitchen. The big ones live in drains, sewers and gardens, and they come inside after dark looking for food however clean the bench is.
A small, light-brown one in the cutlery drawer is a different story. That’s more likely a German cockroach or a brown-banded cockroach, and both of those live and breed inside the house. A cockroach out in broad daylight is worth taking seriously, because a daytime sighting can mean the population has outgrown its hiding spots.
So the first job is working out which cockroach it is and where it’s living. That decides where the work happens and which product we use.
The German cockroach is the hard one
It’s also one of the smallest of the pest cockroaches. Adults are only about 1.1 to 1.6cm long, tan to light brown, with two dark stripes running back from behind the head. You’ll find them in the kitchen far more than anywhere else: inside cupboards and drawers, behind the fridge and the oven, and inside electrical appliances. They like warm, tight spaces close to food and water.
What makes them hard to get rid of is the breeding. A female carries her egg case on her body, wherever she is hiding, until just before it hatches. Each case holds somewhere around 30 to 48 eggs. In good conditions the young are breeding adults within about two months, and a population can go through several generations in a year. The Australian Museum says a single female can produce up to 20,000 young a year.
They’re tough, too. Some populations have built up resistance to dozens of the active ingredients in insecticides.
For a food business they’re also a compliance problem. Every commercial site we look after keeps a site register, which has a pest sighting register inside it and is read first on every visit. How that works in premises with a HACCP food safety audit is on our commercial pest control page.
Ring 0467 561 548 and tell us where you’re seeing them.
The other cockroaches you're likely to meet
Australia has around 450 species of cockroach, and most of the native ones live in leaf litter and keep well away from people. The ones that come inside are almost all introduced pests. Despite its name, the Australian cockroach is one of them.
German cockroach
- Size
- About 1.1 to 1.6cm
- What to look for
- Tan to light brown, two dark stripes behind the head
- Where it lives
- Inside: kitchens, cupboards, drawers, appliances
Brown-banded cockroach
- Size
- About 1 to 1.4cm
- What to look for
- Two pale bands across the body, easiest to see on females and young ones
- Where it lives
- Inside, up high and away from the kitchen: bedrooms, furniture, wardrobes, behind picture frames, inside appliances
American cockroach
- Size
- Around 4cm on average, the biggest of the four
- What to look for
- Reddish brown, with a pale yellow band behind the head
- Where it lives
- Warm, damp places such as drains and sewers
Australian cockroach
- Size
- About 2.3 to 3.5cm
- What to look for
- Brown, a yellow edge behind the head and yellow streaks near the base of the wings
- Where it lives
- Around the outside of buildings, coming in for food or shelter
Of the four, the German and the brown-banded cockroaches live and breed inside. The brown-banded likes it warmer and drier, so it turns up higher in the house and further from the kitchen. The American and Australian cockroaches mostly live outdoors and come in, or live hidden away in the wall cavities, so dealing with them is as much about the outside of the house as the inside.
The cards above tell most cockroaches apart, and a photo will usually settle the rest.
The product they can't tell is there
Australian and American cockroaches are dealt with in the general treatment, using a repellent product, at the same time as the spiders, with the focus on where they’re hiding.
German cockroaches need a completely different product: a non-repellent one, very low in toxicity. Once it’s dry they can’t tell it’s there, so they walk straight through it and carry it back through the rest of the nest.
The catch is how long it lasts. Non-repellent products don’t last long, and the German cockroach product lasts three months at most. Foot traffic and wiping wear it down sooner.
How much of a health risk they are
Some, mostly through food. Cockroaches travel between drains, bins and kitchen benches. The Victorian Department of Health says they’re believed to carry bacteria such as salmonella, which can reach food through their droppings. The Australian Museum adds a caveat: there is very little evidence of cockroaches actually spreading disease to people.
Cockroaches can also set off allergic reactions in some people, and NSW Health’s public health bulletin says cockroach allergens can be responsible for asthma.
If anyone in the house has asthma, the University of Florida’s entomologists say washing hard surfaces with soapy water, then rinsing with clean water, removes the allergens the cockroaches leave behind.
What a cockroach control treatment involves
Before the visit you get written instructions on how to get the house ready. Follow them, because the preparation is a condition of the warranty.
On the day, a general treatment covers the inside and the outside of the house at the effective dose the job requires. Putting down more product doesn’t shift any more cockroaches. It only leaves more product in a home where people live. Our general treatments are water-based and safe once dry. The detail on kids, pets and the veggie patch is on our residential pest control page.
The non-repellent product is for German cockroaches. A German cockroach infestation is generally two treatments about four weeks apart, depending on how bad it is.
General treatments carry a six month warranty, provided the preparation and after-care advice is followed. For cockroaches, that covers the Australian and American ones, subject to the weather. The German cockroach warranty is generally three months at most. That’s as long as the product lasts, and German cockroaches are generally carried back into the house from somewhere else.
Why they came back last time
There’s usually a reason, and it is rarely bad luck.
The next generation was already on its way. A German cockroach keeps her egg case with her, tucked into whatever crack she is hiding in, until it is almost ready to hatch. She’s a very attentive mother, which is the whole trouble. Deal with the adults you can see, and a fresh batch of 30-odd young can still arrive afterwards.
They were living where nobody looked. German cockroaches spend most of their lives in cracks and hidden spaces close to food and water: the gap behind a cupboard, the warm space behind the fridge or the oven.
The big ones walked back in. American and Australian cockroaches live in drains, sewers and gardens, so there are always more where the last ones came from.
They had everything they needed: food, water and somewhere to hide. A dripping tap, pet food left down overnight, crumbs under the toaster or a stack of cardboard in the laundry will keep a population going. The same crumbs and drips bring in ants, too.
Take the food, water and hiding places away and cockroaches have much less to live on. Sealing the cracks they hide in is part of our integrated pest management work.
Cockroach control in summer, and how bookings work
October to March is our busiest stretch of the year, which is exactly when cockroaches are hardest to ignore. Lead times run longer through summer. How soon we can get to you depends on where you are and the size of the job, and you’ll get a real date when you ring.
Where we do this
We work from our base at Caves Beach across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, the Hunter, Port Stephens and the Central Coast, with no call-out fee.
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FAQ
Straight answers on cockroaches
Does one cockroach mean there are more?
One or two adults can be new arrivals, often a big one that has wandered in from outside. Where you saw it, how big it was and whether you’ve seen any in daylight tell us far more than the count.
Are the small ones baby cockroaches, or full-grown German cockroaches?
Either is possible, and the stripes usually tell you which. A fully grown German cockroach is only about 1.1 to 1.6cm, light brown, with two dark stripes running back from behind the head. Newly hatched German cockroaches are about 3mm long and black. A photo will tell us which you have.
Do cockroaches fly?
Some do, a little. The German cockroach has wings but can barely fly, though it may glide when disturbed. American cockroaches can fly short distances, usually launching from somewhere high, and even they would mostly rather run.
How did German cockroaches get into the house?
They were most likely carried in. The species has spread around the world by travelling in what people carry and living in the buildings people keep warm. This is an indoor cockroach, so a new problem tends to start with a few arrivals brought inside, not a march across the backyard.
Can cockroaches live inside appliances?
Yes, German cockroaches especially. They’re drawn to warmth and tight spaces, so the inside of electrical appliances and the space behind a fridge or an oven are common hiding spots. If you’ve seen them near an appliance, tell us when you ring, so we know to look there.
How many visits does a bad German cockroach problem take?
Generally two, about four weeks apart, though it depends on how bad it is. The gap follows their breeding cycle, so the second treatment hits the young before they’re old enough to breed.
Next step
Start with what was used last time
Tell us what was used last time, and we’ll tell you why they came back. A can from the supermarket, a bomb, a previous treatment: all of it helps us work out what we’re dealing with before anyone opens a kitchen cupboard.
A quote costs nothing, and neither does the advice.
