About "disinfection" from cockroaches and important rules for its implementation in the apartment

It is often possible to come across the opinion that only special insect control services can reliably destroy indoor cockroaches, whose employees treat apartments, houses and industrial enterprises with powerful toxic preparations using complex and expensive equipment. There is also an opinion that it is almost impossible for a simple apartment owner to carry out such a “disinfection” of a room from cockroaches on his own, and he will not receive the necessary result.

Let's see how the situation really is.

And let's start, perhaps, with the fact that "disinfection" in this case is the wrong term, although it is often used. Disinfection means the destruction of bacteria and viruses, that is, it involves the fight against infectious agents. The fight against cockroaches and other pests and parasites is called pest control (from the Latin word insect - “insect”).

Disinsection can be professional when it is done by trained specialists, as well as independent, when the residents of the premises themselves poison the cockroaches.

Alas, practice shows that there is another type of pest control - fraudulent. Under it, unscrupulous businessmen imitate the work of removing cockroaches at a market price, but do not provide the required result. There are also more egregious cases when, during the “disinfection”, the handlers simply take jewelry or money from the apartment with them. There are a lot of such scammers today, and further we will figure out how they can be easily calculated even before work is carried out.

In the meantime, the following can be noted:

1. Self-control of cockroaches allows you to save money, but is more troublesome, unsafe and in advanced cases does not always give the desired result;
2. Professional disinfestation is much more expensive than independent, does not require participation in the process from homeowners, is practically safe for residents (including pets) and in most cases is quite effective. The main disadvantage here is the difficulty of choosing a conscientious and really reliable contractor who will provide the desired result and give a guarantee on it (not fake, as many do today, but a real guarantee for free re-processing in case the first one did not work).

Review:

“We ordered the disinfection of the apartment from cockroaches. This is some kind of horror - rudeness on the phone, zero results and lost money. According to their price list, it costs 2,000 rubles to process a odnushka, the master comes and says that you need to use a super-remedy for 5,000, otherwise it will not help. Okay, paid, processed. The cockroaches did not notice the poison at all, they ran around the kitchen that very night.We call them, we say, how so? They answer, they say, no one will ever give a guarantee for disinfection, and if you don’t like something, contact another service. Re-departure from them - 800 rubles in St. Petersburg. I immediately understand that on the spot it will turn into a couple of thousand. In general, a frank divorce!

Elena, St. Petersburg

 

Principles, means and methods of pest control from cockroaches

Means for the destruction of cockroaches today are quite diverse. These insects willingly eat various poisoned baits, stick to glue, die from the action of insecticidal crayons, aerosol products and all kinds of dusts (insecticides in powder form).

However, choosing an effective remedy for cockroaches is only half the battle. A large number of inexperienced cockroach fighters, even when buying a powerful poison, do not achieve the desired effect due to a number of errors during pest control.

Here's how professional exterminators work:

1. For processing, modern insecticidal agents are used, which, in addition to acute intestinal action, also have a contact effect (that is, it is enough for a cockroach to contact the drug so that paralysis occurs after a while, and then death). The insecticide is applied in the form of an aerosol by spraying a pre-prepared solution using sprayers or installations for generating the so-called cold or hot fog. It is the aerosol that allows you to quickly destroy cockroaches in the apartment, even in hard-to-reach places. In addition to aerosols, gels, dusts and glue traps are used (mainly for preventive purposes to kill single surviving individuals);
2. All rooms in which cockroaches can be, including balconies, a toilet, a bathroom are processed. Breeding cockroaches, for example, only in the kitchen, would be pointless;
3. A consequence of the previous paragraph - ideally, cockroaches should be displayed in all neighboring apartments. In practice, this can be difficult to achieve due to the traditional intractability of neighbors. The classics of the genre are statements of this type: “We don’t need any disinfection from cockroaches, and in general, everything is clean with us, we’re not homeless.” Therefore, after disinfestation, the owners of the premises are strongly advised to take measures to protect their home from the re-entry of cockroaches from neighbors. A little lower we will consider the ways of such protection of the apartment;
4. Effective disinfestation from cockroaches is always carried out in the absence of all tenants and pets in the apartment (and not just in one room). An exception is the presence of the customer if he has personal protective equipment. This, by the way, is one of the ways to identify a one-day service: if a “disinfector specialist” says that he will simply sprinkle a solution in the kitchen, and it is enough just to close the door here, then with a high probability the saga with cockroaches will not end after such work;
5. To prevent the re-breeding of cockroaches in an apartment, it is extremely important to determine exactly how they get here. The specialist can interview the owners, inspect the bathroom, toilet, staircase, balcony, look for ways for insects to penetrate through balconies or closets. Without blocking such paths, it is impossible to guarantee that cockroaches will not appear in the apartment in the future, and good services always provide such a guarantee.

Thus, when disinsection in an apartment, service employees use a set of means and methods of control. The main part of the population is destroyed by aerosol. Those cockroaches that survived are poisoned by gels, dusts, or fall into traps. The entrances to the apartment for new aliens are blocked, and those that cannot be blocked are surrounded by means of passive barrier protection - these can be insecticidal chalk strips, gel strips or dust tracks.

It is this integrated approach that is most effective in practice.

And now for comparison - how often the fight against cockroaches is carried out on their own. On the way home, a can of Dichlorvos is bought at a hardware store in order to quickly sprinkle it along the baseboards and behind the stove. Everything, on this the whole disinsection is completed. If Dichlorvos does not help, then in a week or two some gel can be bought. No wonder cockroaches will thrive indoors with this approach.

Review

“... I really liked how the guys worked.All the cockroaches were destroyed at one time, after them there was no dirt or stains on the furniture. Only a slight smell of chemicals in the apartment and a bunch of cockroach corpses all over the floor the next morning. Payment is strictly according to the price list, everything is according to the contract, in the end everything turned out quite budgetary ... ".

Igor, Moscow

 

And further: You think that there are no longer normal remedies for cockroaches on the market and nothing will take these insects - no matter how it is!

What means poison cockroaches exterminators

As noted above, the main treatment of the apartment is carried out by exterminators with aerosol insecticides. The beauty of these drugs lies in the fact that they get into the most inaccessible places with air, where they actively poison cockroaches. This allows you to destroy the main part of the insect population (sometimes all) in just a few hours.

Sinuzan, Avicin, Averfos, Xulat, Tetrix, Solfak, Forssayt and others are used as such insecticides. These are concentrates. Many of them are approved for use only by specialists, and therefore are sold in large packages of a liter or more.

Working solutions are prepared from concentrates.

Different methods are used to spray the solution in the apartment:

1. Spraying with a conventional sprayer is the simplest, but inefficient spraying method, requiring painstaking spraying of all surfaces, crevices and places where cockroaches can hide;
2. Treatment of the room with cold fog - in this case, the solution is dispersed in an electric fog generator to the state of a fine aerosol, which is then removed from the apparatus under pressure.Mixing with air, the aerosol easily penetrates into various cracks, holes, spaces behind furniture;
3. Hot fog treatment is fundamentally similar to the previous method, but the aerosol is also heated in the hot fog generator. Due to this, it has a smaller particle size, stays in suspension longer, without settling on surfaces, and, as a result, penetrates into even deeper and hard-to-reach cockroach shelters. However, it should be noted that hot fog generators are rarely used in small apartments. This powerful equipment is better suited for pest control in large industrial facilities.

After such treatment, in those places through which cockroaches can enter the apartment from neighboring rooms, the exterminator usually either pours insecticidal powder (colloquially - dust) or installs bait houses. A gel can also be applied here, or an adhesive trap is installed - depending on what the specialist considers more rational.

If a warranty case occurs (that is, cockroaches reappear after pest control), the specialist can apply the same methods during reprocessing. In practice, conscientious services do not guarantee the absence of cockroaches in cases where it is obvious that these pests massively and freely enter the apartment from neighbors.

 

Where to go for professional pest control?

The most difficult thing when ordering the services of professional exterminators is to choose a reliable company. Moreover, in large cities it can be especially difficult to do this: dozens of different organizations work here, among which, let's say, cunning disinfectors work.

However, there are a number of simple rules that allow you to avoid the services of one-day firms at the selection stage:

1. Immediately contact large networks that have long been present on the market, which have branches in dozens of different cities. By the way, such organizations usually maintain average prices for the market;
2. Read reviews about the company before arranging to call its specialists;
3. When talking with the manager, find out about the availability of a license for disinfestation work, certificates for the means used. If you place an order, ask the exterminators to bring these documents with them;
4. Find out if the contract is signed by the company, whether it is certified with a wet seal and the signature of the contractor. If this is not done, then it makes sense to look for another company;
5. When calling, immediately ask if the company can carry out the destruction of cockroaches with cold fog. As a rule, "sharashka offices" do not have the capital to buy expensive equipment, and this question alone can quickly filter out all dubious offers. After that, by the way, it is not at all necessary to order the treatment with fog, sometimes the use of a conventional sprayer is quite justified;
6. Ask the manager if it will be possible for children and pets to stay in the apartment during the work. If the manager allows it, call another company.

Further, remember that on the Internet and in a telephone conversation, all firms can be white and fluffy, and their true face is revealed only when performing work (and especially after, when the money for pest control from cockroaches has already been paid). Therefore, be guided by the principle "chairs in the morning, money in the evening."

Namely:

1. Immediately upon arrival of the pest control, ask him for all the documents - an agreement, a license for pest control services, certificates for the chemicals used;
2. Check that the contract is stamped and that the adequate conditions for providing a guarantee are clearly spelled out;
3. Check the funds yourself. If the exterminator gave you a Tetrix certificate, he must have Tetrix, and not a canister without a label with cloudy liquid;
4. Control the progress of disinfestation (in personal protective equipment), the thoroughness of surface treatment and the duration of all work. Keep in mind that twenty minutes of cleaning the kitchen cabinet and cabinet under the sink is not enough to completely destroy cockroaches in the room.

And remember: you pay only for the result and only when you see it. Do not give the exterminator money before work. The exterminator must conscientiously process the entire apartment - only after that it makes sense to pay him.

Review

“A year ago we did disinfection from cockroaches. Two guys arrived, they said that no one should be in the apartment for a day after treatment, they would need to spend the night in another place. From the refrigerator you need to remove everything that is eaten without heat treatment - sausage, cheese, cookies, bread. All the windows were closed, they sprayed something for half an hour, then they took the money and left. The next morning we came to air and saw a cemetery of cockroaches. There were a lot of them, I didn’t even think that we had so many of them in our apartment! There were a lot of them even in the bedrooms. After that, cockroaches have not appeared yet ... "

Tatiana, Moscow

 

The work of exterminators: how it happens, how much it costs, what you need to be prepared for

Standard prices for pest control from cockroaches start at about 1,500 rubles for a one-room apartment. About 1700 costs the processing of a two-room apartment, 2000 - a three-room apartment. Depending on the set of guarantees and some other nuances, the price may vary significantly.

For example, this is how the average price list of a company operating in Moscow looks like:

Apartments		Cottages
Room size	price, rub.	Room size, sq. m	price, rub.
1-room apartment	1500	100	3100
2-room apartment	1700	100-200	3400
3-room apartment	1900	200-300	3700
4-room apartment	2100	300-400	4000
5-room apartment	2200	Over 400	negotiable

And further: You can smear at least the entire apartment with cockroach gel, but they will not die if you do not take into account a number of important nuances ...

As a rule, the manager of the company receives basic information by phone when calling the service. However, in some cases, just before the pest control, a specialist comes to the site to assess the situation on the spot.

Often exterminators immediately arrive for processing with a sufficient supply of drugs and equipment to cope with cockroaches even in the most neglected situation.

Immediately before disinfestation, an agreement is signed, after which:

1. All residents and pets are removed from the premises in order to avoid their poisoning;
2. Furniture is moved away from the walls, cabinets and bedside tables in the kitchen are freed;
3. Food and children's toys are packed in plastic bags;
4. Special fog generators are filled with an insecticide solution, and the walls of furniture, baseboards, door frames, the stove, the back wall of the refrigerator - and in general, all places where cockroaches can hide are treated with the drug.
5. The apartment is closed and infused for several hours.

After that, the residents themselves carry out wet cleaning and thorough ventilation, after which you can return to the apartment for a normal life. As a rule, the smell in the room practically disappears after a few hours of airing, although the smell from upholstered furniture may disappear for several days.

If you do not tighten it with wet cleaning, then there will be no stains on furniture or household appliances.

On a note

Sometimes people complain of an unpleasant metallic taste in the mouth after pest control. This is a sign that the insecticide has not completely disappeared from the apartment. Normally, already on the first or second day after thorough cleaning and intensive ventilation, such sensations should not arise.

During processing, most of the cockroach population dies. Within a few hours after treatment, insects that could hide in the most secluded places die, and therefore, by the time of airing, there should be practically no live cockroaches in the house.

In some cases, it may be necessary to re-treat the premises from cockroaches. Typically, such cases are provided for in the contract as part of the guarantee. Be that as it may, this point must be discussed in advance, since even the most professional processing does not give a result in 100% of cases. If a few days after treatment live cockroaches are found in the apartment, you can call the exterminators and call them under warranty.

When working with unscrupulous contractors, departure under warranty is often offered for an additional fee. If before disinfestation you signed an agreement stating that re-treatment is free of charge, feel free to demand a free re-treatment.

Review

"Scammers all around! We ordered the disinfection of the hostel from the company, it was necessary to poison the cockroaches in several rooms. Immediately upon arrival, the master began to tell us that we definitely need some kind of barrier, and without it, the cockroaches will return. The barrier costs as much as the treatment itself. As a result, cockroaches were seen for another month after disinfection, they constantly appeared in the eyes throughout the hostel, and then again there were as many of them as before. They called for a guarantee, they tell us - a guarantee of 800 rubles only for the departure. Horror!"

Victoria, Voronezh

 

Do-it-yourself pest control with aerosols and concentrates

Self-treatment of a room from cockroaches is not fundamentally different from a professional one. The difference is only in the details:

1. For disinfestation, preparations specially adapted for domestic use are used (in small packaging, odorless). The most popular of them today are Get, Delta Zone, Lambda Zone, Xulat Micro and some others. These products practically do not leave a smell in the room and remain effective for several weeks (being applied to surfaces inaccessible to people and pets where wet cleaning is not carried out);
2. As an alternative to concentrated preparations, you can buy products in cans that are ready for spraying (Dichlorvos Neo, Raptor from crawling insects, Combat Superspray, etc.). However, their use is financially more costly with the same efficiency;
3. To spray the insecticidal solution, ordinary household spray guns are used (you can even just take a bottle of window cleaner).

The rest of the disinfestation should occur similarly to professional. The task of the owner of the premises is to thoroughly treat all surfaces on which cockroaches can move, as well as to achieve penetration of the aerosol into those places where insects can hide.

After processing, the room is closed for several hours, then it is ventilated, it is cleaned, dead cockroaches are swept out.

Usually, self-disinsection requires at least 5-6 hours of time (taking into account the preparation of the premises and putting it in order). After the application of aerosol insecticides with additional means of passive destruction, the room is protected from the entry of new insects into it.

Review:

“We were led to the beautiful website of the company, ordered the destruction of cockroaches in my grandmother's apartment. After 2 hours, the master was with her, everything seems to be fine. But then it began: the master declares that the work will cost not 2200, as the manager said, but 10000. This is for one piece! We called the manager, she was surprised, she says she doesn’t know why the master behaves like that. This "master" somehow sprinkled something in the kitchen in 15 minutes, grabbed the money and disappeared. He didn't leave a receipt or a contract. We started calling, sorting things out, and what do you think? No one picks up the phone in the office for the third day!”

Inna, Moscow

 

Additional means of extermination of cockroaches: gels, traps, powders and pencils

Often, the success of the entire pest control depends on whether these tools are used or not.

Of the means of passive destruction of cockroaches, the most common are:

1. Gels are products that attract cockroaches with their smell. They include insecticides, which lead to the rapid death of the insect after entering the digestive tract. In the fight against cockroaches, insecticidal gels Globol, Absolut, Raptor, Dohlox and a number of others have proven themselves well;
2. Insecticidal pencils (crayons). Less effective than gels, but more affordable, easy to use and longer effective without renewal. Of these, Chisty Dom, Mashenka, Brownie, Titanic, etc. are popular;
3. Dusty - Ecokiller, Clean House, Fas, Green House, Feverfew (a natural remedy based on dried chamomile flowers);
4. Traps (glue and electric). In them, insects die, running by accident or being attracted by the bait placed inside.

All these tools can also be used as the main means of disinfestation, but they act slowly, so a large population of cockroaches will be destroyed for a long time.

The best option for self-disinsection is to quickly destroy the bulk of cockroaches with aerosol insecticides, and then fix the result with gels and traps.

 

We block the way to the cockroaches in the apartment

Finally, the victory over cockroaches cannot be considered complete if the risk of their penetration into the apartment from neighboring premises remains. Finding the places of such penetrations and blocking them is one of the key tasks for the apartment owner.

If pest control is carried out by specialists, they can tell you in what ways cockroaches usually get into an apartment. As a rule, "entrance gates" become:

1. Sewer pipes, cold and hot water pipes - there are usually narrow gaps between them and concrete, through which cockroaches migrate between rooms;
2. Sockets from which cockroaches can enter the apartment not only from neighbors, but also from the entrance;
3. Ventilation;
4. Window frames and door frames (their junction with the walls).

First of all, it is better to block such penetration routes - putty or cover with an elastic sealant.

If for some reason it is not possible to completely block such passages, then you can apply gel from cockroaches near them or set glue traps. Be that as it may, everything possible must be done so that the insects either cannot physically enter the apartment, or with a high probability die immediately after entering it.

It is also useful to write a complaint to the SES if cockroaches constantly live in the entrance, basement, in the attic of an apartment building or, for example, in a restaurant attached to the house. Several such complaints from residents at one address - and the SES responds quite quickly by conducting pest control in the premises.

The situation is more complicated when the residential apartment of dysfunctional neighbors is a breeding ground for cockroaches. But even in this case, the problem can be solved by collective complaints to the SES.

Nevertheless, practice shows that if the apartment is carefully protected from the penetration of insects into it from the outside, then even with total infection of the entire apartment building, pests will not be able to establish their population in it.

 

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