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Do cockroaches come up from the drain?

Alpha Pest Control

Seeing a cockroach in your house is never great news. Have you ever wondered how they got in? How can you prevent them?

One comment that I hear often from my clients is that roaches are coming up from the drain. Everyone assumes that because there are roaches in the sewer system, these disease-carrying creepy crawlies must be coming into your house via the sewer and your plumbing pipes.

In reality, roaches were probably already on the inside of your house and they just visited the drain seeking moisture. Roaches are present in sewers, but that is why you have that elbow joint in the plumbing you can see under your sink.  If the curved plumbing pipe has water in it, the roaches and sewer gases won’t be able to enter into your house.  However, if you go on a long vacation or have a bathroom sink or shower you don’t use, the plumbing pipes can dry up leaving an easy access point into your house.  It’s as if you’re inviting them into your home.  At my house, we have a bathtub in the master bathroom that we don’t use very often. We make sure to run water down the drain periodically just to help prevent these un-welcome pests from becoming a household guest. Or, close drains that aren’t in use.

If you are using all the drains in the house regularly, then roaches usually enter your house via a cardboard box you might have brought in from outside (they can live in the walls of the box) or through an entry point around your house, like a door that isn’t tightly sealed or open window.

Keeping roaches away from those entry points is why you should have regular pest control done around the perimeter of your home. This creates a barrier that will kill roaches and other pests before they have a chance to enter.

From our experience, customers who have regular preventative treatments rarely, if ever, have any type of pest issue. When it comes to pests in your house, “hear no evil, see no evil” isn’t a preventative measure. The Alpha Pest Control team would much rather make sure that your house is protected on a regular basis instead of getting a distraught phone call after you’ve seen a roach crawling up the kitchen sink, or even worse onto your pillow while you sleep.  Let us help you beforehand.

If you are having problems with roaches or other pests, please call Alpha Pest Control at 480-968-0414 or fill out our online form to set up an appointment or ask any questions. Alpha Pest Control is a locally-owned Arizona company can solve your pest problems. We service both residential and commercial clients in the metro Phoenix area, including Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Scottsdale, Gilbert, Sun Lakes, Ahwatukee and Glendale.

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