Cockroaches can be a menace, to say the least. However, nothing is worse than cockroaches disturbing your sleep by crawling all over you or your bed. Just the thought of these creatures scampering and crawling on your bed is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl. If you spot one roach in or around where you sleep, there’s a good chance that there are more of them hiding around, because they love dark spaces.
Can I sleep with a cockroach in my room? While cockroaches don’t bite, they are capable of provoking you to the highest levels of fear or disgust. Besides, they can also trigger allergic reactions and even asthma if you happen to inhale their skin and waste.
Well, while roaches may be pretty common, they are attracted to unhygienic conditions and can thrive on remains of food and dirty kitchens and washrooms. If you want to keep them away from your bedroom or any other room in your home, you would still need to take the same actions. Some of these include keeping your bedroom free of food and dampness, reducing clutter and tidying the space up, making sure that you empty your trash out regularly, fixing leaky taps, and sealing all openings to the outside, primarily windows and doors. All the more reason for you to find out how to keep them away from you as you sleep.
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How can you keep cockroaches far away from you while you sleep?
Here are a few useful tips to help prevent cockroaches from disturbing your sleep at night:
- Pest Repellents – Pest repellents function to keep roaches and other bugs outside the house and prevent them from making a home inside your home. The most frequently used repellents used for pest control are the electronic ones, which are 100% safe even for children and pets. They do not leave bodies of dead cockroaches all over and keep any kind of pests away without you raising a finger.
- Use Cockroach Repellent Spray – These are very effective especially as far as your bedroom is concerned. Spray in all corners and dark places in your room, especially areas that could be potential entry points. Leave the windows closed to prevent the spray from being blown away by the wind outside. Note that you need to spray and leave the room for a while for the sake of your health. This will ensure that cockroaches do not crawl all over you at night, and will also kill any other pests that may have been in the room.
- Baits – There are so many of these you can purchase from online stores for you to eliminate these irritating pests. Baits draw roaches towards them and you are guaranteed that the whole nest will be eliminated. Most of these baits are harmless for children but should be kept away from them nevertheless. Many people are now opting for gel baits because of their convenience. You just have to put the gel on the wall cracks and edges in your house, where a lot of cockroaches can be found.
- Traps – The problem of roaches requires fast action to fix it, and traps are just the solution. However, using these will turn out messy because if any cockroaches are terminated, you will have a lot of dead bodies to clear up the next day. This is the reason why most people choose gel baits over traps.
- Essential Oils – Essential oils are concentrated hydrophobic liquids that contain unstable chemical compounds found in plants. They include lavender oil, eucalyptus oil, rosemary oil, cinnamon oil, and so on. Cockroaches hate the smell of these, and not only do essential oils keep roaches far away from your bed, but they also soothe you as you sleep and give you such a relaxing ambiance due to their scents. They do not have a bad odor and are safe around children. As a bonus, they may help calm down hyperactive kids and put them straight to sleep. All you need to do is add the essential oil of your choice in water, in a ratio of 1:10. Spray it all over the bedroom you go to bed.
- Wipe sinks – Avoid leaving drops of water around your bathtub or bathroom sink. They are attracted to humidity and moisture.
- Keep bags zipped – Zip up your backpack and suitcases. Roaches love the cool, dark spaces inside bags and suitcases, so if they have access to these places, they will jump at the opportunity.
What brings cockroaches to your house?
It is important that you also keep in mind the conditions that make it easy for cockroaches to thrive in any environment, and these are
- Food presence – This is probably the main reason you may be having cockroaches in your house. The population of roaches per square meter increases with the proximity of any room to the kitchen. Likewise, keeping bits of food in any room increases the chances of roaches finding a home in your house. Cockroaches are never picky eaters, and will eat anything they come across. You therefore need to
- Darkness and moisture – Cockroaches hate light, and also do not like to be seen by humans. They are always hiding away in dark corners as they munch away at remains of your food or pieces of cardboard, wood, or newspaper. Roaches also like moisture, and rely on water for survival more than they do food. They can be found under bathroom mats or beneath the kitchen sink. You, therefore, need to ensure all areas of your house are nice and dry to prevent these pesky creatures from making a home out of your home.
- Cockroach-infested items – Have you ever moved into a new home and wondered why you carried all the roaches from your old home with you? Well, cockroaches tend to hide in old cardboard boxes and old appliances such as televisions, microwaves, and toasters, especially if they had been kept in dark, hidden places like basements and garages.
Clear out the clutter as regularly as possible to evict the cockroaches so that they stop being too comfortable sharing your home with you.
- Attractive outdoor environment – Most people might fail to realize that the reason their houses are infested with cockroaches is because of the conducive breeding ground for roaches outdoors. Cockroaches love warm and humid areas, like compost bins, leaky outdoor taps, and areas of heavy vegetation. These places are of proximity to your home, making it very easy for the creatures to find their way inside.
If you are sure the roach problem stemmed from the situation outdoors, be sure to fix any leaks outside and keep vegetation neatly kempt. Empty compost bins when they become full because there is nothing a cockroach loves more than an untidy home.
Final Thoughts
If your bed is on the ground and there are roaches on the ground, as a temporary fix, you can use surface spray to spray the floor all around your bed and also along all of the boards and doors of your room. To solve the problem completely, you will need to get a professional pest control specialist to come and rid your home of cockroaches.
Cockroaches hate light and try to hide from it as much as they can. Leaving the lights on in your room will, however, not prevent cockroaches from moving in search of sources of food, shelter, and moisture. Also, your sleep might be disrupted by having these lights on in your room at night, so you better use other approaches like keeping your room clean, setting up traps/deterrents at possible entrances, and sealing potential entry points.
Finally, while cockroaches rarely hide inside mattresses, it is important to regularly check underneath mattresses and clean the area up to prevent them from creating homes there.
