QUESTION:

What is the best product for roaches for kitchen areas, and one that is safe for use around children?

ANSWER:

I am going to be purposely vague here Martin, because there are SO many different products for cockroach control that I would hate to see you focus in on the use of only one of them. First, we have to recognize that the best roach control is going to come from the use of IPM methods, meaning you address the important issues of sanitation and exclusion, perhaps even before you start applying pesticides. You should begin with a very careful inspection of the facility (home or commercial kitchen) to determine exactly where the roaches are hiding and what contributing conditions exist in this place that are providing the food, water, and harborage that these roaches need to be there and to thrive. You write all of these findings down on your Sanitation Inspection Report form and present them to the customer, and together the two of you put together a game plan on how those contributing conditions will be resolved. Quite honestly, if the sanitation aspects are not dealt with no amount of insecticide is going to permanently eliminate the roaches. The customer has to accept that changes are needed.

With the IPM steps taking place you then choose the other products you will use to remove the roaches, and these may be both chemical and non-chemical. Certainly insect glue traps are very useful for monitoring initially as well as for a follow up to check your results. Vacuums are available that will instantly remove a great many cockroaches, reducing the number you then need to kill with insecticides. You should discuss the insecticide choices with your customer to see if he or she has any concerns before you start applying the materials. You may find out that they absolutely will not tolerate synthetic active ingredients, and thus you could offer the use of some of the many "natural" products. They may not want sprays used in which case you may stick with baits and wall injections of dusts or bait. Involving the customer in these choices can be helpful in the long run, and it also give you the opportunity to educate them on the limitations of relying only on insecticides.

With respect to the question of "safe" for use around children, we, as an industry, are told to avoid the word SAFE at all costs. You should never suggest to your customers that any kind of pesticide is safe for children, as this understates the fact that any and all pesticides potentially are harmful when not used properly. At the same time, it is all about HOW you apply the chosen products whether or not children or pets or anyone else will be exposed to them. For cockroach control you achieve the safest and the most effective application by placing all products directly into hidden places, where the roaches will contact the material but people are not going to be. Since the German roach spends 80% of its time tucked away inside voids and crevices, these are the places you should apply your insecticide products, including bait products. Bait gels should never be left exposed on counters and walls, but only placed into crevices where the roaches prefer to feed.

Fogging the air inside a home is not going to give you any successful cockroach control, so avoid setting off aerosols or mechanical foggers for German roaches. The use of a crack and crevice tip, whether on an aerosol or a hand sprayer, allows you to place your insecticide spray directly into crevices and openings leading to voids. Aerosols may be more likely to KEEP that material inside the crevice, whereas water-based sprays often drip or run out and would need to be cleaned off the surface. Granular bait products can be "puffed" into wall voids where you suspect the roaches are hiding, as can dust products like diatomaceous earth or silica gel. These inorganic dusts last for many years in a dry void, and also have extremely low hazard to humans.

I believe that just about any of the active ingredients labeled for cockroaches will kill the roach. The key is to put the roach and the active ingredient into contact with each other long enough to allow that roach to absorb enough of the a.i. to kill it. This is why putting the insecticides into the roach's hiding places is the best technique, rather than spraying baseboards and exposed surfaces. This is also how you keep your application the "safest" possible for children or anyone else who then enters and uses that kitchen. So, I hesitate to name names of specific products, but if you contact your local Univar office at 1-800-888-4897 you can talk with your local Customer Service Representative and they can let you know what others in your area seem to be trying successfully.

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