Ever wondered why do you only find dead cockroaches in your house?
Dead cockroaches in the house can be or can’t be a sign of roach infestation.
If you see dead roaches in your home out of nowhere, and you haven’t seen any live roaches before, then there’s more to the story.
In this guide, you’ll find the three reasons behind sightings of dead roaches in the house.
You’d also find what to do when you see dead roaches.
The worst part? Dead roaches pose threats to your health, especially to the health of elderlies and children. This post covers that too!
Keep reading to know it all.
Top 3 Reasons For Dead Cockroaches In The House
Have you only seen dead roaches, or you’re also seeing roach wings, baby roaches, and roach egg cases?
If yes, then your home needs immediate roach treatment.
But for now, let’s look at the reasons for sightings of dead roaches in your home.
#1 Someone In Your Neighborhood Just Had A Cockroach Treatment
When a home undergoes roach treatment, many roaches escape from that home.
And when they escape, they tend to sneak inside other homes to hide.
So, they get inside your home, and they die. Most of the time, you’d find dead roaches in an upside-down position.
Many pesticides have residual toxicity that passes on from one roach to another. That’s the reason that many roaches don’t die instantly unless the pest controller has sprayed the insecticide directly on them.
Sightings of dead roaches in your home can result from a full-fledge roach extermination process in a nearby house.
#2 Your Home Has A Heavy Roach Infestation, And You Don’t Know About It
This is the most evident and widespread reason for sightings of dead roaches.
There’s a heavy roach infestation in your home, and the roaches are dying their natural deaths.
Live roaches can discard their dead from their nests. So, you may find dead roaches near the places where roaches hide, like the kitchen, bathroom, and basement.
Cockroaches are cannibals. So, don’t be surprised if you see the dead roaches half-eaten.
Apart from seeing dead roaches, you may come across roach wings lying around on the floor. Roaches generally don’t consume the wings when they eat their kind.
But there’s more to this fact.
Dead roaches are also an indication that other creatures are hiding in your home hunting these roaches.
Roaches are delicacies for ants, lizards, spiders, centipedes, and rats.
If you see a roach’s abdomen consumed in half, or a roach totally mangled, then that’s a telltale sign that these creatures are hunting the roaches.
These roach hunting creatures either lurk or raid roaches’ hiding places to kill them and eat them.
So, does the presence of these creatures pose a risk to your home? Yes, they do.
But spiders and centipedes don’t pose any infestation threat like the other ones. They’re mostly there inside your home because the outdoor habitat isn’t favorable.
Eventually, they’ll leave.
That doesn’t mean your home should harbor these creatures. But instead of killing them, try to get rid of them.
You can check our posts on spiders and centipedes to discover more about getting rid of spiders and centipedes without killing them.
You’ll also find out why it’s safe for your home not to kill these invertebrates.
#3 You’ve Used An Insecticide Spray In The Hiding Places Of Roaches
If your home has undergone an extensive roach treatment or you’ve sprayed insecticide sprays, then that’s for sure roaches will come out and die.
Not all roaches die instantly during roach treatment. And it’s absolutely normal to see dead roaches for weeks after treatment.
What To Do If You See Dead Cockroaches In The House?
The first thing is to look out for the signs of roach infestation. We’ve got an entire in-depth post dedicated to it, which you’d find here.
But what if you don’t see any signs of roach infestation?
That brings you to the second step, which is to lure the roaches out of hiding.
Cockroach baits and traps work well to attract roaches.
Keep the roach traps and baits in strategic places near the roaches’ hiding places in various parts of your home.
If you find them in large numbers and you haven’t treated your home for roaches, then it’d be best if you hire an exterminator.
The third step is to discard the dead roaches.
You do that by using a vacuum cleaner or a broom.
But don’t forget to use a disinfectant to clean the surface where you found the dead roaches. It’s because cockroaches have glands that emit an odor that attracts other roaches and insects like ants.
You don’t want a dead roach inviting other roaches and bugs inside your home.
While discarding dead roaches, please don’t dispose of them near your home. That’d surely attract other pests.
Do Dead Cockroaches In House Pose Any Health Risks?
Yes, they do.
It’s not only the dead cockroaches but also cockroach eggs, feces, and their molted skin.
All of these pose risks for asthmatic attacks and breathing problems to children and the elderly.
If anyone in your home has asthma, then dead cockroaches can make it severe.
The proteins in dead roaches and their feces and shed skins mix up with the house dust. When inhaled, it can develop asthmatic and allergic symptoms in children and the elderly.
Dead cockroaches at home are very harmful to people who already have asthma or who’re highly allergic.
The pathogens in both the live and dead cockroaches can cause severe asthma attacks in people with asthma.
So, it’s always advisable to keep children and the elderly out of home till you’ve removed the dead roaches from your home.
Summary
To summarize, here are the three reasons why you see dead cockroaches in your home.
- A nearby home just had a cockroach treatment.
- There’s a heavy roach infestation in your home, and you don’t know about it.
- You see dead roaches as an aftereffect of an insecticide spray or roach treatment in your home.
If you see dead roaches, it’d be best not to remove them from asap.
The dead roaches can attract other bugs and insects to your home. And they also pose grave health risks to the elderly and children.
Nang Chen is an Entomologist and Arachnologist who is associated with Vienna’s museum of natural history. He’s also a consultant with real estate groups, insecticide conglomerates and law enforcement groups as a forensic entomologist. Nang Chen holds an M.S. from South China University and he’s a regular contributor to our site.