It's late summer and your house is loaded with fresh vegetables and flowers from your garden. While you try to keep up with the abundance of produce flowing into your home, other unwanted guests, cockroaches in particular, may be moving into your house as well.
Cockroaches are tropical insects that love warm temperatures and water. The German cockroach is the most common one found indoors in homes, restaurants, and any place where food is prepared and stored. Cockroaches not only destroy and contaminate food, they can stain fabrics and leave an unpleasant odor wherever they go.
The key to preventing cockroach infestations is keeping surfaces and storage areas clean. But if you do see some cockroaches, trapping them can be an effective way to rid your house of these insects.
Purdue University researchers recently did a study comparing the effectiveness of various cockroach attractants placed on sticky traps and installed in a simulated kitchen. The attractants trialed were peanut butter, bread soaked in beer, and three commercial cockroach attractant products. The bread soaked in beer attractant was the best, capturing more than five times the number of cockroaches per day than the other baits. Like slugs, it appears cockroaches can't resist the taste of beer.
(Photo courtesy of Clemson University.)
Charlie Nardozzi is an award winning, nationally recognized garden writer, speaker, radio, and television personality. He has worked for more than 30 years bringing expert gardening information to home gardeners through radio, television, talks, tours, on-line, and the printed page. Charlie delights in making gardening information simple, easy, fun and accessible to everyone. He's the author of 6 books, has three radio shows in New England and a TV show. He leads Garden Tours around the world and consults with organizations and companies about gardening programs. See more about him at Gardening With Charlie.
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