The extent of most people’s cockroach knowledge is not exactly encyclopedic. The main thing they know is this: cockroaches are gross. They also know that cockroaches have huge appetites and are anything but picky eaters. After that, the particularities recede, and people are largely at peace with that.

If cockroaches only infested people’s homes because they smelled traces of pate or other gourmet food items, they wouldn’t be such a widespread problem! One of the greatest challenges when it comes to cockroaches is they eat almost anything.

Knowing the specific tendencies in dietary preferences helps our expert technicians eliminate a pest infestation. Having a few facts at hand can help you deter these creatures and discourage them from entering your home.

If you prefer, stay in the dark about pests and just call GreenLeaf for professional cockroach extermination or to eliminate whatever pest problem you face. Otherwise, to learn more about what cockroaches eat, please continue reading.

Omnivores

The cockroach does not have a very discerning palate. Perhaps they have a refined sense of taste, but they eat a truly wide range of food. Cockroaches are omnivores that can dine on plant and animal matter alike.

Dead organic matter is highly appealing to cockroaches, especially if it’s in the process of dying. For this reason, it’s wise to get rid of decaying organic matter in your kitchen before the wrong creatures get to it. Take out your organic garbage from time to time, or you’re essentially storing a bag of roach attractant in your kitchen.

What Specific Foods Do They Love?

Cockroaches are not picky eaters, but they like some things more than others. Roaches tend to love starches, sweets, and greasy meats. A German Cockroach infestation can begin by leaving ordinary food around your home or kitchen.

If there was food you once found delicious when served on an elegant platter during a feast, cockroaches would love it when the crumbs and remains are disposed of in the garbage. So long as something used to be alive, whether plant or animal, roaches think it’s yummy.

Cockroaches can secrete a foul, odorous pheromone that signals to other cockroaches that there’s a reliable source of food nearby. This smell will be recognizable to people once the cockroach population is large enough, but by then, it’s too late. The lesson is simple: the more food you leave around the home and the longer you leave it, the more inviting it is to cockroaches.

Cockroaches also need a source of water to survive, which explains their attraction to the areas under sinks in kitchens and bathrooms. Just like humans, they need to drink.

What Non-Foods Do Cockroaches Eat?

The cockroach eats so voraciously that they even eat things that aren’t food! There’s a long list of things cockroaches nibble on that, strictly speaking, aren’t food.

Cockroaches also eat cardboard boxes, wallpaper glue, book bindings, leather, stamps, feces, hair, fingernails, soap, toothpaste, the skin they cast off, and even other roaches. Anything that once contained living matter is enough to tide them over.

Cockroaches are hard to kill because they can sustain themselves on so little. It’s said that after a nuclear blast, the cockroach can survive for longer periods of time. Maybe this is because they can withstand radiation more than other creatures, but it’s also in part because they can forage so easily because they’re willing to eat so many things.

If you have these creatures at home and have tried to uproot the problem yourself, you’ve probably learned that the commercial sprays from the local hardware store don’t do a good enough job. It’ll kill some roaches, but there are always survivors. After all, if cockroaches can survive a nuclear blast, how ruthless can a commercially available spray possibly be?

Cockroaches are famously stubborn creatures that refuse to go down easily without a fight. The only thing better than defeating the roaches is not having to bother with them.

Let the experts at GreenLeaf Pest Control visit your home to deliver a cockroach treatment at home that finishes the job properly. We use powerful ingredients in our custom-made sprays that you can’t find in the products on the store shelf.

However, these ingredients are all approved by Health Canada, so you can feel confident that the sprays will be ruthless against cockroaches but soft and safe for pets and the environment.

Hungry in Winter

Bears might pose dangers in the summer months, but at least they take the winter off by hibernating. Cockroaches don’t have such a gap in their schedule — they’re active all winter, and they try to escape the cold outside by finding a warm place to shelter laden with food.

The GreenLeaf Pest Control Home Protection Plan offers a proactive way to ensure your property doesn’t contain anything that accidentally attracts roaches. For example, the oriental cockroach is drawn to bundles of wood or construction materials near home because these give them a place to burrow.

From there, they may find a way inside your home, where they can find drink, food, and warmth. For proactive GTA and Toronto pest control that prevents a pest infestation from occurring, call GreenLeaf Pest Control.

You don’t want to fear opening your kitchen cupboards, haunted by the thought that there may be another roach yet. We’ll inspect your premises for any existing pests, remove any we find and all pest attractants, then issue a preventative treatment so no pests enter the property later.

The Toronto cockroaches are eager for a warm place to eat and live it up during winter. They’ll be drawn to the food you keep around the home and sources of moisture, too — they’re looking for somewhere comfortable to eat and drink until the weather improves. Don’t let them get into your home or think you can take a season off, so call GreenLeaf Pest Control to keep the roaches away for good.