Oriental Roaches in apartment

Hi,

We moved into an awesome apartment last year but have been occasionally annoyed by oriental roaches and their larvae. We tend to see them in the bathrooms and have stopped up every single gap we can find with either sugru to caulk it, masking tape for large gaps, or a mesh cover for drains. We have also tried using gentrol and advion (standard recipe) bait. But we're on the 2nd floor—how are they getting in?? They are very occasional so seem to be scouting, and we see them mostly in spring and fall.

The complex is aware of what we are doing and has offered to spray, but with the pandemic we don't really want them coming in. We have also seen on entomology sites that specifically for this species spraying makes the problem worse by scattering them. We have sent the info to management but they defer to their contractors, who will only spray the apartments, not the perimeter of the building. We see the roaches outside at night sometimes on the front walk, so we know they inhabit the block.

Any recommendations? I've dealt with German roaches successfully before using Gentrol+Advion but these bugs are stubborn!

Thanks!

 

Oriental roaches and other large species such as American roaches will live under the streets and follow supply and drain pipes into buildings. That doesn't mean they are inside the pipes, but follow the pipe chase and crawl space to get in. The main sewage pipe goes from basement to the top floors and even above the roof and works as the air vent as well as the main sewage pipe. The space that this pipe (and other pipes) occupy go throughout all units, kitchens, baths, laundries, etc. There's a whole world behind the walls that many of us don't see. The larger species of roaches use these pathways commonly. Treating basements, crawl spaces and sealing where pipes/enter exit at the base of the building would be helpful as well as treating exterior. See if you can find where the main sewage pipe is in your unit. Usually near the toilet, if there is another unit above you then it should keep going to that unit. Could look like a boxed in area in a corner. If you find anything like this, look for any gaps in that boxed in area and seal them. First try to get Advion bait into the boxed in area. Gentrol and other growth regulators don't work on the larger species as they don't breed fast enough. Work well on German roaches, stored product pests and small fly species. It's not wrong to use growth regulators though as a prevention in case the smaller species of roaches get inside, you already have IGR in place.