Sometimes we have to pick from being inhumane vs. the risk involved with insects in the forms of germs and diseases. In the case of cockroaches, you don’t need to feel bad about yourself, and you should focus on helping stop a possible infestation or spread of diseases.
You should kill a cockroach and throw it right away because
– They carry harmful diseases like dysentery, cholera, leprosy, and more.
– A single cockroach can multiply into hundreds of more roaches
– Cockroaches don’t feel pain due to their nocifensive behavior
– A single roach will attract more roaches due to the Aggregation pheromone it releases
– It’s embarrassing to have these filthy insects roaming around freely
– It can be harmful to your pets & kids
So, let’s discuss in detail how you can kill a cockroach the easy way.
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Roaches don’t feel any pain
Cockroaches don’t feel any pain like you don’t feel any when cutting your hair or nails.
Roaches, including other insects, do not have emotions and are devoid of specialized pain receptors. They do not feel pain but sense irritation. Cockroaches are born this way to protect them from environmental insults and dangers.
You may see a cockroach flapping wings and legs after spraying them with insecticide, but this is not due to pain but is the result of uncontrolled spasms elicited by the neurotoxin.
To make it brief, it may seem painful to kill a cockroach, but they do not suffer any pain.
Is killing cockroaches OK?
It is OK to kill cockroaches due to the filth and diseases they carry. They don’t feel pain, and leaving them unattended will only add to the existing problems.
Cockroaches will never stop growing till they have an ample supply of food, humidity, and warmth.
If you want to avoid killing roaches, you should try not to have them in the first place. Instead, make your homes undesirable to cockroaches by keeping them clean, dry, and closing out all possible entry points.
Additional Read: Why do bugs die on their back?
Don’t feel bad about killing a cockroach
You should never feel bad about killing a cockroach because by killing a single cockroach, you are eliminating a chance of a future infestation in which you may have to kill an entire colony of hundreds of roaches.
If you are still doubtful and want to avoid killing a roach, you can shift it away from your home into bushes. Roaches are outdoor insects, and they are part of an ecosystem of decomposers. They don’t have a family, and every roach is on its own.
Methods to kill a roach
There are many ways you can use to kill a roach. The easiest of all of them is using an insecticide. Here is a complete article on the best insecticides and traps to kill a cockroach. In addition, I have written in detail on how these works.
Here is a quick summary of how you can kill a roach.
1. Use sprays to kill a cockroach
Using a spray is one of the most effortless hand-off methods to kill a cockroach. Just spray a good quality roach-killing spray directly on it. You will see the roach losing its balance quickly and flipping over. Here is more on why cockroaches die on their back. The spray typically takes a few minutes to kill it.
2. Squish a roach to kill it
Squishing a cockroach hard will kill it. Since roaches have an exoskeleton, they are highly compressible and won’t die with a light hit. It would be best if you make sure the bug is not moving and broken into pieces. Again, no need to feel guilty as they don’t feel any pain.
Also, note that there are no hatchable eggs inside a roach. Cockroaches lay their eggs in an ootheca sac, and squishing a cockroach or the sac will destory the eggs, making them impossible to hatch. The eggs inside a sac are attached, and they won’t shatter if you squish them.
Here is an excellent video showing how much compressible cockroaches are.
3. Use traps & baits
Using traps and baits is an excellent hands-off method to kill a roach. You can find many unique lures and baits on the market to help catch a cockroach and kill it.
4. Make a roach impossible to move or breath
You can use different ways to restrict a cockroach’s movability to kill it ultimately. Using hairspray is one method. You can also use boric acid to kill a cockroach by altering its breathability. DE also messes up the cockroach breathing system.
Using a soapy water solution is another household method to kill a cockroach. It will kill a roach by suffocating it to death.
Will killing a cockroach attract more?
Killing a cockroach will only attract more cockroaches if you don’t clean the dead one. Cockroaches will feed on dead roaches, and for them, a dead roach is another food source. Also, the unique pheromone released out of a dead cockroach will attract more cockroaches out of their hiding. It’s a chance to kill more of them.
A cockroach can play dead!
You also need to make sure you have successfully finished a roach as they do play dead. Once a cockroach feels safe, it will flip back to run away.
Roaches are great at holding their breath for more than 40 minutes due to their external skeleton’s existing trapped air, so dipping them in water or flushing them down the drain won’t kill a cockroach. However, you can drain other things to kill a roach in a gutter.
Once you have finished the single cockroach, you should ensure no more roaches inside your home. Then, you can check this article on how to conclude a cockroach infestation.
