Cockroach Removal in Manchester

How do I know if I’ve got cockroaches?

Most people find out the same way. You switch the kitchen light on late at night and something small and brown shoots under the cooker. Cockroaches hide by day and feed in the dark, so one sighting nearly always means more tucked away behind the fridge, under the sink or in the boiler cupboard.

Other signs worth looking for:

• tiny dark droppings, like ground pepper or coffee grounds, along the backs of shelves and in cupboard hinges;
• small brown egg cases, shaped a bit like a purse and only a few millimetres long;
• pale, papery skins left behind as the young grow;
• a stale, musty smell once numbers build up;
• cockroaches out in daylight, which usually means their hiding places are full.

It helps to know which kind you have, because they live differently. German cockroaches are the small, light brown ones with two dark stripes behind the head. They like warmth and moisture, so they live inside and behind kitchen appliances, along hot pipes and in bathroom boxing, and they can climb glass. Oriental cockroaches are larger, glossy and nearly black. They prefer cooler, damper places such as drains, cellars and the voids under ground-floor rooms, and because they can’t climb smooth surfaces you’ll often find one stranded in the bath.

Why do cockroaches turn up in Manchester homes?

Not because your home is dirty. Cockroaches want three things, warmth, water and somewhere to hide, and plenty of Manchester homes offer all three.

More than a quarter of households in the city live in purpose-built flats, and blocks share heating pipes, waste stacks, risers and ceiling voids. German cockroaches use those like corridors. The converted mills and warehouses of Ancoats, the Northern Quarter and Castlefield can add plenty of boxed-in pipework for them to hide in. If your home is above or next to a café, restaurant or takeaway, cockroaches can move between the two through shared walls, drains and service gaps, however well both are kept.

In the red-brick terraces of Longsight and the late-Victorian two-up two-downs of Levenshulme, with their rear kitchens and back entries, we’re more likely to meet the oriental cockroach. Old drains, cellars and suspended timber floors suit it, and it can come up through cracked drain connections, gaps around waste pipes and the voids under kitchen units.

Then there’s what we carry in ourselves. A second-hand fridge, a stack of delivery boxes or a suitcase from a shared house can bring in a German cockroach carrying an egg case, and with so many students moving in and out of shared houses in Fallowfield and Rusholme, it’s easy to inherit someone else’s problem. And in a heated flat they breed all year round, so there’s no quiet season to wait for.

What happens when you call us?

You tell us what you’ve seen and where, and a photo helps a great deal. We’ll offer the earliest slot we have, often the same day.

On the first visit we start by looking, not spraying. With a torch we check under the sink, behind kickboards, around the cooker, fridge and washing machine, inside the boiler cupboard and along pipe boxing. A few small insect monitors show how far the cockroaches have spread and give us something to compare against next time.

The main treatment is professional gel bait, put down in dots smaller than a grain of rice in the cracks, hinges and gaps where cockroaches shelter. They eat it, go back to where they hide, and others pick it up from them, so it reaches the ones you never see. Where it’s useful we add an insect growth regulator, which stops young cockroaches maturing and breeding. For oriental cockroaches, or deep voids behind panels and under floors, we may use a residual spray or dust in places nobody can touch. Before we leave we show you where everything is and what to leave alone.

Is it safe with children and pets in the house?

Gel bait is the reason cockroach treatment is far gentler than it used to be. It goes in tiny amounts inside hinges, cracks and the backs of appliances, not on worktops or floors you touch, and it’s placed well out of reach of crawling babies, curious toddlers and cats or dogs.

Before we start, we ask who lives in the home: babies, children, anyone pregnant, anyone with asthma, and pets including rabbits, birds, reptiles and fish. If a spray is needed, we keep it to the places that need it, tell you which rooms to keep everyone out of and for how long, and cover fish tanks and switch off their air pumps while we work. Getting rid of cockroaches also helps anyone with asthma, because their droppings and shed skins are a known trigger.

How many visits will it take?

Usually three, spread over six to eight weeks. The reason is egg cases. A German cockroach carries her egg case, usually holding around 30 eggs, until shortly before it hatches. Oriental cockroaches stick theirs down in sheltered corners, and in a cool house they can take two months or more to hatch. No treatment reliably gets inside an egg case, so the first visit deals with the cockroaches that are there and the follow-ups catch the next generation as it appears.

At each follow-up we check the monitors, top up eaten bait and look for hiding places we missed, signing off once the monitors stay clear. A problem shared across a block of flats won’t be finished until the neighbouring flats and communal areas are dealt with too.

How do I stop cockroaches coming back?

Most of it comes down to water, food and gaps. Fix dripping taps and leaks under the sink, because cockroaches can last a long time without food but not without water. Keep food in sealed containers, don’t leave pet food down overnight, and now and then clear the crumbs from behind the toaster and the sides of the cooker. A lidded kitchen bin, emptied often, makes a real difference.

Seal gaps around pipes where they pass through walls and floors, and behind kickboards. We’ll fill the small ones we find and tell you about anything bigger. In a terrace, a cracked drain or a loose waste pipe connection needs repairing by the owner, or it will keep letting oriental cockroaches in. Check second-hand appliances and furniture before they come inside, and flatten and recycle cardboard boxes rather than storing them.

When does DIY stop being enough?

Supermarket sprays and foggers kill the few cockroaches they hit and push the rest deeper into walls, or into the flat next door. German cockroaches have built up resistance to many common insecticides, and spray near any bait puts them off eating it. Shop-bought bait stations can sort out a couple of stray sightings if they’re placed close to where the cockroaches hide.

It’s time to call us if you’re seeing cockroaches in daylight, if sightings carry on for more than a couple of weeks, if you live in a flat, if someone at home has asthma, or if you prepare food for customers. One word on sticky traps: since April 2024 it has been an offence in England to use a glue trap to catch rats or mice without a licence. If you’ve seen mice as well as cockroaches, keep sticky boards off the floor so a mouse can’t get stuck on one. Leave the monitoring to us; we place our insect monitors with that in mind.

Is it my landlord’s job or mine?

If you rent, it depends on why the cockroaches are there. In most tenancies in England, your landlord must keep the home fit to live in and keep the structure, drains and pipework in repair, and pests are one of the hazards councils assess when they inspect a rented home. So where cockroaches come through a broken drain or a gap in the structure, were there when you moved in, or are spreading through a whole block, it’s usually the landlord’s or the managing agent’s to sort out. Where an infestation comes down to how the home is being used, your tenancy agreement may put it on you.

Either way, tell your landlord in writing straight away and keep photos; if nothing happens, you can ask the council’s housing team to look into it. Check Manchester City Council’s website for current pest control services and charges. Landlords and agents are welcome to book us direct: we’ll arrange access with tenants and leave a written note of what we used and where.

Small shops, cafés and takeaways have legal duties under food hygiene law to control pests, so a cockroach problem there needs dealing with quickly and properly recorded. Our commercial pest control page covers that side of things.