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Most of us think that roaches hide in our homes only, but they even hide or live in our cars.
Almost every car that is not deep cleaned within three months is infested with roaches. The worst part is that those roaches could be hiding inside your car, and you might not be aware of it at all.
Here in this post, we will discuss how roaches get in our car, how to bring them out, what precaution measures we should take and many more such things.
Want to know more about the relationship between roaches and our cars? Make sure to follow this post till the end.
Why do roaches prefer to live in cars?
The major reason roaches prefer to live inside a car is to find food and a comfortable place to hide. Therefore, you will notice that the cars used daily have lower chances of getting infected with cockroaches compared to the cars that are not used very frequently.
That’s because they are looking for a place where they are not disturbed.
In case you find cockroaches in your car, then you will have a second question arising in your mind, and that is, “How did this cockroach get into my car?”
We have discussed it in the coming section.
How do roaches get in our car?
There are plenty of entry points for roaches through which they get in our cars. Let us have a look at some of those entry points.
- Shopping bags: Assume you were shopping somewhere, and due to unfortunate events, a cockroach came into your shopping bag, and you kept that bag in your car without checking what’s inside it. This is one of the biggest reasons why roaches get in our cars. Shopping bags and suitcases also play a crucial role in bringing roaches into our cars.
- Car parking: Your car parking is the second biggest reason roaches get in our car. If you are parking your car around manholes, bushes, or water-filled areas, there is a high chance that roaches will get inside your car.
- Car model: If we closely look at the latest and older car models, we will notice a huge difference in the area sealing section. The older models were not created using proper seals, and there were a lot of spaces through which bugs, cockroaches, water, and other such things could get inside them.
While if we have a look at the latest models, we will never face such issues in them.
- Car current condition: If you keep your car very dirty, such as you keep food items in it and forget them for days, or you don’t get your car interior cleaned after a certain time, then there are high chances of roaches getting inside your car.
- Open windows: If you are driving your car or it’s parked somewhere with an open Window, this also becomes a major reason behind your car being infested with roaches.
This was all about the ways roaches get inside our car. In the next section, we will talk about all those common places where roaches hide.
Places Where Cockroaches Hide in Your Car
Your car is a gold mine of empty places for cockroaches, but some of the most common areas where you can find them are as follows.
- AC Vents: AC vents are to throw cool air out of them, and other than that, there is no use for those vents. Hence to keep themselves hidden, roaches hide in AC vents; in worst cases, they get deep inside your car’s compressor unit and block it.
- Boot Space: Your car’s boot space is not only created to keep your bags, but these roaches find hidden spaces in the boot area to live there. That’s why it is suggested to go for a deep clean after three months of using your car.
- Under Seats: Cockroaches can create a fully furnished and spacious flat under your car seats, although if you are using your car daily, there are high chances that the roaches will find a new place to hide.
Can roaches in your car be dangerous?
A big yes, there are several risks linked with cockroaches in your car; also, it feels like a privacy invasion when you are distributing your car space with cockroaches.
- Cockroaches carry bacteria with them. Hence, if cockroaches are in your car, you will face various health issues. In the worst cases, you can face fatal health risks.
- Just imagine you are driving your car at a speed of 100, and suddenly you get distracted because you notice a cockroach flying in your car. Unfortunately, this can lead to some serious accidents also.
The above points prove that roaches in your car can be dangerous. But does your car have roaches in it?
If your answer is “I haven’t seen them in my car yet, but I think.” Then in the next section, we are going to discuss how to tell if your car is infested with cockroaches or not.
How to tell if your car is infested with Cockroaches or not?
- If you suddenly start noticing a bad odor in your car, there are high chances that your car will be infested with cockroaches.
- If you notice dead cockroaches in your car, that is a high sign that your car is infested with cockroaches.
- If you have recently noticed that your car has cockroach eggs, then it’s a sign of having cockroaches in your car. If you see their eggs, ensure you are destroying them immediately.
- Do you remember noticing the wings of cockroaches at your home or other places? If you see something like that in your car that states your car has been infected with cockroaches.
How do I get roaches out of my car?
Here comes the problem-solving part; getting rid of cockroaches from your car is one of the best feelings in this world. But, there are plenty of ways to do so, and we are going to discuss all of them.
Hence you can pick the appropriate method that works for you.
1- In-depth Vacuum Cleaning:
If you are someone with the attitude that I’ll clean my car on my own, then the best solution is to get a vacuum cleaner and start an in-depth cleaning of your car.
Before that, you need to ensure where the cockroaches are hiding in your car. Based on this, you could target them with your vacuum cleaning machine directly.
2- Using Diatomaceous Earth:
Are you someone who feels a bit bad whenever you kill a bug or cockroach? If yes, don’t feel alone; there are several people like you. Secondly, in this section, we will talk about a way to give natural death to the cockroaches available in your car.
Want to know how? There’s a non-toxic cockroach-killing product known as diatomaceous earth; in short, it’s also called DE.
You need to spray this product on your car flooring and areas where you have seen cockroaches before and done.
Now what will happen is, whenever the cockroach moves out of his hidden flat in your car, it will walk over the product that you have sprayed on the flooring and boom.
No, the cockroach will not blast, but they will die naturally, and no one will ever know the reason behind it.
Hence, at last, you would have to do a small job, which is to get rid of the dead bodies of roaches from your car, or you can use a vacuum cleaner as an alternative.
3- Call a roaches serial killer:
If you are in a hurry or busy with your work and don’t want to clean your car on your own, then the final option in this list is to call a roaches serial killer.
There are several companies and service providers who can help you get rid of roaches from your car and can make it pests-free completely.
You can get in touch with such service providers, schedule a meeting, and be done. Your roaches, serial killers, will kill all those traitors in your car.
DIY Tips To Remove Roaches From Your Car
- Use a portable vacuum cleaner with a bigger nozzle, so if you find a cockroach roaming in your car or hidden spaces, it gets sucked by the vacuum cleaner directly.
- There are adhesives to catch roaches. You need to stick that adhesive to a place where you have seen a cockroach mostly and wait. Whenever the cockroach comes out, it will get stuck to the adhesive, and then you can throw it out of your car.
- You must have noticed mouse catcher machines where you attach bait for the mouse to get inside it. Something similar comes for catching cockroaches as well. You can get one and place it where you think cockroaches hide. Within some time, it will do the work.
You can hire pest controller to get rid of cockroaches from your car. Give a look at Pest Control Companies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, in the above post, we have discussed a specific section about AC vents and roaches tending to get into small sections of your car, but the issue is, in some cases, they are unable to move out of those areas. Hence blockage happens.
Cockroaches can get inside the spare tire area and engine bay; the worst part is they can get into your car engine & compressor through the AC vents.
Hence in such cases, you would have to get a deep cleaning of your car or replace the actual engine part.
If you are talking about a one-time solution, then we would like to disappoint you by saying No. Because let’s assume you deep cleaned your car once and not your car is not infested with cockroaches.
And after that, you also worked on the seals of your car so that no bug or cockroach enters your car when it’s closed.
But, you are going to open your car sometime. Also, the biggest reason for having cockroaches in cars is shopping bags and other such items.
In the future, you will keep shopping bags, and there are chances cockroaches will again get in your car. But to get rid of cockroaches, you can do one thing: schedule a deep cleaning of your car after every three months of use.
There are two major reasons you should never spray pesticides in your car. The first reason is these pesticides are toxic not only to cockroaches but also to human beings.
Hence, after using a pesticide in your car, you can face many health issues if the spray remains in your car.
The second reason is that you should not use pesticides in your car as it affects the color of your interior.
In most cases, the answer is yes.
Although the major reason our cars get infested by cockroaches is because of no proper cleanliness in our car.
If we are creating a schedule of getting our car deep cleaned every three months, then there are high chances that we will never face such issues.
There are several entry points through which roaches can get into my car. Some of the most common entry points are as follows:
– If we are keeping bags in our car, there are chances that the cockroaches may get stickers with those bags and get in our car.
– If there are any openings in your car, such as seal breakage and all, then there are high chances that your car can get infested with cockroaches.
It is always suggested to remove all the mats and seat covers from your car with the help of which you can get a clear view.
Once you have a clear view, now is the time for you to spray the non-toxic cockroach killer in your car.
Keep your car in the same condition for a few hours, with the help of which whenever the cockroach moves over the sprayed area, it will get killed.
There is bad news for you, and that is cockroaches tend to survive extreme conditions no matter if that’s too hot or too cold.
Cockroaches can survive in temperatures from -9 to 49 degrees Celsius. Hence if you want to experiment with killing a cockroach in your car by heating it, you would not be able to use that car after the experiment.
Hence we suggest you stay away from such experiments and don’t try to add heat to your car to kill a cockroach.
Most people believe that it’s a myth, but actually it’s true. Whenever a cockroach is dead it releases oleic acid, which has a pungent smell which attracts other cockroaches.
In case you don’t want to attract more cockroaches through dead cockroaches, then you should be getting rid of the dead bodies of the cockroaches from your car or house as soon as they are dead.
