Control of peridomestic pests          

University of Florida  update
By Philip G. Koehler and Roberto Pereira

How do you handle peridomestic pests? These are the pests living around the perimeter of houses. The ones living in palm trees, tree holes, mulch, wood piles, underneath siding, under logs and around sidewalks. When you think about it, people in Florida are living in a sea of crawling pests just waiting to invade their houses and patios. These pests are some of the reasons the pest control industry in Florida flourishes. These pests would be okay if they stayed outside, but they often move indoors when conditions get too wet, too dry, too hot or too cold. So every good pest control program usually includes control of these peridomestic pests. And your ability to retain customers is usually tied to how well you control these pests before they end up in the kitchen, bathroom or baby’s room.

COCKROACHES

 The most important peridomestic pests to control are cockroaches. The ones that live outside are the most difficult of all to kill before they wander indoors. They are really mobile with legs specialized for rapid movement. Cockroaches are especially designed to live outdoors and invade houses. The most important outdoor cockroaches in Florida are American, Asian, Australian, and Smokybrown cockroaches.    The American cockroach really thrives in sanitary sewers and storm drains. We once caught 8 pounds of American cockroaches in one night at a sewage treatment plant. If you look down a manhole, you will probably see evidence of thousands of American cockroaches living around the opening. They crawl down to bottom to feed on excrement and drink the water. Think of all the disease organisms they ingest. These cockroaches enter houses most frequently from the roof. The drain vent pipe from the sewer goes through the roof, and cockroaches can crawl directly from the sewer, up inside of the pipe, and out onto the roof.  Then cockroaches can run into the house through cracks and crevices around door and windows. Have you noticed that cats will often chase down these cockroaches and eat them? Imagine all the disease organisms cats are exposed to; yet they survive and lick your customer’s faces. Yuck! 

The Asian cockroach is identical to the German cockroach in appearance, but it flies and lives outdoors. Infestations can be more than 250,000 cockroaches per acre. The adults are very mobile and fly to lighted surfaces. So if a hospital or apartment complex has security lights on at night, thousands of Asian cockroaches may be attracted to the walls. When the sun comes up, these cockroaches can enter the building or hide in mulch during the day. These cockroaches are very prevalent in oak leaf litter; however, your customers may see this cockroach on the wall next to their television set at night. 

Australian and Smokybrown cockroaches prefer to live above the ground in palm trees and tree holes. We once took more than 1,000 of these cockroaches from a palm tree that was no more than 4 feet high. They love living at the base of the palm fronds. Tree holes are usually found in deciduous trees where the branches have fallen off and through decay a hole develops where cockroaches can live. If you sit outside in the evening, you can probably watch cockroaches running down the trunks of trees or out of palm trees to forage for food. When they run up the walls of houses, they are very adept at entering through cracks around doors and windows.

CRICKETS

Another important peridomestic pest group is crickets. Crickets are scavengers like cockroaches but will also feed on living plants. Unlike cockroaches, they have jumping legs that allow them to hop away from dangerous situations. Crickets lay their eggs in the ground and are usually associated with mulch and ground around houses. They cannot really develop large populations indoors because of the lack of soil for laying eggs. However, they can enter houses and cause a lot of problems, particularly by singing. The males rub their wings together to attract females, but the sound that is attractive to a female cricket is annoying to your customers. 

CONTROL

  I have always liked the use of baits for control of these peridomestic pests. Until recently, most baits used for perimeter treatment around houses contained organophosphate insecticides. As a result of EPA’s desire to limit exposure to organophosphates, most of these products have disappeared, leaving few choices for control. Boric acid granular baits (e.g., Niban and Intice) are products that are still available. However, a new granular bait is now available for control of peridomestic pests that has been shown to provide superb control of cockroaches and crickets.    Indoxacarb is now available for both perimeter and boundary control of pests around buildings. The product that should be used for control of peridomestic pests is called Advion mole cricket bait. Indoxacarb is the active ingredient in Advion cockroach gel baits and Advion fire ant bait. The cockroach gel bait has provided reliable control of bait averse cockroaches and the fire ant bait is known to provide the fastest control of fire ants in yards. Likewise, Advion mole cricket bait has been shown to provide superb control of cockroaches and crickets. About 30 years ago we started recommending mole cricket bait as a cheap way to control perimeter pests. So we were curious whether Advion mole cricket bait would work. 

We conducted a simple laboratory test on crickets and several species of cockroaches. We found that the Advion mole cricket bait was readily eaten by both crickets and cockroaches. The bait killed virtually all the insects by 4 days after treatment. Take a look at the graph of mortality for the 6 species of cockroaches. Several pest control companies have experience from last year with Advion mole cricket bait as a perimeter treatment for peridomestic pests. They applied the granular bait around the homes of their customers, and they found that they had fewer callbacks with the Advion mole cricket bait compared with their typical liquid barrier treatments. 

Why would you name a bait that controls peridomestic pests a “mole cricket bait?” We don’t know, but we guess the bait was primarily registered for lawns and turf to control mole crickets. However, the label allows perimeter application to ground areas “in a band up to 10 feet wide around and adjacent to the structure.” It also allows boundary application to “soil areas, fencelines, ornamental gardens, pavement crevices, planter areas, vegetation areas, and mulch areas.” The label has very broad directions “to control pests.” 

Baits are definitely the way to go for the control of perimeter pests. Several times we have applied mole cricket bait around the base of palm trees with dramatic results. One tree was about 20 feet high and had a lot of ferns in the bracts, indicating a lot of moisture for cockroaches. For several days after we sprinkled the bait around the tree, the ground was completely covered with dead Smokybrown and Australian cockroaches. Another palm tree was in my front yard next to the street. We killed so many cockroaches in the front street and driveway, we had a neighbor ring the doorbell and ask whether we had contaminated the whole neighborhood with a toxic chemical.   You can be a real hero for your customers. Baits are great ways to control these perimeter pests and indoxacarb baits have been shown to provide superb results on cockroaches and crickets. However, if you control these pests, what will your customers’ cats do for entertainment, nutrition, and pathogens? They won’t have cockroaches and crickets to chase down and eat!

Koehler is a professor and Pereira is an associate research scientist, both with the Urban Entomology Laboratory in the University of Florida’s Entomology and Nematology Department, Gainesville.