Cockroaches in your Electronics? Save Your Gadgets With These Tips

This guide will show you exactly what to do if you ae seeing cockroaches in your electronics. The products and methods discussed here are used by pest cotnrol specialists, and is guaranteed to help you control roaches in your electronics.

Whether it’s binge-watching a TV show or firing up our favorite game console, we love to use our electronics. Unfortunately, roaches love our electronics as much as we do.

If you have a cockroach problem in your home and they've infested your electronic devices, you can get control with a number of different chemical and non-chemical methods. 

Identification

Cockroaches typically like to invade homes and forage for food, but they also like to find warm, dark and secluded areas where they can stay nice and toasty while laying their eggs. Electronics provide the perfect environment for them to gather around. 

Whether it's a hefty power supply plugged into an outlet, a game console, an internet router, or even refrigerator motors, the electronic device or appliance can become infested with roaches, feces, and eggs. Electronic devices, such as game consoles and broadband internet routers, can become a hotbed for roaches because they tend to heat up due to frequent or constant use.

This is not limited to old devices; roaches will infest devices that are brand new if nothing is done to reduce their infestation. Clocks, TVs, radios, and laptop batteries are just a few of the more common electronic items roaches love for their warmth. This is especially true in the case of German cockroaches. If you are seeing cockroach activity around your electronics, it is likely that you're dealing with German cockroaches.

The presence of cockroaches is not only gross and annoying, but it can also be costly. Cockroaches can damage your expensive electronic device by ruining internal electrical components. When cockroaches move around inside a console or a TV, they touch high voltage components which can short out your product and lead to costly repairs or replacements.

Inspection

Before you can treat for cockroaches, you need to inspect your home and electronics for signs of activity. This will help you gauge how serious of an infestation you have and what measures you need to take to clear out the roaches and save your electronics.

Where To Look 

Check the openings and port areas of your electronic devices, particularly the power supply port and other such areas where a cockroach could possibly crawl their way into.

What To Look For 

Check your electronics for roach droppings. This will look like black pepper and are usually scattered around the power supply or wire ports of your system. Other signs are egg casings, or oothecae, that resemble brown capsules. Also, keep an eye out for the roaches themselves. Often they can be clustered together inside your electronic item or under a power supply.

Treatment

The best way to tackle a cockroach problem in your electronics is by using high-quality pesticides. We suggest using a combination of an attractive gel bait and a residual spray insecticide to protect your devices. It is important to note that you should avoid applying the insecticides in or on your devices to prevent the risk of further damage.

Step 1 - Bait Placement with Apex Gel Bait

Apex Cockroach Gel Bait contains attractants which roaches cannot resist. Apex is a slow-killing bait. This allows the roaches time to ingest the bait and return to their nest, spreading the baits poison to the rest of the population.

We suggest applying a pea-sized amount of bait on an index card then placing the card near the electronic device. The index card helps make for an easy application and cleanup. Be sure to place the card in an area that is out of sight from children and pets.

Cockroaches will also forage in other areas such as kitchens and bathrooms, so be sure to apply Apex to these locations as well. Apply Apex in small beads around cracks and crevices in cabinets, shelves, pantries, cupboards, under the fridge and microwave, behind your toilet, around your plumbing and other common areas. In 3 to 5 days you should see a reduction in activity. Check the areas after 1 or 2 weeks and replenish until there is no further cockroach activity.

Step 2 - Residual Spray with Novacide

Next, apply Novacide Aerosol. Novacide is a residual spray that can be applied to floor surfaces and baseboards. This will kill adult cockroaches with contact and, more importantly, contains an insect growth regulator (IGR). An IGR interferes with the life cycle and reproductive abilities of roaches. This will disturb the egg-laying of adult roaches and will also prevent egg hatching and younger stages of roaches growing into adults. This is key to eliminating a cockroach infestation because roaches multiply rapidly as it prevents a new generation of cockroaches adding to the infestation.

Spray in a downward sweeping motion in areas around your electronics and areas such as where your power strip is, along your entertainment center setup and around all your baseboards and floorboards and the internal perimeter of your home. Novacide creates a deadly barrier and its IGR can last for up to 7 months. Avoid spraying Novacide onto or into the appliances.

Prevention

Clean Up Your Console

Once you are completely sure that the roach problem has been eliminated from your electronic appliances, you will need to give it a thorough cleaning. Unplug the device, use a screwdriver to open it up and remove all the eggs and fecal matter from the device. We do not recommend using water or liquid cleaner. Instead, use brushes and a soft cloth or Q-tips.

If it’s a new device make sure that the warranty is not voided by opening the product up. Game consoles and other devices tend to have a warranty void sticker. In that case, do the best you can from the outside by blowing and gently shaking all the roach droppings out.

Blow Them Away

Grab a can of compressed air with a thin spray tip and blow those dead cockroach bodies out of all the nooks and crannies of your electronic device. This will likely be a messy job as there may be live cockroaches that will be flying out and they will start to scatter. We suggest doing this outdoors. Once you get all the eggs, feces, guts and roach body parts out, you can then focus on preventative applications of Novacide in your home so they don’t seek solace in your precious device again.

Freeze the Cockroaches Out

While cockroaches may love the heat of our electronics, they sure hate the cold. When cockroaches are exposed to freezing temperatures they die pretty quickly. A non-chemical way of killing any straggler roaches in your device is to seal it in a plastic bag and place it in your freezer for 3 to 5 days. If you live in a cooler area that has freezing temperatures, bag it and place the item in your garage.

Make sure before you carry this out you know that the device can withstand low temperatures. Electronics with LCD screens will be damaged is exposed to those conditions for such a period of time. When the roaches have died out and you bring the item back to the warmth, allow time for the product to dry out since condensation will occur when the cold appliance returns to warm operating temperatures.

Key Takeaways

• Cockroaches are notorious for infesting electronics like game consoles, computers, and internet routers because of the warmth and seclusion they provide.
• We recommend applying Apex Cockroach Bait and Novacide near and around your electronics as well as around your home to eliminate the infestation and protect your devices.
• After the cockroaches have died, do a thorough cleanup of your device to clear out dead roach bodies, droppings, and eggs.