Cockroaches in your Electronics? Save Your Gadgets With These Tips

This guide will show you exactly what to do if you see cockroaches in your electronics. The products and methods discussed here are used by pest control specialists and are guaranteed to help you control them.

Whether 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 infest your electronic devices, you can get control with several different chemical and non-chemical methods. 

Identification

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

Electronic devices or appliances can become infested with roaches, feces, and eggs, whether they're hefty power supplies plugged into an outlet, game consoles, internet routers, or refrigerator motors. 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 brand-new devices 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 for German cockroaches. If you see 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 cockroaches, you need to inspect your home and electronics for signs of activity. This will help you gauge the severity of the infestation and determine 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 areas where cockroaches could possibly crawl in.

What To Look For 

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

Treatment

The best way to tackle a cockroach problem in your electronics is to use 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 insecticides to 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 that roaches cannot resist. It is also a slow-killing bait. This allows the roaches time to ingest the bait and return to their nest, spreading the bait's poison to the rest of the population.

We suggest applying a pea-sized amount of bait on an index card and then placing the card near the electronic device. The index card helps make for an easy application and cleanup. Be sure to put 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 Apex will also be applied to these locations. Apply Apex in tiny beads around cracks and crevices in cabinets, shelves, pantries, cupboards, under the fridge and microwave, behind your toilet, around your plumbing, and in 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 used on floor surfaces and baseboards. This will kill adult cockroaches with contact and, more importantly, contain an insect growth regulator (IGR). 

An IGR interferes with roaches' life cycle and reproductive abilities. It disturbs the egg-laying of adult roaches and prevents egg-hatching and earlier stages of roaches from growing into adults. This is key to eliminating a cockroach infestation because roaches multiply rapidly, and it prevents a new generation of roaches from adding to the infestation.

Spray in a downward sweeping motion in areas around your electronics, such as where your power strip is, along your entertainment center setup, 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 seven months. Avoid spraying Novacide onto or into the appliances.

Prevention

Clean Up Your Console

Once you are sure the roach problem has been eliminated from your electronic appliances, you must clean it thoroughly. 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 opening the product does not void the warranty. Game consoles and other devices tend to have a warranty void sticker. In that case, do your best 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 live cockroaches may fly 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 the item and place it in your garage.

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

Key Takeaways

Why Do Cockroaches Invade Electronics

• Cockroaches are notorious for infesting electronics like game consoles, computers, and internet routers because of the warmth and seclusion they provide.

What Should I Use to Control Roaches in Electronics

• We recommend applying Apex Cockroach Bait and Novacide near and around your electronics and home to eliminate the infestation and protect your devices.

Should I Clean Electronics For Roaches

• After the cockroaches have died, thoroughly clean your device to remove dead roach bodies, droppings, and eggs.