Wood Roach Control: How to Get Rid of Wood Roaches

This page is an expert guide on eliminating wood roaches from your property using the products and methods our experienced pest control specialists suggested. Follow this guide and use the recommended products, and we guarantee you will be successful.

Cockroach infestations that occur indoors can frustrate homeowners. While the more common cockroaches that invade indoor dwellings are the German and American Cockroaches, other species can also wander indoors, like the wood roach.

Unlike the German and American cockroaches, the wood cockroach prefers to be outside and only treks into a home by accident. It requires consistent moisture in its environment to survive and can often be found under logs, woodpiles, and leaf litter.

If you have been encountering wood roaches in your home, read on to find out how to can treat this pest and prevent it from coming indoors.

Identification

Before carrying out a wood roach treatment, you must first deal with a wood cockroach. Misidentification can lead to the wrong treatment method, wasting time and money. Here are some traits to look out for to help you with identification:

• Wood roaches look similar to the common American Cockroach. With their flat, oval-shaped bodies, spiny legs, long antennae, and brown bodies, they are slightly smaller than the American cockroach.
• A wood roach measures about three-quarters of an inch long to almost an inch and a half.
• Male wood roaches have wings and can fly long distances, whereas females have smaller, non-functioning wings. They are tan and can often blend in with wood, which may be how they got their name.
• Adults and older nymphs have a distinctive cream-colored stripe on the outer edge of their body.

Use the image and description above to help you determine whether you are encountering wood roaches. If you are not totally sure, contact us, and we will assist you with the correct identification.

Inspection

Wood roaches eat almost anything in their path but are attracted to decaying matter, moisture, and unhygienic conditions. If the conditions are conducive, your home or yard can become attractive to wood roaches.

Where To Inspect

Wood roaches are the easiest to spot according to their behavior patterns. Their natural habitat is the outdoors, forests, and jungles. They do not usually crawl in buildings and do not breed indoors, but one may occasionally enter your home. To reproduce, they need consistent moist conditions, such as decaying logs and wood piles.

What To Look For 

You're looking for wood roaches themselves. Wood roaches indoors do not like to stay there for long because they can't survive inside buildings. They are also attracted to light and won't scurry away if the lights are turned on. Outdoors, look for decaying logs, woodpiles, or leaf litter to find where these pests are.

Treatment

Wood roaches are not as difficult to get rid of as other cockroach infestations. Regular cockroaches infest homes for warmth and food, but wood roaches often accidentally stumble in and cannot figure out how to escape.

The best way to deal with wood roaches is to lay out insect traps like the Solutions Pro Glue Board indoors and perform a barrier treatment with a powerful insecticide such as Supreme IT inside cracks and crevices.

Remember to read all the product labels, follow the application instructions on them, and stay safe by wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).

Step 1: Mix Supreme IT

Supreme IT is a broad-spectrum insecticide that is labeled for treating Cockroaches. It also has a long residual effect that kills for up to 90 days after application.

Determine how much Supreme IT to use by measuring the square footage of the treatment area. To do this, measure the length and width of the treatment area in feet, then multiply (length X width = square footage). 

Fill the sprayer halfway with half the amount of water, pour in the appropriate amount of Supreme IT, then fill the rest with the other half of water. Close the sprayer lid and shake to ensure an even agitation.

Step 2: Perform a Perimeter Treatment of Supreme IT

To protect your property from wood-infesting roaches, apply Supreme IT as a perimeter treatment around your home at the labeled rate of 0.33 to 1 oz. of product per 1,000 sq. ft. Use 1 oz. of Supreme IT for heavy wood cockroach infestations.

Use a fan spray setting to get nice, uniform coverage. Spray around outside entry points of your home, such as doors, windows, vent openings, and other voids in the wall. Then, begin at one point along your structure's outer perimeter and continue to treat along the outside by spraying 3 feet up the structure and 3 feet out. Avoid overlapping this application with your prior treatments. 

Do not allow people or pets to cross through treated areas until the product dries. 

Prevention

After removing the wood roaches from your yard, you must make the pest stay away and not return. Here are some preventative measures you can apply to protect your home:

• Sealing cracks—Wood roaches can enter the premises through the cracks and crevices in the walls, doors, and windows. It is important to seal these openings with wire mesh, wood, putty, or caulking compounds. This also stops other infestations, such as mice and centipedes.
• Storing firewood: Piles should be stored away from the house, preferably in the garage or shed. Firewood should only be brought in when needed and put directly on the fire. To reduce potential breeding opportunities, try to avoid carrying larger quantities of firewood every season.
• Switch off unnecessary lights. Male wood roaches can fly and are attracted to lights during the mating season. Female wood roaches are drawn toward yard and porch lights, thus attracting other male wood roaches.
• Discard dead roaches carefully—once killed, dead roaches can be discarded using a vacuum cleaner or a broom and a dustpan. However, a vacuum cleaner is not recommended, as roach bodies will get crushed inside the appliance, and you will have to clean it later. It also leaves a bad odor in the trash bag, attracting flies and other insects.
• Fix leaks—Leaking pipes and drains may attract more wood roaches. Fix these as soon as possible. Cover the house's drains and remove any excess moisture.
• Cleaning your yard: Remove debris and rotting leaves from the outside of your home, including gutters, vents, pipes, and window wells.
• Continue eliminating possible indoor infestations by placing them about every 5 to 10 feet, depending on the coverage area. Peel off the wax paper and lay it in prime active areas; before long, the wood roaches will be caught. Afterward, you can easily dispose of the glue board and catch the roach.
• Lastly, spray a quarterly treatment of Supreme IT around your home and yard for continued wood roach control.

Key Takeaways

What are Wood Roaches?

• Wood roaches are a species of roach that prefers to be outdoors in moist conditions but can wander indoors as accidental invaders.
• Woodroaches look very similar to the American Cockroach, but they are smaller in size and tannish brown, which helps them blend in with wood.

How To Get Rid of Wood Roaches

• We recommend laying out Solutions Pro Glue Boards indoors and treating your yard and perimeter with Supreme IT to control Wood Roach infestations.

Preventing Wood Roach Reinfestation

• Seal points of entry around your home, reduce clutter, and spray a quarterly treatment of Supreme IT to keep wood roaches away.