Are You Having Trouble with Getting Rid of Bedbugs and Cockroaches?
It's a nightmare to wake up with bedbug bites. Cockroaches, too, may have multiple preferred hiding places in your home. If you see one cockroach in your home, there are probably more nearby.
Leah Mukangai 
Cockroaches are one of the most common pest problems, but they are also one of the most difficult to eradicate. Infestations are difficult to eradicate because the insects hide in a variety of locations, breed quickly, have a high reproductive potential, and may develop pesticide resistance.
It is very common to see insecticide peddlers driving around the estate in Toyota Proboxes, with giant loudspeakers mounted on the roof announcing the potency of the latest drug.
Most of us have also witnessed peddlers walking around announcing at the top of their lungs the best insecticides to use so as to keep off the roaming cockroaches and bedbugs. "Dawa ya mende, dawa ya kunguni" is one of the common phrases heard in the streets.
“The insects still multiply in their hundreds, and fatten, while the sellers of the insecticides walk home daily with a full pocket,” stated Peter, a resident of Kayole.
Peter revealed that he has been sharing his house, mattress, seats, and utensils with the vexing insects for the past seven years.
A recent discussion on a Kahawa estate WhatsApp group revealed how much residents suffer in silence at home. Tens of residents, including Mary, claimed that the more she sprayed her kitchen, the more cockroaches multiplied.
“I think the cockroaches are becoming resistant because I have used all kinds of pesticides in the market, but I keep seeing them,” Mary stated.
George Kurai, a pest control expert, revealed in a report that he has been receiving similar complaints about some time. He claims that his research has revealed that there has been a cross-breeding of roaches that necessitates expert intervention.
“If you don’t have strong pesticides and the right experts, you will keep fumigating and the bugs will keep breeding until you give up,” he stated.
Cockroaches can withstand compression forces of up to 900 times their body weight. The exoskeleton of a cockroach is made up of overlapping plates connected by a stretchy membrane. This enables them to flatten and provides extreme strength against anything compressing against these plates.
Cockroach. PHOTO FILE
Adhesive-based traps can help with roaches that are scurrying around your house, but they won't help you find the roach's original nest.
The bait comes in three varieties, according to Western Exterminator: liquid, gel, and solid. "After eating the bait, the cockroach will most likely return to its nest and defecate." Other hungry cockroaches in the nest consume the 'poisoned' cockroach's feces and saliva and are thus affected by the bait.
Baba-dogo, Eastleigh, Kayole, Komarock, Pipeline, and Kalolen are among the estates plagued by bedbugs and cockroaches.
