Why Do You Find Cockroaches in Car

Cockroaches need a source of food to occupy an area. If your car provides that food source, they will find a way inside.

People eat in their cars and when they do, food crumbs fall on the seats, in between the seats or on the floor. It doesn’t matter if you clean up after. Cockroaches will find those tiny morsels of food and find a place to get comfortable in your car.

Why Do Cockroaches Live in Cars?

Cockroaches will try to gain access inside vehicles for the same reason they come inside buildings – to look for food, water and a place to breed.

Though it’s not unheard of to hear about someone – a friend, a relative or a colleague – finding cockroaches in their vehicles, finding one or several in your car yourself can still be a disgusting experience.

If you do find them in your vehicle, what do you do? Is it still possible to get rid of the roaches that have made a home in your car? Will you have to give up your car and buy a new one?

This article will provide the answers and solutions to your cockroach problem.

How Do Cockroaches Get in Your Car?

A cockroach can gain access to your car in many ways. Here are some of them:

Open windows. There are species of cockroaches that can fly, so an open car window or a crack, even just a tiny crack, can be used as an entry point.

Items brought from outside. An item that you’re bringing home, held in a luggage, box or even shopping bag, can contain cockroaches. Usually, these items will be placed in the car first before their final destination – your home.

Through crevices. Cockroaches will use the tiniest holes or gaps as accept points. This makes it easy for these pests to gain entrance into cars.

Dangers of Cockroaches in your Car

Aside from being dirty, cockroaches are also dangerous. These insects are not harmless and having them in your car or home is not like having ants or spiders. They carry more than 30 different types of bacteria that can cause diseases.

The droppings, body fluids and skin casings that they leave behind contain pathogens that are harmful if people or food get in contact with them.

In addition, one or two cockroaches can turn into a serious infestation in no time as these insects breed and multiply at a fast rate. Your car will be completely run over by cockroaches in a short amount of time.

If you see a cockroach in your car, take it seriously.

Below are suggestions on how to get rid of cockroaches from your car and how to avoid them in the future.

Image of a man driving a car

Where Do Cockroaches Hide in Cars?

Cars are one of the many places where the highly adaptable cockroaches thrive. Similar to what they do in houses, they will quickly find a place to hide, eat food scraps, and lay their young.

As is their habit, cockroaches will be nowhere to be found during the day but will appear at night when nobody is around.

The favourite hiding places for cockroaches in cars are under the seats where food crumbs usually fall. Other places that cockroaches used as hiding spots are the glove compartments, centre consoles, door interiors, seat cushions, under seats, under floor mats and trunks.

Occasionally, cockroaches can be found in the bed of trucks or campers, living their best life in the trash and beddings that are in there.

Cockroaches will hide anywhere that food is easily accessible. They can also reproduce if the conditions are just right. Because these insects multiply fast, an infestation can happen in just a matter of weeks.

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Image of a mother and child in a car

How to Get Rid of Roaches in your Car

To avoid cockroaches from nesting in your car interior, it is important to keep it clean. For example, you can:

  • Use a vacuum cleaner to pick up every morsel of food, even the smallest ones.
  • Remove the items that roaches can use as hiding places such as children’s toys shopping bags, boxes, gym bags, etc.

You can also get rid of cockroaches around your property by using gel bait traps to attract to cockroaches and kill them. These baits are available from the local hardware or can be homemade.

However, these baiting methods are only effective as a short-term solution and may not completely eradicate the entire cockroach population in your property or prevent them from coming back. For long-term control, professional residential pest treatment is most effective.

How Keep Cockroaches Away from your Car?

One sure way to prevent a cockroach infestation in your car is to make it as unappealing as possible to them. Cockroaches seek warm, moist and dark places with easily accessible food sources.

You can avoid cockroaches by:

  • Not eating in your car.
  • Store a few items only.
  • Make sure to park away from places where cockroaches are usually found such as garbage bins, sewage drains and drainage openings.
  • Keep your car windows or sunroof sealed.
  • Vacuum your car regularly.

Having trouble with cockroaches in your home? Call our team of professionals today!

Once the cockroaches have been removed, your car is safe as long as you don’t do the things that appeal to them.

If you can’t sometimes avoid parking in places where they may be cockroaches, there are deterrents that can repel cockroaches. There are certain scents that are not just attractive to cockroaches, such as:

  • Peppermint
  • Lavender
  • Eucalyptus
  • Onion powder
  • Garlic
  • Clovite
  • Tea Tree Oil
  • Lemon and other citrus peels

Remember, however, that these may not be effective all the time because cockroaches can adapt fast and learn to ignore these scents.

Cockroaches are persistent and hardy insects. Once they are in your car, they can quickly infest it. When you do find even one of these dirty pests in your car, clean your vehicle and set up bait as added guarantee.

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