What Can I Do If My Neighbor Has Roaches?

Cockroaches can easily move homes. They can make their way from the neighbor’s house to your house in a matter of hours.

A confirmed cockroach infestation in a nearby home should be taken seriously. This infestation can spread out to your home slowly. It can also spread out to your home quickly in case the neighbor calls a professional that uses insecticide.

You need to take preventive measures against roaches in case of an infestation at your neighbor’s place. Sealing all entry points, removing food, and fixing water leaks are recommended actions. Limiting the visits of the neighbor is also recommended to stop accidental roach infestations.

Roaches can easily move to a nearby home whenever an exterminator acts against them. A serious roach invasion can number tens or hundreds of roaches that suddenly look for a new home.

Cockroaches might still move on to other homes seeking food even without an exterminator taking concrete actions against them.

A few reasons you need to confront your neighbor about roaches

You need to confront your neighbor whenever you find out about a roach invasion. This might not be an easy conversation. However, the following are reasons for concern with roach invasions.

A common house pest – roaches are a common house pest in the US

Roaches carry germs – bacteria and even viruses are carried by roaches

Roaches are difficult to exterminate – roaches might not be eliminated quickly due to rapid multiplication

Can roaches infest my home from my neighbor’s home?

Roaches can travel to your home easily. There might do so looking for food or they might do so because it’s easy for them to move to your house.

Even homes that have just one crack or one small opening can suffer from roach invasions. It’s best to take the problem seriously, but this might not necessarily include legal action.

Can I take legal action against my neighbor for roaches?

Taking legal action against a neighbor with a roach invasion is a complicated journey. Such cases rarely get to trial, mainly through a lack of real evidence.

A lack of real evidence might prevent you from having a case

It can be difficult to prove that roaches in your home come from the neighbor’s house. You don’t have the authority to check inside the house of your neighbor to find traces of a roach invasion.

Furthermore, even linking a possible invasion of roaches in another home to an invasion of roaches in your home is difficult to achieve from a legal perspective.

It’s best to take preventive measures either way

Even if a legal representative says you have a case, it’s best to protect your home as much as possible. Legal action takes time and you need to keep roaches out of your house during this time.

How can roaches move from the neighbor’s home to my home?

You can act to prevent roaches from getting inside your house or remove them once inside. If your neighbor has roaches you can take the following steps to ensure they don’t move to your home.

Foundation and wall cracks

Cracks offer entry points for roaches. Some cracks are visible while others aren’t. You can consider inspecting your home for cracks yourself using flashlights.

Pro tip: cracks should be sealed regardless of their size. Even a 0.2 inches opening crack is sufficient for cockroaches to squeeze through and get inside your house.

Openings under doors and windows

Openings under doors and windows are problematic for roaches and other pests. Doors should close tightly without much room for any type of pest such as cockroaches or ants to crawl through.

Open windows and open doors

Leaving doors and windows open is problematic when it comes to a roach invasion. Surprisingly, many roaches make their way inside the house when you leave a window open even without seeking cracks in walls.

Cockroaches that can fly include the following species.

• Asian cockroaches
• Brown cockroaches
• Wood roaches
• Smokybrown cockroaches

These roaches can easily fly into your home. Other more common roaches such as the American cockroach need to crawl and squeeze their way inside the house as they can’t fly.

Air vents

Sealing off air vents might be required in case of a serious roach infestation at your neighbor’s place. This is particularly true for those living in apartment buildings with shared air ventilation systems.

Pipes going through basements and trash rooms

Water pipes and sewage pipes can be on the same system both for houses and apartments. Cockroaches love sewage and they might be moving homes simply by the following piping.

Roaches love garbage and they might nest in trash rooms or trash cans. These are areas they can multiple and expand from towards your house.

How to prevent cockroaches from entering my home from my neighbor’s place?

Preventive measures are recommended when it comes to keeping your home roach-free. The following steps are a good starting point for keeping all roaches out, not just those potentially coming in from neighbors.

Stop visiting your neighbor

One of the first things to do is to limit or even prevent your neighbor from visiting your home. You also need to stay away from the home of the neighbor with a roach problem.

Roaches can hide in clothes, cardboard boxes, shopping bags, hats, and shoes. You can accidentally introduce them to your home by allowing a means of communication with an infested home.

Some roaches reproduce asexually. This means even carrying a single roach inside your house can cause trouble quickly.

Keep your house clean

Roaches love leftover food, humidity, clutter, and waste. These are all part of a dirty home where they can find food and shelter. Cleaning the house ensures roaches have no reason to stay even if they accidentally make it indoor.

Vacuum clean the entire house

Vacuuming is one of the easiest cleaning procedures that eliminate food traces and other pests roaches might be interested in eating. A powerful vacuum cleaner is going to be best used around the house.

You need to vacuum all areas including corners and tight spaces. Crawl space under and behind the furniture also needs to be vacuumed.

Clear out food

Food traces and open food represent an attraction for roaches. One of the main reasons roaches remain inside the house is when they have sufficient food.

Roaches moving out from another home are likely to seek out food and shelter. This is why they might not stay around whenever there’s insufficient food in the house.

Clear out rodent baits

Baits for other pests can attract roaches. These include cheese, meat, and sweets people use as baits for various pests. Unfortunately, they can lure in roaches from neighboring homes whenever they’re expanding their territory to find more food.

Get a roach killer

Gels, sprays, and powders that kill roaches can all prove handy. Gels act as a physical sticky barrier that roaches get trapped in. Sprays can kill roaches on the spot while roach powders can kill roaches slower, mainly when ingested with food.

Use DIY roach repellents

DIY repellents can be effective as well. Roaches can be put off by certain essential oils (cypress, cedarwood, and lavender) as well as by minerals (Epsom salt). These natural solutions can be used as extra physical barriers around the house.

Look for water leaks

Water leaks create high humidity which roaches love. Some leaks might not be obvious so it’s best to check the entire house for them.

Pipes under the sink, in the basement, or in the bathroom tend to create the worst leaks as they’re frequently used.

Seal plumbing and other access points

Plumbing creates ideal pathways for roaches to travel from one home to another. If plumbing isn’t properly insulated it offers small access points to the house. All plumbing spaces need to be sealed to keep roaches out.

Can the landlord help?

In some situations, it’s easier to let the landlord deal with the issue of roaches. If there’s the same landlord for your and your neighbor’s property it’s easier to resolve the problem,

Landlords can help when you don’t want to talk to the neighbor

You can discuss the problem whenever you don’t have the best relationship with your neighbor. Landlords can talk to the neighbor with a roach infestation on your behalf. This might take longer, on the other hand.

Landlords have the duty of maintaining a safe habitable living space

You can also discuss the issue with the landlord that rents out your neighbor’s home. All landlords have the legal duty to maintain a habitable space so it’s in their interest to hire an exterminator to deal with the problem.

Common actions you can take with neighbors to keep roaches out

Another common approach between neighbors that have a good relationship is to tackle the problem together. This means calling an exterminator or considering multiple measures which ensure roaches are effectively killed without escaping to another home.

Actions for house residents

Those living in houses have fewer shared facilities than those living in apartments. However, certain areas in the house or outside of the house can still attract roaches.

Check for trash and water leaks in the neighborhood

Trash cans are often seen as an ideal nest for roaches. Many types of cockroaches are known to prefer eating decaying food. It’s best to help your neighbor clear out all trash around his or her home as this is going to eliminate their food source.

Pay for an exterminator together

The closer your home is to your neighbor’s home the higher the chances are for roaches to move homes. This is why you can hire an exterminator together. An exterminator might expand the action area, especially in the case of multiple roach nests which may already be present on your property.

Actions for apartment residents

Those living in apartments are more likely to have a roach infestation from a neighboring apartment. Here’s what you can do if this is your case.

Locate the nest or source of the roaches

You first need to confirm your neighbor has roaches. This involves discussing with the neighbor as well as checking out areas that might attract roaches to the apartment.

Checking out trash rooms is important. Most roaches in apartment buildings nest here first. They find food and shelter in the trash containers.

Having a clear schedule for cleaning the trash room helps. The entire building’s cleaning plan might need to be planned again to find the best solutions that always ensure a clean common trash area.

Fix and repair old plumbing

Old buildings are known for favoring pests such as roaches and rodents. Fixing and even replacing old plumbing in the building might be required. It’s best to discuss this with all neighbors and residents.

What can I do if my home is infested with roaches from the neighbor?

If your home already shows signs of infestation it’s time to take quick measures. Even a single roach is a sign of trouble.

Talk to your neighbor

You first need to ensure your neighbor knows about the problem. The house of the neighbor is the source of these roaches and they need to be dealt with by an exterminator.

Inform the landlord

You can also inform the landlord of the pressing problem. It’s a good time to ask the landlord to book a professional pest controller for you.

Call a pest control professional while the neighbor covers the cost

You might be the owner of the home you live in so you will need to pay for the pest controller yourself. In some cases, your neighbor might be willing to pay or share the cost of an exterminator. It’s best to ask the neighbor about covering these costs directly.

Clean the house and its surroundings

A clean home will not offer any food to cockroaches. Even if an exterminator kills all roaches in your home you need to do a deep clean of the house. This ensures other roach invasions will not happen.

Summary

You need to take clear action whenever your neighbor has roaches. This involves confronting the neighbor in a friendly tone and asking for them to fix the issue. At the same time, you want to prepare your home for a possible invasion by sealing off all entry points and by eliminating foods roaches might be attracted to.