If you have ever had to deal with roaches in your home then you are probably familiar with how difficult they can be to get rid of. Roaches are the most resilient species of bug on earth, second only to their cousins the termites.
Roaches can live just about anywhere, and your car is no exception. If you are like me, the idea of having a bunch of roaches crawling around your car while you are trying to drive is simply unacceptable. This is why I will show you how to get rid of roaches in car and how to get rid of them completely.
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Materials
In order to accomplish our goal of getting rid of these pesky roaches, we’ll first need to gather some basic materials. The items needed are typically cheap and are easily attained. There are a few different options for what you can use as a specialized roach trap or bait, but we’ll get deeper into that in a moment. First, here is a list of the essentials for this project.
1. Cleaning Supplies
Perhaps the most important step in getting rid of roaches is by giving them nothing to eat. This means keeping things meticulously clean. For the purpose of cleaning the interior of a car, we’ll need the following:
- Vacuum cleaner
- Disinfectant spray/deodorizer
- Glass cleaner
- Wash cloth
- Dish soap
2. Roach Killer
The next aspect to getting rid of roaches is to kill the stubborn ones that hang around even after there's nothing left out to entice them. There are many forms of roach killers, from common household substances to commercially bought products, but not all of them will work well without any adverse effects in the context of killing roaches in your car.
This is why we will be avoiding some common items for this use like boric acid and opting instead for the following:
- Glue traps
- Baited roach poison
These are generally effective in trapping and baiting roaches. There are various brands to choose from, but I personally had success using traps and baits by the Raid company.
Step by Step On How To Kill Roaches In Your Car
1. Clear Everything Out
Once all of our materials are in order, It’s time to begin. The first thing we will want to do is clean the car from front to back in a thorough manner. Roaches can survive on the tiniest of crumbs and hide in the smallest crevices, so we will spare no effort in ensuring that the car is spotless by the time we are through.
This means removing all detachable items including any and all junk from the seats and trunk, seat covers, floor mats or anything that is not attached to the interior. Any seat covers or fabrics should be washed before returning to the car.
2. Vacuum
Now that the car is empty from all obstacles, we will vacuum it as thoroughly as possible by a handheld vaccum.
When I say thoroughly, I mean full-blown 1950’s housewife style, taking care to get in every crevice and remove every last spec of dirt, crumbs or otherwise. This is perhaps the single most important step.
4. Clean the Upholstery
The material of the car’s upholstery, carpets etc. can trap spilled food and drinks. These can often be sugary sodas or greasy french fries which are both rich in things that roaches love. We will need to get deep into the fabrics and remove as much of these substances as possible.
This is where the disinfectant cleaner and deodorizer comes into play. Apply your cleaning substance of choice to the fabrics of your car, let it soak in a bit, scrub out stubborn stains where necessary and leave all fabrics clean with a pleasant scent.
Things like soap and clean laundry have a pleasant scent to us humans but are opposite to what roaches are attracted to.
4. Clean Glass And Windows
This is not as crucial of a step, but while you're giving your car a complete cleaning, you may as well take the time to clean the windows and leave the car with a complete cleaning.
5. Put Everything Back Together
Once you are sure that everything is clean and there are no leftover remnants of food, spilled drinks or dirt on anything, you can put back your floor mats and seat covers, etc. This is a good point to re-evaluate what you really need to keep in your car.
Keep in mind that minimalism is a good way to deprive roaches of hiding places and keep things free and open so crumbs and food remnants do not go unnoticed. Generally speaking, if an item is not necessary or does not provide some important functionality, it should be left out.
6. Apply Traps And Bait
A car is typically a small space, and therefore the choices of where to set the roach traps are limited. We will want to set them somewhere out of site, where they will be unlikely to be disturbed. This means under seats, under floor mats, in corners, and in the trunk.
In extreme cases where many traps are needed, a good idea is to set traps out overnight while the car is parked and then remove them in the morning before the car becomes in use.
This is especially relevant in situations where kids and pets will be passengers in the car, as we wouldn’t want them coming in contact with any roach poisons or sticky traps that have roaches stuck in them. This will need to be repeated each night until the roaches are completely gone.
7. Dealing With Stragglers
While the roach problem in your car is being resolved, it’s still possible that you may encounter a few stragglers roaming around the car. This is where the dish soap comes into play. Dish soap works because of the way that roaches breathe. They take in air through pores on their skin.
Dish soap actually coats their skin, covering their pores and effectively suffocating them instantly. The best way to use this to get a spray bottle and fill it up with one part dish soap and three parts water. Keep the bottle handy while driving, and if you see a roach, simply grab the bottle and give a few spritzes in the roaches direction.
8. Prevention
If all previous steps are carried out properly, then you are likely to have gotten rid of your roach problem in a short amount of time. This is where we want to be, but once we are here the battle is not yet over.
A bit of prevention is far easier and worthwhile so as not to have the roaches come back over time, causing you to have to go through the entire process yet again. Here are some tips on how to keep roaches away after getting rid of the initial infestation.
Pro Tips
Keep things clean
Once you have your car nice and clean, keep it that way. As I stated earlier, the best way to keep roaches away is to give them nothing that entices them to be there in the first place. Make it a point to keep your car vacuumed and clean on a consistent basis.
No eating in the car
I realize that eating in the car is part of many people’s lifestyle, particularly those who have busy or active lifestyles. That said, the number one thing that will cause a car to become infested with roaches is dropped food, crumbs, and spilled drinks.
If those things are never in the car, then it’s likely that roaches will never be there either. If this is not an option for you, then just take extra care to clean up any dropped scraps or spills and NEVER leave food in the car overnight.
Video on how you could get rid of roaches :
Conclusion
Roaches can be a stubborn problem, but with some patience and persistence, they can be finally exterminated. I personally cannot stand roaches, as they are associated with all things dirty.
The sight of even just one roach will make most people cringe, so I thought it important to share with you the ways to keep them away. I have used the methods in this guide to successfully overcome the problem of roaches in my car, and now hopefully you can too.
Let me know if my article has helped you in any way and if it did, I want to hear from you by leaving your comments below. Share this with your friends and family as well. Now go clean your car and kill those roaches!
Soap actually removes the oil that acts as the skin of roaches.
Another tip: Ozone. Ozone will reach every nook and cranny in the interior and won’t leave a chemical residue like some insecticides might. It won’t affect the eggs though, so you’ll need to do a followup treatment. Ozone will remove odors too. If you do use ozone, don’t do more than a couple of hours or it will eat away at your car’s rubber.