How To Know if Roaches Are in Walls

Roaches are pests that are often hard to miss. They leave an unmistakable trail behind, from their stench to their wings and droppings.

The case may not be the same when they are hiding inside your walls. Since you can’t see through wall cracks, it might be tricky to tell whether or not they are in there.

But no worries, these small-bodied insects can’t be as intelligent as humans. This guide will unveil some sure signs to look out for to confirm if they are inside your wall.

In the following sections, we will discuss five telltale signs to watch out for in a roach-infested wall. Afterward, we will walk you through another five practical steps to deter them from their hiding.

Before we go into all that, it would be good to know why roaches hide in walls in the first place.

Why Roaches Hide in Walls

Roaches always look for warm, dark, and damp areas to hide. If your walls have cracks, they could be the best hiding spots for roaches.

Several things may lead to cracks in walls. For one, if your pipes are leaky or there is always water in your walls, it can lead to cracks.

Leakages in your home’s foundation may also cause the walls to crack. This is because the leakage will increase the amount of water coming up, thus making it damp.

Cracks offer the best disguise for roaches. They creep into these holes and stay warm until it is late, and there are few human activities within the house. At this point, they search for food particles or any debris they can feed on.

If there are cracks in your kitchen or pantry wall, best believe that a colony of roaches is hiding behind, waiting for the right time to emerge.

6 Signs There Are Roaches in Your Walls

When in your walls, roaches can wreak unimaginable havoc and spread diseases unknowingly. Those small insects can be that cruel.

If you suspect their activities in your walls, there are several ways to confirm their presence.

Below, we discuss five of them:

1. Presence of Dead Roaches on the Floor

Roaches sometimes eat their dead counterparts. At other times, they remove the dead roaches from their hiding place.

If you constantly spot dead roaches in certain areas of your home, there might be roaches in your walls.

But to be sure, you can check for cracks in the walls where you saw the dead roaches. If you see any cracks, this may be a telltale sign that roaches are already sharing your building with you.

You will learn how to resolve this later in the guide.

2. You Hear Sounds From Inside Your Walls

Here’s another sign you can watch out for to tell whether or not roaches are in your walls. If they are in there, you will hear strange sounds from the wall.

However, do not expect to hear a sound like a clashing cymbal or a parade. No matter the severity of the infestation, these small-bodied insects cannot make such an impact. Roaches are not that loud. What you will hear instead are tiny chirpings or scratching sounds.

The chirping sound may be loud in the case of a severe infestation. However, it will not be an ear-shattering sound. You can only hear this sound properly when the environment is quiet.

As a test, you can go into the area where you suspect the roach to be. Go in at night, turn off the light and move stealthily. Stay quiet and pay close attention. You will hear sounds from inside the walls of these stubborn creatures are around.

3. There Are Roach Stains on Your Walls

To detect a roach infestation, you can also be on the lookout for stains on the walls. Roaches may not leave their smear marks everywhere. However, they will leave those marks there if they have spent some time in a spot.

So, how do you differentiate roach stains from other regular stains? That is not so difficult. Roach stains are hard to miss. The first thing to check is the smell. What’s the smell of the stained wall like? If it is a roach stain, the stench will be quite strong.

Besides the pungent smell roach stains give, they also come with watermarks. If the stain is roach-related, there will be a watermark with black or brown tiny droppings in the middle.

These are two sure signs you can use to identify roach stains. There’s no point asking further questions if you constantly see stains on your wall with a pungent stench and watermark.

These household pests are already having a good time in your wall(s).

4. You See Roaches Climbing on Your Walls

If you need surer proof to clear your doubts, here is one of the most certain signs you will notice in your homes.

If roaches are hiding in your walls, you will occasionally see them climbing in and out of the cracks in your walls.

With this sight, you certainly do not need a soothsayer to tell you that your wall is under a roach attack.

If you are waiting to see an army of them to confirm, then be ready to face a severe full-blown roach infestation very soon.

You do not have to see hundreds of roaches to know there are roaches in your walls. Seeing one or two is enough.

5. You See Roaches’ Egg Capsules

Roaches lay eggs in dark, warm corners until they are hatched. If they are in your walls, you can expect to see their eggs around wall corners near their hideout.

But how do you identify roach eggs? It is as simple as ABC. Roach eggs are brown and have the shape of a regular capsule. They might be somewhere on your wall if you spot anything similar close to these.

But to be sure, you may want to check with other signs we’ve discussed earlier.

If you spot a roach egg at the corner of a wall, there is a good chance the roach with the egg lurks nearby in a wall crack.

6. You Perceive an Oily, Musty Smell

This is the last on our list of signs to identify a roach-infested wall.

Check the floor around the walls if you suspect a roach infestation. Are there roach droppings? Roach droppings are usually dark brown. In some cases, they may come as black pellets.

Regardless of the color, whether dark brown or black, you are likely to see things like shed roach skins and dead roaches around roach droppings.

Besides these, you can expect roach droppings to smell differently. Roach droppings release pheromones wherever they are. These pheromones’ smells tend to linger and attract roaches to the same spot.

Apart from roaches, humans can also perceive this scent. While the scent is attractive to roaches, we tend to perceive it as a disgusting musty smell.

If you perceive such when you pass by a wall, you should know that there are many roaches around.

5 Ways To Eliminate Roaches From Walls

Now that you know how to identify a wall infested with roaches, let’s discuss some practical ways to eliminate them.

Depending on how long the roaches have been around, there are likely to be numerous sizes in and around the walls. As such, you must be thorough in your fight against them to prevent their return.

Below, we consider some strategies we believe can help:

1. Use an Insecticide

Insecticides are very effective in deterring several household bugs, including roaches.

If you don’t have one in the house, that’s no problem. You can get it from just any local hardware store. Go to the nearest grocery store and ask the attendant for a powerful insecticide that works well on roaches.

With the chemical-based spray ready, apply on areas you’ve sighted roach activities.

You do not need to spray the insecticide all over the house first. Just look around for the cracks or crevices in the wall and blast a good quantity of the insecticide inside. Some roaches may scamper out to avoid inhaling the insecticide.

At this point, you can now spray the remaining insecticide around the room. But before doing this, close all entrances and allow the insecticide to do its work.

After a few hours, you will find many dead roaches lying around. Sweep them, clean up your home, and enjoy a roach-free home.

2. Cut Off Their Water Sources

Roaches will always hang around moist areas. So, if you don’t want them inside your walls or any other area in your home, you’ve got to cut off all water sources.

Look out for leaky or broken pipes. Fix them to prevent more water from seeping into your walls.

You will be achieving two things with this. First, you will be preventing your wall from further damage. Secondly, you will be making your home unconducive for roaches.

Also, check for openings and cracks in the wall and seal them up with concrete, caulking, or any readily available sealant. With this, roaches cannot breed appropriately in your walls.

3. Block All Openings

Besides cracks in walls, other openings might give access to the roaches in your walls.

These can be on/around other building elements like windows, doors, and floors.

So, check for opening around these areas and close them to prevent new roaches from entering.

Caulking would make a good sealing option in this case.

You can seal the openings yourself if you are good with your hands.

4. Eliminate All Their Food Sources

Roaches stay in areas where they see enough food to eat.

There is only so much you can do to keep them at bay if they find enough food in your house.

Store your items in airtight containers and place them in the storage area. You can keep things that can stay in refrigerators in there.

Also, wash your dishes and sweep up any food droppings that may be lying around.

If the roaches cannot get anything to eat, they are less likely to be another infestation.

5. Declutter Your Home

Finally, you should try decluttering if you have excess luggage or stuff around your home.

This way, you will soon eliminate every hiding space for roaches and allow fresh air into your home.

Conclusion

Thus far, we have identified five signs of a roach-infested wall and five practical ways to handle the problem.

Check for dead roaches on the floor if you suspect a roach infestation on your wall. Also, check whether there are tiny chirping or scratching sounds.

You can also look for stains on the wall and roaches climbing in and out of wall cracks. You may also notice their egg capsules and an oily and musty smell.

After confirming their presence in your walls, you’ve got to deter them immediately. Your home should not be the hotspot for roaches.

Apply the deterrent strategies outlined above and watch these unwanted guests stay away from your home.