What To Do With Dead Roaches

Dead roaches are just as bad as having living roaches scurrying around your house. This is because they release a death stench that attracts other roaches.

But don’t think the new roach visitors come around to bury their deceased comrade. Rather, this fallen roach is another food source for them.

So, leaving dead roaches around your house can easily become a problem. But what do you do with roach carcasses when you spot them?

This piece will walk you through several safe dead roach disposal ideas.

The next sections will walk you through several safe ways to handle dead roaches, dispose of them, and prevent another infestation.

We will also answer other common questions about dealing with roach infestations.

Are Dead Roaches a Serious Issue?

It is not rocket science to know that dead or alive roaches are dangerous to human health. For starters, they live in unsanitary places like sewers and trash cans during their lifespan.

When they die, some people pick them up to throw away. Although this solves the dead roach problem, picking up roaches can increase the spread of diseases.

Researchers from Cambridge University have identified pathogenic bacteria as some of the disease species these pests carry. As a result, dead roaches can spread diseases like typhoid, cholera, diarrhea, and more.

So, as we said earlier, dead roaches are not a good sign, their presence often indicates an infestation and can put you at risk of catching some unpleasant disease.

Skin rashes, dizziness, sinus infections, breathing issues, and nasal congestion are some of the symptoms of a roach-induced illness. To reduce your chances of falling sick from dead roaches, we will show you how to dispose of them properly.

Preparatory Steps to Disposing of Dead Roaches

First, you should note that bare hands and dead roaches do not go together. Therefore, never pick up dead roaches with your bare hands, even if you plan to wash them afterward.

This can get dangerous bacteria on your hands that you can spread to other areas without knowing. Instead, follow the steps below to protect yourself:

1. Wear Gloves

Disposable or reusable, gloves create a barrier between disease-causing roaches and your skin. That way, you can pick up dead roaches without risk.

However, after every use, please dispose of your gloves or wash them immediately in soap and water.

You can add bleach to the washing water to remove any bacteria the soap may not eliminate.

2. Where Gloves Are Not Handy, Use Paper Towels/Toilet Paper

These self-explanatory paper towels are a quick alternative to gloves if you urgently need to discard roaches. Regular toilet paper or thicker kitchen paper towels are fine.

However, ensure that your bare skin does not come in contact with the dead roach(es) by mistake. So, do not try to manage paper rollout enough to get the job done and keep yourself safe.

Then, dispose of the toilet paper or paper towel in an outdoor bin or your toilet.

3. Bring Out Your Brush and Dust Pan

Another way to avoid direct contact with dead roaches is to use a brush and dustpan. However, this technique is not as secure as the others above.

The reason is that lingering bacteria can hold on to the brush bristles, which are often difficult to clean. So, when you use your brush, you may unknowingly spread diseases and germs.

But you can wash your brush and dustpan in soapy water immediately after use. That way, you kill off any lingering bacteria.

Steps to Eliminating Dead Roaches

Now that we have finished with the preliminaries, let us look at a step-by-step procedure for disposing of these pesky pests. Following the steps below will prevent roaches from contaminating your home and spreading diseases.

1. Verify That the Roaches Are Dead

From experience, we know that roaches are tricky animals. Playing dead is one of the survival tactics that they use to get away from predators.

Apart from this, roaches have tonic immobility, which means that they can sometimes get paralyzed and unresponsive. It often happens after spraying insecticide on them, which may not kill them immediately but render them immobile.

So, once you spot something that resembles a dead roach, verify that it is truly dead before disposal. Otherwise, it can crawl back into your house, even though you think you threw it away.

Squish the roach with your foot or spray insecticide directly on it to verify that it is dead.

2. Throw Dead Roaches in the Trash

Throwing away dead roaches in a trash can is often the easiest way to dispose of them. Next, collect the dead roaches in a dustpan, paper towel, or another collection method.

Then, wrap the dead roaches in a plastic bag and throw the bag into a garbage can far from your house. Consider using an outdoor garbage bin that street collection services can easily pick up.

However, ensure that the garbage can has a tight lid to prevent birds or stray cats from getting to it.

Roaches killed with insecticide tend to attract these stray animals, but a garbage bin can keep them away. But remember to clean your trash can after every disposal collection for double protection.

That way, you can kill any lingering bacteria from dead roaches.

Use hot water, bleach, and dish soap to wash your outdoor trash can. Then, leave the clean container to dry in the sun.

3. Bury the Dead Roaches

Besides throwing dead roaches in trash cans, you can also bury them in the ground. Burying dead roaches in the ground is an effective eco-friendly disposal method.

Wrap the roaches in a bio-degradable paper bag, dig a small hole in your garden, and bury it.

After about a week, return to the spot and water the soil to release composite into your garden. But, if you used insecticide to kill the roaches, you may want to wait a few days more. That way, the insecticide has enough time to wear off.

4. Burn the Roaches

You can try this alternative if you kill the roaches with insecticide and do not want to wait for the long burying process.

Wrap the roaches in a paper bag, following the steps above. Then, pile some dry wood over the bundle.

After that, set fire to the pile and leave it to burn. The flames not only eliminate the roaches, but they also kill off bacteria. Thus, reducing any lingering health hazards.

5. Dump Dead Roaches in a Compost Bin

Dead roaches are a good addition to any compost pile. The reason is that the dead pests decompose like any other organic matter after some days.

The decomposition process takes about three days to complete. During this stage, the dead roaches release nutrients into the soil, which is good for the ecosystem.

However, remember to wear gloves and bury the roaches in the middle or bottom of the compost pit. This prevents the death smell from drawing wild animals to invade the compost pit.

6. Flush Dead Roaches in the Toilet

Flushing roach carcasses is one of the best ways to eradicate dead roaches without leaving a scent trail. The implication is that other roaches or stray animals cannot trace the dead roaches to a particular location.

However, ensure the roaches are dead and not unconscious before doing this. Again, roaches are tricksters and can hold their breath underwater for forty minutes.

If you flush them while they are still alive, they can find their way back through that route. In addition, roaches have spiracles spread across their bodies that help them breathe.

They can close up these spiracles to suspend their breathing. But, unfortunately, it also makes it easy for roaches to float in the toilet or sewer pipe.

Down in sewage, they can feed on waste, reproduce, grow their numbers, and return to invade your house. So, only flush dead roaches down the toilet and let the water pressure wash them away into the pipes.

But be careful not to flush too many dead roaches at once. This may clog your toilet and create unsanitary conditions for the next user.

Instead, flush in batches, and monitor the toilet to verify that all the roaches have disappeared. Keep flushing until there are no traces of bubbling or floating roaches.

Then, pour a few cups of hot water and dish soap into the toilet to finish the process.

Conclusion

Leaving dead roaches around your house can easily become a problem. As we said above, it can draw other roaches out of hiding. Then since these pests are known to move in large numbers, an infestation is not far off.

However, this guide shows many safe ways to dispose of dead roaches. So, do not panic whenever you see dead roaches around your house. Instead, refer to this guide and follow the tips provided in it.