London is one of the few metropolitans around the world without a cockroach problem. In fact, cockroach infestations have drastically decreased since 2019, and today, seeing the pest inside a home is becoming highly uncommon. These are the results of a data analysis made by Fantastic Services, one of the UK’s biggest home service and pest-control providers. The data shows that the cases of cockroach infestation have decreased by nearly 50% in three years, and even back then, the numbers weren’t that high.
Why do cockroaches come to your home?
Like most other pests, cockroaches are interested in one thing- food. They look for a place with a high food supply, where they can gorge without too much risk. They dwell in sewers and come through the sink or bathroom drains. Naturally, those are not the most hygienic places, making this pest one of the most disease-carrying insects you can encounter. By all means, London should be filled with this tiny invasive species, yet many Londoners can’t recall the last time they saw a cockroach outside a movie or a museum. In contrast, people from New York, Berlin, Paris, and other equivalently big cities can talk for hours about their encounter with the six-legged disgusting insect.
So why do Cockroaches avoid London?
It would be easy just to say that they can’t afford the rent, but the lack of a vast cockroach population lies elsewhere. Furthermore, the insects mostly avoid entering people’s houses. The main culprit behind this astonishing fact is the weather conditions. This limits the number of cockroach species living in the UK and their general population. Of over 3000 species, only four can be found in the UK.
Furthermore, the high population of other pests in the region, like mice, wasps, and rats, make the competition for food far more difficult, which once again limits the population and their feeding ground. Cockroaches are only dangerous because they carry diseases. Otherwise, they are not known to be particularly vicious.
To top it all off, with 59% of households in London having a pet, this makes scavenging for food dangerous and not worth it for the cockroaches. Cats are particularly well-known for their cruelty toward pests, so for a cockroach, it’s illogical to try and seek food somewhere where the chances of death are high.
However, that doesn’t explain the significant drop in cockroach infestations noticed by Fantastic Services analysis between 2019 and 2022.
Why cockroaches are less invasive in the past few years
The main reason is hygiene. Covid has taught us the importance of disinfecting and keeping our surroundings clean. Fortunately, clean homes are not very welcoming to cockroaches seeking an easy food source. Moreover, the population of mice and rats has skyrocketed during the pandemic. Thus, competing for food is even harder for the tiny insects now. Finally, the lockdown prevented cockroaches from scavenging empty houses, which reduced their chances of checking stealthily about food sources. In addition, offices, food joints and other establishments with massive garbage disposal practices were shut down, so food became scarce outside homes as well, forcing the roaches’ population to shrink even further.
What to do when you see a cockroach in your home
In the unlikely event that you see a cockroach in your home, screaming won’t help a lot. A much better alternative would be to kill the scavenger and make sure you clean. If you see it crawling on any food, either wash it exceptionally well or just throw it away. However, if you keep your house clean and tidy, the chances of having a cockroach problem are negligible.
