Small Cockroaches in Your Kitchen: Why They Keep Coming Back

Many people believe the small ones are babies that will grow into the big ones. Usually they will not. The small light brown ones are a separate type, and they stay small even as adults. This matters because the two need different handling. The big ones are mostly visitors from the drain, so covering drains and sealing pipes helps a lot. The small ones are residents. They live, eat and breed inside your kitchen, so the fight has to happen inside the kitchen too.

Why small cockroaches keep coming back

1. They breed faster than you clean

The female German cockroach retains her egg case with her up until shortly before it hatches. The egg case has about 40 eggs, and it will take 20 to 30 days for the eggs to hatch before the young grow into adults in 40 to 60 days.

2. You only see a small part of them

The cockroach prefers darkness and humans. It lives deep in the hinge or appliance at daytime and comes out to feed at nighttime. The few cockroaches you see when the light goes on are just the tip of the iceberg compared to the number residing behind the walls. Seeing them during daytime is an indication that their hideouts are now full.

3. Spray does not reach their home

The spray kills the cockroaches that touch the spray. But it has no effect on the cockroaches and their eggs in the crevices. The smell of the spray makes them run off too. Another week goes by and a new generation is born, but the kitchen is still the same.

4. Your kitchen gives them everything

The requirements for a cockroach are warmth, water, food, and shelter. A typical Indian kitchen offers all four:

• Warm places: back of the refrigerator, the microwave, base of the mixer, the inverter, and the place around the stove.
• Water: sink with water, leaking RO purifier, the pochha cloth, and pipe under the sink.
• Food: stains of oil in the tiles and on the chimney, atta powder, masala stains, the basket containing onions and potatoes, plates kept for the next morning.
• Hiding places: Kitchen cabinet hinges, kitchen shutters with holes, kitchen gaps in the drawers, behind the cylinder, on top of the cabinets, cardboard boxes.

You can have your counter clean but feed them anyway. A little oil stain behind the stove is enough to satisfy their hunger.

5. New ones keep arriving

These cockroaches in flat buildings migrate from the adjacent kitchens through the holes in the walls and pipes. The smaller cockroaches can enter the house through grocery containers, vegetable bags, and used household items.

Use a torch to check the following places during the night or look for droppings resembling black pepper or coffee powder:

• Hinges of cabinet doors, especially near the sink and stove
• Drawer channels and the hollow space behind drawers
• The gap between the counter and the wall
• Behind and under the fridge, near the warm motor
• Inside the microwave, toaster, and mixer base
• Under the sink, around the pipe that enters the wall
• Behind the gas stove and the cylinder
• The chimney body and its joints
• Electrical switchboards and the inverter
• Cardboard boxes and newspaper lining in cabinets

For the full list across the house, see these 15 hiding places. If they are inside your appliances, read our guide to clearing cockroaches from the fridge, microwave and mixer.

How to stop them for good: a four-week plan

Week 1: Cleaning the Hidden Kitchen

• Move the stove outwards and clean the grease from behind it.
• Wash the filters in the chimney and wash the hinges and handles of the cabinets.
• Clean behind and under the fridge.
• Throw away cardboard boxes and replace them with plastic bags.

Week 1: Apply gel where they live

Sprinkle small drops of Deadsure Cockroach Killer Gel on these hiding places mentioned above: near the hinges, inside the cabinet corners, under the sink, behind the refrigerator, and near the entrance of the gas pipe.

Gel bait works where spray cannot. Cockroaches eat it, go back to their hiding place, and pass it on to the others there. That is how it gets to those that you never see.

Weeks 2 and 3: Do nothing to the gel and add to it

• No spraying around the gel; no mopping or wiping of the drops.
• Add fresh drops where the old ones are eaten.
• Expect a few more sightings in the first days, then a steady drop.
• Around week 3, a few tiny cockroaches may appear as eggs hatch. Keep the drops in place for them.

Our Gel Timeline from Day 1 to Day 30 covers expectations during each phase.

Week 4: Secure the routine

• Fill the space around the pipe with sealing compound or white cement.
• Seal gaps between the countertop and the wall.
• Have some gel drops handy at the entry points and keep checking them periodically.

Close the kitchen each evening:

• Wash the dishes, or at least soak them in soapy water.
• Wipe the counter, stove, and sink dry.
• Cover the dustbin, or take it out.
• Keep atta, sugar, dal and snacks in airtight dabbas.

Night is when they eat. The less food they find, the more of the bait they eat.

Three mistakes that keep the cycle going

• Spraying inside cabinets that hold food and utensils. It leaves residue where you least want it, and it drives cockroaches away from the bait.
• Stopping as soon as the kitchen looks clear. The eggs hatch weeks later. Stopping early is the most common reason they come back.
• Saving cartons and newspaper. They are both hiding places and a way for new cockroaches to come in.

Keep the gel off the counter where you cook, away from the burner, and out of reach of children and pets. This is explained in our safety manual.

The kitchen is quiet at 11 o'clock.

Small cockroaches keep on coming back because they live inside the kitchen and reproduce rapidly, staying in places the spray cannot reach them. Go where they live and beat them there. Remove all the hidden grease, shut your kitchen up at night, and allow Deadsure Cockroach Killer Gel to take effect where you cannot reach. Let it do its job for four weeks, and the next time you turn on the light at 11 p.m., there won't be anything moving.