There’s nothing worse than waking up to find out roaches are roaming inside and around your coffee maker, turning your morning routine into a nightmare.
The scenario of sharing your coffee machine with roaches gets whole-heartedly unsightly, sending shivers across the spines of many.
With a few simple steps, learn how to keep roaches out of the coffee maker and enjoy your coffee without fearing roach infestation.
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Why Are Cockroaches Attracted to Coffee Machines?
Several factors can make a coffee maker an inviting breeding ground and a source of sustenance for roaches.
- The structure of the coffee machine offers many crevices and dark, narrow areas for the roaches to hide, helping them to remain undetected by humans or their predators.
- The warmth of the machine encourages them to make it their home.
- A coffee maker proves to be a consistent food source for the roaches. Crumbs of coffee beans, cream, milk, sugar, and water are enough for the cockroaches to thrive on. In addition, most of us place coffee makers in the kitchen, the most preferred area for cockroaches.
- Unfortunately, the similarity between the color of coffee and cockroaches often confuses us, leaving the roaches undetected and failing to eliminate them. In addition, cockroaches are experts at hiding and will slip into a hidden place before you notice them.
- A typical class known as German cockroaches has a great attraction to coffee.
How to Keep Roaches Out of the Coffee Maker?
Keeping cockroaches out of coffee machines requires a straightforward but disciplined approach.
1. Disassemble and Clean the Coffee Machine
Some coffee machines are simple-structured, allowing you to dismantle them without calling for any professional help. After dismantling, clean the machine parts using bleach and warm water.
However, dismantling a high-end coffee machine may prove disastrous. Involving professional service personnel in machine maintenance is sensible. It protects you from the risk of machine damage, which might make it unworkable.
Alternatively, go through the instruction manual if you have the know-how to service machines and are confident of dismantling and assembling the parts swiftly without damaging them.
2. Place Coffee Machine in Cold Places When Not in Use
Roaches hate cold environments. Set your coffee machine in a cold room or outside, and cockroaches will start leaving the coffee machine looking for a warm habitat. Ensure your coffee machine is robust enough to survive the cold climate. Let it be in the cold environment until it gets roach-free. Then relocate again to its original place.
Here are a few tips to follow when placing coffee machines in cold places:
- Unplug the coffee machine after switching it off. Ensure to drain all the water from it and let it air dry.
- Wrap the machine with a large plastic bag. Seal it loosely to have sufficient space for roaches that will come out of the coffee machine.
- If you live in a cold region, place the coffee machine in the basement, garage, or shed outside. Alternatively, a large freezer is another option, provided you have one.
- Cockroaches aren’t able to sustain temperatures below 30–35 degrees F. They will start escaping the coffee machine when the temperature reaches this range. A lower temperature than this range may kill the roaches in the coffee machine and rot them there.
- Typically, it will take 4-5 days for your coffee machine to cool and to achieve the desired goal of removing cockroaches.
Consistent low temperatures will force the cockroaches to leave the coffee machine. However, they won’t be able to escape due to the plastic bag that entraps them within it. You can later dispose of the cockroaches away from your place.
Cockroaches may also die due to suffocation caused by an air shortage in the bag. Clean the coffee machine thoroughly using bleach and disinfectants before reusing it.
3. Cover Coffee Maker in a Dust Trap
The dust trap method uses diatomaceous earth as a cockroach deterrent. Diatomaceous earth dehydrates insects and disrupts their exoskeleton, leading to their demise.
Sprinkle a light dusting of food-grade diatomaceous earth around the coffee machine, especially near entry points and areas where cockroaches are likely to travel.
Whenever cockroaches leave the coffee machine looking for food, they walk over the dust, and the poison from the diatomaceous earth dehydrates and kills them.
The remaining pests feed on the dead body of the roach, which is poisoned, eventually killing them. However, this method works ideally for a few cockroaches and only works if the roaches leave the machine.
Ensure you are using food-grade diatomaceous earth, which is safe to use in areas where food is prepared or consumed.
4. Bait Trap
Purchase bate traps that are specifically designed to attract and eliminate cockroaches. They come as an odorless gel. Place the bait traps strategically around the coffee machine and places where roaches frequently visit.
Bait traps are typically made with a combination of food-based lures and insecticides. Despite being in a gel format, they are safer to place around electrical equipment.
5. Pest Control
It’s best to call a pest control professional if none of the above methods work. A pest control specialist has the expertise and tools to eliminate roach infestations while safeguarding your coffee machine and house. A pest control professional also checks all the areas in your home for probable or existing infestations and clears them off.
How to Disinfect Coffee Maker That Had Roaches in It?
Now that you have successfully eliminated the roach infection, it’s time to disinfect it before you re-use it.
- Before you start cleaning, ensure the coffee machine is unplugged to avoid any electrical hazards.
- If your coffee machine has removable parts like the coffee pot, water reservoir, filters, and drip trays, take them out and wash them separately.
- Wash the removable parts with hot, soapy water. Use a scrub brush or sponge to remove any debris or residue. Rinse them thoroughly with clean water.
- Wipe down the exterior of the coffee machine using a damp cloth or sponge with hot, soapy water. Pay attention to any crevices or seams where roaches might have hidden.
- Mix equal parts of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle. Spray this solution on the coffee machine’s surfaces and let it sit for a few minutes to help disinfect and eliminate any lingering odors.
- Fill your decanter, flask, or bottle with water and white vinegar in equal amounts.
- Dump this solution into the coffee machine’s water reservoir.
- Place a coffee cup or mug on the hot plate. Start the machine.
- The solution of water and white vinegar runs through all the internal parts of the coffee machine, cleaning it thoroughly. Throw away the dirty water that gets collected in the coffee cup.
- Repeat this process at least two times.
- Then repeat the same process thrice, using clean water to rinse off all the vinegar.
If the vinegar stench lingers after a wash, use a commercial cleaning product to eliminate that smell. For a detailed cleaning, you can use a teaspoon of bleach. However, ensure that you thoroughly rinse to remove the bleach and its remnants.
How to Prevent Roaches from Getting Into Coffee Maker?
Preventing cockroaches from entering coffee machines is much better than removing them later.
- Clean your coffee machine after every use.
- Keep the area around the coffee machine clean by scraping coffee, spilled milk and emptying the water tray after each use.
- Empty and clean the coffee pot and water reservoir regularly.
- Store coffee beans, grounds, and other pantry items in sealed containers.
- Place cockroach traps or bait stations near the coffee maker and in areas where roaches are commonly found.
- Mix catnip with boiling water in a kettle to brew it for 5 to 10 minutes. The scent from this solution lingers around the room, making it uneasy for the cockroaches. You can add lemon to intensify the smell. Add a few tea leaves and fog your kitchen with this spray for maximum results. You can also use the following in place of catnip:
- Eucalyptus
- Rosemary
- Essential oils of Peppermint, Cypress, and Cedarwood
- Crushed bay leaves
- Oregano
The above ingredients are safe to use in kitchens.
However, avoid spraying toxic substances near the coffee machine and in your kitchen. Accidental ingestion may be hazardous for you, your kids, or your pets. In addition, they contaminate other ingredients in the kitchen. Also, these substances aren’t result-oriented and are prone to fire.
Can Roaches Live Inside a Coffee Maker?
The coffee maker offers an ideal place to inhabit cockroaches. It has everything for the cockroaches to survive: sufficient food, water, a warm environment, dark shadows, spaces to hide effortlessly, etc.
Spotting roaches on coffee makers is challenging. However, you can look for their traces and determine their presence in the coffee maker machine as follows:
- Droppings: You can spot them easily. Droppings from young roaches resemble ground coffee or black pepper. Droppings from giant cockroaches are cylindrical, black, and have blunt ends and side ridges.
- Egg shells: They contain 8–40 eggs and are either soft or tough protective casings (ootheca).
- Shed skin and body parts: If you look closely, you can see the skin and body components of the pests.
- Smear marks: Check your coffee maker’s horizontal surface or connectors for black, erratic-shaped smear marks.
- Smell: You may detect the presence of roaches by sniffing the bottom of your coffee maker.
As roaches closely resemble coffee grounds, identifying them in a coffee maker is tricky. It’s best to keep a tab on any signs showing their presence if you doubt their existence in the coffee machine.
- How can I keep roaches out of my appliances?
The only way to keep roaches out of your appliances is to keep all appliances and their surrounding areas clean using disinfectants. Ensure there isn’t any food or drink spillage that attracts the pests.
- Will vinegar make cockroaches leave?
Yes, white vinegar is a terrific cockroach repellant. Cockroaches run helter-skelter when you use vinegar to chase them away.
Conclusion
Enjoying a great beverage like coffee is an ideal way to take a break and rejuvenate. That’s why you have installed a coffee maker in your kitchen. However, you feel dejected when you spot roaches in it.
Despite their resemblance to coffee beans, there are ways to identify their presence if you doubt it. The best way to keep roaches away from your coffee maker is to keep them from entering in the first place.
Maintaining and cleaning coffee maker machines after every use is the key to keeping roaches and their infestation away.
Related: Do cockroaches hide in clothes?
