German cockroaches are the small fast ones that live inside, breeding behind the fridge, inside the dishwasher door, in the microwave hinge and along the kickboards. They arrive with cardboard boxes and second-hand appliances and move between units and share houses through shared walls and plumbing, which is why the student rentals around Mount Helen and the units across Sebastopol and Wendouree are where most of our cockroach work is. The big outdoor cockroaches come up from the subfloor and the drains of the older homes when it is warm and wet.
Inside we place gel bait where the roaches actually hide, which they eat and carry back to the harbourage, and we treat the voids and hinges where the egg cases sit so the job is not repeating in six weeks. No spraying the benchtops and no clearing the cupboards. In a unit block or share house we tell you plainly whether the neighbouring units need treating, because one unit on its own in a heavy block does not stay clear.