Cockroaches are known to wreak havoc by merely existing within our homes! In such circumstances, we see them crawling around our bathroom sinks, across our kitchen counters, and often nearby our coffee machines. This raises the question: do roaches like coffee? Are they attracted to your cup of joe?
Here’s what we know:
- Yes, it is common for cockroaches to be attracted to coffee
- Cockroaches like the strong scent of coffee
It is common for roaches to reside in areas where there are coffee grounds, such as cupboards, pantries, inside your microwave, or in your trashcan.
There is enough evidence to support that cockroaches are attracted to coffee. These deep-brown insects are heavily enticed by the strong scent of coffee and find themselves gravitating towards it often.
Do roaches like coffee?
Although coffee attracts these insects, it is important to note that they aren’t in love with it entirely. Coffee is one of the many options for nutrition for these household pests.
Therefore, if you’re hoping to keep the cockroaches away by finding a particular coffee strain that these cockroaches won’t attract, we wouldn’t recommend wasting your energy.
Therefore, if you’re hoping to keep the cockroaches away by finding a particular coffee strain that these cockroaches won’t attract, we wouldn’t recommend wasting your energy.
Cockroaches don’t attract a specific type of coffee strain. Your Single-Origin Yirgacheffe won’t attract them any more than another type of bean. On the contrary, cockroaches tend to gravitate to almost anything that may provide them with the nutrition and energy to function.
These pesky household pests take great interest in prancing around the house in search of food. And if they fail to find anything starchy, sweet, or more detectable in the kitchen cupboard, they will move towards your coffee.
Since coffee has a distinct and relatively strong smell, cockroaches can easily detect it nearby. You may notice cockroaches nibbling away at a bag of ground-up coffee beans.
Why do cockroaches get inside coffee machines?
Coffee machines are some of the best places for cockroaches to infest. These are wide enough to fit cockroaches and fulfill all their preferences through their dark crevices, holes, and moisture.
Coffee machines are some of the best places for cockroaches to infest. These are wide enough to fit cockroaches and fulfill all their preferences through their dark crevices, holes, and moisture.
Additionally, the coffee in the machine is a major cherry on top because it acts as a food source. All of this adds to making a coffee machine the ideal atmosphere for cockroaches to hide away in.
Keep that in mind if you are in a hotel with a gross coffee maker in your room.
How do I keep cockroaches out of my coffee machine?
Although getting rid of these sneaky creatures may seem impossible, it is fairly simple if you take a few precautions.
These include:
- The first and most important step would be to wash out all the removable bits of the coffee machine. Remove any roach droppings and cockroach eggs left by the cockroaches as a token of their visit. (And if it was that infested, just throw it out)
- If you cannot remove the coffee machine parts, try some natural removal techniques, such as opting for a dry mix of baking soda and sugar. This mixture is deadly for cockroaches because the sugar attracts them, but ingesting baking soda can cause them to explode
- Keep this mixture in a bottle cap and position it somewhere inside the coffee machine or somewhere in its vicinity. Additionally, keep a water-filled bottle cap next to it. Consuming the water with baking soda will lead the cockroaches to demise sooner than you think
- Another method to keep the cockroaches away could be brewed catnip tea. If you run the machine while keeping this tea inside, cockroaches are likely to stay away because it is hazardous to them. However, this tea is harmless to humans, so you have nothing to worry about
Since we’re talking about the precautions we should take, it is important to note that you shouldn’t use boric acid for a coffee machine because it is dangerous when the insects have already set up camp.
This powder is poisonous to humans, so it shouldn’t be located close to the parts used to make consumable coffee.
And again, if you’ve got a roach infestation in your coffee machine, your best bet is to… buy a new machine. They’re not that expensive!
How can I make a coffee cockroach trap?
Humans have a history of using cockroaches’ favorite foods against them to attract and trap them. Now that we’ve established that coffee attracts cockroaches, we can use this to make a cockroach trap.
Although this cockroach trap may not be as effective as other forms of bait, it is still a fairly simple solution. Therefore, you will only need some coffee grounds, 2-3 big glass jars, small-sized disposable cups, and water.
The method is fairly simple. You will need to fill half the jar with water. Then, you’ll have to put part of the coffee into the small disposable cup and then drop it into the jar of water. This jar will be the coffee trap; you can place it in areas where these creepy crawlies frequently visit.
The aim is to entice these cockroaches with the smell of the coffee and lead them to fall into the jar of coffee and water. Once they’re inside the jar, it is nearly impossible for them to escape. Therefore, leave this trap out at night and clean it in the morning before you refresh the trap.
We recommend refreshing the trap daily to ensure that these dead cockroaches don’t spread bacteria or diseases.
You can repeat this process until you cannot capture any other cockroaches.
Conclusion: cockroaches are attracted to coffee!
We have enough evidence to prove that cockroaches are attracted to coffee. The strong aroma of ground-up coffee attracts these insects to coffee machines and is often why you’d see cockroaches crawling around your trash cans and kitchen counters.
However, the best part about this fact is that we can use it to our benefit. This leads us to strategize a way to trap these cockroaches by using their love for coffee against them. Interestingly, a coffee trap will help combat a cockroach infestation brewing within your home.
However, remember that the cost of trapping these insects is having to see a jar full of cockroaches swimming around in coffee. Prepare to deal with that sight, and remember to keep the big picture in mind.
After all, the end goal is to get rid of these spikey-legged creatures for good. Â
