Is cockroach treatment safe with a baby in the house?

The usual approach in homes with babies is enclosed bait stations and small dots of gel bait, placed where a baby cannot reach, with sprays and foggers left out. Bait works where cockroaches hide, not in the air or on surfaces your baby touches. Read every label before you use anything, and follow it.

And if you found one near the bottles or the cot and your stomach dropped, you are far from alone in that. A cockroach in a home with a newborn is not a sign you are doing anything wrong. It is a sign you need a careful plan, and there is one.

Pregnancy, breastfeeding and exposure: if you are worried about a product and your baby, or about breastfeeding after using one, ask a doctor or pharmacist and take the label with you. If a child swallows a product, call the poison control number where you live straight away and have the label to hand. For a pet, call your vet.

What to use, and what to leave out

• Use: enclosed bait stations. The bait sits inside a small plastic case. Still keep them out of reach and out of sight, as the label says.
• Use: gel bait in small dots, pushed into cracks, hinge gaps and the back corners of cupboards a baby cannot get into.
• Use: monitor traps to see where they are and whether numbers are falling. No poison, but the glue sticks to fingers and fur, so they go out of reach too. See monitor traps.
• Leave out: sprays and foggers. They put insecticide on the surfaces and in the air, scatter cockroaches into other rooms, and miss the ones in the walls.
• Leave out: loose powders along floors and skirting where a baby crawls or a pet sniffs, and homemade borax mixes.

An insect growth regulator, which stops young cockroaches growing into breeding adults, is often part of the plan for German cockroaches. Some come as small discs or stations. Whether one suits your home is a question for the label, and for a doctor or pharmacist if you have concerns.

Room by room

Kitchen. This is where most of the work happens. Gel in the hinge gaps of high cupboards, behind the fridge and cooker, and inside the cupboard under the sink if it has a child lock. Bait stations behind appliances, pushed back where small hands cannot reach.

Bathroom. Behind the toilet and under the basin, out of reach, and around pipes where they come through the wall.

The baby’s room. The simplest rule is no bait in the nursery. If you saw one there, it usually came from a kitchen or bathroom nearby, so treat those, put a monitor trap high up or behind furniture in the nursery, and check it weekly. If cockroaches keep turning up in a baby’s room, get a professional in and tell them about the baby before they treat.

Not sure the one in your child’s room was a German cockroach? Is this a German cockroach or something else? shows the tells.

Cleaning without undoing the bait

• Clean surfaces your baby touches with soap and water, as normal.
• Do not wipe or spray cleaner over bait dots or stations. It spoils the bait and spreads it around.
• Wash bottles and pump parts as you already do, let them dry, then store them covered or in a sealed box.
• Keep food, formula and snacks in hard, sealed containers, and dry the sink at night.
• Wash your hands after placing or checking any bait or trap.

Cats and dogs too

Pets find bait stations interesting. Put them where a cat cannot jump to and a dog cannot nose, keep pet bowls away from bait, and pick bowls up at night. If a pet chews a station, call your vet with the label. More in is pest control safe for my cats and dogs?

Doing it all and still seeing them

If you have cleaned, sealed food away, baited and added a growth regulator, you are doing the right things. What is often missing is the quiet places: a basement, a utility room, behind a kickboard, a gap round a pipe. Seal those gaps (see sealing gaps) and use trap counts to find where catches are highest. If numbers are not falling after a month, call a professional, tell them about your children and pets, and ask what they will use and where.