Cockroach Control: The All-In Strategies that Work

The main ingredients to entice cockroaches are all there. Start with facility infrastructure that isn’t getting any younger. Add wood-palleted shipments and corrugated cardboard boxes that arrive from distribution centers. Cockroaches love to hide in and nosh on those.

Mix in environmental factors ranging from moisture to geographic weather conditions. Then toss in the human element: employees who inadvertently give cockroach hitchhikers a free ride into breakrooms and lockers.

All these are attractive conditions for any pest, really.

As for cockroaches, with their shield-shaped flat backs and pathogen-carrying potential, the question isn’t if, but when they’ll make an appearance. Preserving food safety and quality requires an all-encompassing plan rooted in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) that engages employees, sanitarians, management and third-party vendors.

Think of your facility as a castle. First, you need a moat involving exclusion and perimeter protection. Then there’s a whole lot more to do inside and multiple stakeholders involved to keep out public health enemies like cockroaches.

‘WE MONITOR 24/7.’

The surroundings at Hellas Authentic Greek Bakery in Tarpon Springs, Fla., are a sweet haven for pests, but Quality Assurance Manager Kathleen Silkowski, with guidance from the company’s pest management provider (PMP), has all the barriers in place.

“We are almost right on the water by one of the rivers that drains out into the Gulf, and we bring in flours and sugars,” she said of the bakery known for its baklava.

“You can bet cockroaches are No. 1 on the list,” said Silkowski, who walks the floor during frequent pest control provider visits. “I want to see what they are seeing. I want to make sure our traps are in the locations where they are supposed to be.”

And she wants employees to say something loud and clear if they spot a cockroach or any pest. There’s a system in place for reporting sightings at the 70-person facility, though mostly the protocol is “just come and tell us,” Silkowski said.

Sanitation and pest prevention are under firm control at Hellas, by no accident.

“We monitor 24/7,” Silkowski said. “You want to make sure you have a handle on things that will never completely go away, like bugs.”

NO STRUCTURE IS PERFECT.

Cockroaches are often a gateway bug indicating bigger problems, said Rick Falkenberg, Ph.D., CFS, PCQI and founder of Food Safety & Process Technology Group in Turlock, Calif.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is “much more critical” of the 21 CFR Part 117 preventive control rule, he said. “The rule requires that structures must be sound, and if you are seeing indications that roaches are there, it’s not sound.”

No structure is perfect, and the turnstile of in-and-out movement of ingredients, products and people create a moving target for food and beverage processors aiming to comply with regulatory demands and protect their brand quality and integrity.

Plus, some facilities are predisposed to cockroach pressure because of location. Falkenberg consults with facilities across the country.

“In the Midwest and East Coast, you get a good freeze that helps kill off pests, but on the West Coast, Southeast and Gulf Coast corridors, the humidity really bodes well for roaches,” he said.

The good news is 93% of respondents to QA’s 2025 State of the Cockroach Control Market study, sponsored by Zöecon, said their prevention and control programs are successful. Of those who said controls were failing, 20% have trouble finding harborage sites, with an equal amount citing employees carrying in cockroaches without realizing it. A knowledge gap, low-quality service and lack of buy-in from staff also topped the list.

Fifty-three percent reported cockroach sightings, with 35% indicating they moved in from outdoors. As for level of concern, food and beverage facilities ranked cockroaches below pests such as mice, rats, small flies and stored product pests.

Meanwhile, modern pest management practices have advanced to include monitoring technologies, along with data collection platforms useful for tracking trends and preparing for audits. Multi-modal cockroach control programs are a gold standard, delivering high control rates and enforcing pest deterrence.

QA magazine talked to pest management companies with food and beverage facility-focused programs along with quality assurance managers and consultants. Here’s what the experts and survey data say about effectively preventing cockroaches from encroaching.