Can cockroaches mess up your electronics?

Question

Weird question, but can roaches mess up your electronics? We bought this nice new expensive dvd player and after 3-4 months it wasnt working well, the movies would freeze up and one night the dvd player just started making this crazy sound even when it was turned off. So we decided to send it back to the company when i picked up the dvd player i found lots of dead roaches under it. I even found a small one crawl out of it. I also noticed (before i noticed the dvd player) that our digital clock would keep turning off and on, i just thought it was broken, but today I said let me put in some batteries to make sure theres not a problem with the wire. I open it up and i find dead roaches. I mean is it possible? And please dont say you need to clean and stuff. I moved in two yrs ago with my hubby and his mom and they've been living in the same apt for the last 10 yrs. So its gonna be hard to get rid of them, and i do sweep and dust every week. I know our bedroom isnt as bad as other rooms.

Will the roaches come out of their hiding spots when I use this approach?

Answer 1

My work causes me to use electronic equipment in many different homes. I've found that not only do roaches like the warmth of electronic machines but so do ants. They seem to be attracted to the glue of the circuit boards in the machines. They can get into seemingly impossibly small spaces and crevices.

To solve the problem, you may need to use a fogger, as one contributor suggested, but unfortunately you will need to fog regularly, as in at 3 week intervals. The problem may not be your cleaning habits, but those of your surrounding neigh bors. If the apartment management regularly exterminates apartments as tenants move in and out, roaches tend to move from one place to another. So, if a place becomes empty, they may move to escape the fumigation or in search of another food source. This is really a tough problem to solve in apartment communities, especially if tenants tend to move in and out frequently, as in a college town or a military community. In some areas, the only help is to seal the place in a giant tent and fumigate. Whether you go such an extreme route or just bomb your place, you will need to plan to stay away from the place for a day or, better yet, over night or over a weekend. And you'll need to keep bombing every 3-6 weeks until you no longer see roaches.

Sorry to be the writer of bad news...Bugs mess up electonics because those are in tight spaces where bugs' bodies mess can jam up under wires, short out circuitry, and bugs's teeth can gnaw at wire sheathing or eat up the adhesive (which can seem sweet to the bugs) causing the circuits to lose contact.

Answer 2

those critters can slide in paper thin areas, it seems

so here's what you CAN do - figure out square footage
of apartment - get those foggers - like RAID!
for fleas and stuff - they ALSO kill roaches

remove ALL pets and people

spread the cans out over the whole apt -

and go shopping for 3 hours - then air the place out when you get home

you will be astounded what you find lying all over your floors

all the best

PS(and may have to do it aweek or two later, also as a followup)

Answer 3

Yes they will mess up your electronics. I would have a exterminator come out and spray.