What would make roaches die automatically? Every morning when I get up, there are dead roaches on the floor downstairs.
by 
Anonymous
ANSWERS: 3
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There might be left over poison from a previous tenant. It might be the heat, or lack of water. Maybe there were too many for the available food supply, and some starved to death. Old age?
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I've noticed dead roaches in my front and back yards. I have my yards treated for fleas every 2 months so perhaps that treatment is what's killing los cucarachas. Have you had your house treated with any pesticides recently?
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Obviously, any previously used poisons may do this. Roaches are also suseptable to dehydration. They are covered by a thin coat of oil and anything which disturbs this layer of oil will cause the roach to dry up and die in a very few short hours. A very dry climate can kill them, if they have no source of water available. Also, there are some non-poisonous chemicals out there which are VERY effective at killing roaches, like Boric Acid powder. It's non-toxic, so roaches don't recognize it as dangerous. This powder kills by getting on the roaches when they walk through it. It then abrades the oil layer and causes them to dry up and die. Since it's also non-toxic, they may clean it off of themselves, which gets it inside them. Boric Acid is a kind of drying agent (like a desicant) and will help dry them out from the inside. If you have had Boric Acid powder, or something similar, dusted behind cabinets and what-not where roaches pass through and hide, this could be a cause of their deaths. And cats. Cats LOVE to play with roaches until they die. Once they quit moving, though, the darned cats lose interest in them.
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