New and need help with bugs

Hello All,

We're pet lovers with a Black Headed Caique, Sun Conure (2yrs), 2 parakeets (3yrs), rabbit, 2 sugar gliders, 2 golden retrievers. We live in Florida and are having a terrible time with cockroaches. We seem to have gotten off to a bad start with some of these pets and need advice on maintenance/care and control of our situation.

We noticed bugs on top of our bird cages, in the house some time ago, so we created a pet room in our single car garage. The garage has a normal garage door. We used to leave food and water bowls in the cages at night and now see that is a mistake. The cages are cleaned about once a week by rolling them out into the driveway to be hosed down with high pressure spray.

How often do you clean your cages? What sprays or cleaning methods work best? Desperately wanting to get the situation under control. Thanks.

Oh we tried putting the wheels of the bird cages in small tupperware filled with water to keep the roaches out, to no avail. I suspect they fly onto the cages.

Eewww I hate cockroaches!

No help here because I've only had them in my racetrack barn for years and since it was outside I used to use everything. If I came back from a night race and they were out I would spend an hour attacking them. But yes, no food or water out at night they will attack it.

Oh and I clean weekly.
I use vinegar/water or mango pet focus.

There is a product called Demon, carried by Do It Yourself Pest Control Products & Supplies | Do My Own Pest Control
It is a wettable powder.

Without saying, DO NOT get on anything the birds will be near!

By now, you most likely have roaches inside the frame of the cage, sorry!

Thanks Flboy. The reviews for Demon Max are pretty good. I didn't see any powders but liquids. No worries I'd have to spray it to cover what I need. I'll give it a try. Yes, they are in the frame. We're thinking of dunking the cage in a large trash barrel (new) filled with water. Extreme measure but that is where we're at.

Thanks Doublete. I'll check out that product as well. We don't have a problem keeping the cages clean, per se, but keeping the bugs at bay is the big issue. We bombed (insecticide) the pet room and kept it closed for 24 hours. Next day, they were all over the cages, so they must have been in the frame.

crazycaiques said:

Thanks Flboy. The reviews for Demon Max are pretty good. I didn't see any powders but liquids. No worries I'd have to spray it to cover what I need. I'll give it a try. Yes, they are in the frame. We're thinking of dunking the cage in a large trash barrel (new) filled with water. Extreme measure but that is where we're at.

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Dunking cage won't do anything other than rust it! Roaches are indestructible! We had to seal every opening in the cage to stop them. Demon is a powder that is mixed with water. When it drys, the powder is left behind. The liquid is a very low concentrate, 3%ish. Powder is 50%

Oh ok, yes that is exactly the problem. They seem to get in the smallest crevice. Thanks again.

I ordered advion from doyourownpestcontrol and it works great. It's a gel you put out. It attracts the roaches. They eat it and die. I'd still use caution but I called them and was told it's bird safe.

I use Orange Guard for ants, flies, but the product claims it works for all insects including roaches. I can't say enough good about this bird/pet/human safe, natural product. Active ingredient is concentrated orange oil. Leaves a pleasant smell, completely safe around birds, very toxic to insects. It really works.. I absolutely love this stuff.

Organic Repellent, Bug Repellent | Monterey Bay, CA Look under the locations link to find a retailer near you (looks like product is available in the US only).

Thanks everyone for sharing your great remedies. So far we picked up some Demon Max and it didn't seem to work straight off, but several days later, the bugs have dropped to almost nothing. I think a regular spraying of the pet room with this will probably do the trick.

crazycaiques said:

Thanks everyone for sharing your great remedies. So far we picked up some Demon Max and it didn't seem to work straight off, but several days later, the bugs have dropped to almost nothing. I think a regular spraying of the pet room with this will probably do the trick.

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Demon is a very long term remedy and works slowly by design.

Does anyone know how to get orange guard in Canada?! I've been looking everywhere and can't find it. Need it for silverfish.

Had a similar problem when I got my girl..there were colonies of roaches, Beatles and ants living in the bars of her cage. I used diatomaceous earth. It is completely natural and not dangerous for the bird to be around. I wouldn't let mine eat a lot of it, but I got a puffer and puffed it inside the bars of the cage. I also sprinkled it in the bottom of the cage and around all the baseboard in that room. Basically the diatomaceous earth scratches the hard exoskeleton on the bugs and allows air into their inner casing..drying them out. This is the same stuff they mix into corn and other foods in mass production to keep bugs out. This will not immediately kill the bugs, but ones some gets on them..the process begins and they will die very soon. If you decide to go this route..remove the bird from the room while applying it while its not dangerous once it's settled, if large amounts of its dust are inhaled by people or animals it will scratch the inside of the respiratory system the same way it does with the bugs exoskeleton. Once it's settled it is safe again.

Hi.....I saw this on another forum discussing Orange Guard. Any thoughts?

I've done a little reading....I would quote websites, but I'm on mobile due to it being half three in the morning. Insomnia, amirite.

The active ingredient in Orange Guard is d limonene, which is classed as GRAS (generally regarded as safe) by the FDA. However, on reading I found quite a few sources that describe it as having 'low to moderate toxicity' - it can cause mild to moderate side effects if it comes into contact with skin or eyes (reactions can be severe here), or is ingested. It may also cause respiratory irritation. Bearing in mind this is in humans, and you can generally take it as read that if something is mildly not good for us, it's gonna be a lot worse for our feathered friends. As for the other ingredients....they refuse to publish them except for saying it's 'water based' and contains 'an emulsifier' and '94.2% inert ingredients'.....not sketchy at all.

It comes in a spray bottle, meaning you're going to get very small particles of it floating around in the air even if you're careful. Now I don't know if that's enough to be irritating or toxic to a bird, but put it this way: if I spray anything that isn't water, or water with aloe, I aerate the room thoroughly before bringing Peach into there. Her lungs are so tiny, and she's the size of a canary almost....well, you know what they were used for I'm even careful with spraying perfume in the same room, which is close to my skin. I go outside, make myself smell nice, then come back.

Since the active ingredient can be considered irritating to humans and can cause the problems I mentioned above, I personally would be careful. Obviously the liquid itself will not come into direct contact with your bird, but the only worry I have is either with ingestion if your affected plants/surfaces are near your bird or the atomiser used to disperse it. If I had to use this product, I would aerate the room if I had an insect problem indoors (not common in a climate like England's is, but you never know) before bringing my bird in, and keep them away from any areas that the Orange Guard had been sprayed so they don't accidentally ingest any.

Bearing in mind this only is my two cents of advice, and there are many people on here with more experience with birds than I could dream of who will come to offer their (much better) advice soon. I may be totally wrong, but I like to think I err on the side of caution.

D-limonene is the natural compound in citrus peel oil. This is the active ingredient in the Orange Guard product. There are other safety conscious members on this forum other than myself, who use this product with success.

As far as your concern of the spray bottle spraying micro particles of it into the air and around the room, I have found that the liquid is actually too heavy (oily texture) to aerosol out around the room. It pretty much just comes out in a direct spray or stream. I wipe the oil residue up afterwards, and the harmless and pleasant orange scent dissipates fairly quickly after wiping.

I have used the product for quite some time. I use it for flies that get into the house with the hot weather. Before we successfully eradicated the ant population on our property, I used it around the bird cages which would attract the ants from their food.

I'd say, if you feel the slightest bit uncomfortable about using it, then by all means don't use it. We all have to make some personal decisions. I am absolutely confident that it is not harming my birds. If 100 people also said that, I am not sure it would take away your little bit of doubt .

Raven, how exactly do you use the product? Do you always have to wipe it down after you spray it? If so, how long do you wait till you wipe it down? Do you only use it when you see bugs or do you spray the area that you think they are coming from? I figured that I can use this product but move the bird to another room just in case and I'm desperate at this point. Also, do you have any suggestions on how and what i can use to seal all the holes of his cage where roaches could possibly be hiding? Thank you

This is also effective and safe, though it is rather dusty, it's natural and generally regarded as okay to use around any warm blooded animals, it's also used in some poultry feeds.
https://www.ghorganics.com/DiatomaceousEarth.html

lj4rockpebbler said:

Raven, how exactly do you use the product? Do you always have to wipe it down after you spray it? If so, how long do you wait till you wipe it down? Do you only use it when you see bugs or do you spray the area that you think they are coming from? I figured that I can use this product but move the bird to another room just in case and I'm desperate at this point. Also, do you have any suggestions on how and what i can use to seal all the holes of his cage where roaches could possibly be hiding? Thank you

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This is a surprisingly common complaint. People get a used cage, and they find roaches living inside the hollow frame of the cage. All of a sudden you have an infestation.

I only use it when I see bugs. Although, I read somewhere that the product claims it will keep repelling insects. I assume they mean the residue is supposed to keep killing, but it's citrus peel oil, and I don't want surfaces all oily. That's the drawback. If you don't wipe it up it's messy. I wipe it pretty quickly after spraying it. After spraying it on insects they're dead within seconds. It works as well as poison on insects. BUT a plus is that since it doesn't aerosol a cloud of it into the air the way poison like Raid does, it doesn't keep smelling. I find that even the clean harmless orange scent doesn't hang around too long and isn't too strong. It sprays out like water. Not even like a mister, but like a normal spray bottle. Not a cloud at all. When we used to have ants bad, they were all over Raven's cage, climbing up to get his food. I put the Orange Guard directly on his cage and wiped it up with the dead ants, and Raven is still alive and well . If the holes in the cage are not too small, I'd see if you could spray it into the holes into the hollow framework of the cage. Otherwise, I don't really know how you'd get to them since they like to hide. That is an awful problem to have, I feel for you. Good luck!

I've tried putting bay leaves in spots where the roaches are and that has seemed to help but not eliminate them. Obviously it repels them somewhat due to the smell of the bay leaves which they do not like but I probably will get this product (orange guard) but not use it next to my bird, just cause I worry. Anyway, thanks for your help.