Will Washing Your Clothes Actually Kill Cockroaches?

  • Written By: Phil Hawes
  • Time to read: 7 min.
cockroach in front of washing machine

Finding cockroaches in your laundry room is disgusting enough, but when they are in your clothes that’s too much. The immediate reaction is to throw the clothes and roaches in the wash, but is that a solution that will work?

Running cockroaches through a washing machine can kill them if the wash temperature is higher than 125°F and the cycle is longer than 40 minutes. Drying the clothes at a high temperature for a further 30-60 minutes will be additionally effective. However, merely washing your clothes will not rid you of a roach infestation.

Unfortunately, just putting the roach-ridden clothing in the wash is not enough, you need to have the right settings and run the machine for the correct amount of time. To find out exactly what to do, I invite you to carry on reading.


Get rid of pests hassle-free!

Call 866-373-01-69

for immediate local assistance.


How do you kill cockroaches in the washing machine.

Cockroaches have been known to survive without breathing for nearly an hour and can go without oxygen under the water for at least 30 minutes. Their respiratory organs also expel water vapor. They are more easily blocked under water, leading them to drown, which explains why it’s easier to suffocate them in the wash.

The best way to kill roaches in a washing machine is to bag up your laundry for transportation, avoid further spreading of the pest and set the highest possible temperature (over 125°F) for 50 minutes or more. Then collect the wet clothes in another bag and dry them at the maximum temperature to ensure total extermination.

After you have used extreme heat to kill off the roaches, transport the clothes in a plastic bag to your yard and hang or shake out the clothes to remove the carcasses.

Do roaches like dirty clothes?

Cockroaches may be attracted to your dirty clothes because they like the way they smell. Roaches will also be attracted to your clothes if it has food particles stuck in them that won’t wash out because of residue or grease left on the fabric.

Roaches also like the dark and will gravitate to moist, humid places. Dirty clothes offer all these alluring factors and this is why cockroaches can be found in them.

Laundry rooms also offer the third most important attraction to a roach population after food and favorable habitat, water. Laundry rooms typically have a sink for handwashing clothes, which roaches can easily find and follow to drink water from the faucet.

The best way to get rid of an infestation in your house is by taking measures against their food supply while also eliminating them with sprays or baits specifically made for cockroaches.

Also To minimize this, place your dirty, soiled clothing into a large bucket and fill it with water until all pieces are submerged below the surface. This will help get stains out as well as keeping cockroaches away until you have a chance to wash them.

Will a roach die in the dryer?

If exposed to enough heat and for long enough temperatures, even cockroaches will become dehydrated and die. The magic number seems to be above 125° when it comes to killing roaches with heat. However, this will only kill off the individuals in the dryer and won’t mitigate the infestation as a whole.

If you find roaches in your clothing, by all means, wash them at high temperatures and follow that with a lengthy spell in the dryer. But don’t forget to deal with the wider problem you have of cockroaches in your home.

The more you know about the natural life cycle of a roach, the better you’ll be able to understand how they get into your house and what it takes to kill them. The most important thing is that if you see one cockroach in your home, there are many others where it came from. That’s why prevention is so critical.

The roach egg capsule is the most commonly seen sign of a cockroach infestation. You’ll find them in dark damp areas like corners, under sinks and appliances, or behind stoves and dishwashers. They lay about 16 eggs at a time, but pregnancy in these pests is short, so it’s important to clean up any potential hiding places diligently.

Cockroaches need water to survive and can squeeze through tiny cracks in the walls, making for an infestation that’s difficult to eliminate. This is why it’s so important not only to fix any leaks or dripping pipes but also to keep your house dry by routinely wiping up spills and using dehumidifiers if necessary.

Will cockroaches live in clothes?

Although you may find cockroaches in your dirty clothing, they are unlikely to live in clean clothes for extended periods. This is because they need a food source and cloth isn’t top of their menu. Also, closets don’t have a source of water and this is something that even cockroaches need to survive.

What is possible to find are the young of cockroaches, nymphs, in your clean clothing as they have survived in a low-temperature eco-wash as eggs. Still, these roaches will soon be out searching for food and water which means that your home could become even more infested.

Will washing kill roach eggs?

Cockroach eggs are just as susceptible to extreme heat as the adults, and a high-temperature wash or dryer cycle is usually successful. The ootheca, the capsule that cockroaches lay around 16 eggs in, is about a quarter of an inch long and can be seen with the naked eyes. It can easily be removed by hand as well.

When it comes to killing roaches of all ages in their life cycle, the correct heat seems to be the defining factor. A temperature of at least 125°F to 145°F is recommended, the higher the better.

What do cockroach eggs look like?

Cockroach eggs are fairly easy to spot. They are creamy-brown in color, depending on the species, and in a sack of about a quarter of an inch long. The eggs hatch into nymphs which look similar to adults but have not developed wings or fully grown reproductive organs.

One way to eliminate cockroach egg sacks is by cleaning all food from your kitchen and keeping it clean. Spreading boric acid or certain essential oils on the floor will also help get rid of these pests, as the former is toxic to them and the latter unpleasant.

You should be sure not to leave any crumbs or scraps around as this will signal to the roach population that there is food for their young to feast on.

Does bleach kill cockroaches?

Bleach is a very effective killer of cockroaches, but it is one of the most impractical roach pesticides. Bleach doesn’t act well as bait and is only really useful when applied directly to an individual or on a nesting site. Bleach can be good at driving roaches out of plumbing systems but it is very corrosive.

Basically, bleach will kill a roach if you coat the thing with it as it is quite toxic to them, but it’s not as good as other set and forget bait traps. More effective roach killing agents include boric acid, diatomaceous earth and even baking powder.

Boric acid, which is a powder that can be mixed with food and left out for roaches to come across. It’s more effective as bait than bleach because it stimulates the senses of touch and smell when they cross over it.

Diatomaceous earth, a natural powder made of silica, a common component of the earth’s natural rock, sands, and clays, is toxic to insects. While it will not poison your pets or humans, you can use this product to get rid of a roach problem by sprinkling some over where they are hiding and leaving the rest for them to consume.

The roaches will take the “bait” back to their nest and feed it to the other roaches, who will also die. Roaches will die from dehydration as they try to clean off the dirt that gets stuck on them.

Baking powder is another way to poison roaches by mixing it in water and leaving out a plate of food for them to come across.

Can Salt Kill cockroaches?

Ordinary household salt isn’t capable of killing cockroaches whether applied to them directly, their eggs or nest, or even in a load of washing. One type of salt that can kill them, however, Epsom sort is known to be a keen deterrent of roaches and may even kill them too.

The myth that salt kills cockroaches seems to be quite widespread but it is false. There is, however, some evidence that salt acts as a deterrent to some bugs due to its ammonium nitrate and ammonium chloride content.

What is understood is that an Epsom Salt Solution can be a good way of insect control. An Epsom salt and water mixture can act as a deterrent to beetles, flies, and other garden pests. Many gardeners believe that the solution not only deters bugs but may kill them on contact.

What is clear is that this probably won’t trump a good borax-based washing detergent and a high-temperature washing cycle to kill off these bugs in your clothing.

source, source, source, source

centipede on a bed

Previous Post

The Only Way To Keep Centipedes Out Of Your Bed For Good

Next Post

Is Killing A Wasp Going To Attract More? The Painful Truth

dead wasp