Plants That Attract Cockroaches

If you would like to eradicate cockroaches around your plants, and in your home, you can eliminate some of the plants that attract these particular species of cockroaches, or work with traps and temperatures to make your environment inhospitable to cockroaches.

Indoor Trees

Since cockroaches feed on nearly any type of organic material and are attracted to warm, humid locations, indoor trees are often responsible for attracting cockroaches to a particular location. When you discover cockroaches near indoor trees, they are usually Australian cockroaches, which hide by digging into the soil. Limiting watering can be beneficial in eradicating the cockroaches attracted to indoor trees, but you can only cut back on watering to a point that the tree doesn’t begin to deteriorate, which depends on the type of tree. Michigan State University recommends bait stations around the plants to catch and eliminate cockroaches.

Tropical Plants

If you live in a southern area of the country with high humidity, such as south Florida or southern Texas, you may see cockroaches on the tropical plants that you have on your property or in your home or office. These are Surinam cockroaches, according to Michigan State University, and, like Australian cockroaches, the Surinam cockroaches prefer warm, humid conditions, which attracts them indoors. Avoid overwatering plants by providing them with only the water they need to not wilt and keep your home cool to force Surinam cockroaches back outdoors.

Transplanted Plants

Cockroaches are widely present in soil around outdoor plants, especially in woods or forestlands, so transplanting outdoor plants indoors can carry cockroaches inside. If you do want to transplant an outdoor plant into a container inside a building, remove as much of the ground soil from the roots of the plant as possible before transplant, and use clean potting mix instead of ground soil to replant the outdoor plant in a pot.

Decaying Plants

Woods cockroaches stay outside and will return outside on their own if possible when accidentally transplanted into your home. These cockroaches are attracted to decay, such as dead trees or tree stumps, which provide them a food supply. To keep roaches away from your home, do not pile firewood alongside your home or allow dead plants to rot in your landscape.