What To Do If You Find A Cockroach Crawling Up Your Toilet

Cockroaches are unpleasant houseguests, but the image of one crawling up your toilet is the stuff of nightmares. However, there are easy ways to remove them, depending on the scenario. If it's in your toilet bowl, you can flush then douse it with toilet cleaner, or if it's on your seat, you could shoot it with a bleach spray. These tactics are great because they mean you won't have to use any harmful insecticides in your bathroom, which is especially beneficial if there are young children or pets around.

While having cockroaches in your toilet is pretty unsettling, their presence unfortunately makes sense. Cockroaches love to hide in dark, moist places, so the bathroom is an ideal environment for them — especially if your bathroom's exhaust fan is broken or you leave it balmy after a shower. What this means is that the cockroaches aren't necessarily living in your toilet, rather they're taking advantage of the hospitable environment. Still, you will want to get rid of them, and fast. Here is what you need to know about getting rid of cockroaches from your toilet.

Your method depends on where you see them creeping and crawling. If they're low in the toilet bowl and near the water, the easiest thing to do is to simply flush the fixture. The force of the water will push it down the drain, solving your problem with little to no intervention on your part. As a final step, grab a liquid toilet bowl cleaner and ring the bowl with the disinfectant, not only removing any harmful germs the pest might have spread but also creating a slick barrier in case it swims back out of the drain. Remember, these guys are notoriously hard to kill, so water isn't guaranteed to get rid of them.

If the roach made it onto the toilet seat or is very high up in the bowl, then grab a bleach spray and use it to knock it back into the water. However, keep in mind that the bleach will only repel the cockroach, not necessarily kill it. To deter more cockroaches from entering the toilet, mix a 1 to 2 ratio of dish soap and water, and leave it in your bowl at all times. If the roaches dive in, the soap will suffocate them, solving your problem for you.