It is obvious that roaches are creatures known for eating anything. This is one of the reason they are referred to as the most resilient creatures and difficult to deal with. Roaches will scavenge in trash and food leftovers to eat just to survive. While you may attempt to cover food leftover or unused ingredient in aluminum foil, this is not usually the case to completely keep the roaches away.
Cockroaches can chew through aluminum foil to gain access to the food. They have powerful mandibles to chew through the aluminum foil. Roaches are not in any way trying to eat the foil but rather access the food wrapped inside.
You may think that reflective nature of the aluminum foil may scare and repel roaches. Is that so? Roaches can easily tear off tinfoil which is somewhat thicker. Let’s find out more in this post on how you can stop roaches from chewing through aluminum foil.
Does Aluminum Foil Attract Cockroaches?
Cockroaches are not attracted to the aluminum foil. The fact is that roaches are drawn to the food wrapped in the foil. The scent that comes out from the food covered by the aluminum foil draws roaches to the foil. Although the foil may cover the food but it doesn’t stop the scent of food from coming which is what attracts the cockroaches.
Roaches have a very sharp sense of smell and will detect the smell of food nearby even if it is wrapped in the foil. This impressive sense of smell will draw them to your counters or tables. As soon as the get sight food wrapped in the foil, they will eat through the foil to access the food.
Can Cockroaches Chew Through Foil?
Cockroaches can eat through foil; they have powerful mandibles to cut through a thin, flimsy metal. When you wrap your food with aluminum foil, the roaches’ intention to gain access to the food. Cockroaches do not have teeth but their mandibles are strong and sharp to cut through aluminum foil. It may take quite some minutes before the roaches bite through the foil.
Do Cockroaches Like Aluminum Foil?
Cockroaches are not bothered by the aluminum foil. Their interest is not the foil but your food wrapped in the aluminum foil. This means they don’t like or dislike the flavor of aluminum foil; it doesn’t form part of their desirable menu. The focus of the roaches is the food in the foil, this means that they won’t avoid chewing through the thin metal if need be to access the food inside.
Aluminum foil is basically tiny pieces of metal, this doesn’t provide nutrients to the roaches whose main food is to eat organic matter. This doesn’t mean that the aluminum foil will stop the roaches from tearing it to gain access to the real food. Once the roaches access the food through a small opening, they will have no business with the aluminum foil.
Does Aluminum Foil Repel Roaches?
Aluminum foil doesn’t in any way repel roaches. Roaches are attracted to the food wrapped in the foil. There is that notion that since the foil is shiny will scare or repel the roaches. This is not true. Roaches are one of the most resilient creatures. They will do anything to get food. Aluminum is a thin, flimsy metal easily torn by cockroaches’ powerful and sharp mandibles.
Does Aluminum Foil Scare Roaches?
There is a misconception or myth that aluminum foil scares roaches. This is drawn from the idea that aluminum foil catches the light in turn shining on the cockroaches or creating a mild flash which should scare the roaches. The second notion would be the cockroaches can see their reflection in the aluminum foil thus get scared. One would easily conclude that aluminum foil can be used as cockroach repellent from the above theory. This is a myth, roaches are not scared off aluminum foil and won’t be deterred by the shiny piece of the aluminum foil.
It is highly unlikely that that roaches can recognize their own reflection. Cockroaches are more likely to be scared by lights but not their own reflection.
Ways To Keep Roaches Away From Aluminum Foil
Aluminum foil keeps food safe but in a house invaded with cockroaches. Since roaches can chew through the foil, here is how to keep roach away from the foil.
- Wrap the foil tightly – although roaches will still be attracted to the foil wrapped around food, make sure to wrap the foil more tightly such that it is not only air tight but doesn’t have gaps also.
- Store it Properly – once you wrap your food in the foil, make sure you keep it far away where the roaches are less likely to reach it. Don’t place the wrapped food on the kitchen counter or tables.
- Wrap more than once, in Multiple Layers – aluminum foil is a thin flimsy metal that roaches find it easy to chew through. To prevent this, wrap your food in multiple layers of the foil. This may discourage the roaches from chewing through before they can access your food.
- Other than foil, try something else – if you can use something else tough that roaches may find hard to bite though. For instance, you may use glass, thick plastic food containers or thick metallic canisters, jars. Roaches are known to bite through thin tin foil or aluminum foil, but if you use any of the mentioned items, roaches will find it hard to bite through and access your food.
Do Cockroaches Eat Through Tin Foil?
Can cockroaches eat through a tin foil? While some people may think that aluminum foil and tin foil are interchangeable, this is not true. As the names suggest, they are made of different materials. Sometime back, people used tin foil to wrap their food, but it left a metallic taste on food. It was later dropped and aluminum foil came into use leaving no flavor behind.
Can Tin Foil’s Taste Repel Roaches?
It is easy to believe the flavor of tin foil will deter roaches. Obviously, the argument would be that roaches only eat organic matter so the tinny flavor should deter the roaches, right? So, you think! Roaches are majorly driven by their sense of smell.
A tin foil doesn’t leave a strong metallic smell. Tin foil leave a slight metallic taste on your food. But roaches are only interested in the food covered in the tin foil. So, they will chew through the foil to gain access to the food. Roaches will ignore the flavor of the foil in pursuit of the food wrapped in the tin foil.
Is Tin Foil Too Thick For Roaches?
Unlike the aluminum foil, tin foil happens to be slightly thicker. It also has a stiffer texture that is less likely to break when used to wrap your food. This doesn’t however implies that tin foil is tough for cockroaches to eat through. Unfortunately, that’s not how it is. Tin foil is thin metal but you can tear by hander or can be eaten through by the powerful mandibles of the cockroaches?
Can Roaches Die if They Eat Aluminum Foil?
Will Cockroaches Die If They Eat Aluminum Foil? If a cockroach was to entirely feed on aluminum foil, it would end up dead. But that is rare. It is not possible for cockroaches to eat aluminum foil. Cockroaches feed on organic material, aluminum foil is metallic thus doesn’t provide any nutritional value to the roaches.
Aluminum foil is a metal and most likely cockroaches will avoid it. But if you wrap food with the foil, roaches will bite through to access the real food. The small piece of foil will not cause any significant harm to the roaches. A starving cockroach will never turn to aluminum foil as food. Cockroaches have quite a number of organic material to feed on but not aluminum foil.
