Breaking News: The Cockroach Problem in Heraklion Is Crawling Out of Control

For anyone planning a trip or who lives in Crete, here’s what you need to know right now:

• Roaches are everywhere, not just in a few places
• The trash situation isn’t a prank; the city doesn’t have the staff
• Local lawmakers pretend it’s not happening
• Pest control is expensive and out of reach for most families
• If you don’t speak Greek, prepare to be ignored
• Vulnerable groups, like the elderly and people with health problems, bear the brunt
• The mess likely isn’t going away soon
• Old accommodations and transit hubs (like the airport) are problem zones

Tourists should be extra careful, especially near piles of trash or older buildings. If you’re staying with family, check outside for dumpsters before you unpack. For locals, you already know it: roaches are the new unwanted residents.

It’s 2025, and Heraklion now offers a “local experience” no one asked for: swarms of cockroaches, buzzing flies, and neighbourhood cats treating overflowing dumpsters as their own greasy buffet. The real culprit? City officials can’t seem to keep up with trash collection, thanks to budget cuts and staff shortages. As of April 2024, Heraklion’s Cleaning Service works with just a third of its team, turning summer strolls into dodging both piles of rancid garbage and their six-legged fans.

Trash collection issues are no secret. Local lawmakers seem to hope if nobody talks about it, maybe the roaches will pack up and leave on their own. The bug circus is kept under wraps, at least officially, while trash bags keep multiplying and public pest invasions hit new highs.

Recent warm winters only exacerbated the situation. Skimpy pest control budgets and “haircuts” in disinfestation services have become the new normal. With fewer treatments, cockroach numbers soar not just in homes and apartments but also in hospitals, municipal buildings, and military sites. The price of insecticides shot up, so even professional help is out of reach for many. Some families dealing with tight finances since the economic crisis try do-it-yourself fixes. Most of these “budget” traps are about as effective as whispering threats at the bugs.

When Your Home Becomes a Roach Motel

For many, the problem is personal. One local family had a husband with heart disease and the misfortune of living next to a dumpster bursting with old meat and buzzing with every breed of pest imaginable. The butcher on the corner dumped his scraps daily while stray cats and cockroaches made themselves at home. Calls and emails to the mayor went nowhere, maybe because they didn’t speak Greek or maybe because the city’s leaders refused to deal with complaints. Either way, the family moved out. But the roaches stayed, multiplying and spreading.

Now, the street belongs to the pests. Elderly residents, many of whom barely use phones or know where to seek help, are overrun. Home disinfestation? Out of the question for people on a fixed income, especially now with prices for pest control soaring and folks still feeling the pinch from years of economic trouble.

As summer arrived, so did the peak of misery. Humid days acted like an open invitation for roaches to party. Social media brims with angry updates, not sightseeing snaps. What used to be amusing is now an emergency: tourists and locals are welcomed by stink and swarms, not postcard-perfect landmarks.

• The cockroach problem in Crete reached crisis levels during the summer of 2025
• Heraklion’s garbage collection service is crippled, now operating with only one-third its pre-2024 workforce
• Public complaints go unanswered as lawmakers avoid the issue
• Poor waste management and rarely treated infestations let pest numbers surge everywhere: homes, public buildings, hospitals
• Insecticides are priced out of reach, while professional services saw their income fall and many families cut them from tight household budgets
• Many elderly residents cannot get help or use new technology to report issues
• Tourists and residents alike now deal with scenes that belong in a horror movie, not a vacation brochure

This isn’t just some wild story—ask any local or unlucky visitor walking Heraklion’s streets this summer. The cockroach problem in Crete is what happens when basic city services get gutted, the public is shut out of the loop, and pest control turns into an expensive joke. For now, the island’s real “wildlife” is crawling around where the trash sits, waiting for someone—anyone—to start picking up the pieces.