u/just-another-queer

My cats (& therefore bowls) are indoor. I free feed my boys. I know switching to scheduled meals would fix the problem but I’m disabled and that would place a much bigger strain on me than free feeding so switching isn’t really an option. In case it crossed your mind no, my cats are not obese, first of all they aren’t even a year old and they’re a very healthy weight which I monitor closely with an automatic litter box, if it ever gets to a point where free feeding makes them obese or impacts their health at all I will suck it up and give them scheduled meals then but this problem of bugs is not nearly as important to warrant causing me more pain for.

Basically, starting maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago I’ve been seeing roaches and other similar bugs crawling on the wall and floor by the food/water bowl. Never in or on the bowls (that I’ve seen), just around/near them, but I imagine they’re probably going inside to feast on the food or something. I get it, everybody needs to eat, but they can do it somewhere else, I hate seeing them because it’s gross lol. I’ve tried killing a few but I can’t really bend down that frequently due to chronic back pain/issues.

So basically, does anyone have any ideas for things I could do or products I could buy to help repel and/or kill the bugs? Specifically things that are safe for cats that are really curious and like to play with or swat at anything foreign.

A few other notes: I have not seen these bugs anywhere else in my home besides the area near their food/water bowls (1 food and 1 water bowl).
I never saw the bugs before like 3 weeks ago, maybe a month max, since I’ve had the bowls there which began last December. It’s possible they are inside because of the heat but last year at this time I had a dog with her bowls at the same spot and I never saw any bugs then and I can’t imagine bugs being interested in cat food but not dog food lol.
I also haven’t noticed any bugs in or near their bag of food, which sits unsealed inside my kitchen cabinet/pantry on the bottom shelf less than 10 feet away from where the bowls are.
Oh and also one of my boys eats by pushing some pieces of food onto the floor next to the bowl and then eating them one by one (I think it may be easier due to his cerebellar hypoplasia to pick up the pieces with his mouth one at a time instead of clumped together in the bowl); so I can’t put anything on the floor around the bowls or anything like that that would risk him ingesting it.
I do have a plug on the wall right behind the bowls in case whatever you would like to suggest is something that needs to be plugged in.

Okay, that’s pretty much everything I can think of that might help provide important context. I am open to any and all suggestions, and thank you so much in advance for any help you have to offer. I hate seeing bugs inside my home so I want to try anything I can to get these fuckers to go back outside where they belong lol.

For context, I have an iPhone 11 plus running iOS 26.3. For some reason I have been getting an alarm at 5:45 pm for the last several days. It’s not set on my alarm app, it’s not set in the health app under bedtime. I can’t figure out how to turn it off and it keeps coming every single day. Luckily I wake up a little before then anyways but I’d be upset if it interrupts me sleeping in one day. (I work night shift)

Anyone have any ideas?