I hate Cockroaches!!!!!

[Maggirayne]

I just found one on my stovetop. Okay not even one, but the outside it sheds when they get bigger. :mad :ph

We saw three, a nymph and a 1/4 long one, and DH smashed a small one a few months ago. We got the little traps you slide under things. DH says they only last a few months. He just scrubbed the top of the stove a week ago. We're renting an apt, so tiiiiiiny kitchen. My counters have stuff on them because I'm not organized and have very little storage. Gaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LadybugSam]

I am right there with you (although we have more of an infestation than you do) Its absolutely infuriating.

I feel like i can't have people over because of it and it really stinks because no matter how clean i keep the house (making sure the dishes are done after breakfast lunch and diner, not leaving any food out for very long) they're still there. Its especially bad in an apartment because sometimes it doesn't matter how clean you're keeping your house because you share a wall with your neighbor and if your kitchen isn't clean they'll just hop 5 feet over and feast in the other house for a while.

Its so frustrating because they never really go away. We;ll be keeping the house nice and neat and then when we're in bed at night we'll notice a cockroach climbing our bedroom wall. We don't even eat in our bedroom. Ever. Why is it in there?! :hissyfit

Anyway, what i mean to say is that i totally understand :hugheart

[Maggirayne]

ugh the bedroom.:shiver:shiver:shiver

[Mama Calidad]

ITU. And down here they are giant 2" long flying cockroaches.

Did you hear my story already about the time I killed one by the power of the Word of God?

DH wasn't home. He's usually the one I call if I ever see one of those horrid creatures. So, I did what any sane person does in that event. I picked up the closest item heavy enough to kill it without breaking and I threw it at the cockroach. In this case, it just happened to be the Bible. Smushed it dead. (DH verified when he got home, 'cause I wasn't touching that mess.)

[Johns_Gal]

Oh yes, we also have the fliers. Holy cow, that is a whole new level of gross.

When we moved in this house was so infested. I cried over it often.

Finally we bombed. No more buggies. I hated to do it, but it worked. They day I lay in my bed and saw them in a crack over me, in the ceiling, it was war. Not just "I will scrub and clean until my fingers are raw and never leave even a scrap of carrot peel in the trash", but "Ha ha ha ha! Toxic gas for YOU, you foul unnatural little nasties!" :shifty

[kwisie]

We get them every year. :sick There's an empty house two doors down that serves as a perfect way-station for them, and for mice. They hang out at the empty house for a while, then BAM! decide to come for a visit and repopulate our house. And you're right - they're stinky. :sick I've been amazed at how nice my house smells this winter, now that they've gone into hiding until warmer weather. I HATE them!

[brandi]

Are they the big ones? or are they the tiny black ones?

[Rabbit]

I have learned that there are many different types, and they're all after something different.

Big giant black ones are oriental cockroaches. They wander through our home, but they only eat decaying leaves and other such organic matter. They don't live inside. They hibernate through the winter, outside. Caulk cracks to get rid of them. Pay attention to where pipes enter and exit your home. Rake away all leaves from the foundations of your home, and store firewood across the yard, not up against the house.

Big giant red ones are American cockroaches. They will eat paper, but don't live inside, either. They live in the walls, especially walls with masonry. They, too, hibernate through the winter. Caulk cracks to get rid of them. Pay attention to where pipes enter and exit your home.

Kitchen and bathroom ones are usually German roaches. They have two different colorations depending on their age. They are looking for moisture, and thrive on starch, like the flour that falls in the cracks between countertops. They live inside, most definitely, and never hibernate. They look for warm cracks to sleep in, near water sources, and especially love the lip underneath my countertop, above the dishwasher. They will also infest electronics equipment, because it's warm and sheltered. There are baits designed for them, but they don't really work. Sprays and bombings can work. A really good exterminator can deal with them better than a determined homeowner with OTC pesticides, but a bad exterminator is worse than useless. (Can you guess which type our apartment complex hires?) We've only had them in the bedroom when we also had warm water sources, like a wipe warmer, in the bedroom.

The brown ones that live in furniture are another type altogether, and I don't know much about them because we don't have them.

[Cat]

that was the worst part about living in nyc-i'd go to the bathroom at night and the walls were black with a thick swarming layer-the worst was waking up with a giant one on my head-:shiver i was so :paranoid after that

i'm so sorry you have to deal with that :hugheart i wish i had advice but nothing worked in nyc:sick

[kwisie]

We have the big, black ones. So sealing the house better will help keep them away? And they're not after food, just shelter? :think

[Rabbit]

These people have well organized information on identifying them, and dealing with the infestation:

http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/info/roaches/pick-roaches.htm

[kwisie]

Rabbit, you're awesome. Thanks!

[LadybugSam]

yeah we're infested with "zeh jermins" as Hubby likes to call them.

The oriental ones are incredibly creepy to have in your garage (thats where they were at my mom's house) and even more creepy to squish :shiver but at least they stayed away from the house & kitchen.

the stupid german ones are everywhere. our house is only 650 square feet. our bedroom shares a wall with both the kitchen and the bathroom. They are also in our celing and we seem them disapear into cracks between the wall and ceiling. they like to hide near the lamp on our fishtank :yuck and the dishwasher :yuck and under the sink and behind/under the stove :yuck :yuck

i hate this place. It seems like they never ever go away :pout

[Auroras mom]

Dude, for the roaches, I break out the chemical warfare. One night a few weeks after moving into our new rental home, I was taking a shower. I felt a trickle of water on my head and reached up to smooth it away. I have on no contact lenses, so I am blind. My hand touches a large, mobile creature. I fling it to the floor, shrieking and screaming and run wet and naked down the hall to dh. It was a huge cockroach.

Florida Pest Control was at my house the next day, and I have them come every 3 months now like clockwork.

Now, if we could just get rid of the dang silverfish.

And in the summer we'll talk about wolf spiders.:nails

[Rabbit]

You are describing a severe infestation. You will not believe the difference in your quality of life with some decent pest control.

[WildOlive]

Ew! We had the German cockroaches and I got the gel bait from the website Rabbit listed. It worked GREAT! Before that we had tried just the traps you get at walmart, but they didn't work. I got the 3-pack here:
http://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/Product/KBF3
and it was more than enough.

[Maggirayne]

I so should not have read this right before bed!
DH asked if I was sure they are cockroaches. :doh

Thanks for your info, Rabbit.

Yeah, I grew up with the flying ones down south.

Way to go, Laura.

Tonya, thanks for the hysterical mental picture! :D

I hate silverfish too. I can stand spiders, as long as they aren't on my bed. I had huge ones in the parsonage in ID, I put them in an empty candle holder tube and watched them fight. yeah, I'm weird.

---------- Post added at 09:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 PM ----------

I think thet're the German ones. they look like the smallest ones. Sigh, my mom always brings boxes of stuff, I wonder what kind she has. She was like, oh yeah, I can't get rid of them. I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE THESE EViL CREATURES WITH ME WHEN I MOVE!!! We're househunting.

And we've got some other teeny beetles too. Sigh. I don't wanna knoooooow!
But these don't smell when you squish them like the weevils I had in my apt (a bag of flour) in college. :shifty

[Havilah]

Yeah. Chemical warfare, baby. :yes My dad set out so many bombs in his rented trailer that you could watch the flies just drop out of the air as soon as they flew in the door days afterward. I probably don't recommend that level of warfare at first (honestly... he used like 4x as many bombs as recommended for the square footage) but he no longer had roaches. :lol

The mom of one of our hospitalized infants had german cockroaches crawling in and out of the vents on her rented Medela Lactina. I just wanted to cry for her... she was so embarrassed and frustrated. :(

[Rabbit]

No more boxes from mom!

They will go with you in your stuff. You have to kill them where you are before you move.

I have SERIOUS OCD issues with using chemical death on roaches, but a great deal of my kitchen is now toxic, so that we don't take them with us. We'll be spraying heavily in the week before we move, God willing we move.

If you move in the winter, 24 hours of below freezing temps in the moving van will kill them, if the center of the van gets below freezing.

[Maggirayne]

Sigh, we'd be moving across town bit by bit. :-/

Heh, no boxesis like saying sun don't rise. Maybe I'll be motivated to declutter. Mostly I'm depressed. My kitchen counters are covered with pantry/misc stuff w/o a home. :sigh

Hey, Natalie, you're moving? Woohoo!

[4MKfam]

:yes We had them sooooo bad in AZ. It was a ...not well maintained, shall we say :-/, complex, and I *know* our neighbors had them, badly. The first week we lived there, I was killing 8 - 10 a day in BROAD DAYLIGHT (the creatures had no fear, apparently), and I lost count at 18 or 20 in the roach motel we put under the sink. It was SO bad :shiver. I took us -no kidding- four months of constant cleaning, vacuuming the kitchen/dining room, picking up crumbs, everything edible in tupperware to rid ourselves of them. It nearly drove me insane (the roaches, and the constant cleaning :shifty :giggle).
Although I was hesitant because we had a 1 yr old at the time, we had the pest guy come every month (might have been more often than that at the beginning :scratch -it's been a couple years), and finally we managed to move them out. Roaches and their droppings are a leading cause of asthma, supposedly, and at that point, I was more willing to deal with the chemicals and have the beasts GONE than deal with health problems AND roaches :shiver. Not my first choice, but we were way beyond boric acid solving the problem :no.
Thank God we didn't move any of them with us :phew. I think I would have cried :shifty.
:hugheart I hope you can find a good pest person. --Rabbit was right, it WILL improve your life :yes. :giggle

[Rabbit]

We're job hunting to move. No job yet.

---------- Post added at 10:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:22 PM ----------

Seriously, if my mom was bringing me boxes I suspected were behind a cockroach infestation, I'd be meeting her at the door with a flame thrower.

[Maggirayne]

Sigh, I don't know it's from my mom for sure. I do have bag of raw unwashed wool, and I am soooo not a neat freak. I, uh, toss wet diapers in the general direction of the laundrt room floor. :hiding

And my kitchen floor, well, ants would looooove me.

[Rabbit]

They set up shop in the cleanest of homes. They just have to get there. Dirt and mess don't breed them.

It frustrates me endlessly that we didn't get them until -after- we got out of squalor. Once upon a time, I was that depressed, and we lived in real filth. We didn't even have ants. NOT EVEN ANTS!

[Maggirayne]

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I feel like a crappy housekepper, and they just make me feel worse! "I must be terrible if I'm inviting them in!"
Ah, thanks for helping me identify why I am having such big feelings! :giggle

[Rabbit]

:hug

[Cat]

they are certainly not from being messy. rich people in manhattan with cleaning ladies had them in their penthouses.

roaches are superbeings:sick

[kwisie]

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I feel like a crappy housekepper, and they just make me feel worse! "I must be terrible if I'm inviting them in!"
Ah, thanks for helping me identify why I am having such big feelings! :giggle

Me, too. Thanks a ton!!!