cockroaches

I know they sound like they wouldn't work...but raid and combat make roach traps for GIANT cockroaches. I know, because I started having a problem at my apt on St. Marks a few weeks ago. These roaches were so big I could make out their faces and their size 5 sneakers. NOT CUTE. Anyway, I put these traps out everywhere I had seen one. it's been 3 weeks and I have seen a single one. (now watch when I get home, they'll be having a tea party at my dining room table *knocks wood*). You can also buy the roach spray that comes with this, well, stick attachment, that allows you to spray under cabinets and stuff. I haven't used this since i have pets but it;s the same thing a terminator would use.

ditto the boric acid. It is super cheap. NOT safe for pets, but put it behind the appliances and under the sinks by the pipes....anywhere you have holes....

Unless your cats are getting behind your cabinets and under your fridge Boric acid will still work. I have some behind my stove, and under the fridge and I have a cat.

I hire my own exterminator, it works because he uses more advanced stuff than the company that my mgmt uses. I don't think you can really expect mgmt to be able to get rid of them in a large building where you share walls with others. My mgmt sends an exterminator but the roaches get used to the spray used in every apartment and it doesn't work. It sucks to pay for it, but my own guy comes by twice a year and I almost never see a roach--I think because he uses a different spray and gels than the rest of the building gets.

We use Cesar, from Freedom Pest Control, btw. He's mostly known as a bed bug guy but really knows a lot about all kinds of pest control. He was telling me about the issue of "palatability" in roach gel, lol. Basically, if the roaches are sick of the taste they stop eating it so you gotta switch up their deadly poisoned meal once in a while.

He is insanely busy so just keep trying to reach him. Totally worth the cost, imo. Especially because I have a cheap apartment.

If you have a place that you can bring your pet(s) and stay for a night, I recommend the following (lessons learned from a nasty old apartment building in the Bronx that I used to live in):

Get a bunch a RAID Fumigator or Fogger products (make sure there's enough for the space, and leave all cabinet and closet doors open). Set them off and bring your pets elsewhere. Leave it for a day.
When you come back, clean up all the cooking surfaces, dishes, cookware, etc., and everywhere that your pet can get to.

Then (and this is the key step for a long term solution), caulk along all gaps that roaches can get into your apartment though. Key places to target: along the gap between the wall and the floor, around door frames and window frames, around pipes and gas lines (make sure you get under the sinks, and pull the stove away from the wall so you can get to the gas line if you have a gas stove). Open radiator covers to seal around the pipe that leads to the radiator, and between the wall and the floor behind the radiator cover. If you have big gaps, stuff steel wool into them and then caulk over the steel wool. Get small pieces of screen and cover the vents in your kitchen and bathroom with them, sealing the edges with duct tape (they make it in lots of colors, so you can match or at least complement the wall color).

Finally, leave out a few traps as suggested above in key areas, like under the stove and refrigerator, under the bathroom sink. Get the ones with egg stoppers. This should take care of an occasional stray roach that finds its way in under your door or through an open window.

Also, it goes without saying that you want to make your environment inhospitable to roaches. Keep it clean: don't leave dirty dishes in the sink, don't leave crumbs on the counter, empty the crumb tray in your toaster oven, etc.

This involves some investment in time and materials, but it will fix the problem. Otherwise, it doesn't matter what you do in your apartment, because if your neighbors have roaches and your environment is essentially continuous with theirs (from the roach's perspective), they will always come back.

I use the Roach Gel

ack! you guys jinxed me. I just saw the mother of all cockroaches taking a leisurely stroll across my dining room floor.

I'm just glad they are slow as hell!

I poured more boric acid behind the appliacnces and I guess it's time to replace the giant traps. Next time I'm going out of town with the cats, I'm bombing the place

Make sure to pat dry the drains in your apartment, including the bathtub drain. I've seen the little guys crawl up out of the BT drain a number of times. If your dry out that area, it tends to attract them less to that spot.

I've tried boric acid. It works, but has two problems:

• (1) To be most effective you really have to put it all over the place - so you have to be strategic, otherwise you'll have white powder everywhere. Like some type of voodoo ritual.
  
  (2) Even more annoying, it seems like I would wake up in the morning to a trail of dead roaches all around the powder. Gross. It really did look like a voodoo recipe.

Instead I highly recommend the Raid bait with Egg Stoppers. After a couple of weeks the roaches were almost none existent. The box says that it lasts for about 3 months, but I had mine for a good year before I had to replace them.

The baits are black squares that can be tucked away in a corner. It would be great if they were invisible, but they are not as bad looking as the voodoo powder.

I found roach #3. I was in the bathroom and heard a scratching sound from the medicine cabinet. I knew exactly what it was. FUCKER!

I put a tasty dish of boric acid in case they get any new ideas.

I might try the bait..never saw the egg stopper one

Chekhovian wrote: do roaches bite?

what physical harm do they cause?

I'm 99.999999% sure they don't bite.

Some people say that they carry disease, but in our modern day, I don't think we have anything to worry about.

they like to burrow in your ears when you sleep and can be very difficult to extricate without the help of a doctor. i shit you not.

Carnivore wrote: [quote=jayce]they like to burrow in your ears when you sleep and can be very difficult to extricate without the help of a doctor. i shit you not.

I see this all the time. You can tell from across the room before the person even tells you what's wrong.

:shock: :shock: :shock:
Should we Global this thread?