Oh, gag - cockroaches!

[sparrowgrass]

My son (25) is a pig--a sweet boy, but a total and utter slob. He recently moved from his apartment here to Pennsylvania, and during the transition, spent a couple nights at my house.

HE BROUGHT ME COCKROACHES--hurl, hurl, hurl. I have only seen 5 total, I think, but I am really freaked out.

I am as organic as possible, and I hate to spray pesticides around. I put out some of those roach traps in the bathrooms, the room he stayed in and in the kitchen, and have only seen one since doing that--in the (dirty) dishwasher.

Any tips on dealing with this? I know you used to be able to buy boric acid tabs that were relatively non-toxic, but I might have to go to the big guns if I see another one.

 

[pdswife]

What a nice boy! lol... the only think I know about roaches is that they like to lay eggs in cardboard so if you have any laying around..GET RID OF IT!!!...

Good luck!

 

[mcnerd]

Years ago I ran a Moving & Storage business and cockroaches were a big problem, especially when you consider that 3-4 households or more can be on one van going across country. Who wants to inherit bugs in their new home?!

My crews have actually refused to load a household when they discover serious infestations, but usually it is too late to stop, so what is one to do?

My drivers drove their trucks out into the Mojave desert and dropped the trailer and left it for a couple days in the broiling heat. Hopefully no cats or birds inside the trailer because anything alive was cooked.

 

[DramaQueen]

I am not a clean freak but my house is clean and neat, not clutter. My kitchen, however, is immaculate because this is where I prepare the food I eat. I never have food on the floor or the counter after a meal and I NEVER leave dirty pots or pans in my sink after a meal.

So having said that, I found cockroaches crawling out of my bathroom sink drain on 3 different occasions and one was staring at me when I turned on the light in my bedroom. ( Try and sleep after that.) The point being that just because you're son's a slob, doesn't mean he's the one who brought the roaches into your house. Roaches and rats are everywhere. Just keep food off of your floor and counters so they have no reason to stay there. The "Roach Motel" works wonders.

The scary part is that roaches are nocturnal. They only come out at night and skitter away at the first vibration from your footsteps. So you many have had roaches for a long time, just never saw them before. I only saw mine at night as I flipped on the lightswitch. EWWWWWWW.

 

[letscook]

My husband and I owned several apartments and we once replaced a refridge in one and brought the old one back to our garage before disposing of it. Thank goodness the garage is not connect to the house as it was loaded with the creatures He read that you take a jar - stick a chunk of bannana in the bottom and then line the top ridge with bacon grease and they climb in and can't get out. well we did it and it worked, we had a jar full screw the lid on throw it out, the next day part full and each day less and it worked, Its been awhile so i think I am right on what to do, but i will research it some more and let you know.

 

[letscook]

ok I googled Natural Pest control and that came up so it is the banana in the bottom and bacon or butter greased rim. If i not mistaken i greased the inside rim and down a lil into the jar. I does work ! Good luck ewwwww I suddenly have the itches

 

[MexicoKaren]

I'm with DQ - I keep my kitchen counters absolutely clean because of all the bugs we have here. Having said that, I have two HUGE cockroaches living on my kitchen counter, that hide behind the appliances and only come out at night. I see them occasionally first thing in the morning - about two inches long each. Maybe I'll try that banana in the jar trick!

 

[sparrowgrass]

Thanks for sticking up for the kid, but they were his roaches. I had lent him a dresser and bedframe, and when I picked them up, the dresser had cockroaches inside. I didn't bring the furniture in until I had disinfected every surface. (I didn't even bring it up on the porch--I left it in the back of the truck till I was done.)

Dropping everything in the Mojave sounds effective, but inefficient.

I have had an occasional roach in the past--I think they come in with the dog food, or bags of potatoes and onions--but this was 5 little ones, so I think they had just hatched out.

 

[GrillingFool]

I was gonna suggest that you remove anything he left there from the move.. boxes, etc.. but it sounds like you did already.

Roaches....or water bugs.. will come up your plumbing to visit.
Two of our cats have figured out the bugs come up the basement shower drain.
It isn't unusual to find one or both sitting patiently on a rainy day, just waiting for
their own personal playtoy to come out. I MUCH prefer finding DEAD waterbug roaches
in my house to the live version, so GOOD KITTIES!

 

[sattie]

Ok... now you guys got me all itchy!!!! Brehhhhhhh!!

 

[DramaQueen]

Thanks for sticking up for the kid, but they were his roaches. I had lent him a dresser and bedframe, and when I picked them up, the dresser had cockroaches inside. I didn't bring the furniture in until I had disinfected every surface. (I didn't even bring it up on the porch--I left it in the back of the truck till I was done.)

Dropping everything in the Mojave sounds effective, but inefficient.

I have had an occasional roach in the past--I think they come in with the dog food, or bags of potatoes and onions--but this was 5 little ones, so I think they had just hatched out.

You're not gonna want to hear this but here goes: Is it possible that, since you had roaches in the past, you could have loaned your son the furniture with roach eggs already in the dresser and bedframe? Roaches lay thousands of eggs and since you really don't see the roaches by day, YOU could have given your son the roaches. Sorry, but it is possible. Roaches have nothing to do with cleanliness so don't think it's anyone's fault. The only problem is that if you have food laying around, crumbs on the floor, any food anywhere, they will have something to eat and stay. They bring in other roaches and they lay eggs. Fact of life.

(Could this be another blog? )

 

[Mama]

The south seems to be "Blessed" with an abundance of these creeatures. When we first moved to our house (20 years ago) it was overrun with roaches. We heard about a non-toxic product on Paul Harvey called "Roach Pruf" (yes it's spelled right). Anyway, we put it out after we thoroughly cleaned the house and left it alone. The came back about 15 years later and we put it out again. Haven't seen any since. The only place I know that sells it is ACE hardware and some True Value Hardware stores. It comes in a black and yellow can and is pretty cheap. The stuff is AMAZING!

 

[B'sgirl]

I am soooooooooooooo glad there are no cockroaches here! (Just ants in great numbers).

 

[babetoo]

i haven't ever had them in calif. am sure they are here though. just lucky.
when a teen ager we lived in florida. now those are cock roaches. i remember my mom putting a coat of wax in drawer and on floors. supposedly had bug killer in it. they were still so bad, if u got up in the night , would turn on bathroom light and wait for the scurrying to stop . then you could go in, with out stepping on them. yuck

 

[busyfingers]

I'm just glad I've never had to deal with any of these fellows. Sounds horrible. I guess its way too cold up here in Canada for them to survive the winter. One time my daughter and her friend visited Jamacia for a week and on her arrival home I had her put all her luggage in the back shed for a day and a night. It was winter and I was living in Northern Ontario at the time and the temperature was -15 to -25 F.

 

[expatgirl]

just don't move to Houston, TX.......we grow everything big here...........there's a reason the cowboys wear boots......my mother used to send us to the basement with hammers......will share some of my Texas A&M college education with you........you know how roaches can creep and remain close to walls and then disappear? they flatten themselves out......well watch next time then and stop screaming........they can't hear you anyway.........it's called thigmoidtropism.......look it up.........if I had to learn it so can you............this is how they've survived 10 bizzillion years.......

 

[mcnerd]

Hmmm, I wonder what the feeling will be when the earth shifts again and the new Equator runs through the middle of Canada? An interesting thought.

 

[expatgirl]

really.........is that the new thinking, McNerd..........? haven't heard that theory.........but with today's economics who knows.............Really????

 

[Mama]

just don't move to Houston, TX.......we grow everything big here...........there's a reason the cowboys wear boots......my mother used to send us to the basement with hammers......

 

[Constance]

Spray. Trust me on this.