May not sound like a dumb question, but this isn’t my first rodeo, but it’s the first time I’ve lost.
In my 20s, myself, gf and bf moved into a house crawling with roaches. She and I spent the first night smashing as fast as we could go. The wall behind the fridge was “black” with roach shit. Easy money. We cleaned like hell and laid boric acid powder everywhere. A new generation of tiny ones came along, died quickly, that was that.
Had roaches in this house for years now. I’ve tried the above trick, no love. Got some poison a friend recommended, works OK, but they’ll be back. Had an exterminator in. He gave me some great tricks and his treatment worked great, but I can’t afford $40 a month until this is finally resolved.
And the kitchen isn’t filthy! My wife cleans and wipes it down every day. Not a deep clean of course, but again, it’s not filthy. There are a few around my desk because I often eat here, I get that bit.
They seem to be in the appliances and wall sockets. Pulled a smart socket today, filthy with roach shit, front and back. They’re coming out of the walls! I could probably figure a trick to bag and nuke the appliances, but the walls?!
HUGE bonus would be some advice on trapping them to feed our chameleon! When my wife sees one she’ll trap it in a little tupperware container and toss them in the lion’s den. I’ve tried some methods I found online, not a single catch. Which is embarrassing because I’m pretty handy, understand basic biology, should be a no-brainer.
If I don’t figure this soon, I’m importing some Huntsmen spiders from you Aussie cunts. No wonder my wife thinks lizards are good luck in the house. (Philippines, Florida, same difference.)
H E L P
I had a minor but very noticeable infestation a few years ago, I’m guessing from a used blender I bought (picked up from someone at a not very nice looking apartment). Tried all kinds of things, and what finally made it go away was Advion bait gel and a general understanding of where they like to be. Just a tiny dab in lots of places. Obviously start in the areas you see them most, but my understanding is that they don’t really like open areas. So put a tiny bit in every little corner, crack, and hole you can find. From what I remember, roaches will eat their own after they die, which means they’ll ingest that bait gel and one “dose” will cause a nice chain reaction.
No offense, but if I had a roach problem this bad I would find a way to afford $40 a month for an exterminator even if I had to cut back to bare utilities only. Maybe even no electricity and cold showers until they were gone.
Fumigation after envelope repair.
You need to, or preferably a pro, need to go around and seal up every possible incursion point and then gas the fuckers.
There is no solution but the final solution. Traps and poisons are like addressing a leaking roof with a pot to catch the water falling on the floor. God help you if you are on piers or block foundation, your fight will be Sisyphean.
8-yo house on a slab.
I’ve had some success with poison, the kind that comes inside plastic pods and supposedly they chew on it and bring it back to their nest, wiping it out.
Last year I had dozens running around everywhere (house surrounded with garden/fields) last year, this year I’ve only seen 1 so far.
dude, wtf? “final solution” and gassing?
Word War 2 jokes, in your communities?! It’s more likely than you think.
Can’t deal with it, need help?call now! 123-it was horrible but it has been a few years now, hell we make 9/11 jokes-123
From what i remember from the documentary Joes Apartment i think you have to befriend them.
And host their party’s. Man I loved that movie. Repeatedly getting mugged at the beginning had 10 years old me dying.
Have you tried fumigation? Like bug bombs or getting an exterminator to do it professionally? You might have to leave your house for a couple of days but it would attack all of them at once that way
Borax. Lots.
You, your gf, your bf, and your wife? I’m very confused regarding who lives here
Yeah probably a polygroup. Some folks date in groups larger than two 🤷
Its more common among queer folks, and also kinky folks (who are also often queer)
Hate to break it to you, but OP is a Mormon
Like actually or are you making a joke?
Got a post history about not invading because of long range mormons
I saw that- I’m pretty sure that was just a meme they found off the internet. They even explicitly said they were in a different area, and their comments in that thread suggest they’re a 2a leftist, which is HIGHLY unlikely to go hand in hand with being a Mormon
The leap of logic from that map to them being a Mormon is… Large. They also clarified they were only talking about having one partner in this thread.
I really don’t think you had enough substantuation to suggest to others that they’re a Mormon, it seems very clear upon further looking that they aren’t…
OP is a Mormon fundamentalist.
Do you have any further reason to believe that? Cause I’m not seeing any…
I was a bit loose with my pronouns. :)
Myself, my girlfriend, my best friend, all moved in together. LOL, that place turned out to be condemned by the city and we had to put in our own windows. It was an adventure.
So, I think this story has two parts to it: one from years ago, wherein he moved into a place with his girlfriend and his best friend; and another from today, wherein he moved into a place with his wife. Unclear if it’s the same person as the girlfriend from before.
Polyamory maybe 👀
Get that bait gel. They eat it then die back in the walls where others eat it and die.
Glue traps.
Seal up everything. Foam for the larger gaps, caulk for everything else. All baseboards.
There are some mini black plastic baits for them (with poison), they eat and go back to their lair, dying and infecting everyone. Every 3 months I replace mine, never had cockroaches after I’ve put them everywhere in my apartment, even living on top of a restaurant.
I couldn’t find the brand I use on Amazon in the US, maybe they don’t sell it there. I’d go with something that explicitly claims to target the nests, like this maybe.
Just bought it!
Use the baits that destroy the nest, but you’ll need many by how bad it sounds. It’ll take a bit to see the effects of wiping out the next generation but I don’t see how else you’d handle this on a small budget
Also it probably goes without saying but remove all their food sources and seal whatever gaps you can
There’s a food source somewhere. Assuming they’re not getting food from your kitchen (you’re not finding them in the pantry), there must be something else nearby. What’s around? Anything you can get rid of? Old cardboard boxes? Dead plants/yard waste? Pet food?
How old is the house? Does it have wallpaper? If you are unlucky they might be eating wallpaper glue or something like that. Also have you made sure there isn’t a sewage leak under the house?
House is only 8 years old. But yeah, they’re getting food somewhere, and it doesn’t take much.
Depends. If you’re in a tropical area they could just be part of the local wildlife.
You bought a house but can’t afford $40 a month? That’s so reasonable.
Well, no? That’s an extra cost I can’t handle for a handful of roaches. Do you think owning a home makes someone rich?
Our house is a Habitat for Humanity mortgage. If you think owning a home is out of reach, I’d suggest you make the phone call to your local Habitat group. What do you have to lose? An hour going to a meeting? My ex-wife picking up the phone, just that one time, changed my life. BTW, our mortgage is $600/mo., 3br./2ba., 16K sq./ft. yard. CALL.
I never said owning a home makes you rich but most people don’t go into owning a home without building in maintenance costs. If you can’t afford $40 a month, what happens when an appliance breaks, or there is an HVAC or plumbing issue?
Roach motels when the situation becomes unmanageable.
From what you’re describing, the roaches are probably laying eggs and living inside rotted wood or old furniture.
I’m not a fan of fumigation since it is expensive, rarely works anywhere near 100%, and uses toxic chemicals, so it makes your house dirty and then the roaches are back in a couple weeks.
Buy a large pack of these glue traps with packaged bait, bait the traps as you need them, and put one trap in the area of each room you see the most roaches, somewhere dark, under furniture or out of sight.
You don’t need more than one trap per room, roaches are plenty mobile. Check them daily in the beginning, replace them when they are one layer full of roaches trapped in the adhesive.
You will have a whole bunch of live roaches you can feed to your chameleon and you will notice the roach infestation going down rather drastically. They catch young and old roaches with equal effect.
Very simple traps, and I’ve always found them to work very well.
I recommend buying the highest rated variety of the trap below with the highest amount of people who have bought it before.
Have you tried diatomaceous earth (wp:Diatomaceous earth#Pest control) and sealing everything?
Not in this case! I’ll get some.
You can get a duster/blower applicator and blow it into the walls. Talking about removing wall plate for plugs and light switches to blast it in there.
You can also blow it into any crack you see. Baseboards, trim under stuff.
Diatomaceous Earth Powder Duster Applicator
An exterminator probably, but you can thin the herd by sitting up a trap.
A large preferably glass or metal bowl, and a small ramp up to said bowl. Put some sugar in the bowl and the next day there’ll be some roaches trapped in the bowl. Empty and repeat…
Also those glue traps work well…
