Fuck, do I have roaches?

Smug Duckling

I caught this fucker running around under my sink near my garbage:





Am I fucked or am I fucked?

DirtyDirtyVagrant

That's a roach, yes, but I can't tell which kind. It's probably german. German roaches have two dark markings that run vertical with their bodies, just behind their heads and above their wings, like so.



They're rampant in my building. They get in my trash, they die in my cereal, they crawl over my body when I sleep sometimes. I see them scurrying across the walls in the moonlight. I see probably ten per day or so. Luckily I'm moving out soon. I hope I don't bring any with me.

We have a bug guy who sprays. I closed up every hole I could find in my apartment and the little fuckers started crawling from under the floorboards, squeezing up between the carpet and the walls. They walk through borax and laugh at me. The spray doesn't even faze them. They walk right past bait.

Oddly enough, I find two or three of them every day stuck to my lint roller. I guess they like the glue.

tbloxham

Oh sweet Odin, the horror. If you own your home you can try more serious chemical measures, even chemically resistant roaches have some weaknesses. Physical traps can also work to reduce numbers. If you live in an apartment then you need everyone in the building to take steps, or to turn your apartment into a fortress.

Smug Duckling

well... damn.

The good news is I'm only living here for another two months.

I'll notify the apartment manager right away.

Do things like covered garbage cans do any good? Should I be throwing out any food waste in outdoor dumpsters immediately instead of putting it in the trash?

For what it's worth I live in the San Francisco area right now. How big do these things get around here?

Raneados

roaches aren't such a big deal

ignoring the fact that they're bugs, apparently they're rather clean (cleaner than, say, flies)

they're not something to FREAK over, you don't have to burn the place down, just set up some roach traps, throw some spray in the crevices, and keep clean

FyreWulff

You'll always have roaches no matter where you live. The key is to make it so it's more enticing for them to live in the walls and basement instead of the living area.

- Cover and take out trash as much as possible
- Do not leave ANY food out. Ever.
- Do not leave out standing water of any sort
- If you see an egg case roach THEY MUST DIE. PERIOD. A female roach is a force multiplier and can generate up to 1,000 more roaches. Every egg case roach you kill is 1,000 less possible roaches. If you see an egg case, pick it up with TP and crush it inside the TP and flush it. Setting it on fire before the flush is optional.

Your anti-roach fighting moves should be in order:

- gluetrapping + boric acid
- roach motels
- poison paste. Stick this shit in all the holes and gaps they could possibly get through. It will either shut them out or force them to eat it to get through. This will cause mass destruction and you'll see a lot of dead bodies. Bonus content: the food comes out in their poop. Guess what baby roaches eat soon after being born? CHAIN BONUS! However this stuff is expensive for the 'amount' you get, which is why I put this as the second-to-last option

Paste should also be put on electronics and near any heat source. They will get inside your computer and camp out next to the warm PSU.

- bombing. The entire building or house must be bombed simultaneously, though, so if you live an apartment this requires the landlord to coordinate doing this

Noxy

Raneados wrote: »

roaches aren't such a big deal

ignoring the fact that they're bugs, apparently they're rather clean (cleaner than, say, flies)

they're not something to FREAK over, you don't have to burn the place down, just set up some roach traps, throw some spray in the crevices, and keep clean

That depends on the situation. Roaches can cause serious respiratory problems and a person should do what they can to eliminate as much of a roach population as possible.

A person with asthma should be extra cautious about living in a place with obvious roach colonies. In those situations, an air filter that works would not be a bad idea. These issues are not immediate but they develop over time.

Some roaches drop egg cases and some keep them inside. If you see an egg case, you should probably destroy it.

Make sure when you move to go through all of your belongings and avoid taking roaches with you if you can.

For the most part roaches are harmless if they are kept under control.

Like the others said, don't leave food out and keep the living areas as clean as possible.

BloodySloth

Cockroaches by themselves aren't particularly unhealthy, they're pretty clean animals, and will spend a while cleaning themselves even after coming into contact with a human. The issue isn't really that they're a big disease vector, but that they can smell pretty bad if there are too many of them, and they can spur allergic reactions and are bad to have around if you've got asthma (as stated by Fonjo). Basically, I'd be more worried if you had a bad fly or ant problem than cockroaches, even though cockroaches are bigger and meaner looking.

However, since you live in an apartment there's not going to be much you can do to get rid of an infestation, particularly if they're coming from someone else's place. You can take measures to keep them at bay, though, and since you're leaving in two months this is what you're gonna want to do anyway. FyreWullf gave some good advice for that, I think.

Raneados

remember that if you use the roach traps/motels, which are quite good, but you'll be finding dead roaches every now and again

DO NOT SPRAY RAID OR WHATEVER NEAR THE TRAPS/MOTELS

it completely contaminates the trap and makes it worthless

TheMadHuntsman

I had a particularly nasty infestation, bastards crawled on me while I was sleeping and harrassed me early in the morning. It was mainly confined to one room of the house though (mine), set up a few roach motels and I was good to go. That's my recommendation.

Satsumomo

Lies, lies. This whole thread is full of them.

I had a German cockroach infestation, for over 2 years, in my small apartment. I tried spraying the whole place, entrances and common spots, with cypermethrine. It kills them effectively, very effectively. But that's all it does, they disappear for 1 or 2 days, and you've got them all over your ass again.

Every night, I'd go get a glass of water, and as soon as I turned the light on, I'd see no less than 50 bastards move around the whole place scurrying to their hiding spot.

I bought roach traps, which are a Godsend device, but only effective against American roaches. The German roaches ignore them completely, or are immune to them.

So for the last 2 years I'd just spray the whole place every week, and have them come back anyways. I pretty much gave up and said "They must be coming in from another apartment (I live on the 3rd floor)."

Then I remembered a bit of advice some dude at a store gave me. He said that "The Gel" is the best solution against German roaches. So I decided to give it a try. It's one of the more expensive solutions out there, but holy crap.

Bayer Maxforce Gel.



The active ingredient seems to be different from the one that I got, but it most probably does the exact same thing. (This one has Fipronil, mine has Hydramethylnon)

I applied the stuff near where these guys liked to be, like the sink, under the sink, near food sources and near the fridge. The product says "Wait 6-8 weeks for results".

I lie not, 5 days later, I didn't see any roaches at all.

Keep applying now and then, you will find the spots where you applied it, to not have any bait anymore, because these guys devour it. For the first few days, they would eat it up completely, so I would reapply. Also, I sprayed my apartment's entrances, to keep potential newcomers away.

I don't keep an exactly clean apartment, there's usually food encrusted plates on the sink, yet I haven't seen any roaches at all. I saw a tiny one today. It's been 3 weeks since I applied the stuff. I spray my doorways and windows every 2 weeks.

No. Roaches.

After 2 years of having a horrible infestation.

Raneados

50 roaches?

ugh how did you let it get that bad

i mean i let dishes pile up as much as the next guy but if i see more than one every few days I'm like

okay this is too many roaches

and i have the german ones

you just inspired me to clean my apartment top to bottom on sunday

the main reason i have any at all is because i have a bad habit of cooking food, spilling something, and deciding i want to eat my food before i clean it up

then forgetting to clean it up

FyreWulff

All you need is one egg case hatching and you can go from 4 to 60 in the matter of a few days.

Raneados

yeah but to SEE that many at once means there's like 50 times that many within 10 feet

UGH

I put down traps for mine, and am spraying entrances + cracks

No gel here, i'll see how it goes

FyreWulff

They like to congregate in the dark, humid kitchen. You won't see that many during the day but once everyone stops moving around and the lights go out they all come out of the walls to forage.

In one apartment I had, I used to conduct surprise raids by going into the bathroom in the middle of the night with a flyswatter, turning the light on and massacring the roaches that were drinking water out of the bathtub.

Brodo Faggins

Just wanted to add, don't ever buy the "all-natural ingredient" bug sprays. They have the benefit of not using any synthetic chemicals (they use a mixture of cinnamon, capsaicin, and some other naturally occurring stuff), but holy shit do they not work.

The little buggers just run away.

Satsumomo

Maybe I did exaggerate, but since German roaches are so small, you'd see many.

FyreWulff

Also, if you deploy gluepads, be prepared to see a big roach that got trapped and 20-30 dead babies that also got stuck after the adult dropped the egg case and it hatched.

Or accidentally catch a cricket.

Malkor

I'm scared. I haven't seen any roaches where I live.

But I'm scared nonetheless.

spookymuffin

Roaches scare the shit out of me. If I see one in my living area, I can't sleep until I'm 100% sure it's dead. Even then, any little noise convinces me that there is another one, and I have to get up to investigate.

Smug Duckling

Well, my landlord came and sprayed the shit out of the apartment today. I've still only ever seen the one in the pictures in the OP, even with going into the dark kitchen in the middle of the night, so I hope there aren't too many.

If I see any more I'll try some of these other techniques.

john fechon

It was briefly mentioned, but you have to be careful when you move. If they've laid eggs in or are currently hiding in some clothes, you risk bringing them with you. I put my clothes in garbage bags and washed them as soon as I moved in.

Its a tad overboard, but it reduces the likelihood any of them hitched a ride.

finnith

spookymuffin wrote: »

Roaches scare the shit out of me. If I see one in my living area, I can't sleep until I'm 100% sure it's dead. Even then, any little noise convinces me that there is another one, and I have to get up to investigate.

I wish I had a much less severe version of this, but I don't.

Karrmer

FyreWulff wrote: »

They like to congregate in the dark, humid kitchen. You won't see that many during the day but once everyone stops moving around and the lights go out they all come out of the walls to forage.

In one apartment I had, I used to conduct surprise raids by going into the bathroom in the middle of the night with a flyswatter, turning the light on and massacring the roaches that were drinking water out of the bathtub.

I laughed... so hard. This image of you frantically jabbing the light on and going berserk with a fly swatter on them is just impossible to remove from my brain.

I second using the gel, it helps keep them away from coming out into your areas as said. I find its near impossible to ever truly get rid of them if you're in an apartment complex that has been infested but at least you can keep them from coming into your shit.

Raneados

i experimented with my roaches a little today, as i saw a few

managed to get them trapped and sprayed one with Black Flag Roach killer

german roaches

it seems okay, it killed him decently, but he needed a pretty good coating in it, all it did to start was slow him down so i could spray him more

FyreWulff

You only need the one spray, it eats them alive. It's not instant-kill. If I remember correctly, Black Flag is one where you spray it around the baseboards and let it work

Raneados

yar

just wanted to test it on a direct spraying

although obviously spraying each roach you see is nigh on impossible


i have a few bait traps down now, and the spray interferes with them

and my place is small so it's either one or the other

FyreWulff

Spray along the baseboards, put the traps under the stove/fridge/etc.

joshofalltrades

If you ever go to a house and you live near a field, get some of that perimeter spray stuff and spray the fuck out of the outside of your house and in the crevasses of entryways, like doors and the garage. Poof, no roach worries for almost a year. No insect worries of any kind, as a matter of fact.

kitch

finnith wrote: »

spookymuffin wrote: »

Roaches scare the shit out of me. If I see one in my living area, I can't sleep until I'm 100% sure it's dead. Even then, any little noise convinces me that there is another one, and I have to get up to investigate.

I wish I had a much less severe version of this, but I don't.

This is what I do too. One night a roach woke me up by crawling on my hand. I moved my hand because it tickled, and the roach scurried ONTO MY FACE OH GOD. I slapped it against the wall, stomped it, and went to sleep on the couch.

TrillionGrams

Satsumomo wrote: »

Then I remembered a bit of advice some dude at a store gave me. He said that "The Gel" is the best solution against German roaches. So I decided to give it a try. It's one of the more expensive solutions out there, but holy crap.

Bayer Maxforce Gel.



The active ingredient seems to be different from the one that I got, but it most probably does the exact same thing. (This one has Fipronil, mine has Hydramethylnon)

I applied the stuff near where these guys liked to be, like the sink, under the sink, near food sources and near the fridge. The product says "Wait 6-8 weeks for results".

I lie not, 5 days later, I didn't see any roaches at all.

Keep applying now and then, you will find the spots where you applied it, to not have any bait anymore, because these guys devour it. For the first few days, they would eat it up completely, so I would reapply. Also, I sprayed my apartment's entrances, to keep potential newcomers away.

I don't keep an exactly clean apartment, there's usually food encrusted plates on the sink, yet I haven't seen any roaches at all. I saw a tiny one today. It's been 3 weeks since I applied the stuff. I spray my doorways and windows every 2 weeks.

No. Roaches.

After 2 years of having a horrible infestation.

YES.

Nightshade

FyreWulff wrote: »

In one apartment I had, I used to conduct surprise raids by going into the bathroom in the middle of the night with a flyswatter, turning the light on and massacring the roaches that were drinking water out of the bathtub.

HAHAH

I imagine someone in an army helmet and their underwear. And expressions on the roaches similar to that of mobsters caught in a drug bust.