Roach problem ugh :(

Drez

So, some roaches have invaded my turf this winter.

Is it safe to put out those Combat-brand poison traps that induce cockroaches to bring the poison back to their nest? My cockroaches seem to hang out in my not-often used dishwasher and I think I saw one baby roach sneak into and disappear into my toaster which is hella gross.

Any other advice?

Edit: I’m open to pest control as a last-case solution as I frankly don’t want anyone in my home right now. I had a situation years ago and sticky traps seemed to help. I don’t have any of those right now so I thought I would ask you guys first.

Drez

What do you mean by unless I won’t eat?

Unknown

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archivistkitsune

Going to second the suggestion of eliminating sources of water and food. I had the misfortune of being in a place with a roach infestation and that's the first big thing you can do to deal with them. Is to cut off their access to food and water. This means you do laundry frequently because dead skin is food for them. Vacuum frequently. Make sure you don't leave standing water anywhere. All food is in sealable containers, the fridge or freezers. Trash is taken out frequently.

You'll also want to seal areas and frankly, you'll probably need a professional if it's a bad infestation.

BTW I'd look into getting that toaster cleaned if they are getting into it.

Madican

I'd also recommend identifying which of the I think three major variants of roach it is. This will help you figure out how bad the problem is because their reproduction rate varies greatly

Siska

Hubby used to work in pest control. When we see 2 or more roaches in a week he uses Advion Insecticide gel. That along with cleaning AND sealing away any open human or animal food containers (roaches eat everything) seem to take care of it.

Iruka

Are you in a house or an apartment? If you're in an apartment, I highly recommend seeking a professional/informing the complex as the problem should be tackled all at once.

If they are in any appliances that you cant disassemble I would toss them, or if they are small enough, isolate them in plastic bags an airtight bin. once the appliance is isolated, you'll be able to see more evidence of how many bugs might be in there and decide if its worth salvaging or tossing.

We had to get some plumbing fixed and we just open the windows and left for the duration of the visit (well, hung out on the balcony) I think it is worth it to get a professional to quickly sweep the place, because every consumer poison I tried did not work, and in an apartment I cant control other units, or really seal things. I also needed the track record started so that if the issue continued, I could force their hand in treating the whole building.

Zilla360

You haven't happened to notice them trying to stage a musical, have you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru_EiJgTodQ

:P

ArbitraryDescriptor

Siska wrote: »

Hubby used to work in pest control. When we see 2 or more roaches in a week he uses Advion Insecticide gel. That along with cleaning AND sealing away any open human or animal food containers (roaches eat everything) seem to take care of it.

Worth noting: different gel formulas may get different results from different roaches. Buy a couple different brands while you're at the store; they're cheap. Put a few globs in any suspected egress points/traffic zones, reapply as directed.

If you don't enjoy the thrill of the hunt, it might be worth checking if your landlord has an existing arrangement with a pest control service before hiring your own.

VishNub

We had a serious roach problem in my last place. We managed to eradicate them with a combination of about seven different poisons.

It is possible, though certainly not easy, trivial, or pleasant.

And don't expect an overnight turnaround. It will take weeks to months.

Klein

I have used boric acid to help, though it is not a panacea. Spread a thin layer wherever you see them.

Fiendishrabbit

1. Seal up food containers.
2. Dust affected areas with diatomaceous earth. It's a fine abrasive sand that grinds through insect exoskeletons while being relatively safe to things without an exoskeleton.

Small Time Crooked

Hola amigo, I’m a former exterminator.

Sticky traps are great as monitors to measure activity levels and give you a rough idea as to where they’re harboring. If you see more catches are happening on the left side, you can assume they’re traveling from that direction and vice versa.

I liked using liquid chemical and baits. Liquid you can use stuff like Transport Mikron with a growth regulator mixed in like Gentrol to help eliminate adults and prevent a future generation from popping up. I always recommend Transport Mikron because they don’t seem to bud and move around when encountering it like they will with harsher products. Liquid just gets applied to baseboards and some PC techs will apply it directly to harborage sites to flush it out and get a big kill count if they find it.

After liquid treatment you can apply baits, I’m a huge fan of the Advion roach bait, to this day I don’t think any other product comes close regarding effectiveness. They come in syringes and you just apply little dots to areas you see the most activity, they’ll eat, they’ll like, they’ll share, they’re toast. If using liquid always do baits second since you don’t wanna spray the baits and potentially wash them away. If I remember right a single package has 4 syringes and 1 is enough to last you a few rounds of treatment.

Last thing you can do, which I’m not super crazy about, is use boric acid, you just take the powder and apply it into voids you think they can be hiding out in, they make applicators for dust insecticides that’ll basically puff the dust in and it goes airborne when it hits a wall.

The key, I believe, is consistency. You’ll want to do the initial treatment and then wait two weeks, then reapply. Then wait two more weeks, and then reapply. After that 3rd round you should be good and the sticky traps will be able to help you with assessing whether or not activity is decreasing.

It should also be mentioned that if you live in an apartment or townhome (any structure with shared wall space) your issue might be originating from another unit if you didn’t bring them in yourself. That’ll have to be taken up with the neighbor and/or association if you got one.

Hope this made sense and the info proves useful. Happy hunting!

Drez

Sorry guys, thank you for all the advice and information. That's a great writeup, @Small Time Crooked

I'm gonna try to start tackling this today/tomorrow - will give the responses a proper re-read and reply back soon. Thanks again, very much!