The roaches are coming!

Fireflash

I don't seem to have roaches yet, but they might be striking at any moment now and it's causing me a bit of stress.

I live in an apartment building with 8 places (4 floors, 2 apartments per floor) I'm on the 3rd floor. My friend is on the 4th floor. He's above me, but to the right. So not directly above me.

In December there was a leak problem in my friend's bathroom and water went into the wall. Near the end of the year tiny little roaches started showing up at his place. He called the owner, owner told him to wait after the holidays and spray stuff. Owner checked the laws and saw that he was responsible for the repairs and roaches so he sent his handyman buddy to spray my friends place.

The roaches disappeared gradually over the course of a week, maybe a bit more.

Now this weekend my friend was surprised by more roaches in his place. What's even worse is that now the girl living next to him, and thus directly above me has spotted a few ones in her place too this weekend!

So now I'm thinking it's only a matter of time before they start invading my place too! My friend called the owner this afternoon and left a message but as of now (10 pm) he hasn't called back so he probably won't hear from him until tomorrow at least.

Hopefully this will be resolved quickly but the owner doesn't seem like the type to enjoy using professionals for his work.

What can I do to try and prevent this, or at least delay the inevitable?

I still have a bottle of spray that I got from an exterminator that is apparently good enough for roaches. I was going to spray my place with it as a preventive measure but according to the girl living above me they'll just come back in bigger numbers when the spray has lost it's effect, that I should wait for a proper nuking of the whole building.

I'm still tempted to do it anyways, I have no idea if what she says has any merit.

My apartment wasn't in much of a mess, well not really dirty at least. I've washed all my dirty dishes and swept the floor in all my rooms. I made sure to clean any food stains I could find on tables, counters and appliances.

Does heat have an impact? Do I have a better chance to keep them away if I keep my place as cold as possible?

I really don't want to have to face those things. I'm sure I'll have trouble sleeping as soon as I start seeing some.

Quoth

Borax will kill them. Sprinkle it in any cracks and crevasses in your walls.

Cycophant

The problem with roaches and apartment buildings is that once they're there, you'll never get rid of them. They survive between the individual units, so as soon as one apartment unit gets rid of the roaches, they tend to just show up elsewhere.

Probably the best thing you can do is just keep your place really clean. Don't leave food or dirty dishes lying around, make sure any food that isn't in the fridge or freezer is either put in a plastic container or maybe a ziploc bag. They'll easily get through cardboard boxes and find the food inside.

The one other thing that I know works incredibly well against roaches is Boric Acid, aka Borax. Sprinkle it behind and underneath the areas you suspect they are or could come from. Unlike many of the chemical insecticides, it doesn't slowly lose its efficacy over time, and it isn't something they can become immune to. Just be careful if you've got kids or pets, since it's poisonous to them too.

Crashtard

Cycophant wrote: »

Probably the best thing you can do is just keep your place really clean. Don't leave food or dirty dishes lying around, make sure any food that isn't in the fridge or freezer is either put in a plastic container or maybe a ziploc bag. They'll easily get through cardboard boxes and find the food inside.

I can't stress this enough. My fiance and I have the same problem, and this is exactly what the exterminator told us. We went out and bought airtight plastic containers and have since used those for any food that's in a bag (crackers, cookies, etc).

Cycophant wrote: »

The one other thing that I know works incredibly well against roaches is Boric Acid, aka Borax. Sprinkle it behind and underneath the areas you suspect they are or could come from. Unlike many of the chemical insecticides, it doesn't slowly lose its efficacy over time, and it isn't something they can become immune to. Just be careful if you've got kids or pets, since it's poisonous to them too.

Interesting. I'm definitely going to be giving this a try.

Agrehond

I second the boric acid. Works great. No smell.

Fireflash

Thanks for the input, I'll try that stuff if I ever see some. But If they truly never go away from the building forever, I guess I should consider looking for a new place. Too bad, the place is nice other than the risk of roaches...

Doxa

Borac Acid and keeping the place clean. Don't leave anything out overnight. Keep the dishes done. Keep everything sealed.

I had a huge infestation at my house. Probably what did the most was keeping the place clean.

NP

I'm also gonna vouch for Boric Acid, My girlfriend used to see 1-2 roaches every day at her place, and we tried everything to get rid of them, keeping the place spotless, roach spray, etc.. but they would always come back. One day, we finally tried Boric Acid, and neither of us have seen a single roach since then (it's been almost 3 months now).

oldsak

5thing Boric Acid. It is the only thing that is truly effective against roaches.

vonPoonBurGer

If your place allows pets, you could get cats. My girlfriend used to live in a building that was known as "The Cockroach Tower." It's actual name was "the something tower", can't remember what exactly, but anyway it was locally legendary for being overrun with roaches. You could hear them scuttling around in the garbage chutes at night. She had two cats, kept her place clean, and never saw a single roach in her unit. Roaches will avoid a place with cats in favor of one without, as cats are very well suited to hunting, killing and eating cockroaches.

Crashtard

What exactly should a person be doing with the boric acid? Just sprinkle it around the edges of rooms?

Fireflash

Woot I might not even have to look at one if I'm lucky! The owner called me earlier today. He sounded pretty angry about the situation but he hired a professional exterminator. He's going to come over friday afternoon and put the appropriate poisons everywhere in the whole building and guarantees that there will be no roaches for 1 year.

And after that talk with the owner I'm starting to think that my friend attracted the cockroaches. Like the owner said, cockroaches go up buildings, they don't magically show up on the top floor and start crawling downards. My friend has a tendency to be a bit filthy. I've often seen old take-out trash lying around all over the place.

Anyways, I guess this can be locked! Thanks for the feedback.

FyreWulff

Actually, they'll start at the top because it's going to be warmest in the top of the building in winter. But the building already had roaches, and thank goodness he finally got a professional, because to be effective you have to put down poison in the entire building simultaneously.

Cycophant

Crashtard wrote: »

What exactly should a person be doing with the boric acid? Just sprinkle it around the edges of rooms?

Sprinkle it wherever they're traveling or hiding. Typically this means along baseboards, underneath furniture and appliances, etc.

Some of the roaches will eat the boric acid and die, while the rest will destroy their exoskeleton by merely touching it, and it'll slowly kill them that way.

Which means don't be surprised if you start seeing a few dead roaches pop up in a few places. But I still found it worked quite well as a deterrent too, after a week or so.

Crashtard

Where can I buy this wonderful substance? I looked at a small grocery store near me and had no luck. Is it with cleaners, or somewhere else?

NP

You can usually pick up boric acid at a pharmacy, that's where I got mine, it's in the same section as Raid and all the other pest control stuff, it's also called "Borax"--I don't know if anybody mentioned it yet, but it's a white powdery solid (it's not a liquid or spray).

oldsak

You can also pick Boric Acid up at most hardware stores. It's pretty cheap.

Borax is a salt of Boric Acid and is pretty cheap too.

You can dust the corners of rooms, dust in small cracks and crevices, mix it with water (as it's water soluble) and wipe down surfaces, and mix it with flour and sugar to make a poison trap (though i've never done this one).

It acts as a stomach poison to insects, but it also is an abraisive to their exoskeleton, creating tiny scratches which causes them to dry out and die. All you have to do is lay it down where they are likely to walk.

Agrehond

The roaches will also carry the boric acid back to their nests, which is one of the reasons it's so effective.