GIANT roaches
I live in one of those 1800 year old brownstones. Top floor. I cannot afford to move. Every once in a while a giant roach appears. I understand it happens. I have a serious phobia. My question: would a complete renovation make a difference in eradicating these pests? For example, would new plumbing somehow prevent…
I live in one of those 1800 year old brownstones. Top floor. I cannot afford to move. Every once in a while a giant roach appears. I understand it happens. I have a serious phobia. My question: would a complete renovation make a difference in eradicating these pests? For example, would new plumbing somehow prevent them from crawling up the drains? Would new floors help seal the cracks?
When we moved into our place we had them too, plus mice! Yuck. We were advised to crawl around with a screwdriver, and any place where the screwdriver could fit into a crack, to stuff the crack with steel wool. Along baseboards, around windows, around and inside of and behind cabinetry, under stairs, inside closets, around doorframes, etc. It took 2 solid days. We followed on top of that with clear silicon, and have Kingsway exterminating come around every other month. We also did some renovating and whenever a wall was opened up to the beams, soaked the beams entirely in that bug spray from Lowes. We also had new basement windows installed that seal up entirely. And since we completed doing all that, we haven’t seen a single bug!
Ditto to the boric acid suggestion. Effective and cheap. No need to pay an exterminator.
BORIC ACID..works fantastic. Sprinkle it around an area where you see them. They will be gone in no time.
Ditto on the above. They call them Palmetto bugs too. I have declared war on critters within my walls and spray with this stuff which is really good: Ortho Home Defense Max. I got it in Lowes, I think. Every now and then I see one in the basement but it is DEAD, rolled over on its back. Roaches are amazing because they can compress their bodies and wiggle through little cracks and these guys like moisture. I have been spraying regularly in my tenants’ apartments with this stuff and we don’t seem to have any problems these days. It is dangerous for pets when it is wet, but drys in about 5-10 minutes.
Regarding
Sounds as if that “giant roach” is a waterbug…
waterbugs are HUGE! look like mutant cockroaches,
they’re drawn to moisture around damp areas, basements, leaky plumbng etc.
Some info on how to rid yur place of the creepy critters:
http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/pdfs/orientalCockroaches.pdf
Ya know, 5:50, if someone has a real roach phobia, your little humorous tales probably sent him/her into a coma. Really thoughtful – NOT.
OP – really gigantic roaches are waterbugs. Humidity brings them out, and there isn’t much renovation will do, except excite them more. You can get someone, if you can’t bear to do it yourself, to seal up any spaces in the plumbing, walls, etc with steel wool. Ask your landlord to have the exterminator over on a regular basis, and lay down Combat and other over the counter methods under the pipes and in dark damp corners. Don’t leave out food, ever. Cnsider getting a cat – they love to hunt them down.
Even with all that, you may still see one. That, my friend, is the power of nature. They may be nasty, but they won’t hurt you.
no.
I don’t know, but here are a couple of roach incidents you may enjoy. Last week I pulled on my sneakers (no socks) then after a few steps outside felt a squirming between my toes on my left foot. pulled the sneaker off in horror, a huge roach ran for cover.
Second incident was waking up to find a crushed roach on the sheet under my back. I’ve heard with real infestations they will crawl into your mouth at night. The person relating me this tidbit crushed and spat out a roach in his sleep – the evidence awaited him the next morning.
Good luck with your roach problem.