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
First, as an Aussie while I would welcome you to our hairy friends they are actually not doing too great at the moment, so hands off, mine!
That said, cockroach population is almost entirely a matter of the neighbourhood you are in, not the house you are in. If you have a neighbour who’s house is suitable for roaches they will live and breed there and then reinfest your home.
That leads to two main options. Move somewhere without the issue or make your house the most hostile possible place for them.
I don’t know what options you could try that have not already been tried, but I will list a few I have seen work. Roach motels work well. Flypaper under the fridge works well. Some chemical treatments work well.
That said, being diligent and keeping the food for them to a minimum may be the best adjunct. By this I mean making sure food is eaten, dishes are done, surfaces are wiped, and nothing left behind as soon as possible after making meals. Emptying the rubbish bin daily, maybe even switching to a much smaller bench top one so you can have smaller bags. Adding a seal to your rubbish bins in the form of some rubber or silicone around where the lid fits, though this differs depending on your local waste management systems.
First guy from the pest control place said they were from the outside. I let them nuke the yard for several months with no results except for killing off the local ecosystem. (I’ve brought it back five fold!)
It’s nothing obvious like food on the counter. As I said, my wife wipes down every night and I’ve never seen one in or near the trash can.
I used to live in a house hopelessly infested. My family is clean. We nuked, to no avail. Even if you don’t leave food behind, the fuckers will find things to eat. Examples of things the roaches ate in that house:
You can’t win. They probably have plenty of food in the form of decomposing organic matter inside the walls. For example dead animals, mold, rotting wood or else. I’ve had some success sealing with OCD levels of precision every single possible gap in the floor, wardrobes, walls, you name it. But there is always this or that thing you can’t seal such as power point sockets or else.