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

  • Krudler@lemmy.worldEnglish
    40·
    21 hours ago

    I professionally managed many buildings… A big part of that was pest control.

    Let me just cut through all the things that we try that don’t work and just tell you what works :

    Edit

    Food preparation - for all food storage areas, hot or cold, appliance or not, move everything out and deep clean. All food must be stored in sealed containers. Emotionally prepare yourself to make some sacrifices in convenience, and you’re going to have to get rid of food that you can’t sequester, such as large amounts of potatoes, etc. Go get coffee cans, whatever you can find at the thrift store, and get your food sealed away. Giant “Rubbermaid” sealed bin containers if you have to. To state it bluntly, you are going to need to live this way, very strictly, until a few hatch cycles have completed, and the worst of the problem is mitigated.

    Area preparation - Make your home hospital clean and get rid of all garbage, loose food, or anything that would be an attractant. Get degreaser, and do the tops and interiors of all cabinets, clean the accumulated grease under your range hood, you know what I’m talking about figure it out. Move everything at least a foot away from the perimeter of the home. You may not skip any areas such as closets or crawl spaces, you need to do the work and be meticulous.

    General Application - Heavily dilute it with water according to the instructions. Wear a proper filtration mask. Use a pressurized sprayer and spray in about a 4 cm wide band. Generally it’s applied around the perimeter of the home at the baseboards. All areas must be clean and dust free prior to application. It is accepted to be safe for humans and pets once dried. They state 4 hours as dry time but realistically it’s 40 minutes, depending on the humidity of your region.

    Kitchen Under Sink / Dishwasher Application - Remove everything from under the sink, wash, spray the floor perimeter and just around the plumbing cut outs on the back wall. Remove dishwasher kick plate, unlock the wheels, disconnect water in/outs, pull dishwasher out, clean behind thoroughly, spray edges of the whole enclosure. Inspect underside of the dishwasher for leaks. Apply powdered borax liberally on floor, before pushing it back and hooking everything back up.

    moreedit: The reason it is so important in the above areas is because there’s unfinished wood edges, there is typically only unfinished subfloor under the dishwasher (no tiles, hardwood, vinyl). These areas have moisture and wood, and that’s a lovely habitat. They will use the dishwasher food trap as well as plumbing leaks/condensation as a moisture and food source. Not always, but most of the time ‘home base’ is one of those places.

    More Kitchen Application - Pull out oven and fridge, wash the appliance exteriors, the walls, cabinets, and floors, then spray floor perimeter. Remove oven drawer, thoroughly wash in washtub, thoroughly clean accumulated debris from bottom of oven rails. Clean interior of oven. Clean fridge freezer interior and exterior. You are safe to push the appliances back once the spraying is done, since nothing will touch those areas you don’t need to worry much about drying

    Although many times, conditions that attract roaches in the first place are beyond our control, my experience shows most of the time we unwittingly invite the problem by neglecting certain ways of living. In my own life, I live in an overall cockroach-infested building, but there are exactly zero cockroaches in my place, because I keep it clean and there’s nothing here for them to eat - no reason for them to be here. If there’s any stragglers that make it up from the grease filled kitchen ventilation of my downstairs neighbor, they’re quickly murdered by the borax strategically placed at points of potential ingress.

    moreedit: Never use the consumer-grade “roach killer” sprays. Despite the marketing boasts, it just drives the colony to spread around the environment. And another tip - various methods of compressed air lets you blow powdered borax under your dishwasher and into other difficult areas.