Advice needed

[Bhu]

My next door neighbor is being evicted. Apparently he was a hoarder, and his apartment is now infested with roaches. Which means the neighboring apartments will soon be infested with roaches.

They're sending an exterminator to hit his former place and anyone nearby thursday. Anyone had to deal with American Roaches before and have any advice? I have a feeling if they aren't present yet they will be.

[Death by DM]

I haven't dealt with American Roaches before, but Wikipedia recommends pesticides. For avoidal, it says to:

• Cover cracks and crevices that the cockroaches may enter through
• Clean up spills
• Thouroughly check ANYTHING that enters your house, i.e. coats, suitcases, boxes, etc.

I hope at least one of these suggestions is useful.

[Medic!]

Spend a few dollars on some Borax in the laundry detergent aisle and sprinkle it (fairly liberally) around the entire foundation of your house. Helps with ants, fleas, roaches....pretty much everything but crack-heads.

[Aedilred]

You could always try getting some centipedes and releasing them into the house; they're one of the few creatures that will actively hunt and eat cockroaches and so are quite good at keeping them down. Of course, you then have centipedes in the house, which might bother you, although they're harmless and much less offensive than the cockroaches (although they might leave for more fertile hunting grounds once the roaches are gone).

I haven't encountered American roaches before, but I have lived in houses with roach infestations over here and I'd have thought they work along similar principles. They're difficult to eradicate with any pesticides you're likely to have available, so the exterminator is your best bet. Assuming the roaches are already established next door, I'd have thought you'd have encountered them already if you were going to imminently, so, as long as the exterminator comes promptly, you might not have a problem. In the meantime, take basic prevention measures, as mentioned above.

[Killer Angel]

[*]Cover cracks and crevices that the cockroaches may enter through

In the end, they'll pass the same.
You need roaches gel bait.

[Bhu]

They've filled two dumpsters with stuff from his apartment. Apparently he had them all winter without saying anything.

Can't wait for the exterminator to arrive...

[Tyndmyr]

The biggest thing? Clean up everything. Even minor crumbs. Try to reduce the amount of food that can possibly be accessible. Realistically, you can't ever get this entirely to zero, because roaches eat basically anything, but the less available resources, the less attractive your place looks. The fumigation is a good thing. I'd toss out some roach traps as insurance if I was worried about this. I used to deal with these buggers in military dorms, and made improv duct tape traps, but plenty of commercial ones exist too.

Sealing stuff up is good general practice, but it's really hard to get a complete seal in most buildings. Still, getting some putty is good policy. I'm off to do that myself due to ants getting in through a hole.

[Bhu]

Powdered cinnamon may help with the ants, it's like pepper spray to them.

What kind of duct tape traps?

[Tyndmyr]

Powdered cinnamon may help with the ants, it's like pepper spray to them.

What kind of duct tape traps?

Nifty...we found out they hate dish soap too, but at some point, I should really just patch up the holes leading to outside.

Ran duct tape around the baseboards, with half of it bent out a little bit so as to make a little space between the baseboard and the tape. The roaches love to scurry in dark spaces around the perimeter of rooms, and thus, would end up stuck.

Required frequent changing, though.

[Palanan]

One positive note to offer: if you have cats (and I suspect you do) then they'll be some help, because roach = cat toy. I have a cat who stalks small rodents by day and pounces roaches by night.

Granted, they're not exactly a comprehensive roach-control solution, and you will sometimes find disassembled roach components strewn about, but at least the cats are working a little.

[Bhu]

We have a semi feral who naps at our place during the day and runs outside at night. I'm actually worried about him getting into the bait.

[Elemental]

Personally, I wouldn't rely on a cat as a roach deterrent. Mine have always ignored them or looked at them with faint interest before going off somewhere else.

Also, I wouldn't worry much about cats getting into bait. If giving them medication is any indication, they hate everything that smells even remotely like chemicals. I mean, they even wait for the chlorine and other chemicals to evaporate out of water before they'll drink it.
Though if you are still concerned about that, find something that cats hate but cockroaches don't and add it to the bait. That could work.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Elemental
Personally, I wouldn't rely on a cat as a roach deterrent. Mine have always ignored them or looked at them with faint interest before going off somewhere else.

Depends on the cat. And as I said, they certainly won't solve the issue, but they can be useful allies.

Originally Posted by Bhu
We have a semi feral who naps at our place during the day and runs outside at night. I'm actually worried about him getting into the bait.

You're quite right to be worried about the cat getting into the bait; the chemicals are genuinely toxic, and you can't rely on the cat not curiousing into it. If you're using standard roach traps, you can put them into the back of cabinets, behind the refrigerator, any place the cat physically can't get to (including a zealously extended paw).

Our household has always had cats, and unfortunately in the past few years we've developed a problem with roaches. We refuse to fumigate the house out of concern for what the chemical residues might do to the cats--not to mention ourselves.

As Tyndmyr said above, intensive cleaning and rigorous policing of crumbs is one of the best ways to reduce the roaches, and in your case this can be done proactively. If you give them less reason to come into your house in the first place, it's less likely they'll establish a population in your walls.

Also, if you come face-to-palps with a roach, I find that a leftover paper-towel tube, bent over at one end, makes a good impromptu roach trap. If you can hold it by the closed end, you can get the roach to scuttle into the open end (towards you, yes, but contained) and then it's a quick hustle to the nearest toilet.

And for a nontoxic solution on your countertops, I recommend glueboards, which are barely a couple dollars at Home Depot or the like. Extremely effective on roaches, but be very sure no cats or kids can get to them, or any other small creature you're fond of. I once spent a very long hour extracting a gecko from a glueboard.

[SiuiS]

You could always try getting some centipedes and releasing them into the house; they're one of the few creatures that will actively hunt and eat cockroaches and so are quite good at keeping them down. Of course, you then have centipedes in the house, which might bother you, although they're harmless and much less offensive than the cockroaches (although they might leave for more fertile hunting grounds once the roaches are gone).

Charming. Still, maybe worth trying...

I haven't encountered American roaches before, but I have lived in houses with roach infestations over here and I'd have thought they work along similar principles. They're difficult to eradicate with any pesticides you're likely to have available, so the exterminator is your best bet. Assuming the roaches are already established next door, I'd have thought you'd have encountered them already if you were going to imminently, so, as long as the exterminator comes promptly, you might not have a problem. In the meantime, take basic prevention measures, as mentioned above.

They are consummately stealthy. The general idea is that by the time you see one, there are multiple thousand in the walls. So he probably does, and just can't catch any.

Sealing stuff up is good general practice, but it's really hard to get a complete seal in most buildings. Still, getting some putty is good policy. I'm off to do that myself due to ants getting in through a hole.

Ugh. Ants. I sealed off everything I could, they ended up coming out of my power socket >_<
Bit of borax bait and they haven't been around for a week though. In hoping we got their queen...

[Bhu]

Well. Apparently my neighbor also had 12 pets and feces covering his apartment so they'll be stripping the carpet. Might strip the walls too as he had stuff piled against them and there's mold in places. They are currently shoveling dead bugs, poop, and garbage out by the pound. My apartment now reeks of poison as does every other apartment near him,


I think my landlady would kill him if she were allowed to do so. She's almost inconsolable.

[Deathkeeper]

Dear me. How do folks live like that?!

[thubby]

roaches are like angry bears. you aren't going to stop them if they're hell bent, but you can make sure someone else is an easier target.

my advice is get those little battery powered lights. roaches dislike bright places and you can stick them in places roaches are likely to congragate like the bottom of your fridge, in cabinets, and behind furniture.

[Bhu]

My neighbors family...is now blaming those of us who live next to him for his situation. Despite him being a hermit that most of us only rarely saw. Hell I didn't even know he had a bunch of pets. They're even threatening legal action against the landlady due to her 'not preventing his downward spiral'. Apparently he also had a wife living with him, yet she's off the hook somehow. I still haven't seen her.

What the hell?

[thubby]

well, realize how much enabling it takes for someone to get that kind of severely dysfunctional.

[Alejandro]

My neighbors family...is now blaming those of us who live next to him for his situation. Despite him being a hermit that most of us only rarely saw. Hell I didn't even know he had a bunch of pets. They're even threatening legal action against the landlady due to her 'not preventing his downward spiral'. Apparently he also had a wife living with him, yet she's off the hook somehow. I still haven't seen her.

What the hell?

Well, the landlady is responsible for ensuring her tenants live in clean, safe housing. Didn't she ever visit or check her tenant units? Other than that, it's the tenant's fault.

[Killer Angel]

Eh, after seeing some "Hoarding: Buried Alive", I'm not surprised.
We're talking 'bout mental disorders.

[Bhu]

Well, the landlady is responsible for ensuring her tenants live in clean, safe housing. Didn't she ever visit or check her tenant units? Other than that, it's the tenant's fault.

She doesn't own the property she manages it. She's been told by law she can't ever enter the apartments unless she gives a weeks notice, and even then she has to have a valid reason, and since someone has apparently sued the property management company over even that they've started telling her to avoid any possible risk in offending anyone. In other words there's an inspection once per year, it's advertised well in advance, and it takes less than a minute as they basically only inspect the water pipes and fire alarms. The company expects her to manage two apartment complexes in different cities now, so she isn't always present for it.

So they expect her to perform, while hobbling her from having any authority to perform.

[Intermelo]

Spend a few dollars on some Borax in the laundry detergent aisle and sprinkle it (fairly liberally) around the entire foundation of your house. Helps with ants, fleas, roaches....pretty much everything but crack-heads.

I second this. I work in a hardware store, and everyone looks for Borax or Boratic Acid. They make a roach killer by the brand Bengal that's AWESOME. Anything Bengal is pretty awesome.

[ZamielVanWeber]

The biggest thing? Clean up everything. Even minor crumbs. Try to reduce the amount of food that can possibly be accessible. .

This. This is my number one go to whenever I get ants. I clean so hard they simply don't bother to show up anymore.

[Anarion]

She doesn't own the property she manages it. She's been told by law she can't ever enter the apartments unless she gives a weeks notice, and even then she has to have a valid reason, and since someone has apparently sued the property management company over even that they've started telling her to avoid any possible risk in offending anyone. In other words there's an inspection once per year, it's advertised well in advance, and it takes less than a minute as they basically only inspect the water pipes and fire alarms. The company expects her to manage two apartment complexes in different cities now, so she isn't always present for it.

So they expect her to perform, while hobbling her from having any authority to perform.

She's the company's agent and the company has a duty to keep the premises habitable. If they really hamstrung her ability to do anything, she might get off and the company that set those rules and owns the property will be the one that gets in trouble for it.

[Rising Phoenix]

You could always try getting some centipedes and releasing them into the house; they're one of the few creatures that will actively hunt and eat cockroaches and so are quite good at keeping them down. Of course, you then have centipedes in the house, which might bother you, although they're harmless and much less offensive than the cockroaches (although they might leave for more fertile hunting grounds once the roaches are gone).

I haven't encountered American roaches before, but I have lived in houses with roach infestations over here and I'd have thought they work along similar principles. They're difficult to eradicate with any pesticides you're likely to have available, so the exterminator is your best bet. Assuming the roaches are already established next door, I'd have thought you'd have encountered them already if you were going to imminently, so, as long as the exterminator comes promptly, you might not have a problem. In the meantime, take basic prevention measures, as mentioned above.

That depends on the types of centipedes you get locally.

I would never recommend you do that in Australia as some species can kill humans with their bite.

'Chemical warfare' is you best defense unfortunately.

[Bhu]

Well they've bombed the neighbor about three times now.

The last time you could see the bugs crawling up his windows trying to escape...

[The_Snark]

That depends on the types of centipedes you get locally.

I would never recommend you do that in Australia as some species can kill humans with their bite.

I think he's recommending house centipedes, which are not dangerous to humans and (according to Wikipedia) will prey on roaches. Obviously you should not introduce aggressive and/or potentially lethal centipedes into your house.

[Socratov]

That depends on the types of centipedes you get locally.

I would never recommend you do that in Australia as some species can kill humans with their bite.

'Chemical warfare' is you best defense unfortunately.

That said, anything in the form of nature in Australia is extremely lethal. I believe someone had a quote in his or her sig about wizards betatesting animals in Australia

[Rising Phoenix]

That said, anything in the form of nature in Australia is extremely lethal. I believe someone had a quote in his or her sig about wizards betatesting animals in Australia

Yeah Drop Bears and Hoop Snakes they are all deadly.

Alarmingly that wikipedia article does link to an Australian 'centipede', but is not a true 'scolopendra' centipede.

That's kinda exaggerated though I have been bitten by spider sp.s several times and all snakes I have encountered have been pretty happy to stay out of my way (and I out of their way).