Invasion of the Roaches

This morning as I was getting ready for work I found myself looking into the beady eyes of a humungous cockroach. After some squealing and donning of rubber yellow gloves I managed to kill the roach with a hammer. There must be a better and cleaner way to exterminate roaches. What options do I have? Also, what is an acceptable level of cohabitation with these buggers? Is it realistic to believe that if the right steps were taken my apartment could be 100% roach free? This is the first cockroach I have ever seen during my 8 months in this apartment.

-Scared to sleep

Ask Gothamist has done battle with roaches before. And it is a battle. For a really bad infestation, you truly have to wage an all-out war, but we believe the war can be won. Even if you just see one roach, it's worth it to take preventitive steps - because roaches breed like crazy and can multiply quickly. Your first step should be a thorough cleaning of your apartment. If you've been hoarding bags from the grocery store, get rid of them - that's how a lot of roaches and eggs find their way into your home. Throw out any cardboard boxes too. Make sure that all of your foodstuffs are sealed in airtight containers - especially dried goods like cereal, flour, etc. Examine all open containers and when in doubt, throw it out.

After thoroughly cleaning you'll want to exterminate. According to this article on Cockroach Elimination by an entomologist at the University of Kentucky, "Homeowners attempting to control cockroaches themselves will find insecticidal baits and boric acid effective and relatively easy to use." Baits are a good first step as they are small, have no odor, and are easy to place around the house. Boric acid is extremely effective if used properly - according to the above article, "For best results, the powder should be applied in a very thin layer barely visible to the naked eye. Piles or heavy accumulations will be avoided by foraging cockroaches much as we would avoid walking through a snow drift." You should probably try a combo of bait and boric acid, focusing on the kitchen and bathroom areas. Baits can be placed on the floor up against the wall, in cabinets, under sinks, etc. Boric acid should be lightly poured along cracks where roaches might enter your apartment. Needless to say you don't want to pour the stuff on your counter tops or put it near your food, although it has a low toxicity to humans and pets.

We also suggest you talk to your landlord and see if he or she is willing to send an exterminoator to your apartment on a regular basis - in some apartment buildings, exterminators come around every month and this seems to prevent the cockroach problem. And if and when you do see an actual roach, we don't know of a better way of killing it than to simply squash the little bugger.

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Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Janine Annett in Miscellaneous on April 7, 2005 11:42 AM

Comments [rss]

Pest Control

In my house, wherever i look i can find cockroaches . I am really facing the problem with cockroaches and i have tried different methods to get rid of them. Your article i liked it and thanks for the information.

kent

Folks, most of your roach and bed bug problems will be solved if u use the company I found. Pest Away Exterminating. They were voted BEST IN NY, by NY magazine, and every otehr refernce I checked. They were right. Ask for Jeff.

Peace

Jenn

I have the same problem...very clean, haven't slept without a light on in 4 days...goin crazy...and get this...i'm pretty sure my LL won't exterminate!! SHe runs the house for her mother and called mom to get clearance to exterminate and she was furious "dont you dare spend that money, get traps and baits..that's waht we do in Florida!!!" well DUH ther's no point to extermination in FL>...but in CT there is!!!! Doesn't she have to deal with it in a 3 family house?? For me its'a health hazzard, i have asthma and allergies, not to mention a full on anxiety attack when i see them and haven't slept much in a week...i;ve only lived here 2 months and hope i can break the lease due to health reasons and still get my sec dep back if she doesnt exterminate~ ugh!!!

jen

We have these bugs, my husband calls them water bugs, and i say they are roaches. Some of them have wings, and the others don't. We only see them about two or three times a month, and then we don't see them for a while. I am a neat freak, so my house is spotless at all times. Do we have a problem?

jen in ohio

Andria

I need desperate help!! I live in a tiny studio apartment in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Been here a year and can't afford to move. I constantly battle roaches (and I'm extremely clean).

I have been so sickened by them that I haven't cooked in a year (been living off of cold cereal and other dry food), I store everything in my fridge(plates,pots,pans,cutlery), and I sleep with my head covered (I've awakened to a roach on my bed 3 times!!). I use roach bait, boric acid, I never leave water or food anywhere, and I've caulked. I know there are other places that they are coming in that I can't get to (eg. behind stove, fridge, etc.)

Can you reccomend the best service to have my entire apartment caulked and treated without emptying my pockets?

I can't live like this anymore. Haven't had a restful sleep in ages. Please help!!

Blessings, Andria.

T Johnson

Wait!!! Where the heck do you buy Boric Acid?! Everyone's talked about it but where do you get it? Thanks!

Natan

G-D forbid you live near the incinerator room, you'll be doomed.

Jennie Richee

There are some good long-term pest control solutions here. But if you come face-to-face with a roach, I sort of agree with the people spraying kitchen cleaners at them. I lived in Japan, where I first saw flying roaches. I wasn't as scared of them until I saw them fly.

Someone told me to mix water and dishwashing liquid in a spray bottle. Shake and spray. I don't know what it is, but the soap does something to their system and they can't stand it. They go into death throes and die after a few excruciating seconds. It's hard to watch, but it's clean and leaves a lemony-fresh smell.

roach_hater

How ironic(al), I just saw my first (knock on wood) giant cockroach in my apt. after 3 years. This sucker was comin' in through a space in the front door jam and I've had only minor bug sightings - including the sporadic aforementioned long-legged, hairy, creepy things. Good to know they're roach eaters (but how?). My knee-jerk reaction from growing up in humid Houston, TX, where these monsters thrive, was 1) broom: for its close proximity and to diminish use of chemicals, and 2) a can of Hot Shot to finish him off. The broom approach requires a firm strike or two and maims or kills while avoiding the dreaded squish (last resort for me). This guy was big and strong, so I put him out of our misery with the spray. (Also repeating, "Die, M.F., DIE." seems to help.)

dhex

boric acid kills through dehydration. it's not an instant kill thing.

anon

Sealing up my walls and doorframes with caulk has made a world of difference. I mean, caulk under the floor boards and around each door through the WHOLE apartment. Anywhere they can crawl into my apartment I've tried to seal. They were coming in under my front door, and I put a stick on door sealing thing on there. It's necessary if your building is infested and you have a few neighbors who are slobs and don't care.

Rose

Hairspray works too.

Anon

If you want to kill a roach but don't want to get too close, just spray kitchen cleaner on it; after a bunch of sprays, they flip over and die quickly. Of course, this is only good for the one random roach, and doesn't cure a real problem.

Paolo

No,no, NO!!! Get a cat, or two cats, and let them run the roaches to ground, them whack 'em with a shoe with a flat sole (no flip-flops)...hit 'em hard and savor the crackling sound of roach guts hitting the floor...

Oops, got a bit carried away there, we have LOTS of the buggers here in New Orleans. The best solution (besides the kitty safari) is to move UP, at least two stories...and pray...

i know this is hard to believe

For the occassional roach, and excellent solution is Glass Plus. Glass Plus is as effective as Raid -- even more so at times -- in my experience. I don't know why, but if you can hit a roach with two or three good gusts, They pretty much slow down and die. Or slow enough for you to squash them. Since you've already sprayed the area, it's a self cleaning solution.

I know it sounds crazy, but I lived in South Georgia for seven years, where we had palmetto bugs, and i've tried everything.

Another good alternate, but a hell on clean up, is spray mount.

Hearseenyc

Boric acid is useless. I've seen roaches walk right through it and suffer no ill effects.

If there's just one roach, and it's big, it's likely not anything to panic about. It's quite possible that he just wandered in from outside. The problem is when you see the little tiny baby roaches. That means that eggs have hatched in your apartment and you are basically infested.

It is not difficult to be roach free. Take out your trash every night. Do dishes every night, or at the very least, rinse them real good so there is no food on the dishes. Don't leave out food (duh). Don't leave any water build up (roaches love water almost as much as they love food). Don't hoard papers, boxes, bags etc. Buy some Combats and spread them around (more for peace of mind than anything else, although 10 years ago they worked great. But I think roaches are now resistant to them).

I've lived in buildings with major roach problems and I've been roach free.

dirt mcgurt

sure, you YUPPIES don't have to worry about roaches because you are CLEAN. live like the PEOPLE. live DIRTY.

123

drew, those things eat roaches. i used to kill them whenever i saw them (thankfully not often) because they are so freaky looking. then my husband looked them up in his insect field guide ( i married a science geek)and found that those guys eat roaches--so we no longer kill them if we see them in the house.

we are lucky--we only had roaches once and that was after our LL started renovating their attic. some combat traps and i guess those bugs with all the legs got rid of the roaches right away.

Drew

Semantic question here, but wouldn't a thousand-legged centipede be a millipede? Anyhow, there's no infestation as of yet, mostly they come in the fall when it's getting colder.

palndrom23

those are a form of centipede, called "thousand leggers", i think. boric acid will supposedly work for them, silverfish, centipedes, etc. appearantly, anything with a segmented exo-skeleton/joints that runs low to the ground. i guess the boric crystals clog thru their exo and kill the beast ala nerve gas. or something...