“in the end, there can be only one”.
Roaches are not a sign of bad housekeeping. You can scrub an apartment 'til your fingers bleed, and put in fresh shelf paper in the kitchen. The roaches will cheerfully feed on the glue on the back of the shelf paper.
If you stomp a couple dozen roaches and scoop them into a pile, there will be fewer in the pile the next day. Some are dragged off as snacks by other roaches, and some, not really dead, will limp away on their own.
Wilford Brimley’s roaches can eat through concrete; FBI sleuths are trying to discover if Brimley has ever been to Minneapolis, near the I-35W bridge. 
If it weren’t for the drug connotations (which I wasn’t thinking of), Consolidated Roach Inc. would be a great name for a movie production company or something.
I’m never going to be able to watch The Nutcracker again.
Or Highlander.
Self-eating cockroach ball. shudder
I don’t know if **Cap’n Obvious ** meant for **futurebird ** to get the traps and bait and to discontinue use of the boric acid (since, as you imply, they could couter-act one another), or if they can be used (and effectively) simultaneously, but my understanding is that baits and gels contain poisons that kill the initial roaches, then kill the secondary roaches that cannibalize the first-killed roaches.
Yeah, especially when you live above neighbors who apparently just. Don’t. Give. That. Much. Of. A. Damn. Like I do.
I’m vigilant, though (and very clean), so, like you say, I’ve had some measure of success (though it does wax and wane) at minimizing the presence of the filthy, ugly bastards. (The roaches, I mean.) Unfortunately, though, not as much success that I had before these particular folks move in. Before then, I RARELY–as in, almost NEVER–saw a roach in my place. (My landlord–who lives on the first floor–tells me the same thing, so I know it’s not my imagination.)
I tell ya, just thinking about the loss of those glory days make me :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: !
I swear by boric acid; it’s killer stuff. My first day moving in I saw one roach in my tub. I put boric acid all along the baseboards in every room and closet, along the cabinets in the bathroom and kitchen, and even the windowsills.
In the year I’ve lived there, I’ve seen only 3 roaches in my apartment, two of which were dead.
I’ve seen a handful more outside, skittering along the walkways, hanging on the walls…I can only imagine what other apartments are host to.
I loathe roaches!
I KNOW! They squick the HELL out of me! Ewwwww!
I trust what you say about boric acid, and I’ve certainly given a passing thought to using before. My concern is that I’ll have to reapply it every time I sweep and mop my floors. I also don’t think I’d be thrilled every time I look at my baseboards to see white powder and thus be reminded of the invaders it’s supposed to protect me against. (And I’d be embarrassed as all get-out if my guests saw it, which is why I’m glad that I have guests about as often as Haley’s Comet comes around.) Although, if that were the case, and assuming that I never saw another roach in my apartment, I reckon that I could very well learn to live with the reminder.
Definitely something I’ll have to reconsider the next time (though I hope it’s never) one of those bastards migrates to Chateau Li’l Pluck from the downstairs neighbors’. Actually, I might seriously consider doing it **now ** as a pre-emptive measure.