My apt always had problems but the last four months have been awful. Even though the super has been spraying once a week they are still worse than I’ve ever seen.
Anyway I always planned to move, and I figured I’d move out in the winter. That way I could rent a truck and when the weather was below freezing I’d just leave my stuff in the truck and any roaches would die.
But what if I want to move like at the end of September. I don’t want to bring any of them into a new apt. I don’t have any furniture. Apt is furnished. I only have clothes TV VCR stuff like that. How is the best way to make sure I don’t take any of them with me.
This place has been bug bombed up the hilt to no result.
I have never seen a roach where I live, but my BF used to work for an exterminator in Florida and he says wherever you have a concentration of people you will get roaches.
I would suggest not moving into another apartment complex. The whole roach thing grosses me out. Maybe rent a house and you could treat them more agressivly there?
[li]get new boxes, preferably from a non-food related place. College bookstores have great boxes.[/li]
[li]Before you get the boxes to your place, spray their interior with bugspray. You can even let it dry and then spray again.[/li][li]If you have anything stored in boxes at your apartment now, repack them.[/li][li]Pack, move to your new apartment.[/li][li]Clean and Spray your new apartment well before moving in. Scatter those little roach baits around.[/li][li]Unpack everything and discard boxes. All boxes. Buy non-paperbased boxes for permanent storage.[/li]Wash all dishes, laundry and linens before putting them up at your new place.
Ducky and lee have both brought up good points, especially the ones about the boxes. Roaches find cardboard boxes and stacked paper bags to be excellent harborage. Do not take any of that stuff with you, and unpack and discard every single packing box, bar none as soon as you move. I don’t care how tired you are, do it immediately.
Ducky also is right about roaches living in electronic equipment. They like the dark warm environment. They also will live and breed in telephone answering machines and computers. Virtually any electronic device is a target.
For them I would recommend packing them in plastic bags and sealing them well with a twist tie. But before sealing the bag, fog it well with an aerosol roach killer. Let it percolate like that for a couple days or more, then open it up outside and discard the bag immediately. I have a couple pest control accounts with cable TV offices and that’s what they do. Seems to work.
You probably will be taking some roaches and (worse) some egg cases with you. But you can reduce the risk by being as thorough in your packing and unpacking as possible. Shake out your clothing before you pack it, don’t just pick up a stack of folded clothes and hurl it in a box. It will take you longer, but you’ll be less likely to take any hitchikers with you for problems down the road.
And when you get to your new place, make sure that regular pest control applications are made. Even if you do bring anything in, it would be a low-grade infestation, as opposed to a complete horror show invasion, and they can usually be effectively controlled in just a couple months by someone who knows what he’s doing. Don’t wait until it gets out of control, or it will take longer to fix.
Well, I have had to do this, and it sucked, so here ya go:
First, take ALL the clothes you have to a cleaners. Everything (you will be too tired to do laundry at the new place anyway) must go, have them do it by the pound if you can for the normal stuff. All of it, no joke here.
Rent a truck. Like it or not, you probably have eggs, at least, in your car as well.
Bomb your car with the Dcon stuff. Bomb your apartment, and go a little overkill here. Buy more than a couple of those spray cans too. You will stumble on a “nest” probably.
Keep all the boxes IN the truck until needed. Bring ONE (per person packing) and pack it until ready to load and carry it out to the truck and get a new box. Don’t let any sit around at all.
Keep all the electronics for last and as another poster said, REPACK any boxes you have now. Don’t save ANYTHING. Personally, when I did it, I left everything in the kitchen that was there as far as food. Screw it
When all you have left is furniture and electronics take and drop everything off at the new place. Come back with an empty truck.
Load it with the furniture and electronics. Bomb the back of the truck.
I lived in an apartment one time that had the worst roach problem you ever saw. literally you couldnt walk across the floor without stepping on one…(theres a long rather involved story about how it got that way). what I did was move everything I owned into a self store unit…set off a bunch of roach bombs, and let it sit there for a couple of weeks…not a living roach left after that one…did find a bunch of dead ones…kinda feel bad for the people in the adjacent units though now that I think about it…
Candyman know his roaches. That’s exactly, for the most part, what I did when I moved.
I bombed the Hell out of the new, empty, apartment. Sprayed every nook and cranny while it was vacant. The best stuff I’ve found is Raid Inner City. It’s a bitch to find now, but it’s well worth finding it. There’s something in it that works better than anything I’ve used so far.
Leave the food, but take the spices and canned goods. Cereal? Pitch it. Flour, spaghetti, etc.? Gone. Replacing it is far cheaper than the poisons and traps down the road.
His suggestion about bombing the back of the truck is a good one too. I did it three seperate times with all my furniture and whatnot in the back. I didn’t have the computer or expensive components in the back when I did it, so I have no idea how the poison could affect the equipment. But I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.
My problem came after I moved. The guy below me, who got kicked out for his slobbishness, had roaches that migrated around the apartments next to him. Then the only solution is constant and consistant spraying and cleaning. Within a few months they were gone and I haven’t seen or heard from others that they are around. I still spray like mad, though, you can never let your guard down.
simple combat ‘roach motel’ style baits have always worked for me, even when the exterminator sprays and bombs didn’t. put a couple in the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom, behind the couch, etc. whenever i’ve done this, the only roaches i’ve found were dead ones.
Most cities now have a place where you can buy professional strength do-it-yourself pest extermination chemicals. Find it and buy this high powered roach stuff – it’s a liquid that usually comes in a plastic bottle with a small measuring container attached. (I can’t recall the name of the chemical.) Follow the directions and spray your new place before you move in.
Concentrate on baseboards, under the sinks, behind stoves, refrigerators, in closets and in any cracks in the walls. This stuff is toxic when wet, so keep any pets out until it drys.
Next step: Move in.
You’ll have roaches hidden in your things. You probably will see some within a week of arrival. Don’t worry. Within a month, almost all will be dead. After any hidden eggs hatch, you’ll see more – but far less. Within weeks they will be gone.
After a 3 to 6 month period, spray with the stuff once more, but you don’t need to be as thorough. Then, enjoy a roach free apartment.
I lived in an old house for a time and bought some used furniture at a good price from one of these rent to own places. (They’ll sell off old inventory at times.) I did not know that often when they repossess furniture, it comes from low income places and is infested with roaches. They spray it with over the counter stuff to kill the live ones.) Well, the hidden eggs hatched and my place was full of roaches. Rid-a-bug did not work.
This stuff did. Instead of having to spray every few months, after I did the initial two jobs, I sprayed once a year.
I hate bombing apartments because the stuff is toxic and you have to cover all foods, dishes, canned goods and so on, then clean all counter tops and tables and wash any exposed bed sheets and covers afterwards. Plus you have to do the same with pet things and keep the pets out of the place until it has been thoroughly vented. Bombs are best used before moving into an empty apartment.
I just moved from an apartment (in a large building) in which I’ve NEVER seen a roach - and believe me, I’ve tried to find one. I have many times gone into the kitchen at night, quickly opened the cabinets, and shined a flashlight in. I’ve checked behind the fridge, behind and inside the stove, etc., - and nothing. While moving, I never saw any while packing or furniture around.
What do you think the liklihood is of there actually being any roaches that I just haven’t been able to find? You should know that every single food item I have is inside a sealed Ziploc bag or airtight Rubbermaid container - absolutely nothing is open. And I never leave dishes in the sink or crumbs/food residue on the counters.
I also have cats, which may have “scared away” any roaches that may have been there. Sounds stupid, but I don’t know how to explain it.
Do you think I’m just kidding myself when I say I don’t have any little critters?
Just a wee. I knew someone would say that - in fact, my original post said, "I have many times crept into the kitchen … " but I changed it because that made it sound like I am really weird, creeping around in the dead of night trying to find roaches.
Seriously though, I lived in another place that did have roaches and when I moved they all moved with me - to my mother’s house. I had to pay for an exterminator, plus listen to her screaming Italian cuss words every time one crawled out. That was 15 years ago and she has never let me forget that I brought those creatures in. So now I do everything I can to prevent them from being in the apartment in the first place.
