# I disagree with "Roachless houses simply don’t exist." **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 27, 2024, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316 "2024-10-27T21:45:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/1 "2024-10-27T21:45:23Z")
Continuing the discussion from [Have you canceled your Amazon Prime or Washington Post subscription?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-canceled-your-amazon-prime-or-washington-post-subscription/1009307/13): > [@Have you canceled your Amazon Prime or Washington Post subscription?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-canceled-your-amazon-prime-or-washington-post-subscription/1009307/13): > > It’s like roaches. There are only two kinds of houses. Those where the owners know they have roaches, and those where the owners don’t know they have roaches. Roachless houses simply don’t exist. You forget, you live in Florida where just maybe this is true. But having had houses inspected thoroughly and petty complaints about ants outside of the house, I can assure you large parts of the US have houses without Roaches. Now here in NJ, having a house without spiders is very unlikely. Also with basements come centipedes and if the basement is damp, cave crickets are not unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![deneen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deneen/32/17713_2.png) [@deneen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deneen)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/2 "2024-10-27T21:46:42Z")
Cave crickets ughhhh ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/3 "2024-10-27T21:48:31Z")
Creepy, but once I knew what the were, though fast moving centipedes still creep me out more. But first few encounters with Cave Crickets were tough. Damn things jump at you instead of away. > **[Rhaphidophoridae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaphidophoridae)** > > See text > The orthopteran family Rhaphidophoridae of the suborder Ensifera has a worldwide distribution. Common names for these insects include cave crickets, camel crickets, spider crickets (sometimes shortened to "criders" or "sprickets"), and sand treaders. Those occurring in New Zealand are typically referred to as jumping or cave wētā. Most are found in forest environments or within caves, animal burrows, cellars, under stones, or in wood or similar environments. All species are flightles... ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/4 "2024-10-27T21:48:51Z")
Are palmetto bugs different than roaches? I think Florida has them too. I have lived many places in Chicago and certainly have had roaches in my place but my current place is thankfully free of them. Never seen a one in five years in my current place. In Chicago I have had many more house centipedes than roaches though. [House centipedes](https://secure.caes.uga.edu/news/multimedia/images/116/HouseCentipede7hr.jpg) are not bad to have around since they eat other bugs but they sure are creepy when you see one. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/5 "2024-10-27T21:50:15Z")
Not a problem, got my roach clip around here somewhere… ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/6 "2024-10-27T21:50:35Z")
Not seeing one is not the same as not having them, but inspectors are very good and determining if they are in your walls or not. Palmetto bugs are several species of roaches. So they are roaches and nasty looking. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/7 "2024-10-27T21:51:55Z")
For those of you who used to have roaches, but no longer have them could you share your extermination techniques? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/8 "2024-10-27T21:54:08Z")
Ok, substitute “bugs” for roaches. Or substitute rats. IMO my point largely stands and in any event is mostly a tongue-in-cheek practical example of the time-honored aphorism that “Ignorance is bliss”. Acting on that Ignorance OTOH is often less than blissful; reality tends to intrude awkwardly. Story time: My St Louis house came infested w Brown Recluse spiders when I bought it. Being generally pro-spider, new to the region, and clueless about what BRs look like I was totally sanguine about them being everywhere downstairs and slowly colonizing the upstairs. When I called an exterminator a few months later about some annoying but harmless ants he had a shit-fit when he’d finished surveying the house and partly finished basement / downstairs Who knew??!!?? Not I. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/9 "2024-10-27T21:54:30Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > For those of you who used to have roaches, but no longer have them could you share your extermination techniques? In my case I live in a hi-rise and my HOA (if you want to call it that) is aggressive at mitigation (professional mitigation). ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/10 "2024-10-27T21:54:35Z")
I’ve never had roaches except when I lived in San Francisco. After that I lived rurally and rural houses in general do not have roaches. Mice, yes, but not roaches. There is nowhere for them to come _from_. In the US, except for the southernmost parts, they cannot survive outdoors, and outdoors is about all there is around here. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/11 "2024-10-27T21:56:58Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Or substitute rats. Loads of houses don’t have rats and a handy rule of thumb, if you have mice, you don’t have rats generally; as rats eat all the mice pretty quickly. Now squirrels and chipmunks invading attics is pretty common up here in the fall. Very hard to deal with also. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/12 "2024-10-27T21:58:00Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I can assure you large parts of the US have houses with Roaches. Do you mean “without”? Had roaches in apartments in college, but none since. Only “problem” bugs we’ve had were ants. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/13 "2024-10-27T22:00:48Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > You forget, you live in Florida where just maybe this is true. But having had houses inspected thoroughly and petty complaints about ants outside of the house, I can assure you large parts of the US have houses with Roaches. I agree, unless by “roach” @LSLGuy is invoking the 60s euphemism for a marijuana joint. 😉 I have never lived in a house with the insectisoid version of a roach. Infestations of unwanted creatures does seem particularly to be a Florida thing (although roaches are common all over, of course, but certainly not universal). I recall Dave Barry writing many columns about Florida life after moving to the Miami area to work for the Miami Herald. He once wrote a column about giant Florida crabs or frogs or something infesting his front yard. He wrote that as he was trying to get back into his house after picking up the morning newspaper, a crab on his porch went into an aggressive stance, waving its pincers apparently in an effort to protect its mate. As Barry wrote, “I **don’t want** to have sex with your mate. Your mate is a **crab** , for God’s sake. And the crab became even more hostile, because deep in its heart, it knew it was true”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/14 "2024-10-27T22:02:26Z")
Thank you, fixed. In San Diego, roaches seemed to be everywhere also, like Florida. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/15 "2024-10-27T22:10:08Z")
Isopods those lousy looking sea roaches Crawling about the coastal towns. As ugly as a palmetto bug - also a roach but it flies. Then the tiny nasty cockroaches infesting slums I loathe the things. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/16 "2024-10-27T22:12:56Z")
Had roaches once, briefly, in an apartment in Chicago in the late 1970s. I got rid of all open food from the cabinets and from then on never had anything that wasn’t stored in glass jars or tupperware. I can’t remember if I sprayed, but I probably did. Never had them again. Here in the PNW, I had problems with rats for a very long time until I finally had the sewer pipes fixed. I haven’t had a single one (per my exterminator and my dozen traps I still keep armed) in about 5 years, knock on wood. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/17 "2024-10-27T22:17:31Z")
I agree with @LSLGuy’s larger point made in the underlying thread, but not on the roach thing. I lived in exactly one place that had roaches, my first apartment, shared with a roommate and in a down-at-the-heel neighborhood in the San Francisco East Bay Area. Urrrgghhh. No other house I’ve lived in has ever had them, thank fuck. Mice, yes, eliminated with house cats. Carpenter ants, yes, a few, eliminated with regular pest control. That’s it. I’d have to move to the Arctic Circle if I had roaches. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/18 "2024-10-27T22:20:50Z")
AIUI brown recluse spiders are pretty chill. You might say reclusive. Don’t fuck with them and they won’t fuck with you. But I still don’t want one within miles of me. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/19 "2024-10-27T22:22:17Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > rural houses in general do not have roaches. Mice, yes, but not roaches. IME, true. Mice, house spiders, and in their seasons cluster flies, ants, ladybugs, and wasps. And, if you’re lucky, a black snake in the basement (who will take care of the mice. And the spiders will help some with the flies.) I’ve also encountered a woodchuck once in the basement, a skunk once in a back hall, an occasional extra cat, and quite a few squirrels; but no cockroaches. In Florida, I’m pretty sure, you get cockroaches even in what remains of the country. They call them palmetto bugs; but they’re cockroaches. But even when I lived in the city in Rochester NY I don’t remember having cockroaches; though I think some people did. > [@wolfpup](#): > > unless by “roach” @LSLGuy is invoking the 60s euphemism for a marijuana joint. Nitpick: not the whole joint. The bit left over after you’ve smoked the rest, that’s too short to hold on to without burning yourself if it’s lit. Which is why you need a roach clip. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316/20 "2024-10-27T22:24:32Z")
You promised pictures… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-disagree-with-roachless-houses-simply-don-t-exist/1009316.md?page=2)