I want them all dead, unto seven generations, and their lands plowed with salt. I want to not hear the lamentations of their women, because they’re all dead too. I am SO seriously done with cockroaches.
How much does an exterminator cost? And what is the best that they can do?
I moved into a house that was over 100 years old. I sealed all my packing boxes with duct tape. When I awoke in the morning I found the opened duct tape covered with stuck cockroaches. That night I put out about 20 six inch duct tape strips. In the morning I counted over 140 cockroaches stuck and squirming. I kept putting out the strips until there were none. I guess they were attracted to the glue and could not exit. Was very effective, no chemicals and cheap. I did try the same method 25 years later and had no customers. I don’t know if the glue formula changed or if it was because I was in a different country. I hope it works for you.
The Master speaks: What’s the best way to kill cockroaches? - The Straight Dope
Depends upon the extend of infestation…
A bad infestation will result in the house requiring tarping, [to hold the insectide vapors] it can run into the ten thousand dollar range or more.
Okay, but isn’t there some kind of paste bait that renders them sterile? Someplace I lived years ago had a guy come in every 3 or 4 months, and put this stuff down. Just an inch or two. Worked really well.
make sure your place is not a food source for cockroaches.
Whats better than a mere poison ? A repellant. Ant powder is a repellent (if it contains Permethrin or similar). You’ll protect yourself from ants and other insects at the same time.
Roaches love the refrigerator, that warm and there is a water supply there. If you don’t put poison there , in the water tank and around their homes, you’ll notice an infinite tide of refugees leaving the crowded roach apartment block that is the refrigerator.
Also put your poison into nook and cranny under the cabinets and behind the skirting boards of the kitchen , bathroom, laundry … and other places where then can come in from the outside.
Nearly 15 years ago, I had an infestation from hell. One of my neighbors in the building was a professional exterminator, and gave me a few of these from his truck: http://www.amazon.com/Maxforce-Roach-Control-Tubes-BA1088/dp/B004HD8U80/ref=sr_1_3?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1366192928&sr=1-3&keywords=Maxforce+FC
Worked like a charm.
Please note, this was 15 years ago. Don’t know if it’s state of the art today or if there’s something better out now. But this worked for me then, with just a single application.
a herd of cats.
I like where this is going.
I’ve found boric acid works well for minor infestations. Mix it with sugar, and place it under appliances and other nooks/crannies where the little bastards like to prowl.
When I was a youngster, I had a pet squirrel monkey. He loved to eat cockroaches. He would bite of their heads, spit it out then eat the rest. Might be hard to find a monkey today. I remembered I ordered the monkey from an ad in Popular Mechanics magazine in the early 60’s. He was $19.95. Those were the days.
You better act fast, cause they breed as fast as a virus. I would just go with the exterminator, chances are it is not that bad yet, so the price won`t be that high.
I’ve probably told this before, but here goes. When I moved from North Carolina to Florida, a bunch of roaches tagged along in the boxes that I had packed. They took up residence very quickly in my new Florida apartment, which pissed me off.
A while later, I woke up in the middle of the night, went into the kitchen and saw a gecko (or similar small lizard) on the counter. I was doubly pissed that I had roaches and lizards. Until I noticed the roach population decreasing rapidly. The lizard got the population down to a manageable number that I quickly eliminated. The lizard must have moved on, as I didn’t see it again.
I used liquid roach baits and within days roaches disappeared from the house. The containers are see-through so you know when it is all gone and I found it safe to use even in cabinets and around pets as the poison is contained and the roaches feed on the liquid from a wick.
Supposedly roaches are attracted to the liquids as they are looking for water.
Remember growing up in Houston and spreading Roach Prufe in the garage. Worked great, dead cockroaches everywhere, including those impossible to kill, attacking, flying, nasty American cockroaches. The numbers slacked off over time. Don’t know if the infestation was getting cleaned out or if (according to rumor) the roaches build immunity or learn to avoid the white powder.
I froze mine and it worked!
My last apartment in NYC (Chelsea) had been trashed by its former tenants. The real estate guy didn’t even want to show it to me until it was cleaned up . . . but he did. There was rotten/moldy food all over the kitchen, an overflowing toilet, an overflowing litterbox, and feces on the walls. And quite a lot of roaches, everywhere. In spite of how it looked, it was a great apartment at a reasonable price. Before I moved in, the super cleaned it up beautifully, but he couldn’t get rid of all the roaches in the kitchen. Obviously, they were in the walls, and also in the adjoining apartment. So the neighbor and I agreed to put Combat in all the kitchen cabinets and drawers and around the floor. We had to replace the Combat a few times, but after about a month the roaches were gone. I never saw another in that apartment. Your place will probably take a lot less time.
And this is a great way to meet your neighbor.
Boric acid will give you great control but does eventually fatal damage to the kidneys of small house pets who lick it off they little feet.
That’s why we used Combat. The neighbor and I both had cats, but they couldn’t get to where the poison was.
Take off and nuke them from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
I thought cockroaches were radiation resistant.