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We saw the ocassional palmetto bug [the big roach] much more on our home on a slab than on one with a foundation. It was worse during drought times and I think they were looking for water. We used the roach traps carefully placed.
Concerning the borax - absolutely right. Many years ago during post college poverty days we once rented an old house that *eek* had an old well in the crawlspace and the palmetto bugs were much more than "the ocassional" - that, and the fact that she replaced a wood shake roof with metal and did not account for allowing the house to breathe.........Box of borax took care of the issue though the roaches were really wigged out before they died.
Right now we have a nicer house but the wolf spiders are trying to come in from outside and we have found a few of those. Thing is, our house backs up to woods, we have dogs, and I am not one for killing all the natural bugs in my yard....Actually re-reading the old classic "Silent Spring"
Do they leave any signs of infestation so we know what we're dealing with during a home inspection???
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yes, you will see excrement from palmettos. it looks like blackish brown soft ice cream sprinkles (ew, i know, but couldn't think of a comparable size??)
Do they leave any signs of infestation so we know what we're dealing with during a home inspection???
quote]
yes, you will see excrement from palmettos. it looks like blackish brown soft ice cream sprinkles (ew, i know, but couldn't think of a comparable size??)
you sure you're not looking at mouse poop? i've never seen anything like that unless there was mice.
It's smaller and as sadiemagnolia pointed out is more tube shaped with round ends. (very similar to ice cream sprinkles!). Mice droppings tend to be more football shaped.
I remember when we first moved to FL from CT, and I had never experienced roaches in the house before. You can imagine my horror when I saw a nice fat 2" FL palmetto bug! More unnerving still was that as I began to chase it, it took off and flew! They have an Air Force!
Our old house had a lot of them, until a friend told me to go up on the roof and look in the plumbing vent stack at night. There were hundreds of them in there! They go down the vent and come up through the sink- they don't mind swimming through the trap at all. I put fiberglass screen over the stack, and it cut the roaches down about 90%. The house we're in now is much tighter, and we rarely see them.
Thanks guys...we saw the house again and they are actually MOUSE traps...whole other dilemma...sigh. I'm hoping it's because the house was vacant for so long.
Thanks guys...we saw the house again and they are actually MOUSE traps...whole other dilemma...sigh. I'm hoping it's because the house was vacant for so long.
one hyphenated word, D-CON, worked for me in two different houses, don't cheap out, buy d-con!!! not kidding it works!
if you don't want to use poison b/c of your child, there are other options. i cannot attest to them b/c we have not had mice...but here's one link i found: Eco-Friendly Mouse Control
good luck and good riddance to the mice!!!
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