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slow, agonizing death. I can hear their screams at night as they suffer the true death!
I am guessing another fan of THE ORIGINALS.
Be careful with diatomaceous earth, it is very hard on the lungs.
For roaches, boric acid is a lot safer but keep it away from cats. The roaches clean themselves and are poisoned. (I've never believed the "drying out from scratches" theory of DE.)
Thanks for all the tips folks! I feel much better prepared now.
Few questions:
Good tip about not leaving wet mops around. But how do I get them dry fast?
Can I still keep my dirty dishes in the dishwasher overcouple of nights?
"If you can getinto the walls through electrical outlets or around plumbing, puff boric acidin generously. It keeps roaches from migrating in from neighbors. Use a whole pound for an apartment. As long as it stays dry it will last forever.”
Can you orsomebody expand on this? How do I get it in the walls?
Also, anybodyknow something I can use to pick up their dead bodies if I happen to come acrossone and kill it with a spray? Some kind of sticky paper towels might work. I am looking for something that will help me avoid looking at them…
Lastly, anybody has recommendations for a professional exterminator I can call to spray theplace? My building will have a guy come monthly but I agree with one commenter that I should just hire somebody to do it before I move. To remind, my place is on the west of Broadway on 161st.
Good tip about not leaving wet mops around. But how do I get them dry fast?
Can I still keep my dirty dishes in the dishwasher overcouple of nights?
What I meant there was to not leave a wet mop lying with the wet part on a floor, which then takes days to dry. Instead: You can buy a mop bucket with a built-in wringer for maybe $30 that speeds up the drying a lot. For around $100+ they sell a combined mop & bucket with spinner; I like mine but have several apartments so the cost is worht it to me.
Otherwise, just put it so mop part dries out in the room or overhanging a sink, with handle down and wet part of mop off any floor. If you've wrung it out before you do that, it'll airdry in half a day, good enough.
OR use a Swifter Mop with disposable paper blotters, dispose each time - might be good enough for apartment use altogether. Costs add up on buying blotters, or if you are ecologically minded buy a cotton-cloth cover to fit, instead of all those disposal blotters, and launder it as needed.
On dirty dishes overcouple of nights - very bad idea. Strongly recommend you pre-rinse them w water before you stack into a dishwasher, even swiping with a brush in some places, to remove the obvious food before you stack in machine. That's good enough. The soap washing machine cycle can wait, as long as you yourself don't see food residue on the waiting dishes.
(I don't know answers to your other questions in post #23)
Last edited by BrightRabbit; 07-24-2015 at 02:19 PM..
Paralyzing phobia?? Washington Heights?? Are you mad? Do people who fear sharks swim in the great barrier reef? Do people who fear bears walk at night in Glacier National Park? Do agoraphobics go to times square to view the ball drop on new years eve??
Awww, c'mon. Like I wrote, I lived a block from where she is, in a well-managed older building full of working folks (no fancies) and saw NOTHING after week one, for a year. If the sprayers come monthly and she starts out in a clean kitchen and keeps it that way, well.. that's what happened to me.
But a funny post there -- just don't go into psychiatry for phobias LOL.
Can you orsomebody expand on this? How do I get it in the walls?
Take off electrical plates and squirt the boric acid around the box.
Slide the cover plates back from water pipes at the wall and puff boric acid around the pipes in kitchen and bathroom...then slide the cover back.
Puff in where radiator pipes come out of the floor...there is always some space.
If you have to drill a small hole under your sink to get into the wall, do so. You can close it with some cheap latex caulk or spackling.
(A big plus is having bathroom and kitchen share a common pipe wall. Then WORKING one side does the whole job.)
I was lucky with the last apartment. I had a big removable medicine cabinet that gave me access to all the plumbing into the apartment. Pipes, floor, and wall got a pound poofed in. Never needed the exterminator. (I hate breathing their poisons.)
If you have any gaps between the floor molding and the floors, puff the acid onto the floors and sweep against the walls so that a goodly amount goes under the molding.
Last edited by Kefir King; 07-25-2015 at 11:27 AM..
Omg, 2yearsplan, I have the same phobia! I have no roaches at all, but occasionally - like once a year, I see a big water bug and it scares the bejesus out of me! I don't know how they get into my apartment. Although it's not frequent, once a year is too much for me to stomach!
I once had a team of people seal all holes around my apartment's water pipes, including my radiator, underneath the kitchen and bathroom sinks and everywhere else that I could think of.
Every time I see one of those disgusting creatures, it's like a project for me to take it out of my apartment. The last time I saw one, was about 6 months ago, around 12:30am - I was just finishing a project for work, and put my laptop away and my goodness, when I turned around to get up from my couch it was right there on the floor, in the middle of my entryway, just "dropping by"
I took my broom and swept/swung it out of my apartment like a golf ball and it fell down the flight of steps like a small packet of ketchup. (The last sentence sounds so simple, but it took me a whole 30-45 minutes to do, cause I can't even look at that thing, I feel faint every time I do!!). Just reading these posts and writing this gives me the willies!
Just remember though, in a sealed apartment everything that you or your exterminator spray will vaporize and eventually wind up in your lungs. Botic acis, being solid particles will stay where you put it. (I don't like breathing in nerve poisons.)
I was sorry to hear that you guys are having bad luck with gel baits. Baits SEEM like the perfect way to go.
I very occasionally see the occasional German roach in the bathroom and I get it with my hand but I have never had the exterminator in either this or my last apartment (total 27 years) and I would like to keep it that way. If anyone is going to spray, it will be ME.
Newbie mistake I made: Raid etc. do nothing for prevention, so it's a money-waste to spray inside cabinets or floor perimeters with it. The store spray-killers work only on live animals, by derailing their nervous system. Raid IS very effective against a running critter, just spray it hard, once, from up close then just wait a few seconds; it'll die. (Hard for OP, I know).
Or, since some types of bugs breathe through their skin, use household Windex (ammonia based) Spray to kill a random live one running through your apartment. After the tragedy and removal, you've just spot-cleaned part of a room, without inhaling poison.
Well, hehe -- wipe over same area again, with more Windex, so you're not spot-cleaning with roach-guts.
Last edited by BrightRabbit; 07-27-2015 at 10:50 AM..
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