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Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority Cockroach Control
The Water Authority engages in an ongoing effort to prevent cockroaches in its network of sanitary sewer manholes.
All of the approximately 34,000 manholes are treated twice a year for infestation. The product used to control the roaches is boric acid. About one pound of boric acid is sprayed into each manhole through a hole in the center of the cover. The process does not require lifting the cover. While boric acid is very effective in killing cockroaches, it is not toxic to humans or animals.
If you would like to request treatment for cockroaches in the sewer system in your neighborhood, please fill out and submit the form below.
From: Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority - Cockroach Control
I know this thread is old and has recently been resurrected.
Tell me when you say roaches you mean in an apartment or condo with shared walls.
When I was a kid my parents lived in a single family house. Never saw a roach growing up. First time I ever saw a roach was when visiting a friend at an apartment. When I lived in Iowa in an apartment the place was swarming with Roaches. When I moved back to California and rented my first apartment I had them when a neighbor moved away. Cleaned up and sealed everything and they went away.
We bought our home in 2010 and no roaches. Always thought this was an apartment or maybe even a condo kind of thing.
Apartments are notorious for roaches. Too many places for them to hide. Too many people packed together. My first residence after being born was an apartment...
Always thought this was an apartment or maybe even a condo kind of thing.
It's a house thing too, but it's pretty easily mitigated.
The fact is the cockroach is a highly adaptable species. Regular pest control sweeps ensure the few that get inside are upside-down and dead, but you do see them in this town, even in the nice areas.
The roaches that infest apartments and restaurants ( and sometimes houses) are Blattella germanica, the German cockroach. These buggers are small, >1in, and actually infest houses which means they live their entire lifecycle indoors.
These are not a huge problem in Albuquerque, they exist, but I haven't ever seen them in a house in three decades.
The problem roaches Albuquerqueans are describing are Blatta orientalis, the Oriental cockroach, also known as the waterbug), and Periplaneta americana, the American cockroach which is also often referred to as a waterbug.
These are larger insects and they do not generally live their entire lifecycle inside human habitations. They dwell underground in sewers, under rotting vegetation, and in cracks and spaces under pavement. They enter our houses in an effort to find food either through exterior cracks in the wall, the space under a door, or through sink/shower drains.
The best way to avoid getting them in your house is to apply a perimeter defense of a pesticide such as borax or diatomaceous earth, or chemical pesticide. Then you can plug your drains and seal any cracks under your sinks, along floor boards, etc. Finally keep a clean kitchen and bathroom.
I think the ones we had in our hootch's were at least 2 inches long! Heck, maybe 4 or 5 inches long!
That is insane. I have never seen a bug that big around here. Think I am staying in my part of the world. Even when I was in an apartment I would only see them at about maybe an inch long.
My wife told me that she visited her brother and sister in law in Georgia and the whole house was infested with them. This was 10 years ago and she had our daughter with her. She had to swat the bed all night long because of them crawling on the bed. She told me then that we would never live in that area.
I have never experienced roaches like I have in here in NM. And I've lived in old apartment buildings in Chicago and Cleveland. Here in NM I open my front door at night and they would watch them sneaking in from outside. Before I moved here, I've only seen roaches indoors. Probably a different species as mentioned.
And the earlier post about lawns being covered with them. Like a 50's drive-in horror movie. Yuck! Haven't seen this but seeing them crawling around my driveway in the early summer like ants, I'm not surprised.
As a result, I am now a full fledged extermination expert, well versed in roach motels and sticky boards and 12-month insecticides along baseboards and entrances, and keeping sheets and bedding from touching the floor, esp. when sleeping. I am dreading a midnight visitor in my bed at any time after looking at my cockroach casualties strewn around my tiny NM casita. Not to mention what might be lurking under a toilet seat at 2 a.m. I now check, every time, especially if I have to "sit."
Didn't see any of this coming when I moved here.
Western states have to deal with hanta virus in rodent population.
Even more concerning is bubonic plague never completely eradicated
in US southwest, kills a few people (and pets) each year. Some years worse than others.
There have been five reported Human Cases of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in New Mexico in 2017. There were eight reported Human Cases of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in New Mexico in 2016.
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