Seeing roaches frequently pest control safe for kids ?

[JonathanLB]

Aside from pest control, I'd strongly recommend either a DIY home sealing solution or hire a company to make sure that all doors, windows, and vents are sealed around the house. Roaches are pretty huge, they aren't hard to keep out of a house. I'm not saying it's always possible to keep everything out, only that you can certainly be proactive about preventing them from entering if you review the various entry doors (blower door tests) and make sure there are sweeps on them, make sure they fit in the door frame properly (or you can have them retrofit so they fit properly), make sure there are no holes in screens if you leave any windows open (we never open any windows), and there are also cheap and easy ways to seal registers by putting wire mesh on the bottoms of them that still allow for open / shut performance and don't restrict their functionality at all. Then any entries into the home from the outside around electrical outlets or piping or whatever else may come in and out of the home. There are companies, even pest control companies, that specialize in that type of work.

For the most part, sealing a home is all really inexpensive type of work, it's nothing drastic unless you lived in a shack. The average home just needs some caulking here or there, a few replacement door sweeps, maybe a few new window screens, which is why a lot of people do it themselves because of the relatively inexpensive material costs. The labor is probably the biggest deal just because it takes a bit of time to be thorough about it all. I grant if they're already in the home, you'll have to kill them, but at least you could work to prevent them from entering in the first place.

I've also heard people mention that they love cardboard and dark areas, so some people will keep a big stack of boxes in their garage, maybe old boxes for things they bought in the past (in case they want to sell them, etc.), but that can be a roach friendly home. It's never a bad idea to de-clutter, if nothing else for a nicer, neater place, but the fewer places they have to hide and the less spaces for them to be, the better. I'm a bit paranoid (not yet living in a place with roaches, but will be in a city with them next and have been before in L.A.) so I'm starting to prefer furniture that touches the ground, rather than that elevated 3 inches of peg legs that leaves space underneath everything. I frankly think it's poor design in general because no housekeeping service will ever clean under something like that, and most people won't bother with it either, so it ends up home to cat toys, food items, dust, hair ties, and everything else. The same can happen under my couches but they are on hard wood and I can literally move them with one finger they slide so easily on the wood. I just get creeped out by bugs having a place to hide.

Then again, everyone says we keep our house very neat and tidy, it's pretty minimalist overall. I've seen other people's houses and I guess that's not the norm lol