roaches (Clearwater, Palmetto: apartments, renting, motels)

[ihateroaches]

just moved here from a non-roachy state and just bought an old house in St. Pete. I am the kind of person who has ZERO TOLERANCE for roaches. i am fine with other bugs. but roaches in my house are NOT ACCEPTABLE. I have had an exterminator spray interior and exterior of my house 2 times in a month just to make sure I don't see any roaches in this house. but last night I saw one crawling on a box. I admit I have 100-200 moving boxes everywhere, which is probably not helping when it comes to bugs. what can I do to prevent roaches? should I spray my attic? open holes in the walls and have the exterminator spray there? i will do whatever it takes.

my cousin says roaches are always a problem in old houses. is this accurate? what do people do in this area to fight roaches?

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by ihateroaches

just moved here from a non-roachy state and just bought an old house in St. Pete. I am the kind of person who has ZERO TOLERANCE for roaches. i am fine with other bugs. but roaches in my house are NOT ACCEPTABLE. I have had an exterminator spray interior and exterior of my house 2 times in a month just to make sure I don't see any roaches in this house. but last night I saw one crawling on a box. I admit I have 100-200 moving boxes everywhere, which is probably not helping when it comes to bugs. what can I do to prevent roaches? should I spray my attic? open holes in the walls and have the exterminator spray there? i will do whatever it takes.

my cousin says roaches are always a problem in old houses. is this accurate? what do people do in this area to fight roaches?

Not every old house. Some more so than others. I live in a 1950's house now where I almost never see a roach unless one gets in from the garage. But I used to live in one of those old 1920's Spanish houses, those kind are almost always filled with roaches, they just get up in the walls, and you can almost never get rid of them.

Best thing I found is to put out that boric acid, or those roach tablets, LOTS of them all over the place. Spraying is ineffective and toxic to you and your pets if you have any. The roaches eat the bait and die.

You must get rid of all those boxes! They LOVE to live in those boxes, you can't eradicate your problem until you do. And keep all vegetation cut back from your house - can't stress that enough!

Good luck, I hate those nasty critters, too!

[Sunscape]

I also HATE roaches!
In my opinion the exterminator is not doing a good job. Once, when I first moved to FL some years ago I rented an old house , until we could find a house /place we liked. The house was full of them, but once I got a reputable exterminator to treat the house, we never saw another one.

[safari4925]

They love cardboard boxes and paper bags. I hate them too!

[jambo101]

I remember living in an old house back in the late 60's off 4th and Bayside drive south and we had Palmetto bugs so big you could actually hear them walking on the linoleum at night,fortunately we were renting and ultimately moved..
If you really want to get rid of those cockroaches you have to lose any clutter in the house and that includes those boxes,plug up any hole in the walls ceiling or flooring,then call an exterminator who will probably put a tent over your house and spray the heck out of it..

[It's Cin!]

Boric Acid is great! I once moved into an apt. that looked wonderful during the day, but that first night you know what happened! I have a cousin that was a professional exterminator and asked him to come spray. He said that the sprays dont work, that is why they have to come back out and spray again and again. He recommended the boric acid. and for it to be put down in a line along every single wall, along the back of every cabinet,under every cabinet, on top of every cabinet, along the back of all shelving, around the perimiters of all closets, etc. I used a spoon to tap it down into the cracks along every wall, baseboard, cabinet, etc. Then used a turkey baster to blow the stuff down into the crevice so that it wasnt just sitting on top in a thick line. The bugs walk through the boric acid and it sticks on them. They take it back to their nests where it gets onto every bug and everything that they pass. The bugs lick the stuff off, and then it kills them. Disolves their insides. It took about four days and I never seen another bug, of ANY kind in that apartment. My neighbors also noticed that they no longer had a bug problem as well. So those pesky bugs were taking that poison back through the walls into all the adjoining apartments. (Which is why its normally so hard to get rid of them if you live in an apt).

Good Luck! I hate roachs with a passion and cannot tolerate them at all.

P.S. I also put the boric Acid down in any storage unit that I use. That way I do not bring ANYTHING creepy crawly into my house or to any new house I move to. I put a thick line down along the perimiter of my storage unit when I moved to Korea. When I came back three years later there werent even any cobwebs in my storage unit.

[stpeteguy]

It's fairly easy to get ride of normal cockroaches, but you will have the occasional palmetto bug. No matter how clean you are, or how often you spray. It happens. It usually happens when you have a rain. They crawl in afterwards.

Some are an inch or three long.

Don't throw shoes at them, they might throw it back at you.

Get the big roach motels at the local home and garden store. They work better than anything i've found so far, including exterminators.

[CrowGirl]

Originally Posted by stpeteguy

Don't throw shoes at them, they might throw it back at you.

LOL!!! I think you might be right

[Boulder Mama]

Roaches/Palmetto bugs are a part of life in FL. We had a natural pest control company and they did a great job with keeping them under control and out of our house. We used a Clearwater based natural exterminator called Pest Corps. Good luck!

[Nomadicus]

You can kill them and kill them. There is not fool proof way to keep one from flying in the door when opened or even crawling in through the least little crack even though they are dying for contact with what the exterminator has put out. The worst roach state I ever lived in is not FL but was in the center of the US. I despise them but understanding how to do battle with them is a necessity of life.