Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Pure Fear
This post is about 4 months in the making. I've been in denial, I've tried to ignore it, and the last thing I wanted to do was post this very personal thing on here. However, with a little prodding, I decided to come clean in order to support others who are going through this same ordeal. We have cockroaches at our apartment. Coming from the Intermountain West, I've never had to deal with roaches or rats. And although there was a roach sighting or two in my old place, and we had a rat caught in a trap once there, we didn't have problems on a regular basis. Well, luckily there's never been a rat or mouse in our apartment, but I can't say the same about roaches. I've put up little roach traps, but we still have sightings. Just yesterday morning I went to grab a t-shirt and sitting next to it was one of the largest roaches I've ever seen in my life. I didn't scream (it was 6:00 am), but I could feel the adrenaline flowing. I tried to get it moving, I thought about squishing it but I didn't really want to clean it up (great logic, I know). Anyway, I gathered up courage to grab the shirt, convinced myself it wasn't contaminated by the roach and went to grab my other things. As I grabbed my bike, I turned around and there the roach's twin sitting next to my bag. The thing scurried away, I sat down to regain my thoughts and then grabbed my bike and left. Anyway, this morning no sightings but I was skittish, and a little undecided how to tackle this problem.
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16 comments:
Ash-I'm pretty sure my tough girl card was revoked forever because of this cockroach fear. Kill them with my barehands? I'm no Chuck Norris.
ah, the memories of living in houston, texas. yes - those things are evil. as children we'd go out into the garage nightly with fly swatters or rolled up newspapers. you know what they say, a good defense is an even better offense. we went to their territory, where they felt safe, turned on the lights and raced after them - scared them out of their wits and killed as many as we could before they fled and hid in the unimaginable cracks and nooks you can never find. kill them. kill them good.
Having done my time selling pest control in Cali, I believe in the following statement, the one we shared countless times over the summer: "For every cockroach you see, there are at least 200 you don't." Where one exists, many exist. You need to get yourselves fumigated. Or, at the very least, call your local Orkin or Terminix man. They'll ease your fears ... at kill a whole barrage of roaches in the process. They can't protect against spiders, but roaches are one thing they know well. Good luck!
POS- I shall kill.
Dainon-I thought it was like a 1,000. I think the TV exaggerates. The problem is we live in an apartment building. We keep our place clean. I sweep regularly, keep food stored etc. but since the apartment across from us moved, we've had problems. We're supposed to get monthly pest treatment, but I'm not sure what they do.
ooooohhhhh cockroaches, uhhh....move back to utah immediately, don't put up with them..you can't be serious.....do they bite, ooowho my skin is crawling....move to the artic circle right now, i am sure the government needs people like you up there....
Putz-You are a wise, wise man.
Most apartment buildings WANT you to tell them you found them. They will immediately send someone, b/c the last thing they want is a prospective tenant seening roaches!!! Also, be sure to tell them about the other apartment, since that is probably where they are coming from. They'll do it up real good! I had a similar problem once and the place reacted quickly, spraying my place and smoke bombing the previous tenant's place!
Steve-That's good advice. I know our manager knows about them. They live just below us, and if we're having issues..everyone else is too.
that's sick. my bro and his wife dealt with similar issues when they lived in toronto (we all grew up west so it was a shocker). they had the same problem living in a shared apt building. they put that sticky stuff along cupboards and then always kept cereal etc in tupperware. nothing stayed in the box. it was always in airtight containers.
but that is seriously sick.
I feel your pain. I'd never even seen a roach until I went to Mexico. I saw one or two on vacation and then when I moved there I came in contact them more frequently. Josue used to get so mad at me that I'd get so startled by them but how can a person not? It's not like I was ever expecting them to be places. I swear I will one day die of a heart attack because a roach surprises me.
I'm a lot like you in wanting to not kill them just out of fear. The first time I tried to kill one I couldn't. Instead Tryston and I spent 45 minutes and sweat about 3 gallons from fear in barricading it. We managed to do that by taping a plastic bag over the wall where the roach was, using a broom handle to make the tape adhere to the wall might I add. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't a real solution except we were only staying in that place for another couple days. The thought of that roach under there kept me awake at night though. In the end I learned to start killing them with a mop because then I didn't have to get too close and I didn't have to hear a crunch which terrifies me. Raid also works, but spraying in a frenzy can be dangerous too.
I realize I just wrote a whole lot and didn't offer any real help, but you have my sympathy and I'm hoping that counts for something.
Good luck, I hope you can get rid of them, they are sneaky buggers.
An infestation can lead to asthma attacks as well. This sounds gross, but many, many roaches leads to a smell or gas of some sort that is emitted and, well, that leads to people (usually children) reaching for their inhalers. So sick. So, so sick. Or, well, you will be if you don't do something about it.
The bright side? In the Philippines, the roaches both fly and bite. I woke up one middle 'o the night to discover a roach flying away FROM MY FACE. He'd bitten me on the lip, even, which caused one side to swell up about three times the size it should have been. I looked like I'd gone a round or two with Rocky himself. So, well, at least you don't have THAT.
On his mission, hubby used to spray them with hair spray and then light them on fire.
It might not be the safest way to dispose of them, but it makes for great pictures.
I will now have nightmares after reading Dainon's story.
~b
B-Me too.
Kristi-While that sounds like a great way to dispose of them..I'm in an apartment with hardwood floors.
D-Yeah, when I got the allergy scratch test, I came up positive for cockroaches which meant I've been exposed to them, most likely at work first since there's roaches in our building. So yeah, I don't want to be sick from those gross cockroaches. Thanks for the advice.
That story is so awesomely horrible, but makes me want to shriek something fierce.
Shannon-Sometimes I'm amazed about how much alike we are. Thanks for the story.
I was just reading that if you place boric acid powder (about as toxic to a human as baking soda, it said) at the places where they might be entering your apartment it will discourage their entering--because it clogs up their airways. So you could line your cupboards and baseboards with it, I suppose. I don't know a lot about it but I'm sure there's info on the internet about it.
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