My downstairs neighbors are dirty and have cockroaches. How do I keep the roaches out of my house?

Question

I have pets so i can't use chemicals. But I just want to know if anyone has any suggestions on preventing them from coming up here. I've been keeping the house really clean so they wouldn't want to be up here but I see one about once a week, and the saying is "if there's one. there's millions".

Answer 1

Here is my answer based on my experience of living in an apartment where no amount of chemicals, poison, boric acid, or whatever would get rid of them. Here is how I did it.

The key is using caulk to seal up all the places that roaches like to nest. These places are always near water, like the kitchen or bathroom. The most likely places are the cracks between the floor and the baseboard moulding on the wall, and at the top of that same moulding. Seal it up everywhere. If your roach problem is bad enough you may have to go around the entire room.

Next is the long crack where your kitchen counters meet the wall, especially near the sink. Roaches like to nest where it is dark and where there is very little headroom above them, so the space between the kitchen counters and the wall is paradise.

There is a way to use boric acid without danger to your loved ones. If you find cracks to seal at the baseboards, before you seal them, you can brush some boric acid through the crack before sealing it. Likewise, you can put some behind the counter before sealing it up. Boric acid does work great. It is not a poison, so roaches cannot become resistant to it. Instead, when the powder gets on them they ingest it when they clean themselves, then it swells up in their stomachs and kills them when they drink.

The key is sealing everything up. After that you can place small amounts of the various poisons and traps to kill the roaches that are still there, i.e. the ones that now have no place to nest but are still hanging around.

If you believe that you have sealed everything up and still see roaches, then you have missed something. If you see a roach, instead of killing it, just follow it to see where it goes. Then seal up that spot. If you can't seal that spot then place a small amount of poison there. (There is a small tube of roach food poison sold that is good for that.)

Finally, if you have sealed everything up and still have roaches, do you have carpeting near the problem? The roaches can nest under the carpeting, although in my experience it was under the baseboard and under the carpeting right next to it.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Hi, Ok first of all roaches aren't a sign of dirty or clean. Second you Can use most chemicals around animals. i think birds are the only ones who ar actually susceptible. I lived in Georgia for 10 years. cockroaches and bugs down there are a way of life. believe me I was a super house cleaner, just ask my poor abused children. We had a "bug man" who came once a month. He sprayed the house, it cost about 25.00 per month. He said if the other neighbors didn't spray, the bugs would go to their house. they are so immune to pesticides that they don't really all die off, they just move. So if you spray they should go back to your neighbors house. We had a dog and two cats and it never bothered them. They even say it's ok for babies to be put down on the carpet if you wait a certain amount of time. Pesticides are greatly improved now. We now live in Montana and we have the yard sprayed for weeds, not bugs. The dogs are out there when the guy comes and it doesn't hurt them. Our horses lean over the fence and eat the grass hat has been sprayed also. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Roaches are NOT a sign of a dirty house. We all have enough crumbs and water droplets in our houses to feed roaches. I work in an apartment block that has had a few infestations, and the roaches are often in the cleanest apartments.
The solution, unfortunately is chemical. These chemicals ARE NOT safe to be around. All times the block has been sprayed, the tenants have had to move their food, and stay out of their apartment for most of the day. The roaches in the apt block always come from furniture brought in with tenants. My suggestion is move, and get new furniture. Sorry :$

Answer 4

Try Boric Acid in water with a lilttle sugar mixed in. Cockroaches cannot vomit. When they eat the Boric Acid it kills them from the inside out. Real solution is to get neighbors to cleean up as it will still be a constant problem. The Boric Acid works I used it when I lived in an apartment.

Answer 5

There are MANY chemicals that are perfectly safe to use with pets. I suggest you call an exterminator and have your place treated monthly. Also, put tabasco sauce on your door frams and window frames. If you share an air supply, then I suggest also putting tabasco around the vents. Do so liberally.

Answer 6

If they're downstairs, then they're upstairs too... If you want them out you have to move or have the entire house (downstairs, and upstairs, and every sideways) treated by professionals...

There is no way to keep them out of the top part of a house/building when they are in the bottom part... it just doesn't work that way... sorry :-(

Answer 7

Sorry to say this but you're screwed. Your only option is to move out because you certainly won't be getting rid of cockroaches and neither is your downstairs neighbor.

Answer 8

go to the local drug store and buy oil of wintergreen. then take a paint drush ( a small one) got thru your house and paint the oil of wintergreen where all the pipes enter the apartment and around wall plugs and vents. the roaches in my experinace wont cross it and it makes the house smell good. let me know if it helped you.

Answer 9

That's really disgusting. Try using Borax, just sprinkle in corners and places where the roaches might be. Once they crawl in the Borax and lick their feet, that's it.

Answer 10

You are rent to them?(A)
or from them?(B)
or from a third party?(C)

A. I don't know, you may have to find new tenants, an professional exterminator may be able to help.

B & C. Call the Health Dept, either State or City.