Roach trouble, help!!?

Question

My apartment neighbors are FILTHY! They are dirty that they are being evicted. Trouble is, I share a kitchen wall with them and I have started seeing many roaches in my kitchen. They seem to come from under the stove (big hole in the wall where the pipe is going) and from the dishwasher. My manager sprayed my place and the McDirties, but I am still seeing them and she will not give me a new dishwasher. I'm worried that even when the neighbors move, the roaches will be so established in my home that it won't matter. My apartment is old and I have a three year old so I am really careful with poisons, what can I do about this? Please, no answers about just being clean, I already am and have never had roaches anyplace I have lived before.

Answer 1

Raid ant and roach killer, preferably the commercial strength is the best for spraying behind things and where no child can get to. Then I would put boric acid down along the cabinets and behind anything that you have seen them near as well as in the cupboards. It is non toxic to humans so no worry about anything getting the little one but the raid is toxic and you should keep the child away for a day or so while it does its work. If you spray really well all around the area you have seen any and in any corners or places they can hide, in a few hours you can let the child back in when it dries. Keep your eyes open and if they come around again, zap them some more with another shot of raid and leave the boric acid around for some time. I have done this with small children around and they are now big brutes with kids of their own. Use the raid like there is no tomorrow and there won't be for the roaches or most of them. The few that are left will be gotten by the next round and any boric acid they encounter. Good luck. this has worked for me when I moved into a place like you describe and within a few days there were none left, only the bodies for a day or two.

Answer 2

I can understand your frustration. Roaches tend to infest a whole building, so if you share walls with people who don't keep their homes clean, you get the roaches too.

Since you have a young child and cannot really use spray poisons, my suggestion is a roach trap. They are a semi-closed container, and the roaches can get in, but they cannot get out. They are baited with something which attracts the roaches, and then I believe it is toxic, but the main thing is that they are very strong, and the stuff that's in them doesn't tip out if they are flipped upside down. You can tuck them away in dark places, like where your pipes are, because that's a roach's preferred place to hang out, anyway.

We don't really have roaches where I live, partly because we are in a detached home, but also because it's very cold here in the winter. We have a problem with ants, though, and we've had to do the same type of thing for that. We have a dog who is very curious, so we just put the traps where she cannot get at them, like in cupboards, and that's been working well.

You might want to find out what your manager's or owner's responsibilities are, as well. They may be liable for more than just a good spraying when tenants have been allowed to get so out of hand that they have to be evicted because of being dirty. I know when my friend lived in Texas, she had the same problem, and the owner of the apartment had to replace some of her appliances and cupboards because they were so badly infested.

Good luck!

Answer 3

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 4

You need professional help. Get an exterminator ( good one ) and put them on a program. They'll have to keep coming back every few months to keep things under control.

One spraying is not going to solve the problem. Roaches can survive on almost anything.

Answer 5

I have found the roach gel from 'combat' to be extremely effective. If I were you I would also use roach motels or glue traps and place boric acid behind the dishwasher.

Answer 6

Roach Away works. It's honey mixed with boric acid. Just put the powder down where your wall meets theirs. It will help immensely. If it gets too bad, you'll have to bomb. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Answer 7

Boric acid comes in powder form and is very effective without being terribly toxic to humans.

Answer 8

Boric acid. It's available at the drug store, it's cheap and it's not toxic to children or pets. Sprinkle it around the kitchen. It works.

Answer 9

there are roach traps
call hardware store and if people accuse you of not
being clean..those bugs come in inside bags of potatoes or anything else they can hide in..
my cats eat flies/bugs and spiders so i have cat patrol
cats are always on the hunt..
they will take care of them

Answer 10

if your landlady doesnt do anything, call a lawyer and seek legal action against her, because she's putting you and your child in danger