# I Hate Bugs



## shimmer (Jan 26, 2001)

I cook a lot. And I don't always clean up right away. But I love to cook. (Obviously, or else I wouldn't be around, right?)

But my problem is that bugs sure love to come around too. I killed a cockroach today, and i have never in my life had to deal with cockroaches. 

YECH

SPLAT

COUGH

Isn't there a balance? Do I REALLY have to clean up the ENTIRE mess? They're attracted to my trash and my garbage disposal too, I bet, the one that I can't use because there are some pieces of silverware down it ....

This is in my apartment, not in a restaurant, where I most assuredly would not go home without deep cleaning.

~~Shimmer~~
Who should call herself Shudder, because that is what bugs make her do.


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

Cleaning isn't fun, but if you clean as you go, it isn't so bad. One roach usually means there are more nearby, so make it a point to clean every time you cook!! And keep everything wrapped!!


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## w.debord (Mar 6, 2001)

Many moons ago I moved into a building with cockroaches, it's the most unbelievable gross thing! If you saw 1 theres TONS of them. They crawl on everything, they go into every box of food in your cabinet. They walk on your toothbrush. They sneek across your bed as you sleep. They dance on your clean cloths pooping all the way. They touch everything, eat almost anything and expell waste on everything.

They can not be removed by any simple means. Don't take this lightly.

Not cleaning up right away makes little sense (to me)....it's so much harder to get modivated when the stack of dishes is a mountain. Plus it's harder to clean dried on food. If you absolutely can't stop from being lazy then how about keeping a small bus box in your sink loaded with water and tons of amonia (bleach is probably better) and dropping your dirty items in it until you throughly clean them?

Don't forget the cockroaches drink water too.


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## monpetitchoux (Apr 24, 2001)

Also, make sure you don't soak your dishes in plain water for prolonged periods. Roaches love moist places like your garbage disposal. So if you keep all your surfaces dry and dry your dishes before putting them away, it'll help a lot. I grew up in the slums in New York, so I most certainly know what you are dealing with. There's a chalk that you can buy in Chinatown that helps keep roaches away. You just draw a line with in and that's it. Lots of people I know says it is effective in relieving the problem if not getting rid of them altogether. Sealing up cracks in your wall will also help. Good luck. Roaches are one aspect of living in New York that I do not miss.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

Dear Shimmer.

I do not think that cleaning has to do with cockroches.
It has to do with the building mostly as Wendy pointed out.

I lived once in a same kind of building and It was like a horror moovie.

Here we have some cockroch traps! They are small boxes , the bugs enter there they eat something and afterwards they return to their ...homes and rest in peace...

There must be an effective and safe way. 
Take care for your pets if you have any in the house if you use a poison!!

if you live in a big city you have to do something about that quickly because those bugs carry all sort of germs on their cell...

Of course you have heard that in case of nuclear war only cockroches will survive the radioactivity...

Good luck


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## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

heheh, i have several ways of dealing with the buggers.

1) take a small 30 cm piece of PVC conduit. Cover one end with a rubber glove finger. fill with satay skewers and wait. when a roach appears, pull the finger back, aim and release. (one small problem though, the skewers tend to go through tiles)

2) take one cat, dont feed it and then release it into the kitchen at night.

3) throw them into the slop tray of the grill.

i had a situation at one place where they used to routinely spray the kitchen. so what did they do, the roaches would go and hide inside the stainless steel. So i sprayed the access cracks they were using with baygon and voila! - cockroaches bailed out of the crack and onto the floor. it looked like footage of a paratroop airborne assault. Of course their deaths were a forgone conclusion.


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## foodnfoto (Jan 1, 2001)

I, too, once moved into a house that was infested with roaches. If you think they are bad in NYC, you should see the ones that live in Florida! 
Roaches love moisture and warmth-they lived in the insulation around my hot water heater and in the works of the refrigerator. 
After months of dealing with an ineffective exterminator, I bought a box of powdered boric acid from my hardware store. This stuff is really benign to humans and pets and used to be popular as a laundry additive. I pulled out all insulation and all the appliances in the kitchen, then sprinkled a thin, continuous line of the powder along the baseboards , the backs of the cabinets, and in back of the appliances. I also did the bathroom, too. For about 2 weeks roaches crawled into the center of the kitchen floor (bathroom too) and DIED! I just had to sweep them up everyday.
After that, not a roach in sight for 5 years until I moved out. No harm done to kids or pets.
However, this will only work if you commit to keeping your kitchen clean and refuse to give the bugs an incentive to set up house with you.
Boric Acid rules-keeps you colors bright too!


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

Nick_shu, I agree, roaches will survive just about anything. I once lived in an infested NYC apartment, where I set off a Combat bomb. When I returned hours later, the problem was worse!

My place was very clean, so I know that the problem existed in the walls. BUT, had I kept the kitchen dirty, it would have attracted even more roaches!


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## blanchtoque (Oct 29, 2000)

You gotta be clean. You can't leave a mess, it will attract them into the appartment. 

Once you start keeping it clean spread a parimiter of boric acid powder around., under the sink, dust in to cracks, around the base board, behind the stove and the fridge.

Their little exoskeletons can't take the boric acid powder it dries them up. It works as well as raid but is less toxic.


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## marzoli (Nov 17, 2000)

I once moved into an apartment that looked really nice. Then, at night, out marched the roaches! I asked the landlady what she was going to do (hahahaha), and she said, "Oh, you'll get used to them, dear." I called a pest control agent and had the place sprayed. The lady next door did the same. After a while, we didn't have any roaches. Get used to them . . . PLEASE!


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Cleanliness is the only way to go.


Think Mason jars. I keep everything in jars, not that I have bugs, I just like the cupboards to be in order.


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## nancya (Apr 30, 2001)

Be careful of broic acid if you have pets...but if you don't - it is the best. If you are in an apartment all you will really be able to do is keep them at bay, but put the boric acid behind the stove, in the cupboards, take off the light switch covers and put some in there and the electrical outlets and behind the fridge and under the toe kick and....

breathe.

I really hate roaches.

Roach bait and those ultrasonic things seem to help. In my last house I would have about one roach show up every six months or so. Only place I have ever had them.

Here....I am struggling with Western Burrowing Wolf Spiders.

Honestly, can't decide which I hate more. Probably the roaches. Spiders just scare me...roaches gross me out.


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Yuck!


I can not stand the sight of spiders or spiderweb.


Couldn't even watch Arachnophobia.


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## svadhisthana (May 6, 2001)

If you clean as you go you will have less to do after you are done cooking. I keep a small rubbermaid basin under my sink and before I begin to cook something I fill it with hot soapy water and place it on the counter next to the sink-this leaves me with full use of my diposal and a place to wash and fruits or veggies that need prep. After using something-like a measuring cup for milk-you can rinse it right away and use it again for something else. Good luck getting rid of those creepy criters. Eeeeeeeeew.


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## chefboy2160 (Oct 13, 2001)

The battle if you live in an apartment will never end , but you can stem the tide . Cut off there food supply which means keeping the place clean . And and then I spray all openings with long lasting raid . The you need to caulk all cracks and crevaces into your pad . Then I set off a bug bomb . Monitor your pad and at the first sign of more intruders repeat process.


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