Roaches!!!

Lots of them.
I live in a appartment building 24 units, so no matter how clean I keep this place, I have roches. It is so beyond gross.
My place is a studio, I am sleeping with all lights on to keep them away from me. They are all over, crawl on anything, the cat is no help.
Seriously, if I turn out the lights, they are all over.
I have traps, those circle things, not helping.
Do those sonic thing work??
I am in bug hell.

I heard an episode on NPR, Talk of the Nation Science Friday, just yesterday that the new great repellant might be a combination of oleaic and linolaic acids, which to insects has a "smell of death."

My mom had a minor infestation once and used a whole bunch of those box type traps with sticky stuff inside..... the traps are cheap and once they fill up, garbage and replace.

I'd definately be complaining to your landlord..... they need to fumigate your building.

Complain to the landlors. That is no living condition.

You can get your landlord in trouble with the health dept. Roaches carry lots of diseases. If you can see them out in the open, you have a horrible infestation. I believe that Diatamacious earth(food grade) works really good to kill them if your looking for something natural. If you move you have to clean everything that you own so you don't take a hitchhiker or eggs with you. One bug, or eggs will start the whole infestation all over again.

I had the same problem - same kind of old building.... plus I live in the ground floor... in TX.... Rain = huge roaches "water bugs" the land lord used to call it.... My house warming present from my friend was the movie "Joe's Apartment"

Go to Home Depot and get 2 of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-C...ef=pd_sim_ol_4

Do NOT get ANY OTHER ONE!!! Believe me, I have tried them all ...
These are AMAZING! You plug one of these in your kitchen, and one in your bathroom, and after a few days you will never see a roach again...
It does make a little bit of a noise, which as long as it is not in the same room as you, it is ok... It has three settings: Rodents, Insects, and Insects + Rodents.... I use only Insects....
Since I got this here I have seen maybe one dead roach if I 've seen it...
This will evict your roaches big time.
Good luck!

They did a spray about 3 months ago.
I hate killing things, I am the person who catches bugs in a glass and puts them outside, not the roaches though.
This is just yuck though. I have been bitten. Yes, they bite.
Blecheeew blaaah gaaaaa!!!!
The landlords dont care, think poverty.

Originally Posted by Trouts mom

Complain to the landlors. That is no living condition.

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And to the Health Department!

In order to get rid of the problem, the entire building needs to be treated.

Originally Posted by carolinalima

I had the same problem - same kind of old building.... plus I live in the ground floor... in TX.... Rain = huge roaches "water bugs" the land lord used to call it.... My house warming present from my friend was the movie "Joe's Apartment"

Go to Home Depot and get 2 of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-C...ef=pd_sim_ol_4

Do NOT get ANY OTHER ONE!!! Believe me, I have tried them all

...
These are AMAZING! You plug one of these in your kitchen, and one in your bathroom, and after a few days you will never see a roach again...
It does make a little bit of a noise, which as long as it is not in the same room as you, it is ok... It has three settings: Rodents, Insects, and Insects + Rodents.... I use only Insects....
Since I got this here I have seen maybe one dead roach if I 've seen it...
This will evict your roaches big time.
Good luck!

Click to expand...

It will not hurt my cats ears?

BTW: Make sure you are not in the same room as the machine above though , because it does make an annoying noise.... you do get used to being around it for small periods of time, like while cooking, or in the bathroom, etc - but you don't want to be on the same room for long periods of time... It is noisy... But... It is the only thing that I can tell you that REALLY REALLY works! Small price to pay! Oh, it doesn't bother the kitties at all...

Originally Posted by Trillcat

It will not hurt my cats ears?

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Not at the least.... not at all.... it is not loud either... just annoying... and you can turn it on and off right in front of them, and they don't even notice it. It's like it is not even there....

Do you own or rent? I live in NYC, and have been for 18 years, roaches are a common denominator here .... I have been successful with pest control by regular exterminator visits, keeping kitchen and home clean and moisture free, sealing up any open areas in the home such as floor boards, floor to wall, bathroom caulking, areas around any plumbing pipes in bathroom /kitchen......

Originally Posted by Trillcat

This is just yuck though. I have been bitten. Yes, they bite.

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Apparently whatever is in your kitchen isn't good enough... they want fresh meat, or have a taste for humans.
Joking aside, I bet what happened is that not every single part of the building was sprayed. So the roaches are pretty much traveling around to avoid the pesticides. Nearby buildings could be badly infested, too.

My black-n-deckers do not make any noise at all! All the apartments here seem to be overloaded with these nasty things! Everyday there are complaints made. For the fun of it, I googled my apartment complex and this seems to be a never ending issue.

Anyway, I never keep any dishes in the sink and I store anything open in the fridge. I was so creeped out by these things! They were everywhere. And just like you if I turned the lights out for a second....BOO! There were more everywhere! Now, I NEVER see any! Though I did go overboard and plug one in in each room except the bathrooms.

From what I understand these do not kill them but instead forces them to the other apartments. It forms like a protective barrier around our apartment.

Originally Posted by BABZ

My black-n-deckers do not make any noise at all! All the apartments here seem to be overloaded with these nasty things! Everyday there are complaints made. For the fun of it, I googled my apartment complex and this seems to be a never ending issue.

Anyway, I never keep any dishes in the sink and I store anything open in the fridge. I was so creeped out

by these things! They were everywhere. And just like you if I turned the lights out for a second....BOO!

There were more everywhere! Now, I NEVER see any! Though I did go overboard and plug one in in each room except the bathrooms.

From what I understand these do not kill them but instead forces them to the other apartments. It forms like a protective barrier around our apartment.

Click to expand...

Because they are different from the ones I am talking about I also have the ones that don't make any noise, and you plug one p/ room - not the same thing. Black and Decker is only the beginning..... the model is the rest of... The one I told her to buy is the industrial strength. not the silent white one you are talking about at all... It's a whole other game, and yes, it is noisy. I have both of them, and there is really no comparison....

That is disgusting. If your landlord wont do anything, you need to contact the health department right away and they will force your landlord to comply.

This is from the Wisconsin state Landlord Tenant Law

Typical duties of the landlord.

A Landlord is obligated to supply possession of the premises as agreed in the lease. The premises must meet minimum standards of habitability including compliance with applicable building codes. Weatherizing, locks, running water, working plumbing, heating and cooling, pest control, and other basics must be in place. A Landlord is obligated to keep the premises in repair, to the same standard as existed when the tenant initially leased the premises. Damages caused by the tenant, however, will be repaired only at tenant's expense.

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The only downside is that you will have to prove that the roaches were there before you rented the unit. Otherwise the landlord is not legally obligated to do anything.

Whatever City you live in you need to google something like this "City, Wisconsin Housing Code Department" and also your City's environmental health department and ask them to do a code enforcement inspection. If they find the entire building to fall into the substandard category those two departments can force your landlord to exterminate the bugs (as well as fix any other problems you might have).

It's worth it to give them a call, because if he still refuses to call in an exterminator, he could face criminal charges.

After you've done all of this, it is well within your rights to with-hold your rent until the problem is fixed.

You should rally up a couple of your neighbors as well to attest to the roach problem. Get it all written down on paper and copies of all documents. Always make sure you leave a paper trail for a judge to follow if it ends up going to court. And the more witnesses you have to the problem, the stronger your case will be.

(Long post, sorry)
Ok I have not gotten the Black and Decker sonic things yet, price being an issue. I know they are not that much but when you don't have much extra $, well, it sucks.
The landlords do spray, they just came out again last week, and it is worse now. All the bugs have been displaced from their hiding spots are are literally everywhere.
From your post Nekomania, "Weatherizing, locks, running water, working plumbing, heating and cooling, pest control, and other basics must be in place."
They are providing pest control, if you want to call it that. I watched this time around what they did, it was sad (last time around my neighbors and I had to be out of the building during spraying, not this time)
I had one guy, a maitenance worker, not a pro, spoke very little English, come in with a small vacuum and a can of spray with tube nozzle on it, (like the ones that come with a can of WD-40)
He sprayed under my fridge, not even pointing the nozzle directly under, about 6 inches away and very fast, more of a threat than a good spray to kill, same with under the stove, above the stove hood and in the space between my top cabinets and the ceiling. Hit the baseboards in my kitchenette, then, and this is what gets me even more that all that, just opened up my cubbords and sprayed the entire area inside not aiming at anything in particular. SO goody, where I keep the thing I eat off of are covered in poison and that did what? Scare away roaches that were not in there to be direct hit killed? They had all been scared away by me geting all my stuff out of the way so they could spray poison to kill nothing.
$h*t, I could do a better job and maybe even kill some of them! (the roaches, lol,)
After the guy left (and nothing against him, seemed like a nice guy, just not a bug guy, did the job he was given to do. He did not have breathing gear on, gotta love that from those who employed him to do this, I feel sorry for him) I spent the rest of the afternoon stomping and squishing roaches that had been merely threated with death now not only crawling out from my place but from all the rest of the units.
And it still goes on, a week later.
I have a mass of teeny baby roaches, doesn't matter if the light is on, and oh yea, I have the lights going 24/7, they are all over my sink and counter, such as it is. I hate to kill them, they are kinda cute, but, they are roaches! The big ones who have learned to stay away from the light are now in my living area, my bed/couch. I do need sleep occasionally and cant keep the lights blasting on me, I am loosing sleep, my circadian rythem is all messed up.
This is a HUGE apartment complex in a bad part of town, I would not have the money to pay for anything legal, and I am sure the owners are lawyerd up the ya huh to get by on the minimum they can do.
It is so gross, I wish they had never sprayed. I wish I had never moved here.
Pardon all my spelling errors and thank you for reading through that rant.

OMG, Honey!!!! I am soooooo sorry you are going through this. They are disGUSting things!!!! to help you get through this and -- a little something to stomp the buggers!!!

Here is one that will creep you out, I wrote too long in that last post to include it!
I came home today after a long day of running around, apartment completly dark when I got home, was gone longer than expected, walked into the door and hit my light switch in the entrance, a big fat roach jumped away from me, on my light switch! I yelled and dropped my groceries (good thing no eggs) I cussed up a storm in the hallway outside my door. I don't like to make a scene, but they are now just laying in wait for me!
That one got away, had to stop my tantrum to keep my cat from running out my door into the hall.

One thing I have to ask is what kind of roaches are they? There are different types and some insects are called "roaches" when they actually aren't. I have a friend that is a exterminator, and a lot of roaches that get in houses aren't the major disease caring kind. Not that it makes it any better. One of the common roaches that are thought of as dangerous (as in heath) roaches are wood roaches. They are long an narrow and actually do have wings and live off of wood. We've gotten a few inside by bringing in logs for the fireplace from outside, but if you live in an older building they may be feeding on the actual structure of the building so in that case it may be a lost cause. It's kind of like getting termites or carpenter ants in the main structure....they will destroy it given enough time, and spraying under the fridge and in cabinets just won't help. If they ARE those, that means the wood is already rotting in your building and it's just a matter of time before there is permenant damage or even a disaster.

I can't remember if your cats are all older or if you have younger kittens/juvenilles but PLEASE be careful of putting traps out! In the cabinets it should be fine as long as they aren't talented enough to get them opened, but please don't set them around the floor, even in obscure corners. That is how Monster got poisoned (we left one ant trap out because we couldn't find it, and of course she and Harley found it and that is the reason she now has seziures and has to be on medication for the rest of her life. If you have older cats that aren't into exploring, then it may be fine. But don't put them out where any younger cats can get to them....it could be deadly or at the very least, a HUGE vet bill (like $900 initially plus meds for the rest of his/her life).