Cockroach problem.

dubtom

I have no idea where else to put this so move if need be mods.
I look after a couple of apartments and both have become infested with cockroaches, last year I got a crowd in, paid them €500 and It didn't solve the problem, well it did for a while but they came back. The tennants have been using some stuff from tesco which keeps the roaches at bay but doesn't get rid of them. I'm not too keen on getting another crowd out because the tennant says the tesco stuff does a better job than they did.I should add that both tennats are from africa, which I think is the cause of the problem.They buy from those shops who import directly from Africa, shops that you see down back lanes off moore street, and I am convinced that is where the problem has come from. I can't tell them where to shop however, but I need a permanant fix for this problem, a proven product that will kill the roaches and their off spring, any idea's.

Irish Gardener

Hello dubtom.
You could try a natural non toxic form of control.
This will contain the problem.
Find an empty jam jar and wrap its outer with kitchen paper.
You can use a few rubber bands to secure the kitchen paper.
This will allow the roach’s to climb the jar.
Coat the inside upper half of the jar with a thin layer of Vaseline (to keep trapped cockroaches from escaping). Into the jar place a half slice of bread that has been soaked in beer for approx ½ hour, cockroach’s love this treat.
Check daily, if roach’s are found you can give them a good splash of boiling water before disposing of them in a sealed plastic bag.

This will control your problem, but not stop it completely, as the roach's are probably arriving in food as you stated.

Good luck.

Gordon

I hate cockroaches! They are quite a problem for me as I live in central Athens and it gets worse as it comes into summer. Actually wintertime isn't bad at all.

It sounds like they could be bringing in the cockroaches yeah. I'm not too sure on this but I think that the companies that sort out the cockroaches will handle the connections of the house to the outside world - things like the pipes and holes in the walls outside for example. I'm saying that because our block of flats was done this year and nobody entered my flat so I'm simply guessing they do it that way.

The way I get rid of them is to keep all possible entries closed. Put mesh on every overflow type thing where water is involved. Spray some typical cockroach spray down the sink plughole and overflows (yes, even in the kitchen). Cockroaches can come through the toilet if the toilet is void of water - they wont swim through the u-bend but they'll walk through if it's waterless. There will be stuff that kills roaches by them eating it and taking it to their nest. If they die then other cockroaches will it that cockroach and they will in turn get poisoned. Lovely eh?! Sorry, I don't know any products.

If your main entry point is via the tenants then you're fighting a losing battle. You've got to talk to them and ask them what they're bringing in - is it big bags of rice?

Another nasty thing about cockroaches is - if you kill one with your shoe and it's pregnant - make sure to get rid of the dead roach as its offspring can eat their way through the mother and strive on into your kitchen!

Sorry I can't be more help. It's easy when their getting in from outside (constant daily care) but when they're being brought in it's impossible.

Good luck!

Strokesfan

Boiling water
I used to work in a hotel infested with cockroaches - disgusting or what?
We were all instructed to pour boiling water on them to kill them and never step on them because this spreads the eggs. That's just the ones you see..
Keep your surfaces sealed and cupboards clean... terrible prob, I sympathise

dubtom

Thanks lads, yes my guess is they are being brought in bags of rice. They laugh at me when I tell the tennants that we in Ireland never had cockroaches, well certainly not in my house, and that they are coming from those afro shops (actually heard of one being shut down because of roaches)I know I'm fighting a losing battle but thanks for the suggestions anyway.

Lex Luthor

Gordon wrote:

IAnother nasty thing about cockroaches is - if you kill one with your shoe and it's pregnant - make sure to get rid of the dead roach as its offspring can eat their way through the mother and strive on into your kitchen!

mmm...lovely thought. No wonder these things have been around for 1000's of years....I stepped on once in Lanzarote on the apt floor and within half an hour the place was swarming with ants. Luckily enough they devoured the carcass and left after that.

dubtom, do you own these apts or just manage them? If it was my place, I'd have them out. If its not your place, does the owner know about this problem?

Gordon

dubtom wrote:

Thanks lads, yes my guess is they are being brought in bags of rice. They laugh at me when I tell the tennants that we in Ireland never had cockroaches

Yup, I've never so much as seen a cockroach in Ireland. Had a few run ins with mice and/or rats though.

If you can figure out exactly what it is that is storing the roaches (my money's on the rice as I can't think of any other product that has fairly permeable containers large enough to store a cockroach without the consumer seeing it). And if it is the rice then you can drop off a massive bag of rice every couple of weeks to them, having bought it from a trusted source. Doing that will cost less than the cockroach poison probably!

No wonder these things have been around for 1000's of years....

Apparently the modern cockroach has been around since the early Cretacious period - that's something like 150 million years ago.

150 million years of ick.

dubtom

dubtom, do you own these apts or just manage them? If it was my place, I'd have them out. If its not your place, does the owner know about this problem?

No their not mine, The problem could have started from previous tenants who shopped at these dirty stores, I make assumptions that the present tennants do also because they come from the same place, I have warned them however to stay away from them, we'll see. Another point would be that no Irish person would stay at an apartment with a roach problem,it's totally alien to us, where it seems the norm to my tenants and they dont have big issues with it.I came across a site last night and ordered some stuff which claims to totally wipe out the roaches, basically they eat stuff from traps and go back to the nest where they die, they are eaten and so it continues untill eventually they are all killed off.The stuff is called target roach killer bait and can be got at roach-killer.com , fairly cheap too.I'll let you know if it's affective just incase anyone is unfortunate enough to get them.

Neverends

In the US they use "bombs" which you let off in the vacant apartment and it douses everything in poison. Never liked thinking bout what it was doing to the occupants though.... Brand name was RAID I think.

Lex Luthor

I would let the owners know what they're letting themselves in for with this problem. It's not something that can be gotten rid of easy enough by the sound of it. Its a serious health issue and if the apts are in a block and you have other tenants or people living there, it won't be long before they infest the whole place. I'd be inclined to vacate the premises and nuke the place.

Ask them do they have the roaches on the rental agreement? If not, then they need to pay extra rent for them....:D

dubtom

hehe,it's hard enough getting the rent out of them as it is. Yes the owner knows, we had one pest control guy who said we should clear the building of all 20 apartments if we wanted rid of the roaches for sure, he was quoting about several hundred per unit though and that was just for spray and a few traps. I spent 80 quid on those traps I mentioned and I rekon we should see good results (i hope)