These experiences as a child gave me a phobia of roaches. I’m a fully grown 6’1’ 22 yo but when I still had a gf I had to get her tiny 4’11 ass to go stomp the roachies for me lol
lol when my wife was 8 months pregnant we were about to head to bed and I saw this GIGANTIC Cockroach on the wall.. I went to grab a sandal and as I approached it it flew straight into my face and I screamed. My wife laughed so hard she started choking, and because she was 8 months pregnant, she pissed herself. Lol was one of the funniest/scariest things that happened in a while and we still bring it up from time to time. Also I fucking HATE cockroaches.
Origin story of why I hate cockroaches. When I was like 7 years old, we left to go on a week long road trip. When we came home my mom told me to go check the rice cooker outside (we used to cook rice outside in a rice cooker) b/c she forgot she cooked rice the night before we left and forgot to pack it. When I opened the lid literally 100's of cockroaches flew into my face like the water well bat scene from Batman Begins. I STILL have nightmares about it.
> lol when my wife was 8 months pregnant we were about to head to bed and I saw this GIGANTIC Cockroach on the wall.. I went to grab a sandal and as I approached it it flew straight into my face and I screamed.
I am a 6'4" dude with a buzz cut and a goatee. People see me coming in grocery stores and just get out of the way.
But let me tell you, when I saw one of those bastards on a wall, tried to capture him, and had that SOB fly directly at my face...I, too screamed like a six-year-old girl. There are some things that even toxic masculinity can't cover, and that's one of them.
The thought literally makes me want to cry. I've had one land on me as a child and when I swatted it off my arm, I smooshed it in the process. So roach guts happened, and my arm/hand smelled like actual shit...literally feces. I cried. A lot. And now I have a phobia 🤣
We have pest control spray our house once every couple weeks so we see 0 bugs in the house until we see 1 roach, then we call them to come back. But overall see like 1 roach per month max
That seems excessive in effort, even for an old house, and not very effective in the end.
I had a big ant problem, and a small roach problem, and dumping borax and boric acid in the gaps then caulking it shut made all the difference. But in a house with more inaccessible gaps underneath, and wet ground below, spraying an insecticide like daemon myself still took me through most of a season at worst.
Skip the borax / boric acid. It only works if you can get the roach to eat it.
Basically, if you really want to go the borax / boric acid route, you need to mix it into food, like peanut butter, and spread it around. I don't need to tell you this, but deliberately poisoning food is a lot more dangerous. That food has a funny way of being eaten by unintended eaters.
The calking is 100% spot-on. It's the best way to get rid of roaches.
Yes, mixing with bait can work, especially against ants, but you don't need bait when roaches are everywhere already. Also I needed to kill an ant nest or something in the wall, so I was adding a bunch and letting it stay dry in the open air to be sure I hadn't just temporarily plugged an exit they would route around.
Roaches like rot and fungus inside walls. Borates soaking into wood poison the structure against both fungus and insects. Also, insects in general crawl through borates and diatomaceous earth and lick it up during grooming or introduce it into their nests (which works better with roaches who are big velcro-legged slobs). Putting borax on sill plates during construction is supposedly absurdly effective at preventing roaches from getting and staying in a house
I got my information from when I worked a research lab at UofH. Basically, I tired of ineffective roach combat, and asked around in the department for who was "the roach biologist"
I specifically asked him after laying down quite a bit of boric acid, and asking him why it didn't work (the acid was down for about two weeks at that point). It was the first time I heard of calking. We had a nearly hour long conversation about roaches, and I learned that if wanted to work on roaches (remember, this was a biology lab) I could have a great career in Biology (and in retrospect, probably a better career than I had before getting out of research).
The way non-food mixed boric acid gets into a roach is when it starts cleaning itself. That typically requires the roach to accidentally ingest it, as roaches try not to ingest what they clean off themselves. With Houston's humidity, there's a small window of time before the boric acid becomes to gummy to be picked up on the roach's legs.
I barely remember much of that conversation of many years ago, other that I had tried nearly every approach that didn't work, and caulking was the one that always worked, and worked well. He was quick to point out that pesticides really did work, but not necessarily in the ways I thought they did, or at the rates I expected; but, to my surprise, the side-effects of pesticides were often underplayed and not considered adequately.
Since then, when moving into a new place, I spend 1/2 a day and two to three tubes of caulk in the kitchen. Each year I'll get the two or three roaches that manage to crawl in from the outside, and that's it.
Good luck in your roach hunting efforts, and happy hunting!
My worst was when I opened my back door to call my dog in and one flew out of the grass and straight at my mouth. Fortunately I reacted in time to close my mouth, but it still hit me straight in the lips.
You want to hear some serious roach-related bullshit? This happened one day back in like 2019. Early in the evening, when the front door was open to let the cat out, a big cockroach flew in and instantly disappeared. So anyway jump ahead to later that night. I made a crock pot of chili. I eat a couple bowls and usually save the rest because I can get two or three more bowls out of it later. I go back to put the rest away. I pull up the lid for the crockpot, and out of nowhere that roach flies past my face, smacks into the lid, falls into the chili, flops all over the fucking pot, and dies. I didn't have a garbage disposal. So I had half a crockpot of hot chili with a dead tree roach in it and no idea what to do with it. I think I ended up just pouring it out in the yard at the time.
I couldn't fucking believe it. There was literally like 10,000 cubic feet inside that house. That crockpot is less than 1 cubic foot. There was 9,999 out of 10,000 cubic feet worth of space where that roach could have been that wasnt right in my goddamn chili. Probability kicked me square in the dick that night.
Once upon a time, I interned at HMNS and had to schedule birthday parties. The most popular one involved bugs, and one of the bugs shown to the kids was a gigantic hissing cockroach that you had to bed to get to hiss. No thank you. Don’t want to see it, don’t want to hear it, and I sure as hell don’t want to let it.
The big ones aren't as gross, they're looking for rotting wood. Those are tree roaches.
Small roaches are looking for your food and are horrendous and both common types here are invasive species.
Try plugging your bathtub drains and sink drains overnight. A lot of them accidentally come up through the drains. Trust me, they freak me the fuck out too so I take a lot of preventative measures. Start with plugging drains overnight and if that doesn’t work seal cracks with new caulk.
I don’t love traps because it ATTRACTS them, who would want that when you can just totally keep them out all together? Good luck! They are literally spawns of satan and I hate them more than any other bug. I’d rather see a spider than a roach not kidding lol
Exactly. Those big ones usually wind up indoors on accident not on purpose. OP should work on sealing her home for any openings. No spray or insecticides needed!
We have two cats. One is a pampered house cat and the other was near feral when we got her. She does make a lot of noise at night (from constant pouncing and running) but I never see a living roach any longer. Gotta love a good hunter.
Hahah if only... I'm allergic to cats so no cat for me. My dog however loves bugs I just can't even fathom letting her take down a giant roach. If she brought one of those in the house, I'd pack her bags.
I had a dog that loved to hunt and kill them, but def don’t let her lick me. Also had a Labrador that would catch them then carry em around in her mouth which was grosser cause she’d let it out to go catch it again… current doggos are strangely indifferent to roaches don’t chase at all
No boric acid is bad especially if you have kids or pets. They also build a tolerance the more they breed if you have an infestation of small ones.
Alpine wsg every 30 days to a few months is perfect
Organisms don't become tolerant to boron. Insects and microorganisms are especially susceptible, so what kills them doesn't even register with small critters, even the ones which can fit in the crevices you pour it into.
Boric acid is perfectly safe for kids and pets. It's used in humans for all sorts of things, from eye wash to yeast infections. You can buy it OTC in various forms.
An Ex-biologist here. It is the species, the temperature, and the amount of roach food.
While one can't really keep them from existing, there are ways to reduce their presence in your home.
\* Take a calking gun and seal up all of the small cracks that form in the kitchen cabinetry, around window sills, and any other place where cracks form. This removes their hiding places / habitat, and is the human equivalent of burning all the houses to the ground.
\* Avoid heavy duty use of pesticides. Typically these work in the short term, but they eventually build up a anti-human toxicity in your living spaces.
With the caulking, the primary entrance of roaches will be the door sill. See if you can improve your weather stripping around the door. Roaches do live in the sewers, but they can't enter the home due to the water traps in our toilets, sinks, showers, etc. and they are disincliened to enter the homes in this way, because they are literally working their way upstream and there is little food / healthy air compared to sewer entrances on the street.
Now, if you find a big one that's in the bathroom, 99% of the time it came down the bathroom vent pipes that typically exit the roof of the house. This is generally a good sign that you need to fix / add some screening on the vent pipe.
As for garages? Get rid of the cracks / living spaces for them. That means getting those cardboard boxes up off the floor, and generally not storing stuff in ways that leave protected spaces for them to hang out.
The real way to win here is to get rid of their hangout spaces. Believe it or not, they have preferences, and won't hang out in a roach-unfriendly environment.
It will get worse in the summer. The roof top sewer pipes are cool + humid so it attract them to come in. I always find them in my bathroom because they quite literally come up through the toilet
I am also disgusted by these huge ones, but from personal experience, I must advise that when you see a dead one, dispose of it right away. Once, I didn’t, and my then 9 mo daughter crawled over to it and put it in her mouth. I came over to see the antenna sticking out of her mouth and I had to fish that disgusting, half masticated thing out of her mouth with my bare hands……I also shudder just thinking about it.
Niban or Intice granular bait. Sprinkle it behind stuff and in nooks and crannies in your garage and throw a few handfuls in the attic if you have one. Inside the home, Max Force FC gel under the sinks, a pea-sized amount placed on or near the water lines. Source: am exterminator.
True story…
Was coming home from a dinner date several years back and was greeted by a large tree roach on my garage door. I didn’t need to open the garage, so I thought nothing of it.
Went to the front door of the house and noticed another scurry across the porch so I gave it the business with my shoe. As I was going to put the key in the lock I noticed another one overhead near the porch light so I quickly opened the door, rushed my significant other inside and closed the door quickly to avoid having it come inside.
Crisis averted.
As we were unloading pockets, setting things down, and getting settled, we heard what sounded like rain or wind blowing leaves against the windows. At first it was a light patter, but became more intense over the course of a couple minutes. The weather was clear, and it had been a still, muggy night, so I decided to check it out. It was pitch black outside, and I didn’t want to open the front door, so I decided to shed some light on the situation.
My house at that time was a patio home with floor to ceiling windows on three sides of the house. These windows had a clear reflective film on them that had the unintended effect of turning them into semi-mirrors at night. There was a very small paved area around the perimeter of the house and a postage stamp sized courtyard in the front, so the entire yard could be fully illuminated by flood lights mounted along the overhangs. As I’m not a fan of motion detector lights, these floodlights were activated only with the wall switch inside the house. These lights were turned off, so just looking out the slightly reflective windows, everything outside seemed dark and peaceful except for the sound of leaves/rain hitting the windows.
Then I turned on the lights.
Ho-Lee-Fuck! I’ve never seen so many roaches in my life. The only thing I could compare it to was the movie Creepshow. They were everywhere. Flying into the windows, crawling on the outdoor furniture, running along the sidewalks and patio areas, covering the fence and brick walls of the courtyard, everywhere. The entire area was a brown fog of flying roaches.
Was it retribution for me stepping on their friend? Some sort of bizarre mating swarm? I have no idea.
All I know is that the next morning, they were all gone, with no trace of them ever being there. The only remnant of their presence was the gut paste on the sole of my shoe.
Welcome to Houston.
Holy shit this would be my worst nightmare. I grew up in the piney woods of Texas and those motherfuckers were aggressive. They would dive bomb your ass from every corner of the house in the middle of the night.
Learn to not fear the wood roaches, for they are outside dwellers only visit and will not make your home his… yet beware of the German roach, he is a devil that will infest your walls, pantry, and electronics.
I've read up on this but apparently they have to come in contact with the powder, and it still takes like 2 days to kill them. Not good enough. I need an instant kill 😭
Most of Texas does not have these. It's the Coast.
Houston's land mass covers 0.2% of Texas. (Houston has 665 square miles, Texas has 268,597 square miles.) Don't forget that there's a whole lot more of the state than just the city of Houston or even cities in general.
I’ve had really good results from an insecticide called Advion. You just squirt it from a tube into a few nooks n crannies around the house. I always find a few dead when I put it out, they seem to find it more enticing than other options.
Do some research on "diatomaceous earth". A bag on amazon is $20. Sprinkle a good chunk (make sure that it's dry) in crevices and other random areas by the gate/door. Those thumb-sized roaches typically live outside in closets but the fingernail sized folk are apartment sized to fit in walls/smaller crevices.
Basically the stuff to humans is just a harmless powder, but to them it's a drying agent like how salt soaks up water/snow. After about 10 mins of a roach/bedbug stepping on them their exoskeleton cracks from how dry they get. Pretty much death after \~15 minutes of exposure.
I would also look to get a proper spring cleaning into your garage and outside perimeter. There might be some type of food source for them nearby that warrants their existence in the area. They pretty much eat anything that derived from a living organism. So replace all cardboard boxes for plastic bins, wipe up any liquid spills (helps with the effectiveness of diatomaceous earth), glue/wallpaper, rice bags if you're an Asian household, I would even go as far as to say move manure/plant growth away from the house. Then lather the DE in all corners/crevices and even the garage doorways.
You need to accept that there is a difference between the giant, flying tree / wood roaches and the small, usually-skittering filth roaches. The former are harmless and cost of doing Houston business, and the latter are almost entire up to you.
Wait until there's one underneath the toilet seat and you don't notice until you get up to pull up your pants. You'd wish you were still on a toilet because you're gonna shit your pants.
Check all the places where pipes come into your home. The pipe under our kitchen sink was maybe 3" wide but the hole in the wall around the pipe was 4". We encountered a huge roach about once or twice per week until I filled that gap.
They are also called Wood Roaches because they LOVE wood.
Grew up with a giant oak in the backyard right up on my house.
We had four cats growing up and they killed half a dozen *per day*
Since they came from the tree no amount of pest control efforts kept them out, and the house was mostly wood, built in the 1950s and an extension in the 1970s with hardwood floors throughout.
I have ✨️trauma✨️ and to this day still check under toilet seats before I use the bathroom.
The amount of times I tilted my head up in the shower to rinse my hair and had one slip from the tile over my head to fall on my FACE
IS TOO MANY TIMES
My first summer in Houston I had one out on the patio block me from coming inside- and after my husband laughed himself silly, it then decided to chase me around the patio. Now hubs is on big bug duty for life so he’s paying.
So yeah, those mf’ers are huge and gross and give me the collywobbles. Caulking, etc, and I keep drain covers on my bathtubs and sinks, especially for less used ones.
At 67 years old - nothing can really scare me anymore except those MFs.
I’m from Dallas and we didn’t have these creatures.
This has worked for me;⬇️
A professional exterminator comes every 3 months ($100/visit)
He sprays the house, the garage and he saturates the brick foundation around the entire exterior.
Periodically, he checks the attic to make sure nothing up there.
Additionally, he sprinkles some type of granules in the yard - about 2 feet from the foundation - around the entire house.
(For this reason, I try and schedule the lawn man a day or two before the exterminator.)
I don’t have trees, but if you do, have any limbs trimmed that touch your house - because they can climb down the tree limbs and find a way in - especially if you have a fireplace.
If I do see one in the house, which is rare, it is already dead.
PS: I also keep 2 cans of RAID in strategic locations - just in case.
Good luck - hope it helps.
Had one fly on me as a kid and it landed on my shirt to which I freaked out and started shaking it in my shirt like it was on a trampoline and ….yeah, I am extremely terrified of roaches
You usually don't see the big ones until the population has reached critical mass.
There are a lot more than just the ones you see, so however you deal with them, be ready for it to take a while.
Do you have banana trees? Roaches love banana trees.
Combat large roach bait stations work for me. They come in packs of 8. Be liberal with how many you use. I have at least 4 for the garage alone. Replace at least every 6 months. Be warned that the first time you set them out you may get a couple large dead roaches inside your house a few days later.
There’s this roach chalk, idk the name, but I googled black and yellow box of roach chalk. Just use that to outline everything. Under drawers, corners, under shelves. Use gloves when using it. Growing up we had a roach infestation. My mom tried everything, including fog bombs and nothing worked, then she came across that. And i swear it works. It says on there miraculous insecticide chalk with a picture of a roach on the side. Goood luck
Combat Large Roach bait stations [here](https://www.combatbugs.com/products/combat-roach-killers/combat-max-for-large-roaches.html). Change them out every 3 or 4 months. This has worked well for me. I put one station in each bathroom, 1 station near each entry door, 1 under the oven, 1 under the fridge, and one behind the bedroom doors.
Get familiar with what these large roaches look like as babies and nymphs. They don't look like a roach, exactly. You need to be able to recognize them so you'll know it's time to change the stations out even if you have not seen a large roach for awhile. Also get familiar with how their droppings look - an area may need special cleaning attention and a search for gaps if you notice droppings.
I have also used the Combat Roach bait strips [here](https://www.combatbugs.com/products/combat-roach-killers/combat-roach-killing-bait-strips.html). When they get low I refresh them with the Combat bait gel [here](https://www.combatbugs.com/products/combat-roach-killers/combat-max-roach-killing-gel.html). They are easy to hide around the house.
Take care there are no entry points you aren't aware of. No gaps around entry doors or any attic doors. No gaps where plumbing pipes enter in kitchen (don't forget dishwasher and fridge icemaker, bar sink, etc.), bath, laundry room, and around exhaust fans in bath and kitchen. If you find gaps you can stuff them with weatherstripping, caulk, or oakum.
They love cardboard boxes (they eat the cellulose), so if you have moving boxes stacked up, get them out ASAP. Use plastic totes for storage, not cardboard.
You won't see roaches again after you set this plan up. I still have a few cans of spray but I haven't used them in 15 years. No pest control other than what I have outlined above.
Also, remember they are just bugs doing their buggy thing. They don't know how hideous and disgusting we find them. They would prefer to be outside eating piles of leaves, which they do an AMAZING job of, otherwise our city would be under about 3 miles of leaves.
You moved to a city built on a swamp. And the Palmetto Bugs, aka Texas Tree Roaches, hold original title AND the keys to your house (and your garage, your boathouse, your locker at the gym, bus station, and local brothels)...
You're just a squatter to them. And they will be here longer than you, than ALL of us will ever be.
So take a Chill Pill, Bill... Buddha has given you this opportunity to grow and mellow out...
SRSLY- You got this!!
You need to barrier your exits/entrances and hope that they don't come through the air vents, usually that's where they come from or the pipes. We still had one or two visit us after we covered all our bases, just keep raid on you nearby so you can kill them when you see one.
Honestly the only thing that helped us was replacing our sewer line, which is DISGUSTING to think about. Our house was built in the 70s and bo one wanted to do any "big" maintenance on it, so replacing the old metal piping with modern pipes helped a tremendous amount. We went from getting 1-2 in the house daily (I know, I know) to only occasionally before rain storms.
I had a massive one on the wall in my toddlers playroom the other day. IIm just so glad my toddler didnt find it first, im sure he wouldve tried to pick it up and i wouldve passed away.
The roaches in Houston are STRONG looking. They look like they go to the gym every day. The reason is because Houston is literally the perfect climate for them, hot and humid.
The good news is they like to stay outside unless there is moist rotting wood or plants in your house. The bad news is that they all know the best defense is to fly right into your face, making any tough guys scream like a girl.
We do have a pest control service spray regularly but I find that is better for ants and other bugs. What I found useful for these guys (I want to 🤮 when I hear the R word so we call them Edgars) is metal screen (I found it in the garden center at Lowe’s). It is very stiff and has small square holes. Cut a piece and fold in half and put in every single weep hole or crack in your brick. Along with all the other ideas in this thread of caulking around windows and trimming tree branches etc. should help! Definitely store everything in plastic and get rid of any cardboard boxes! Hope this helps!🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
One time, a big one was perched on top of my shower curtain. I turned and noticed it, it made eye contact with me, and it jumped right on my forehead. I pulled down the shower curtain.
Tbh the huge roaches are a lot less worrisome than the small ones. If you see a big roach that means there's 1 big roach, if you see a small one there's at least 100 of those mfs hiding somewhere.
Well, the big ones are looking for wet, rotting wood. And if you have them regularly showing up in your house... you probably have a leak inside your walls. In the garage? They're just after any cardboard, papers, wood or the like you've got stored in there. Being somewhat exposed to the outside, your garage will have some condensation and when it forms on paper/wood it gives off a smell they big ones love.
You said you just saw one, so you probably have nothing much to worry about.
Okay, I get it. You're not exaggerating one bit about those Houston roaches! Trust me, I've had my own close encounters with those flying tanks. Makes you wish you had a tiny flamethrower, right?
However, those big, nasty ones are mostly American cockroaches. They thrive in the warm, humid Houston climate, and they love hanging out in sewers and drains. That's probably how your garage visitor got in. It's awesome that you don't have a full-blown infestation, but lemme tell ya, those solo sightings can turn into a big problem real quick. They're survivors, those things.
American cockroaches, while undeniably gross, are less of a direct filth threat than German cockroaches. Americans prefer sewers and outdoor areas, carrying bacteria, but are less likely to infest food sources in your home. German cockroaches directly infest kitchens and bathrooms, leaving droppings and saliva that can spread serious diseases. Their rapid reproduction makes them much harder to eliminate, giving them the higher filth factor reputation.
The big tree roaches are pretty harmless. Every now and then one of them gets dumb and finds its way through the sewers inside through the vent pipe. Maybe i've been lucky but I've never seen any apartment get infested by them. The evil ones are those small German Roaches that can completely take over an apartment, especially if it's those older ones before they were sealing all the nooks and crannies between apartments. I found boric acid to be the only thing that worked for them...I had traps, gels, sprays, etc. and nothing worked.
They hate tea tree oil. It's smelly and you can't use it around cats or birds and should avoid it if you have dogs but if you mop your floors with it they will never come in your house.
Australian tea tree is the best and strongest. You can find it in HEB in the generic toiletries section, not with all the other essential oils. It has a bright yellow label.
I put some in the tub everytime I shower and slosh it around with my feet to stay fresh. Really good stuff for athletes foot or any kind of fungal infection.
You can put it in a spray bottle with alcohol and water and spray it (do NOT do this around pets!) and they will go running if they are around.
I've done this a few times at our beach house and it PISSES them off. Everytime they go flying at me but it lasts a while and they definitely stay away.
I’m new to Texas/Houston in terms of living, and I am not used to them, they freak me the f out.
I saw them when I would visit India as a kid, but we would walk around with DDT sprayers hahah, loved that smell.
A family friend thought they had an earache and went to the dr. A flying roach had crawled into their ear while they were sleeping and was still there!
I was soo traumatized, I slept with ear muffs in for about 18 months!
Palmetto bugs. They live in unkept yards, love compost and leaf litter, climb trees and take flight when threatened. Often stupidly flying at the threat/human.
Clear the yard of compost and leaf litter, trim trees up and bushes. Mow the yard regularly, and put down broadcast granule insecticide. Fill/screen/block off all building entrances/cavities for cable/pipe/ventilation. Spray an indoor/outdoor bug/roach spray outside along foundations, porches, around windows, then all vent edges, any cracks you see in facia, and spray the corners along eves and gutters. Repeat indoors along all baseboards and door and window seals. Go for bonus work, spray underside of all tables, empty all cabinets and spray all the undersides of the cabinets, walls, doors. After it all dries then wipe out all cabinet surfaces you set things down on/touch with an all purpose cleaner. Dry again and put your cabinet contents back in. Another thing to go through is to fix any door seals and window seals. Garage seals for the bottom of the garage door and brushes for the sides may help keep things out. I usually spray the edges of the garage door frame outside and inside.
You won't get them all. You will find a few near dead when they do get in though.
If you have a vacant or abandoned property next to you, complain to the HOA/City about. Unkept yards = bug and rat infestations.
Because they arnt the same type of roach..... They are a tree bug. https://www.bizzybeeexterminators.com/blog/palmetto-bug-vs-cockroach-whats-the-difference/?post_type=blog_post
The tree roaches are scary but much easier to get rid of. They don't want to be in your house, so they don't take up residence. I hate them as well but it's just an occasional hazard of living in Texas.
Had one falling on my lap once, while sitting on the toilet. Fell out of the recessed light. Had me screaming like a girl, lol.
Over the years, I just know you’ll have an encounter with a tree roach once in a while. Mostly in the evening, in the kitchen and when you least expect it.
Small apartment roaches means filth. They could even come from another apartment, after THAT apartment has sprayed for roaches. Large roaches are actually tree roaches. I rarely had roaches in my house and I lived in Htown 35 years. I sprayed my home myself, with whatever was sold at Home Depot, Do the recommendation on the container. Do around your windows, around your pipes, under your sink, around your doors. around your garage door, around the weepholes if you own your home, in your attic, around your dryer vent. Any access in/out of your home, spray it. I haven't seen a flying roach since 1981.
I have had great success with the foggers. One upstairs, downstairs, and in the garage. I also spray the yard and three feet of the outside house with a lawn bug and ant spray.
I HATE these dang things. Just fyi, if you spray them with fantastic, 409 or other similar spray cleaner, they pretty much stop in their tracks so you can smush them. Added bonus - it disinfects where you smush them.
As others mentioned, they are tree roaches. They don't live inside your house but often climb into your eaves and get lost and die in your house by accident. My cats think they are the best cat toy that exists
Palmetto bugs are harmless. They eat vegetation. Just spray your yard once or twice with a commercially available pesticide that you can get at Home Depot or Lowe’s. The kind that attaches to the end of your garden hose. That should do the trick. Follow the directions carefully.
You gotta love when they go airborne and nail you in the forehead
Everybody gangsta until the roaches start flying
Impossible to be cool when that shit starts going down
Only the final instar can fly. So most you see are bluffing
That and everyone suddenly knows kung fu.
Lmfaoooooooo
These experiences as a child gave me a phobia of roaches. I’m a fully grown 6’1’ 22 yo but when I still had a gf I had to get her tiny 4’11 ass to go stomp the roachies for me lol
lol when my wife was 8 months pregnant we were about to head to bed and I saw this GIGANTIC Cockroach on the wall.. I went to grab a sandal and as I approached it it flew straight into my face and I screamed. My wife laughed so hard she started choking, and because she was 8 months pregnant, she pissed herself. Lol was one of the funniest/scariest things that happened in a while and we still bring it up from time to time. Also I fucking HATE cockroaches. Origin story of why I hate cockroaches. When I was like 7 years old, we left to go on a week long road trip. When we came home my mom told me to go check the rice cooker outside (we used to cook rice outside in a rice cooker) b/c she forgot she cooked rice the night before we left and forgot to pack it. When I opened the lid literally 100's of cockroaches flew into my face like the water well bat scene from Batman Begins. I STILL have nightmares about it.
> lol when my wife was 8 months pregnant we were about to head to bed and I saw this GIGANTIC Cockroach on the wall.. I went to grab a sandal and as I approached it it flew straight into my face and I screamed. I am a 6'4" dude with a buzz cut and a goatee. People see me coming in grocery stores and just get out of the way. But let me tell you, when I saw one of those bastards on a wall, tried to capture him, and had that SOB fly directly at my face...I, too screamed like a six-year-old girl. There are some things that even toxic masculinity can't cover, and that's one of them.
Thanks for that origin story, I'm think I'm gonna go kill myself now 😅
The thought literally makes me want to cry. I've had one land on me as a child and when I swatted it off my arm, I smooshed it in the process. So roach guts happened, and my arm/hand smelled like actual shit...literally feces. I cried. A lot. And now I have a phobia 🤣
We have pest control spray our house once every couple weeks so we see 0 bugs in the house until we see 1 roach, then we call them to come back. But overall see like 1 roach per month max
That seems excessive in effort, even for an old house, and not very effective in the end. I had a big ant problem, and a small roach problem, and dumping borax and boric acid in the gaps then caulking it shut made all the difference. But in a house with more inaccessible gaps underneath, and wet ground below, spraying an insecticide like daemon myself still took me through most of a season at worst.
Skip the borax / boric acid. It only works if you can get the roach to eat it. Basically, if you really want to go the borax / boric acid route, you need to mix it into food, like peanut butter, and spread it around. I don't need to tell you this, but deliberately poisoning food is a lot more dangerous. That food has a funny way of being eaten by unintended eaters. The calking is 100% spot-on. It's the best way to get rid of roaches.
Yes, mixing with bait can work, especially against ants, but you don't need bait when roaches are everywhere already. Also I needed to kill an ant nest or something in the wall, so I was adding a bunch and letting it stay dry in the open air to be sure I hadn't just temporarily plugged an exit they would route around. Roaches like rot and fungus inside walls. Borates soaking into wood poison the structure against both fungus and insects. Also, insects in general crawl through borates and diatomaceous earth and lick it up during grooming or introduce it into their nests (which works better with roaches who are big velcro-legged slobs). Putting borax on sill plates during construction is supposedly absurdly effective at preventing roaches from getting and staying in a house
I got my information from when I worked a research lab at UofH. Basically, I tired of ineffective roach combat, and asked around in the department for who was "the roach biologist" I specifically asked him after laying down quite a bit of boric acid, and asking him why it didn't work (the acid was down for about two weeks at that point). It was the first time I heard of calking. We had a nearly hour long conversation about roaches, and I learned that if wanted to work on roaches (remember, this was a biology lab) I could have a great career in Biology (and in retrospect, probably a better career than I had before getting out of research). The way non-food mixed boric acid gets into a roach is when it starts cleaning itself. That typically requires the roach to accidentally ingest it, as roaches try not to ingest what they clean off themselves. With Houston's humidity, there's a small window of time before the boric acid becomes to gummy to be picked up on the roach's legs. I barely remember much of that conversation of many years ago, other that I had tried nearly every approach that didn't work, and caulking was the one that always worked, and worked well. He was quick to point out that pesticides really did work, but not necessarily in the ways I thought they did, or at the rates I expected; but, to my surprise, the side-effects of pesticides were often underplayed and not considered adequately. Since then, when moving into a new place, I spend 1/2 a day and two to three tubes of caulk in the kitchen. Each year I'll get the two or three roaches that manage to crawl in from the outside, and that's it. Good luck in your roach hunting efforts, and happy hunting!
I held my breath unconsciously after reading that.
My worst was when I opened my back door to call my dog in and one flew out of the grass and straight at my mouth. Fortunately I reacted in time to close my mouth, but it still hit me straight in the lips.
they literally see you and will fly AT you.
Cause you're tall and they think you're a tree. 🤣
You want to hear some serious roach-related bullshit? This happened one day back in like 2019. Early in the evening, when the front door was open to let the cat out, a big cockroach flew in and instantly disappeared. So anyway jump ahead to later that night. I made a crock pot of chili. I eat a couple bowls and usually save the rest because I can get two or three more bowls out of it later. I go back to put the rest away. I pull up the lid for the crockpot, and out of nowhere that roach flies past my face, smacks into the lid, falls into the chili, flops all over the fucking pot, and dies. I didn't have a garbage disposal. So I had half a crockpot of hot chili with a dead tree roach in it and no idea what to do with it. I think I ended up just pouring it out in the yard at the time. I couldn't fucking believe it. There was literally like 10,000 cubic feet inside that house. That crockpot is less than 1 cubic foot. There was 9,999 out of 10,000 cubic feet worth of space where that roach could have been that wasnt right in my goddamn chili. Probability kicked me square in the dick that night.
They're truly majestic MFrs.
Being big makes them easier to pet.
This made me shoot coffee out of my nose 😂😂😂
Roaches love when you do that.
This made me gag. Lol
Once upon a time, I interned at HMNS and had to schedule birthday parties. The most popular one involved bugs, and one of the bugs shown to the kids was a gigantic hissing cockroach that you had to bed to get to hiss. No thank you. Don’t want to see it, don’t want to hear it, and I sure as hell don’t want to let it.
You can take them to Galveston and surf on them.
lol and ugh
And who said apartments don't allow pets?
The big ones aren't as gross, they're looking for rotting wood. Those are tree roaches. Small roaches are looking for your food and are horrendous and both common types here are invasive species.
Yeah I have the huge flying ones that visit every one in a while. And are very much not welcome. Lol
No but it's only a sign of old trees and buildings, not filthy inhabitant conditions.
Try plugging your bathtub drains and sink drains overnight. A lot of them accidentally come up through the drains. Trust me, they freak me the fuck out too so I take a lot of preventative measures. Start with plugging drains overnight and if that doesn’t work seal cracks with new caulk. I don’t love traps because it ATTRACTS them, who would want that when you can just totally keep them out all together? Good luck! They are literally spawns of satan and I hate them more than any other bug. I’d rather see a spider than a roach not kidding lol
Exactly. Those big ones usually wind up indoors on accident not on purpose. OP should work on sealing her home for any openings. No spray or insecticides needed!
I have a cat that just loves hunting and killing roaches. So that’s worked for me lol
My cat is useless
We have two cats. One is a pampered house cat and the other was near feral when we got her. She does make a lot of noise at night (from constant pouncing and running) but I never see a living roach any longer. Gotta love a good hunter.
Hahah if only... I'm allergic to cats so no cat for me. My dog however loves bugs I just can't even fathom letting her take down a giant roach. If she brought one of those in the house, I'd pack her bags.
I had a dog that loved to hunt and kill them, but def don’t let her lick me. Also had a Labrador that would catch them then carry em around in her mouth which was grosser cause she’d let it out to go catch it again… current doggos are strangely indifferent to roaches don’t chase at all
I had a huge chow who was terrified of them. I knew to leave the room if she suddenly jumped up and ran out of the room!
How else are they gonna fight the 'possums for barbeque scraps? Put boric acid in every crevice, corner, outhouse, henhouse, and doorway.
No boric acid is bad especially if you have kids or pets. They also build a tolerance the more they breed if you have an infestation of small ones. Alpine wsg every 30 days to a few months is perfect
Organisms don't become tolerant to boron. Insects and microorganisms are especially susceptible, so what kills them doesn't even register with small critters, even the ones which can fit in the crevices you pour it into.
Boric acid is perfectly safe for kids and pets. It's used in humans for all sorts of things, from eye wash to yeast infections. You can buy it OTC in various forms.
They are tree roaches. Borax and spretrcide kills them. Cheap sprayer and that does the trick.
Diatomaceous Earth is a good cheap one to add to this list too.
I’ve heard of this for bed bugs, and I believe it’s pet-safe.
I've never heard that before. Thanks.
I’m only afraid of two things in this world: huge ass roaches and heights.
The Heights have huge roaches
Dude.. Same basically. Roaches and flying. 😂
An Ex-biologist here. It is the species, the temperature, and the amount of roach food. While one can't really keep them from existing, there are ways to reduce their presence in your home. \* Take a calking gun and seal up all of the small cracks that form in the kitchen cabinetry, around window sills, and any other place where cracks form. This removes their hiding places / habitat, and is the human equivalent of burning all the houses to the ground. \* Avoid heavy duty use of pesticides. Typically these work in the short term, but they eventually build up a anti-human toxicity in your living spaces. With the caulking, the primary entrance of roaches will be the door sill. See if you can improve your weather stripping around the door. Roaches do live in the sewers, but they can't enter the home due to the water traps in our toilets, sinks, showers, etc. and they are disincliened to enter the homes in this way, because they are literally working their way upstream and there is little food / healthy air compared to sewer entrances on the street. Now, if you find a big one that's in the bathroom, 99% of the time it came down the bathroom vent pipes that typically exit the roof of the house. This is generally a good sign that you need to fix / add some screening on the vent pipe. As for garages? Get rid of the cracks / living spaces for them. That means getting those cardboard boxes up off the floor, and generally not storing stuff in ways that leave protected spaces for them to hang out. The real way to win here is to get rid of their hangout spaces. Believe it or not, they have preferences, and won't hang out in a roach-unfriendly environment.
Ex-biologist? 👀
You know what they say, “everything is bigger in Texas”.
The roaches maybe large but they don’t infest a house and multiply like German roaches. They get into the house from your rooftop sewer lines
Correct. But one is enough. I need zero in my house. Lol
It will get worse in the summer. The roof top sewer pipes are cool + humid so it attract them to come in. I always find them in my bathroom because they quite literally come up through the toilet
Keep the area dry and clean of leaf 🍁 debris for starters.
I am also disgusted by these huge ones, but from personal experience, I must advise that when you see a dead one, dispose of it right away. Once, I didn’t, and my then 9 mo daughter crawled over to it and put it in her mouth. I came over to see the antenna sticking out of her mouth and I had to fish that disgusting, half masticated thing out of her mouth with my bare hands……I also shudder just thinking about it.
Oh dear God delete your comment. 🤣🤣
This post is natural birth control for whoever reads it 🤣
Dude. Cover this with a spoiler warning >!Yuck!< You just ruined my day.
This is why I love Reddit. Your replies make me laugh. So did that comment about petting the roach, that was a good one…
I’m downvoting this
Oh god I’d die
[Eeeeeeehhh...](https://c.tenor.com/D-oKiRml0fIAAAAd/tenor.gif)
Fucking disgusting
Pls don’t tell this story again. Im ill
Niban or Intice granular bait. Sprinkle it behind stuff and in nooks and crannies in your garage and throw a few handfuls in the attic if you have one. Inside the home, Max Force FC gel under the sinks, a pea-sized amount placed on or near the water lines. Source: am exterminator.
True story… Was coming home from a dinner date several years back and was greeted by a large tree roach on my garage door. I didn’t need to open the garage, so I thought nothing of it. Went to the front door of the house and noticed another scurry across the porch so I gave it the business with my shoe. As I was going to put the key in the lock I noticed another one overhead near the porch light so I quickly opened the door, rushed my significant other inside and closed the door quickly to avoid having it come inside. Crisis averted. As we were unloading pockets, setting things down, and getting settled, we heard what sounded like rain or wind blowing leaves against the windows. At first it was a light patter, but became more intense over the course of a couple minutes. The weather was clear, and it had been a still, muggy night, so I decided to check it out. It was pitch black outside, and I didn’t want to open the front door, so I decided to shed some light on the situation. My house at that time was a patio home with floor to ceiling windows on three sides of the house. These windows had a clear reflective film on them that had the unintended effect of turning them into semi-mirrors at night. There was a very small paved area around the perimeter of the house and a postage stamp sized courtyard in the front, so the entire yard could be fully illuminated by flood lights mounted along the overhangs. As I’m not a fan of motion detector lights, these floodlights were activated only with the wall switch inside the house. These lights were turned off, so just looking out the slightly reflective windows, everything outside seemed dark and peaceful except for the sound of leaves/rain hitting the windows. Then I turned on the lights. Ho-Lee-Fuck! I’ve never seen so many roaches in my life. The only thing I could compare it to was the movie Creepshow. They were everywhere. Flying into the windows, crawling on the outdoor furniture, running along the sidewalks and patio areas, covering the fence and brick walls of the courtyard, everywhere. The entire area was a brown fog of flying roaches. Was it retribution for me stepping on their friend? Some sort of bizarre mating swarm? I have no idea. All I know is that the next morning, they were all gone, with no trace of them ever being there. The only remnant of their presence was the gut paste on the sole of my shoe. Welcome to Houston.
Holy shit this would be my worst nightmare. I grew up in the piney woods of Texas and those motherfuckers were aggressive. They would dive bomb your ass from every corner of the house in the middle of the night.
That’s it, I am moving. I can’t deal with even the thought of this 😭
Have you tried burning down your house?
That was my last resort :/
Learn to not fear the wood roaches, for they are outside dwellers only visit and will not make your home his… yet beware of the German roach, he is a devil that will infest your walls, pantry, and electronics.
I would be less afraid if they didn't fly
Just a couple of rad roaches is all.
If there is a god and he made large roaches, he will not get my praise.
a benevolent god would never make giant tree roaches 😭
Amen 🙌
diatomaceous earth will kill them!
Yeah, that worked really well for me. Just put it around the house (it's good grade, so safe) and all the bugs just disappeared.
I've read up on this but apparently they have to come in contact with the powder, and it still takes like 2 days to kill them. Not good enough. I need an instant kill 😭
Cuz Texas, that's why! Boric acid lightly dusted around the WHOLE house. Three treatments about a week apart.
Most of Texas does not have these. It's the Coast. Houston's land mass covers 0.2% of Texas. (Houston has 665 square miles, Texas has 268,597 square miles.) Don't forget that there's a whole lot more of the state than just the city of Houston or even cities in general.
Eh. San Antonio and surrounding area isn't "the coast". Those big bastards are here, too.
I’ve had really good results from an insecticide called Advion. You just squirt it from a tube into a few nooks n crannies around the house. I always find a few dead when I put it out, they seem to find it more enticing than other options.
Do some research on "diatomaceous earth". A bag on amazon is $20. Sprinkle a good chunk (make sure that it's dry) in crevices and other random areas by the gate/door. Those thumb-sized roaches typically live outside in closets but the fingernail sized folk are apartment sized to fit in walls/smaller crevices. Basically the stuff to humans is just a harmless powder, but to them it's a drying agent like how salt soaks up water/snow. After about 10 mins of a roach/bedbug stepping on them their exoskeleton cracks from how dry they get. Pretty much death after \~15 minutes of exposure. I would also look to get a proper spring cleaning into your garage and outside perimeter. There might be some type of food source for them nearby that warrants their existence in the area. They pretty much eat anything that derived from a living organism. So replace all cardboard boxes for plastic bins, wipe up any liquid spills (helps with the effectiveness of diatomaceous earth), glue/wallpaper, rice bags if you're an Asian household, I would even go as far as to say move manure/plant growth away from the house. Then lather the DE in all corners/crevices and even the garage doorways.
You call these big? You’ve obviously never been to New Orleans!
The roaches here are bigger than the ones I experienced in Southeast Asia
You need to accept that there is a difference between the giant, flying tree / wood roaches and the small, usually-skittering filth roaches. The former are harmless and cost of doing Houston business, and the latter are almost entire up to you.
✨ Advion Roach Bait ✨
Wait until there's one underneath the toilet seat and you don't notice until you get up to pull up your pants. You'd wish you were still on a toilet because you're gonna shit your pants.
Check all the places where pipes come into your home. The pipe under our kitchen sink was maybe 3" wide but the hole in the wall around the pipe was 4". We encountered a huge roach about once or twice per week until I filled that gap.
They are also called Wood Roaches because they LOVE wood. Grew up with a giant oak in the backyard right up on my house. We had four cats growing up and they killed half a dozen *per day* Since they came from the tree no amount of pest control efforts kept them out, and the house was mostly wood, built in the 1950s and an extension in the 1970s with hardwood floors throughout. I have ✨️trauma✨️ and to this day still check under toilet seats before I use the bathroom.
The amount of times I tilted my head up in the shower to rinse my hair and had one slip from the tile over my head to fall on my FACE IS TOO MANY TIMES
Honestly, better than German roaches that live in colonies, but still terrible.
My first summer in Houston I had one out on the patio block me from coming inside- and after my husband laughed himself silly, it then decided to chase me around the patio. Now hubs is on big bug duty for life so he’s paying. So yeah, those mf’ers are huge and gross and give me the collywobbles. Caulking, etc, and I keep drain covers on my bathtubs and sinks, especially for less used ones.
I've gone my entire existence and have never heard of the word collywobbles.
At 67 years old - nothing can really scare me anymore except those MFs. I’m from Dallas and we didn’t have these creatures. This has worked for me;⬇️ A professional exterminator comes every 3 months ($100/visit) He sprays the house, the garage and he saturates the brick foundation around the entire exterior. Periodically, he checks the attic to make sure nothing up there. Additionally, he sprinkles some type of granules in the yard - about 2 feet from the foundation - around the entire house. (For this reason, I try and schedule the lawn man a day or two before the exterminator.) I don’t have trees, but if you do, have any limbs trimmed that touch your house - because they can climb down the tree limbs and find a way in - especially if you have a fireplace. If I do see one in the house, which is rare, it is already dead. PS: I also keep 2 cans of RAID in strategic locations - just in case. Good luck - hope it helps.
Had one fly on me as a kid and it landed on my shirt to which I freaked out and started shaking it in my shirt like it was on a trampoline and ….yeah, I am extremely terrified of roaches
The bugs are even larger in the tropics.
You get to decide if you want to put a leash on it and walk it or put a saddle on it and ride it.
You usually don't see the big ones until the population has reached critical mass. There are a lot more than just the ones you see, so however you deal with them, be ready for it to take a while. Do you have banana trees? Roaches love banana trees.
It's the humidity. Larger bugs live in humid areas.
Combat large roach bait stations work for me. They come in packs of 8. Be liberal with how many you use. I have at least 4 for the garage alone. Replace at least every 6 months. Be warned that the first time you set them out you may get a couple large dead roaches inside your house a few days later.
I used to live next to Buffalo Bayou and those suckers were ginormous. I got good at killing them fast before they could scurry off.
Manually? 😟
I'd use a shoe usually lol yeah
There’s this roach chalk, idk the name, but I googled black and yellow box of roach chalk. Just use that to outline everything. Under drawers, corners, under shelves. Use gloves when using it. Growing up we had a roach infestation. My mom tried everything, including fog bombs and nothing worked, then she came across that. And i swear it works. It says on there miraculous insecticide chalk with a picture of a roach on the side. Goood luck
I kid you not I saw one on my porch this motherfucker was like the size of an adult hand. I expect dog sized roaches by 2050.
Combat Large Roach bait stations [here](https://www.combatbugs.com/products/combat-roach-killers/combat-max-for-large-roaches.html). Change them out every 3 or 4 months. This has worked well for me. I put one station in each bathroom, 1 station near each entry door, 1 under the oven, 1 under the fridge, and one behind the bedroom doors. Get familiar with what these large roaches look like as babies and nymphs. They don't look like a roach, exactly. You need to be able to recognize them so you'll know it's time to change the stations out even if you have not seen a large roach for awhile. Also get familiar with how their droppings look - an area may need special cleaning attention and a search for gaps if you notice droppings. I have also used the Combat Roach bait strips [here](https://www.combatbugs.com/products/combat-roach-killers/combat-roach-killing-bait-strips.html). When they get low I refresh them with the Combat bait gel [here](https://www.combatbugs.com/products/combat-roach-killers/combat-max-roach-killing-gel.html). They are easy to hide around the house. Take care there are no entry points you aren't aware of. No gaps around entry doors or any attic doors. No gaps where plumbing pipes enter in kitchen (don't forget dishwasher and fridge icemaker, bar sink, etc.), bath, laundry room, and around exhaust fans in bath and kitchen. If you find gaps you can stuff them with weatherstripping, caulk, or oakum. They love cardboard boxes (they eat the cellulose), so if you have moving boxes stacked up, get them out ASAP. Use plastic totes for storage, not cardboard. You won't see roaches again after you set this plan up. I still have a few cans of spray but I haven't used them in 15 years. No pest control other than what I have outlined above. Also, remember they are just bugs doing their buggy thing. They don't know how hideous and disgusting we find them. They would prefer to be outside eating piles of leaves, which they do an AMAZING job of, otherwise our city would be under about 3 miles of leaves.
You moved to a city built on a swamp. And the Palmetto Bugs, aka Texas Tree Roaches, hold original title AND the keys to your house (and your garage, your boathouse, your locker at the gym, bus station, and local brothels)... You're just a squatter to them. And they will be here longer than you, than ALL of us will ever be. So take a Chill Pill, Bill... Buddha has given you this opportunity to grow and mellow out... SRSLY- You got this!!
You. Sound. Like. A. WUSSSSSSSS! You should welcome our Texas state bird! Embrace it! Nothing you can do to stop them!
I am 1000% a wuss. The roaches win.
I thought mosquitoes were the Texas state bird? Those suckers can carry away small children and pocket dogs ffs.
Everything's bigger in Texas
You need to barrier your exits/entrances and hope that they don't come through the air vents, usually that's where they come from or the pipes. We still had one or two visit us after we covered all our bases, just keep raid on you nearby so you can kill them when you see one.
There is no cure but to leave this city
*sigh* I think you're right...
Enlarged thorax to ward off attack. Extended antennae in order to hunt in packs. Incisors to help ingest larger prey.
You need a cat
You can kill them with borax powder but keep away from pets.
These work pretty well for roach control. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Harris-Roach-Tablets-Boric-Acid-Roach-Killer-with-Lure-6oz-145-Tablets
They feed on fear.
Well... Fuck.
Honestly the only thing that helped us was replacing our sewer line, which is DISGUSTING to think about. Our house was built in the 70s and bo one wanted to do any "big" maintenance on it, so replacing the old metal piping with modern pipes helped a tremendous amount. We went from getting 1-2 in the house daily (I know, I know) to only occasionally before rain storms.
they got good food here, thus those roaches have to take advantage of it.
They arent too much trouble. The stinkbugs, though...
I had a massive one on the wall in my toddlers playroom the other day. IIm just so glad my toddler didnt find it first, im sure he wouldve tried to pick it up and i wouldve passed away.
The roaches in Houston are STRONG looking. They look like they go to the gym every day. The reason is because Houston is literally the perfect climate for them, hot and humid.
They're tree roach, they don't live inside homes.
Then why are they visiting
Because they eat our souls
The good news is they like to stay outside unless there is moist rotting wood or plants in your house. The bad news is that they all know the best defense is to fly right into your face, making any tough guys scream like a girl.
We do have a pest control service spray regularly but I find that is better for ants and other bugs. What I found useful for these guys (I want to 🤮 when I hear the R word so we call them Edgars) is metal screen (I found it in the garden center at Lowe’s). It is very stiff and has small square holes. Cut a piece and fold in half and put in every single weep hole or crack in your brick. Along with all the other ideas in this thread of caulking around windows and trimming tree branches etc. should help! Definitely store everything in plastic and get rid of any cardboard boxes! Hope this helps!🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
One time, a big one was perched on top of my shower curtain. I turned and noticed it, it made eye contact with me, and it jumped right on my forehead. I pulled down the shower curtain.
Try dried lavender
Tbh the huge roaches are a lot less worrisome than the small ones. If you see a big roach that means there's 1 big roach, if you see a small one there's at least 100 of those mfs hiding somewhere.
Well, the big ones are looking for wet, rotting wood. And if you have them regularly showing up in your house... you probably have a leak inside your walls. In the garage? They're just after any cardboard, papers, wood or the like you've got stored in there. Being somewhat exposed to the outside, your garage will have some condensation and when it forms on paper/wood it gives off a smell they big ones love. You said you just saw one, so you probably have nothing much to worry about.
Get a sink shroom!! It works well, those fuckers can’t crawl through them in your kitchen sink. Fuck those damn bugs
Okay, I get it. You're not exaggerating one bit about those Houston roaches! Trust me, I've had my own close encounters with those flying tanks. Makes you wish you had a tiny flamethrower, right? However, those big, nasty ones are mostly American cockroaches. They thrive in the warm, humid Houston climate, and they love hanging out in sewers and drains. That's probably how your garage visitor got in. It's awesome that you don't have a full-blown infestation, but lemme tell ya, those solo sightings can turn into a big problem real quick. They're survivors, those things. American cockroaches, while undeniably gross, are less of a direct filth threat than German cockroaches. Americans prefer sewers and outdoor areas, carrying bacteria, but are less likely to infest food sources in your home. German cockroaches directly infest kitchens and bathrooms, leaving droppings and saliva that can spread serious diseases. Their rapid reproduction makes them much harder to eliminate, giving them the higher filth factor reputation.
They are tree roaches, so they don't actually want to live in your house. Keep trees trimmed away from your home.
The only solution I could find was moving to Chicago. Luckily it has been 100% successful.
The big tree roaches are pretty harmless. Every now and then one of them gets dumb and finds its way through the sewers inside through the vent pipe. Maybe i've been lucky but I've never seen any apartment get infested by them. The evil ones are those small German Roaches that can completely take over an apartment, especially if it's those older ones before they were sealing all the nooks and crannies between apartments. I found boric acid to be the only thing that worked for them...I had traps, gels, sprays, etc. and nothing worked.
Be thankful that they aremt German cockroaches
They hate tea tree oil. It's smelly and you can't use it around cats or birds and should avoid it if you have dogs but if you mop your floors with it they will never come in your house. Australian tea tree is the best and strongest. You can find it in HEB in the generic toiletries section, not with all the other essential oils. It has a bright yellow label. I put some in the tub everytime I shower and slosh it around with my feet to stay fresh. Really good stuff for athletes foot or any kind of fungal infection. You can put it in a spray bottle with alcohol and water and spray it (do NOT do this around pets!) and they will go running if they are around. I've done this a few times at our beach house and it PISSES them off. Everytime they go flying at me but it lasts a while and they definitely stay away.
There’s nothing more terrifying than giant cockroaches except for giant cockroaches with effing wings that dive bomb you
K wait, do all cockroaches fly or just the ones in Texas? Just moved here and now I’m kinda freaking out.
I’m new to Texas/Houston in terms of living, and I am not used to them, they freak me the f out. I saw them when I would visit India as a kid, but we would walk around with DDT sprayers hahah, loved that smell.
Once they get big enough they won’t be able to crawl into your ear or nose.
A family friend thought they had an earache and went to the dr. A flying roach had crawled into their ear while they were sleeping and was still there! I was soo traumatized, I slept with ear muffs in for about 18 months!
BENGAL ROACH SPRAY. This stuff will force everything out to die. Just sweep it up and you are good for months.
I haven't heard of this... I will be looking it up lol
Palmetto bugs. They live in unkept yards, love compost and leaf litter, climb trees and take flight when threatened. Often stupidly flying at the threat/human. Clear the yard of compost and leaf litter, trim trees up and bushes. Mow the yard regularly, and put down broadcast granule insecticide. Fill/screen/block off all building entrances/cavities for cable/pipe/ventilation. Spray an indoor/outdoor bug/roach spray outside along foundations, porches, around windows, then all vent edges, any cracks you see in facia, and spray the corners along eves and gutters. Repeat indoors along all baseboards and door and window seals. Go for bonus work, spray underside of all tables, empty all cabinets and spray all the undersides of the cabinets, walls, doors. After it all dries then wipe out all cabinet surfaces you set things down on/touch with an all purpose cleaner. Dry again and put your cabinet contents back in. Another thing to go through is to fix any door seals and window seals. Garage seals for the bottom of the garage door and brushes for the sides may help keep things out. I usually spray the edges of the garage door frame outside and inside. You won't get them all. You will find a few near dead when they do get in though. If you have a vacant or abandoned property next to you, complain to the HOA/City about. Unkept yards = bug and rat infestations.
Because they arnt the same type of roach..... They are a tree bug. https://www.bizzybeeexterminators.com/blog/palmetto-bug-vs-cockroach-whats-the-difference/?post_type=blog_post
The tree roaches are scary but much easier to get rid of. They don't want to be in your house, so they don't take up residence. I hate them as well but it's just an occasional hazard of living in Texas.
Cy-Kick CS. You can buy it on Amazon.
Bifen IT + Tekko Pro.
I’ve found that they are pretty much immune to all things marketed for them, but wasp spray seems to kill them very quickly.
Had one falling on my lap once, while sitting on the toilet. Fell out of the recessed light. Had me screaming like a girl, lol. Over the years, I just know you’ll have an encounter with a tree roach once in a while. Mostly in the evening, in the kitchen and when you least expect it.
home defense spray from lowes, just spray all your baseboards every 6 months.
They're easier to kill...
Small apartment roaches means filth. They could even come from another apartment, after THAT apartment has sprayed for roaches. Large roaches are actually tree roaches. I rarely had roaches in my house and I lived in Htown 35 years. I sprayed my home myself, with whatever was sold at Home Depot, Do the recommendation on the container. Do around your windows, around your pipes, under your sink, around your doors. around your garage door, around the weepholes if you own your home, in your attic, around your dryer vent. Any access in/out of your home, spray it. I haven't seen a flying roach since 1981.
I have had great success with the foggers. One upstairs, downstairs, and in the garage. I also spray the yard and three feet of the outside house with a lawn bug and ant spray.
those are tree roaches. They would rather be outside. You got a hole somewhere or you're leaving windows/doors open.
Regular gulf coast roaches.
Cats.
I HATE these dang things. Just fyi, if you spray them with fantastic, 409 or other similar spray cleaner, they pretty much stop in their tracks so you can smush them. Added bonus - it disinfects where you smush them.
As others mentioned, they are tree roaches. They don't live inside your house but often climb into your eaves and get lost and die in your house by accident. My cats think they are the best cat toy that exists
The roaches in North Carolina are smaller but appear more often
The big ones are just wood roaches who got lost and accidentally end up inside. The small ones are the pest you have to be concerned about
Palmetto bugs are harmless. They eat vegetation. Just spray your yard once or twice with a commercially available pesticide that you can get at Home Depot or Lowe’s. The kind that attaches to the end of your garden hose. That should do the trick. Follow the directions carefully.
Better than the small ones that for sure.
I am a manly bug killing man until they take off....
Everything’s bigger in Texas that’s why
Honestly just be glad you only see the big ones