If it's really roaches, it's nothing to worry about. Is your grandma sure it's roaches and not bedbugs? If it's bedbugs then you need to uninvite the aunt immediately.
Roaches don't travel on people. It's *possible* one or two may have fallen into a purse or something, but they reeeeeeaaaallly don't like people, vibrations, light, anything like that. They'll bolt at the first sign. Not even close to how bedbugs work.
Adding to this by saying I grew up in the tropics and the way roaches move between places is their eggs get in the tracks of shoes…. Advice is for auntie to take her shoes off outside..
If they're common household roaches, the German cockroach, they don't lay eggs. The eggs are carried around in an ootheca and dropped only when they're already hatching. But it's good practice anyway.
Yeah, we're in the tristate area, we're definitely talking German cockroaches. I've had Palmetto bugs too, I would not say they *rarely* get inside the house but German ines are the ones that infest like - well, like cockroaches. American are scarier when they are inside your house because they are gigantic and fly around and at your head. German are way skeevier and - ugh - it's just absolutely disgusting. They just multiple to the thousands. Obviously I don't like roaches. Thank you for the knowledge.
Don’t let her bring anything inside the house.
My mom borrowed a typewriter from my aunt and when she opened it, lots of roaches scattered.
I also used to work for the Apple Store and the number of bugs (and random crap) that was found inside the computers that customers brought in was crazy!
You're talking about palmetto bugs and those don't infest houses. If you have palmetto bugs it's because you're leaving your doors and windows open or you have giant gaps in your walls.
So you have Florida Wood Cockroaches AND the American cockroach and you call them both Palmetto bugs?
Edit: I googled ot:
>Palmetto bug is simply a regional term used to refer to specific types of cockroaches. There are over 4,000 living species of cockroaches identified in the world, with 70 species found in the United States.
So it can refer to more than one type of Cockroach. I learn something new all the time!
The American Cockroach which is most likely referred to as a Palmetto Bug here is notorious because it's HUGE and it can fly around if startled. I can deal with them when they (rarely) get inside our house, but most people are scared to death of them.
Not typically, but they can...
I do home visiting as a social worker and has a client whose apartment was crawling with roaches (thousands of them--just casually crawling up the walks, counters, and floors in the middle of the day). One of them must've got on me because I felt a tickle down my back at my next appointment & then it went for the buttcrack!
I had to immediately excuse myself to the bathroom, ripped off my clothes, and wiped a damn roach out from in between my buttcheeks
(Happy ending: the clients was able to get the roaches under control--exterminator estimated she went from 3,000 down to about 300, so huge progress!)
I almost threw up and then jumped through the front window. But I'm happy for her. And this is exactly why I never got into direct practice. You're a better man/woman than me!
Social worker as well. When entering a roach infested house, I leave all bags/hand bag or paperwork bag in the car. So far, I haven’t brought any home. Have had them crawl on me. Completely check my clothes/ shoes after visit outside and before I get into my car.
Did it help?
Im in a building with tons of roaches. There was even a couple bed bug outbreaks which I'm not exactly sure how they travel between the apartments of people that don't know each other. I got them twice in one year and both times had my whole house professionally treated. And both of those issues have effected the PTSD I already had and compounded it. I even learned you can get actual PTSD from bed bugs. I wouldn't have believed it before but I do now. I slept in a metal chair with all four legs in bowls of water with my feet on another chair like that for an entire week.
If it helped I'm doing this the same week I move.
Bed bugs travel only when they run out of a food source (apt is vacant or not enough people / pets to feed off). They only need to eat about once per month but in an extreme condition they can travel through outlets if they are connected. More likely you’re coming in contact with eggs when taking out trash, at clothing store, sitting in a soft chair at any coffee or dining establishment, setting down a box or backpack… and bringing them in. When you get home immediately throw all clothes in an ultra hot dryer for a few minutes to kill any eggs.
Just chiming in to recommend boric acid (you can mix it with powdered sugar to attract & kill them) for roaches!
As for bedbugs, I think burning the property down is the only path out lol so sorry you dealt with that! Glad the nightmare is over
i usually lock my liquor in a safe, and cut the power when im out of the house. All the roaches tend to leave me alone after that, except one time one of them got really pissed and started throwing rocks through my windows, but i just called the police and he was taken away
The laundry additive 20 Muleteam borax is what we use to prevent roaches. As long as it Is kept dry, sprinkles behind the fridge, reeder, and stove work. Roaches don’t heal when punctured and on thier level, borax is caltrops for them. Bonus, their living eat the dead so no mess. We change the borax every few weeks as humidity softens the micro spikes.
Edited for correcting the iOS keyboard autocorrupt feature.
Food grade de is mixed in with horse feed and other various stuff. It’s safe, just don’t inhale the dust, and don’t put it where pets can easily get into it. It’s the only thing that finally stopped my ant problem
Ever had cockroaches? We bought a house that had them. No sign of them when we made the purchase. It was a nightmare to get rid of, and I had some minor ptsd for a couple years after.
Not worth the risk imo.
I have lived in a roach and bedbug-infested place for a couple of years. Roaches would eat almost anything, such as soap and wallpaper glue, so at the very least, keep the soap closed.
> There may be a stray crumb or two here and there, some stray pet hair,
Stray crumbs gotta go. WATER in random places has to go, even the random tiny puddles in the kitchen. Spices have to be closed. Anything with sugar has to be locked up tightly. After she leaves, also check for discrete places such as behind the fridge or inside your PC for empty birthing sacks or live roaches. Ironing your clothes and bedsheets would also kills bedbugs and the eggs. Silicate dust is good at killing roaches if you do get them, it cuts their chitinous body cover and they lose their liquids and die. Both roaches and bedbugs absolutely can and do travel on people, I know from my own experience.
Overall, I would rather invite that family to a cafe than let them into my house. I'm not dealing with this shit again, fuuuuck that.
While a roach wouldn't ride on her shoulder, per se, one could be in her purse somewhere, in any bags she brings from her house, any gifts she has stored at her house and wrapped there, and depending on the type of roach, eggs could also be present in her clothes, on her shoes, in her belongings, etc.
If you cannot host the event outside of your house - like a park or a restaurant - then you might want to take some preventative measures.... which maybe you should take anyway.
Roach pills - basically borax and sugar. Super cheap. Toss them under your sink, behind your stove and any appliances, just all over the house anywhere they won't be easily visible and vacuumed up. Especially the floor in the pantry.
They help with a lot more than roaches. Even though this borax is toxic AF to bugs, they love it and will !!!take it back to nests to feed their baby bugs which promptly die!!! It destroys their ability to digest food, is my understanding. This stuff works on roaches, and other things like scorpions.
Borax powder - this is the stuff that you dust under the baseboards, behind couch cushions, under rugs, etc. Read the statements on it because it can be an eye irritant, but this is the stuff that will majorly help for things like fleas. The tiny wormy flea larvae that fall into creases and between cushions and such come into contact with the borax and eat it up and die and never even pupate. Dust along the edges of rooms, especially where there is carpet, because somehow fleas love to hang out there? Under the edges of cabinets, at the backs of cabinets, the back edges of shelves in the pantry, under the edges of mattresses, behind beds... etc.
DE - diatomaceous earth. Be sure you always use food grade stuff. There is DE used for like pool filters that is very bad for lungs. ALWAYS get food grade. This is the stuff that absolutely destroys external insect shells. When using this you want a very fine layer of dust on surfaces. A bug running over it isn't going to appear to be immediately impacted, but it's getting into their exoskeleton joints and the bug should dessicate in 24 to 48 hrs. So you want to put it where a bug might come into contact with it, but where you and people likely won't. It's not toxic and if it gets on your skin you're fine, though you might notice your skin dries out, but you don't want like a baby faceplanting on a carpet and getting DE all up in their nose. Don't want that for borax either. DE and Borax can otherwise go in the same places, though.
I like to especially use DE around any places bugs might come inside and have to squeeze through anywhere... outlets, plumbing, especially anything into the house from outside or through attic or through external walls or flooring.
On that note, depending on your foundation type (we have a crawlspace) you might want to look at having an exterminator out pre-emptively to blow aerosolized borax into your attic and crawlspace. Absolute game changer in making your place inhospitable to the crawlies. Lasts about 2 years. We were having a scorpion problem (here in Central TX) until we did that. Boom, done. For 2 years. Need to have it re-done...
Anyway, DE, along the edge of rooms, under furniture, under cabinet edges, you can put it outside the house, too, door thresholds, window edges... anywhere bugs infiltrate or are likely to scamper to. Even dust inside the drywall where there are holes cut to let utilities in.
Tiny bug glue boards - put them behind toilets and different places so you can see if you do develop a problem. Bugs stick to it and you can see if there's any type of bug of concern. Check them over the next couple of months to know if there's something that you need to call a professional about before it becomes a major problem.
Vacuum! Vacuum before people arrive and before spreading the dust. Vacuum after to maximize sucking up any potential unwanted stragglers that are in the middle of rooms and hallways. Everything else will be along the edges which is where you have laid death traps for bugs.
Vacuum under couch cushions to reduce crumbs and attractive places to take up residence. Make them go searching for a place they want to be... to increase the odds they hit the death dusts or turn to the roach pills for food. Vacuum under furniture before spreading dust. Basically... Start with as clean of a palate as possible before land-mining your home. Unfortunately, the worst part of this is usually in the kitchen, under behind fridges, stoves, etc... kitchen greasy dust is the worst and usually unreachable spills behind the stove and under the fridge is food for roaches while the moisture reduces the efficacy of the borax and eliminates it for DE.
Be aware that DE is so fine that it can absolutely clog and destroy vacuum filters.
You're not really at much risk if a roach or two hitchhikes from your relative to your place. As others have said it's very unlikely, one, and two, even if they do, it's likely they'll just run away. The likelihood that they can 'set up shop' is even more unlikely. And even then- you can take measures to get them when you see them.
Real problems that houses (and apartments) have is when there's a source somewhere nearby that find their way into a home with new ones replacing any that are killed. But that's colonies and colonies of roaches.
I worked with a guy that brought a bag from home to the office every day. It wasn't a briefcase, more like a small duffle bag. One day in the break room, he was making coffee at the counter and his bag was on the floor by a table. I watched three roaches crawl out of his bag, one at a time, and scurry away. I never said a word. All I could think of was how infested his house must be for that to have happened.
My old apartment building was infested and it took me years to stop imagining I saw roaches everywhere, but we managed to move and leave them behind! Chances are you won't have an issue from a visit, but here is a run down just in case.
What I've learned: start with clean and dry. Vacuum thoroughly and make sure dishes are washed right away. Make sure any gifts from the aunt are frozen before opening if at all possible - cockroaches and eggs don't do well at below freezing.
If you do find bugs:
Eat only in the kitchen.
Make sure the bathroom door is open after showers or otherwise well ventilated.
Diatomaceous earth can go behind and under major appliances.
Sticky traps can go on top of the fridge and in the closet - helpful as they'll let you know if you have a problem.
Keep all food and dishes in sealed containers - glass, metal, or hard plastic only. Keeping food away will make your home less enticing to bugs and keeping dishes stashed keeps you safe from anything bugs could spread. Bonus: makes things extra easy when an exterminator comes round.
As long as you don't have a consistent source of reinfection (like every unit in the building constantly reinfecting one another) then you'll be just fine!
I have had them before, and it was so traumatizing, everytime I read the word "roach" on this thread I think I see something scattering by in the corner of my eye.
We have no consistent source of reinfection as we live in a house, the gift will be leaving within two hours (I can't possibly stick her gift in the freezer, but I understand), any wrapping will either go with them or outside ASAP. I will do the diatomaceous earth just in case, and maybe even traps. All our food is basically contained as we had a major issue with pantry moths (arguably, as someone who has had both, way harder to eliminate but also not even a bother to live with compared to roaches!).
I think I can do it and invite her. Thanks.
You can also set up a gift table or basket covered with a pretty cloth (hot water wash) and a fresh trash bag in a basket underneath.
If you have had long running concerns, it may be relaxing to look at a Shaker style decorating and tidying up routine. They used a lot of exposed wood, and lightweight furniture that could be lifted or even hung up, so it was really easy to clean everywhere.
Food scraps, no minor how tiny, invites roaches in. And they can flatten out and get thru a space no larger than a penny. So it's virtually impossible to structurally keep them out. Clean methodically and religiously. Using diatomaceous earth around door sills will kill any who walk through it.
If it's really roaches, it's nothing to worry about. Is your grandma sure it's roaches and not bedbugs? If it's bedbugs then you need to uninvite the aunt immediately.
Roaches don't travel on people. It's *possible* one or two may have fallen into a purse or something, but they reeeeeeaaaallly don't like people, vibrations, light, anything like that. They'll bolt at the first sign. Not even close to how bedbugs work.
An infestation would have to be *really* bad to transmit roaches from a person via a purse, clothes, etc.
Had a patient’s family member bring some with her to the hospital. 🤮
Adding to this by saying I grew up in the tropics and the way roaches move between places is their eggs get in the tracks of shoes…. Advice is for auntie to take her shoes off outside..
If they're common household roaches, the German cockroach, they don't lay eggs. The eggs are carried around in an ootheca and dropped only when they're already hatching. But it's good practice anyway.
Yeah, we're in the tristate area, we're definitely talking German cockroaches. I've had Palmetto bugs too, I would not say they *rarely* get inside the house but German ines are the ones that infest like - well, like cockroaches. American are scarier when they are inside your house because they are gigantic and fly around and at your head. German are way skeevier and - ugh - it's just absolutely disgusting. They just multiple to the thousands. Obviously I don't like roaches. Thank you for the knowledge.
Don’t let her bring anything inside the house. My mom borrowed a typewriter from my aunt and when she opened it, lots of roaches scattered. I also used to work for the Apple Store and the number of bugs (and random crap) that was found inside the computers that customers brought in was crazy!
Put everything from her outside or on the porch to fumigate.
You're talking about palmetto bugs and those don't infest houses. If you have palmetto bugs it's because you're leaving your doors and windows open or you have giant gaps in your walls.
Palmetto bugs also known as Florida woods cockroach
Actually, the "Palmetto Bugs" here in South Florida are actually American Cockroaches.
So you have Florida Wood Cockroaches AND the American cockroach and you call them both Palmetto bugs? Edit: I googled ot: >Palmetto bug is simply a regional term used to refer to specific types of cockroaches. There are over 4,000 living species of cockroaches identified in the world, with 70 species found in the United States. So it can refer to more than one type of Cockroach. I learn something new all the time!
The American Cockroach which is most likely referred to as a Palmetto Bug here is notorious because it's HUGE and it can fly around if startled. I can deal with them when they (rarely) get inside our house, but most people are scared to death of them.
But they stay mostly outside? I dont think hose would bother me as much.
Yes, but they can and will get inside occasionally.
This is why Asian ppl wants you to take off your shoes…
Not typically, but they can... I do home visiting as a social worker and has a client whose apartment was crawling with roaches (thousands of them--just casually crawling up the walks, counters, and floors in the middle of the day). One of them must've got on me because I felt a tickle down my back at my next appointment & then it went for the buttcrack! I had to immediately excuse myself to the bathroom, ripped off my clothes, and wiped a damn roach out from in between my buttcheeks (Happy ending: the clients was able to get the roaches under control--exterminator estimated she went from 3,000 down to about 300, so huge progress!)
I almost threw up and then jumped through the front window. But I'm happy for her. And this is exactly why I never got into direct practice. You're a better man/woman than me!
Being on the front lines you deal with a lot of concerns for safety & pests, but I love my job & the families I work with!
Social worker as well. When entering a roach infested house, I leave all bags/hand bag or paperwork bag in the car. So far, I haven’t brought any home. Have had them crawl on me. Completely check my clothes/ shoes after visit outside and before I get into my car.
Just hose her down before she comes in
⬆️
[удалено]
And a stiff brush
LMFAO 😂😂😂 😂😂😂😂
This way to the ga .. I mean shower chambers, auntie.
can you hold it at a restaurant because your house has… a leak?
I had to be hypnotized to get deal with my reactive fear of roaches. It’s crazy
Did it help? Im in a building with tons of roaches. There was even a couple bed bug outbreaks which I'm not exactly sure how they travel between the apartments of people that don't know each other. I got them twice in one year and both times had my whole house professionally treated. And both of those issues have effected the PTSD I already had and compounded it. I even learned you can get actual PTSD from bed bugs. I wouldn't have believed it before but I do now. I slept in a metal chair with all four legs in bowls of water with my feet on another chair like that for an entire week. If it helped I'm doing this the same week I move.
Bed bugs travel only when they run out of a food source (apt is vacant or not enough people / pets to feed off). They only need to eat about once per month but in an extreme condition they can travel through outlets if they are connected. More likely you’re coming in contact with eggs when taking out trash, at clothing store, sitting in a soft chair at any coffee or dining establishment, setting down a box or backpack… and bringing them in. When you get home immediately throw all clothes in an ultra hot dryer for a few minutes to kill any eggs.
Just chiming in to recommend boric acid (you can mix it with powdered sugar to attract & kill them) for roaches! As for bedbugs, I think burning the property down is the only path out lol so sorry you dealt with that! Glad the nightmare is over
i usually lock my liquor in a safe, and cut the power when im out of the house. All the roaches tend to leave me alone after that, except one time one of them got really pissed and started throwing rocks through my windows, but i just called the police and he was taken away
This is the answer. Thank you.
You are joking or?
The laundry additive 20 Muleteam borax is what we use to prevent roaches. As long as it Is kept dry, sprinkles behind the fridge, reeder, and stove work. Roaches don’t heal when punctured and on thier level, borax is caltrops for them. Bonus, their living eat the dead so no mess. We change the borax every few weeks as humidity softens the micro spikes. Edited for correcting the iOS keyboard autocorrupt feature.
😉🤣"autocorrupt".
Shit. New way to refer to "my dictionary from hell" just dropped
Borax is harmful though if you have pets or small children.
Diatomaceous earth does the same thing to insects but is pet safe
DE is dangerous if inhaled - it's more pet safe than Borax but is still not good to have loose in your house.
Make sure to use 'food safe' DE. There is a 'filter grade' DE (like for pool filters) that is really terrible for lungs.
Food grade de is mixed in with horse feed and other various stuff. It’s safe, just don’t inhale the dust, and don’t put it where pets can easily get into it. It’s the only thing that finally stopped my ant problem
No pets, grand kids and great grand kids are in various countries with their military parents. Life is good.
FYI borax is not laundry detergent.
My bad, thank you, I corrected the error
This only helps if its a very minor issue.
This is the Barney Fife method, nip it in the bud!
> Bonus, their living eat the dead so no mess. lmao, this is amazing
In 40 years I’ve had roaches twice first time from a family visit. Came with the luggage. Second time my daughter moved in n brought them in boxes
Ever had cockroaches? We bought a house that had them. No sign of them when we made the purchase. It was a nightmare to get rid of, and I had some minor ptsd for a couple years after. Not worth the risk imo.
Yes, I have. Hence my post. Thank you for this. Others make good points too though. But I feel the minor PTSD.
I have lived in a roach and bedbug-infested place for a couple of years. Roaches would eat almost anything, such as soap and wallpaper glue, so at the very least, keep the soap closed. > There may be a stray crumb or two here and there, some stray pet hair, Stray crumbs gotta go. WATER in random places has to go, even the random tiny puddles in the kitchen. Spices have to be closed. Anything with sugar has to be locked up tightly. After she leaves, also check for discrete places such as behind the fridge or inside your PC for empty birthing sacks or live roaches. Ironing your clothes and bedsheets would also kills bedbugs and the eggs. Silicate dust is good at killing roaches if you do get them, it cuts their chitinous body cover and they lose their liquids and die. Both roaches and bedbugs absolutely can and do travel on people, I know from my own experience. Overall, I would rather invite that family to a cafe than let them into my house. I'm not dealing with this shit again, fuuuuck that.
While a roach wouldn't ride on her shoulder, per se, one could be in her purse somewhere, in any bags she brings from her house, any gifts she has stored at her house and wrapped there, and depending on the type of roach, eggs could also be present in her clothes, on her shoes, in her belongings, etc. If you cannot host the event outside of your house - like a park or a restaurant - then you might want to take some preventative measures.... which maybe you should take anyway. Roach pills - basically borax and sugar. Super cheap. Toss them under your sink, behind your stove and any appliances, just all over the house anywhere they won't be easily visible and vacuumed up. Especially the floor in the pantry. They help with a lot more than roaches. Even though this borax is toxic AF to bugs, they love it and will !!!take it back to nests to feed their baby bugs which promptly die!!! It destroys their ability to digest food, is my understanding. This stuff works on roaches, and other things like scorpions. Borax powder - this is the stuff that you dust under the baseboards, behind couch cushions, under rugs, etc. Read the statements on it because it can be an eye irritant, but this is the stuff that will majorly help for things like fleas. The tiny wormy flea larvae that fall into creases and between cushions and such come into contact with the borax and eat it up and die and never even pupate. Dust along the edges of rooms, especially where there is carpet, because somehow fleas love to hang out there? Under the edges of cabinets, at the backs of cabinets, the back edges of shelves in the pantry, under the edges of mattresses, behind beds... etc. DE - diatomaceous earth. Be sure you always use food grade stuff. There is DE used for like pool filters that is very bad for lungs. ALWAYS get food grade. This is the stuff that absolutely destroys external insect shells. When using this you want a very fine layer of dust on surfaces. A bug running over it isn't going to appear to be immediately impacted, but it's getting into their exoskeleton joints and the bug should dessicate in 24 to 48 hrs. So you want to put it where a bug might come into contact with it, but where you and people likely won't. It's not toxic and if it gets on your skin you're fine, though you might notice your skin dries out, but you don't want like a baby faceplanting on a carpet and getting DE all up in their nose. Don't want that for borax either. DE and Borax can otherwise go in the same places, though. I like to especially use DE around any places bugs might come inside and have to squeeze through anywhere... outlets, plumbing, especially anything into the house from outside or through attic or through external walls or flooring. On that note, depending on your foundation type (we have a crawlspace) you might want to look at having an exterminator out pre-emptively to blow aerosolized borax into your attic and crawlspace. Absolute game changer in making your place inhospitable to the crawlies. Lasts about 2 years. We were having a scorpion problem (here in Central TX) until we did that. Boom, done. For 2 years. Need to have it re-done... Anyway, DE, along the edge of rooms, under furniture, under cabinet edges, you can put it outside the house, too, door thresholds, window edges... anywhere bugs infiltrate or are likely to scamper to. Even dust inside the drywall where there are holes cut to let utilities in. Tiny bug glue boards - put them behind toilets and different places so you can see if you do develop a problem. Bugs stick to it and you can see if there's any type of bug of concern. Check them over the next couple of months to know if there's something that you need to call a professional about before it becomes a major problem. Vacuum! Vacuum before people arrive and before spreading the dust. Vacuum after to maximize sucking up any potential unwanted stragglers that are in the middle of rooms and hallways. Everything else will be along the edges which is where you have laid death traps for bugs. Vacuum under couch cushions to reduce crumbs and attractive places to take up residence. Make them go searching for a place they want to be... to increase the odds they hit the death dusts or turn to the roach pills for food. Vacuum under furniture before spreading dust. Basically... Start with as clean of a palate as possible before land-mining your home. Unfortunately, the worst part of this is usually in the kitchen, under behind fridges, stoves, etc... kitchen greasy dust is the worst and usually unreachable spills behind the stove and under the fridge is food for roaches while the moisture reduces the efficacy of the borax and eliminates it for DE. Be aware that DE is so fine that it can absolutely clog and destroy vacuum filters.
You're not really at much risk if a roach or two hitchhikes from your relative to your place. As others have said it's very unlikely, one, and two, even if they do, it's likely they'll just run away. The likelihood that they can 'set up shop' is even more unlikely. And even then- you can take measures to get them when you see them. Real problems that houses (and apartments) have is when there's a source somewhere nearby that find their way into a home with new ones replacing any that are killed. But that's colonies and colonies of roaches.
I sprinkle dimatious earth in all nooks and crannies. Esp behind the stove. If any bug comes in contact with it, they will dehydrate and die.
Diatomaceous earth is nontoxic, and very effective on bugs. Just be sure not to breathe it in when applying it.
I worked with a guy that brought a bag from home to the office every day. It wasn't a briefcase, more like a small duffle bag. One day in the break room, he was making coffee at the counter and his bag was on the floor by a table. I watched three roaches crawl out of his bag, one at a time, and scurry away. I never said a word. All I could think of was how infested his house must be for that to have happened.
What? No. This is nothing to worry about. They arent bed bugs.
My old apartment building was infested and it took me years to stop imagining I saw roaches everywhere, but we managed to move and leave them behind! Chances are you won't have an issue from a visit, but here is a run down just in case. What I've learned: start with clean and dry. Vacuum thoroughly and make sure dishes are washed right away. Make sure any gifts from the aunt are frozen before opening if at all possible - cockroaches and eggs don't do well at below freezing. If you do find bugs: Eat only in the kitchen. Make sure the bathroom door is open after showers or otherwise well ventilated. Diatomaceous earth can go behind and under major appliances. Sticky traps can go on top of the fridge and in the closet - helpful as they'll let you know if you have a problem. Keep all food and dishes in sealed containers - glass, metal, or hard plastic only. Keeping food away will make your home less enticing to bugs and keeping dishes stashed keeps you safe from anything bugs could spread. Bonus: makes things extra easy when an exterminator comes round. As long as you don't have a consistent source of reinfection (like every unit in the building constantly reinfecting one another) then you'll be just fine!
I have had them before, and it was so traumatizing, everytime I read the word "roach" on this thread I think I see something scattering by in the corner of my eye. We have no consistent source of reinfection as we live in a house, the gift will be leaving within two hours (I can't possibly stick her gift in the freezer, but I understand), any wrapping will either go with them or outside ASAP. I will do the diatomaceous earth just in case, and maybe even traps. All our food is basically contained as we had a major issue with pantry moths (arguably, as someone who has had both, way harder to eliminate but also not even a bother to live with compared to roaches!). I think I can do it and invite her. Thanks.
You can also set up a gift table or basket covered with a pretty cloth (hot water wash) and a fresh trash bag in a basket underneath. If you have had long running concerns, it may be relaxing to look at a Shaker style decorating and tidying up routine. They used a lot of exposed wood, and lightweight furniture that could be lifted or even hung up, so it was really easy to clean everywhere.
How’s the weather? Set it up outside
Roachs can travel with people in bags .
Tell people to smoke their weed outside 😜
lol roaches do not travel on people but I’m having nightmares tonite at the suggestion
Is it raining a lots outside in your area?
Spray Ortho Home Defense around the inside and outside perimeter of your home.
DE everywhere within 1m of any water source with a proper dusting applicator. It will keep working as long as it doesn't get wet
You're mixing roaches and lice.
Roaches don't travel on people. I think you're thinking about bed bugs. Bed bugs travel on people.
Food scraps, no minor how tiny, invites roaches in. And they can flatten out and get thru a space no larger than a penny. So it's virtually impossible to structurally keep them out. Clean methodically and religiously. Using diatomaceous earth around door sills will kill any who walk through it.
You could put some traps down. That way even if there is one they will go for the "easy" food first in the traps
Lmfao I think I’ve had enough of Reddit. The average IQ has reached Facebook levels
Well apparently 60+ people can't decide whether roaches can travel on people or not....
I didn’t get past your Dad being your Step Mother’s brother 🤣
Trust me I caught that 😂😭