Who has had roaches in their apartment?

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Unfortunately seems the apartment building I am in has some, seems like so far me and my boyfriend have been doing an alright job deterring them. But after a couple days of not seeing any I have seen a couple young ones tonight but killed them. They don't like lemon so we got a lemon febreeze plug in for the kitchen, also we got some roach poison spray to spray in some of the crevices between cabinets under the fridge and areas like that. And also got some non-toxic minty deterrant spray for areas us or a potential pet(we would like to get a cat or two before too long) could access like on top of counters or around the bathtubs(we have two bathrooms in this apartment).

also as much as I regret we got some sticky traps...we did not build them in the way that would catch mice, cause we both think that is a super cruel way of trapping a mouse( but like I still don't like having bought a product from a company that encourages that use of it even though that is not the use we were using it for). we just set them out flat where we figure roaches might go just to see if we catch any but so far after two days all the traps are clean still so outside of the occasional one or two I think we've made our unit at least quite unfriendly to them. That said I'd rather run into a roach or two from time to time than have a bed bug infestation. Cause the last place I lived the unit next to mine got a bedbug infestation and I was worried they'd carry over into my unit. I saw what they had to do to the unit next to mine, the people had to move out a few of their belongings outside and an exterminator brought in this large canister looking thing which I guess puts out heat to kill the bedbugs. But I was worried they'd have to do that to my unit as well and I was worried we were going to have to take all of me and my boyfriends painted minatures out of the unit as I figurued they would not hold up to the high heat without some damage. Luckily they inspected our unit and did not find any bedbugs so we did not have to do that. And I have seen images of people with bedbug bites all over, and that seems awful.

So as gross and problematic as roaches are, at least they don't infest your bed and bite you even though they can still carry sickness and germs, but at least I think those can be killed by poison and deterred by clean smells like mint and lemon, since they prefer rot and disgustingness. And well like I said they aren't in my bed. Lol I should have made this a poll of would you rather have roaches or bedbugs, but I didn't either way feel free to express what bug infestation you'd rather have between the two.

Also forgot to mention seems sometimes they try to come up the kitchen drain so we put drain covers on as well to prevent that. I guess they are likely german roaches which are very hard to get rid of entirely so I don't consider it bad building maintenance since from what I understand they are extremely hard to get rid of permanently. I suppose if I came in to my unit and there was a whole colony on my counter I'd contact the office to have them get an exterminator....but we only saw a few, killed those and since we put up some deterrents two days ago I have only seen a couple not full grown ones that I smooshed and threw away. But other than that we haven't seen any more full grown ones.

I thought landlords were required to keep their units in good livable condition. It sounds like your landlord might be a slumlord. I have never had apartment before. Is a couple roaches considered good livable condition. I would not know.

I had them in one armpit I used to live in

I mean for 50 quid a week including bills I couldn't have really expected much more

Anyway I used to leave a piece of fruit in the kitchen floor over night when I went to work and I'd get in the next morning and the fruit would be demolished and all these little things would just scatter as soon as I opened the door

It was fascinating and disgusting in equal measures

I had much worse problems when I lived there such as gun crime so I didn't hang around for long

Roaches require a minimum temperature and humidity to thrive, and that made Melbourne my preferred capital for a long time. Too cold & too dry for infestation with minimal effort required for control.
I've come across bedbugs while travelling and they're pretty gross, but I guess the same applies to them, as my home state rarely complains of them.
I had a job as a pest controller for a while, mostly controlling warehouse vermine with smokebombs and silos with phostoxin.
I wish I'd had a video to record the rats streaming out of the storm drains on malathion days.

My current house has micro-bats in the walls and is patrolled by chooks and peafowl.
They like woodlice, so a cockroach would surely be tasty.

Insect life is like a world on its own innit

When I was a freshman in college, I pointed at the cockroaches around the front door of the dorm one night and asked what they were. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy.

I had never seen them before. They don't spread very well where I live. I suppose that is largely the result of the dryness year round and the really cold temperatures in the winter and really hot temperatures in the summer.

I have been told by one local that there are a few infestations in the county, but they don't seem to spread out to other farmhouses very well.

I had them in the last apartment. I kept all of my food in glass storage containers or the fridge, and never left dirty dishes in the sink. I'd still see one or two occasionally, but they seemed to prefer neighbouring apartments with easier food supply. That said, I was INNUNDATED with them when my neighbour across the hall died on his couch and wasn't found for a few days...when building management cleaned out his apartment, the roaches just swarmed! It was pretty awful for a while.
I finally moved out when my new neighbour stopped taking his meds and tried to beat down my door with a crowbar, claiming I was the leader of a devil dog army.

Get Harris roach tablets. They're little round tablets that you toss into corners, behind furniture, put on shelves etc. The roaches nibble on them and also bring some back to the nest. They get totally wiped out pretty quickly. Haven't seen a single roach for a long time since I started using them.

https://pfharris.com/harris-famous-roach-tablets-6-oz

Nah, we dealt with a slum lord...they actually gave us an unlivable apartment, like heat unit ripped out of the wall and people breaking in and stinking it up with weed like even the windows did not have screens. That was what we got first, like they accused us of smoking it up with weed before we even had moved in or stayed there for a night. But my boyfriend strong armed them into giving us our money back cause we threatened to sue them if they didn't. This place is quite nice aside from the occasional bugs.

No I think with apartments in cities roaches might just be a thing sometimes, and they are german roaches which are smaller than like big cockroaches so they can more easily squeeze into places and hide during the day so its hard to entirely get rid of them. But yeah for it to be considered unlivable I think you would have to have like a whole window full of them or something...not just one or two from time to time. Because the lease does mention if there are lots of bugs you should report it so they can get an exterminator.

That said I for sure do smoke weed, but some apartments just have it on the lease because they have to, for federal reasons and some places actually try and enforce it in Colorado. Which is silly like everyone in colorado smokes wee or at least is cool with people smoking it for the most part unless they are a weird out of stater. So far we have smelled so much weed throughout our apartment building we are not worried about partaking ourselves cause with so many people partaking how would the management even track down whos doing it when its so many people doing the weed. Then at the end of the day we are giving them money to live here so I figure as long as the money keeps flowing to pay our rent they aren't going to confront us about the building smelling like weed because at least 10 other people on just our floor are smoking weed(its 5 floors high and we got a top floor corner unit). LIke when we were first moving in it kind of smelled like a dispensary out in the hall, someone was smoking some good stuff.

But also of course you probably don't know, with your username I figure your parents probably helped you out with a place to stay or have enough room you can still live at home comfortably in your parents house. I am not being mean about that, I just figure you and I have very differnt experiences of living situations. but like if you haven't really lived in apartments it makes sense you would not know much about apartment living. But yeah I don't think bugs alone would give you a valid sue claim unless its like a huge infestation that isn't able to be kept at bay with deterring them in your unit.

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 14 May 2025, 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

For sure lol, like if anyone wants to make a scary sci fi alien movie, they only have to look to insects, spiders and bugs to finds some inspiration. LIke there are parasitic wasps that lay their eggs into other bugs, and also there are mud dauber wasps that make a nest out of mud and they hunt spiders...so they can paralyze them with their sting and leave them in the mud nest for their offspring to eat. LIke that is horrific for those poor spiders, but for sci fi you could just adjuust to to aliens who are doing that to humans, like intead of the face huggers maybe they just eat you alive.

I am glad most insects and bugs and spiders are too small to do what they do to other bugs to humans, cause imagine if they were like dinosaur size.

hmm that sounds like a good idea, like maybe it would help some other people in the apartment building to, to wipe out some of the roaches too. But i also assume that would not be good for pets, so when me and my boyfriend get a cat would those still be safe in like corners? but also we don't have a cat yet I just really want one.

*I looked at the link and I am a bit concerned it seems to imply it would attract roaches to get trapped, and idk if that would do a disservice to trying to just keep them out. Like I don't want to attract them to kill them, I just want them to not come in here at all. So I guess I am worried about if the trap sort of attracts them would that draw more of them to my unit and they wouldn't all get killed by the trap? Or does it more juust atrract ones already hiding in your unit. I guess I just don't want to draw more in from other units with bait if we are able to deter them from our unit with minty roach spray and lemon cleaners.

oh man that's gross

I've had roaches in my apartment. A professional exterminator had to come in and kill them. I had to spend three weeks in a run down hotel room. A year later, my air conditioner was filled with them because it was leaking water.

Wow, that sounds like it was a stressful place to live.

Yeah it is...lol I watch too many bug and animal documentaries. But yeah, wasps are pretty horrific with what they do to some other bugs so good thing they aren't big enough to have people as prey. Another interesting fact is bees developed from wasps, a subgroup broke off to eat nectar rather than other bugs and eventually developed the fuzz they have to help the nectar/pollen stick to them.

oh no, that sounds awful....also I have heard sometimes they can get like inside electronics, so I hope none of them make their way into my computer. It's a desk top PC so there is lots of room inside it, but I guess it is pretty dry and ventilated in there so idk if they would like it or not.