help! cockroaches!

[r14stars]

Help! I have killed TWO cockroaches in my apt this week, one at 2:30 in the morning in my bathroom (that'll wake you up) and the other tonight IN MY BEDROOM!!! not okay. Sorry if that upsets anyone, but I can't deal with roaches. They really creep me out. Previously, I have only seen one roach and that was over a year ago. I don't want to kill anymore, but I really don't want to live with them! We do not keep any food out, so I don't know what is bringing them in now..... Any natural products to help keep them at bay? I read about some sort of fruit or veggie a while back.... I hate Raid, but that is all we had on hand from way back. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[annie7]

Is it super hot where you are? Maybe they are seeking out water. Where did you find the one in the bathroom?
A neighbor of mine has cricket troubles. She puts a damp washcloth in the sink and in the morning any crickets that snuck in through the day are underneath it. As far as the roaches, maybe one of those paper box shaped roach traps? It's not "humane", but it's not as toxic to your environment as pesticide spray, either.

[Ckflew]

Any natural products to help keep them at bay?

Excuse my :p at the pun to come - but bay leaves work great at repelling roaches. I once had the misfortune to live upstairs from a chinese restaurant and it was WAR against the roaches. I used traps and spray, the landlord had a professional exterminator come in, and I used the bay leaves. I didn't spray my books (of course), but tucked bay leaves in among them and didn't ever find roaches among my books. Just so you know, if you see one, there are a lot more hiding around somewhere.

Other hints: put ALL food in plastic tupperware or metal or glass containers with good lids. Your other option is the refrigerator. This means no bananas out to ripen on the counter. Don't even leave your trash out overnight - empty it somewhere outside every day. Don't snack in bed or in your bedroom, either. Crumbs can call those bugs out of hiding. Needless to say, become a maniac when it comes to vacuuming, too.

I understand your horror at them. I felt no qualms about killing roaches either. Spiders I leave alone - roaches, on the other hand...

Good luck in the battle!

Colleen

[annie7]

*Most* spiders I leave alone, but the fat leathery looking ones that actually jump at you...I will clobber. I think they are called wolf spiders? I'm allergic to bites like some people are bee sting...so I don't think twice about it. We live in an edition that is still breaking ground for homes. Since those little cusses dwell in the ground, every time the dozers start digging, we have problems.
If you're squeamish don't look, but otherwise this (http://www.bushveld.co.za/pictures-of-wolf-spider.htm) is what I mean.

[ariix]

Yikes Annie, those things look big. (But I guess it's hard to tell from a picture like that with no frame of reference... are they big?)
I don't kill any bugs, not even mosquitoes (actually, come to think of it, that started way before I became vegan) so I don't know what I'd do if I actually had an infestation of roaches. (But I definitely wouldn't want to use Raid or any chemicals like that...)
I'm lucky all I get in my place are (small) spiders and "bathroom bugs" (silverfish I think) which are all just left alone. Oh yeah and occasionally fruit flies during heat waves - anybody ever had the problem of a guest killing your bugs against your wishes? Last summer one time my parents came over during a bad heat wave when I had a lot of fruit flies and my dad was going around killing them even though I kept asking him to stop. (I mean, once teh temperature goes down they disappear anyway..) It was really stressing me out. He seemed to think that I was only asking him to stop because I thought I "should" but that I would be secretly happy if he killed them.
Back to the original topic, sorry r14stars, I don't know what would repel them...

[annie7]

Generally they are about the size of a little bigger than a quarter. I've seen some way bigger, but the norm is usually quarterish sized. It seems to happen a lot in the fall, too. The first time I saw one, I thought it was from a plastic Halloween ring. You know, the kid rings with the spider on it? My daughter had gotten some from kids at school off of cup cake decorations. Since she didn't eat the cupcake, she traded parts of it to other kids in exchange for the decoration. I was forever finding them around. But the one that moved gave it away!

[mckennasmom]

I'm not positive that I read this about roaches but I think so... Use an empty glass jar, coat the top with vaseline (it is vegan right? I'm still learning) and put a banana down inside, they get in but can't get out. I'm pretty sure that was what I read.

[r14stars]

Ew, jumping spiders? That would freak me out. Crickets don't seem to be a problem here, but I remember when I was growing up, they would swarm the buildings when it got hot and dry outside. Literally, in Texas if it is August there are walls of crickets everywhere. (My dad was good about catching them and putting them outside-but if he wasn't home it was time for cricket heaven.)

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions... I am doing a deep cleaning right now and will try to find some bay leaves. I HATE cockroaches.......

[vegma]

Use a glass jar with a lid. Put it down over the bug, slide some thin paperboard underneath, then turn it over and put the lid on. Take it outside and dump it. My dh taught me this years ago and I thought he was nuts! But that's what we do with our brown recluse spiders which have not been very reclusive lately! We do some traps too, especially after one woke me up in the night crawling on my arm!:eek:

[xmysticprincessx]

we had spiders a few months ago, and with the new baby, we were paraniod about one biting her.
i forgot where i originally saw these things, but i ended up going to bed bath and beyond and got these little things made by sunbeam. they come in a package of 3 for $15, and you plug them into the wall. they make this ultrasound noise that humans cant hear (i dont think pets can hear it either) but all the pests can hear it. it bascially repels the bugs. ever since we put those up, there have been no more spiders. the package had a whole list of pests it scares away, and i think cockroaches were one of them.

[starfairy]

that sounds good. i might give it a go to get rid of the ants that invade my kitchen.
I had some vegan friends who all lived in a flat together and there home was infested with roaches! None of them had the heart to kill any so they just moved out! I know thats not very helpful but kinda interesting tho how vegans all have different boundaries when it comes to insects.

[annie7]

My boundries are drawn at personal safety and the risk of infectious diseases.