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Do you run into cockroaches in your home a lot?

cleanup

cleanup

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jun 26, 2005
2,643
10
Toronto
Cockroaches seriously creep me out, and I find it weird how I can run into them 29 stories up in a rather exclusive apartment in Shanghai. My girlfriend and I saw it scuttle somewhere, couldn't find it, so I left it alone for a bit. I'm at my laptop and I hear my guitar pluck a string on its own behind me. I turn around and lo-and-behold there's a cockroach on the twelfth fret. I stand up and he crawls INTO the soundhole! I'm not sure how to get him out so I leave to grab the vacuum cleaner, but first I stick a piece of paper in between the strings and the soundhole to keep him inside. When I come back I find that he's snuggled up in the nook of my guitar's carrying strap. I never thought he would be able to crawl out so I think there's in fact 2 cockroaches. But I think there's only one. Time will tell, if another one crawls out of the soundhole.

Anyways, they freak me out. The only other place I've run into one is at a rather nasty hotel in Sichuan, China.

Just out of curiosity, do you guys run into them often at your household? I always thought cockroaches only frequented the filthiest of abodes.

[Edit] I don't know if I'll ever be able to play my guitar again without thinking of cockroaches. :eek: Should I clean it? I'm worried that Chinese cockroaches carry disease. :p
 
Thanks a lot. I now have goosebumps. :eek: I don't fare so well when it comes to creepy crawlies. *shudder*

Do you run into cockroaches in your house a lot?
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Nunca. As in, never. Shrug. Might just be this area? Never had a 'roach in any of the three houses that I've lived in. (Did have two run-ins w/ cockroaches in my host-home in Mexico, though. Ugh. So damned creepy.)
 
Not in my house, but when I take the dog out late at night in the summer there's always cockroaches scuttling across the pavements just down the street. Great big things they are, an inch long at times.

**shudder**

The really gross thing is this is the street outside a maternity hospital.
 
I don't think I've ever encountered a cockroach. I suppose I might have come across some and not recognised them as such (my bug knowledge is a bit patchy).

But what we do get are a lot of spiders and I don't run into them, I run away from them. :eek:
 
dynamicv said:
Not in my house, but when I take the dog out late at night in the summer there's always cockroaches scuttling across the pavements just down the street. Great big things they are, an inch long at times.

**shudder**

The really gross thing is this is the street outside a maternity hospital.
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This bugger was probably over an inch, a good two inches with antennae. Constantly wiggling antennae. I think it's the long, dangly antennae and the weird scuttling way that they move that turn me off things like cockroaches and beetles. Other bugs I can handle, like spiders and whatnot. I guess it's simply because I see spiders much more often, and they're somewhat small. Not enormous mother-effers with hard shells and a mean demeanor!

In fact, embarrassing as it is to admit, my room kind of has a fruitfly problem haha. Not sure where they come from, but they've sort of become my buddies. I also think that they've evolved. They used to be rather large, normal-sized fruitflies that were easy to spot and easy to kill. Months later, they've gotten smaller and smaller. Natural selection has weeded out the big, slow ones that die easily. :D But now, I often havne't got the effort in me to kill one and wipe it off. It's a waste of a tissue, and I'll leave them alone. They just float around, doing nothing at all. I wonder how they survive long enough to reproduce... not like I got any food in here.... ew.

Suddenly I think my room is dirtier than I might know. Fruit flies and cockroaches? C'mon. My old apartment was much cheaper and not as well-built, but I never had bug problems, only mosquitoes which are understandable, never bugs that signify some sort of filth. And this place costs like $3500 a month! Should scold my landlord... maybe catch a cockroach and sic it on her. Hssss! Get 'er, Carlton! Yes, I named him after that annoying bugger on Fresh Prince.
 
To the OP, I'm not sure what kind of roach you are talking about.

I know here in Japan, there are many different types.

The ones that bother me the most are the big black ones that fly into your home at night while you are sleeping, looking for a warm spot which is usually your face or other exposed part. At my old apartment, I could not leave my window open at night -- even with a screen -- because the roaches would fly in.

And they are darn tough too. Hard to kill. You have to really stomp on them to squish them ... otherwise they just get pissed off. ;)
 
Living in the sunny, humid southern US, we have our share of the big ones. Yes, they're very creepy. Every once in awhile one will just be crawling up the wall somewhere and my whole family shrieks in fear! The worst encounters are when we open a food pantry, and one flies out over us.

We do have an exterminator spray monthly. It seems to help. This year hasn't been as bad as most.
 
sushi said:
To the OP, I'm not sure what kind of roach you are talking about.

I know here in Japan, there are many different types.

The ones that bother me the most are the big black ones that fly into your home at night while you are sleeping, looking for a warm spot which is usually your face or other exposed part. At my old apartment, I could not leave my window open at night -- even with a screen -- because the roaches would fly in.

And they are darn tough too. Hard to kill. You have to really stomp on them to squish them ... otherwise they just get pissed off. ;)
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Eh, That sucks. Is that for all of Japan?

I hate bugs, if I know one is in my room, I gotta make sure it's dead. The only bugs that don't really bother me are house flies, fruit flies, and little moths. They're annoying, but they don't really do anything. Thinking about them gets me all jittery.
 
I've never run into one at my house, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some. My house is over 100 years old, and very run down, so it seems like a place where there would be cockroaches, but I'm praying there are none, and if there are, that they never come out to greet me.

I did however see a cockroach outside of a hotel in B.C., which kinda grossed me out, and made it hard for me to sleep.
 
I've never had roaches before, thank god.

Call an exterminator about the roach problem. Call your landlady first and see what she says.

cleanup said:
In fact, embarrassing as it is to admit, my room kind of has a fruitfly problem haha... not like I got any food in here.... ew.
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For the fruit flies, buy some vinegar (pref. made from apples that's sweet) and pour some in a petrie dish. If you want to speed things up, cut a piece of fruit and stick it in there.

All the fruit flies will flock to it and drown in the vinegar. Works like a charm :)

That's what we did in Germany.
 
If you live in a warmer climate like me, youll always have roaches.

Its just the amount of roaches you can control. Like how many will you see on your kitchen counters when you wake in the morning for your breakfast is about the only amount you can control.

There is NO way you can rid yourself of roaches in your house 100%, as everyone knows nuclear fallout cant even hurt a roach!

Insects rule this planet, realize it, deal with it.

;)
 
They like to come out during the summer. Every summer season we manage to kill the ones that come, but the following season they come back immune to whatever we used before so we always have to switch.
 
cleanup said:
Just out of curiosity, do you guys run into them often at your household? I always thought cockroaches only frequented the filthiest of abodes.
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Not really true - rest assured, any place there are a substantial number of people and a proper climate, there will be roaches. You might never see one, they're secretive little buggers, but they're there.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to play my guitar again without thinking of cockroaches. :eek: Should I clean it? I'm worried that Chinese cockroaches carry disease. :p
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Cockroaches themselves don't carry disease. What happens is that they walk on a lot of things - trash, discarded food, diapers, etc. They can pick up bacteria, or they can grow on the little bits of things stuck to their feet. For a healthy person, having a roach walk on your guitar and then touching your guitar won't hurt you (trust me, they've walked on more than you know). People can get sick if there is a large infestation and the food is not secure, so that cockroaches track bacteria out of the trash and into the food.

I study bugs for a living, so I know a lot of this stuff. Trust me, you have much worse to worry about in Shanghai.
 
I remembered reading somewhere that cockroaches can even survive a nuclear holocaust. Like sushi says a flying cockroach freaks me out even more.
 
in my town theyre called palmetto bugs because they hang out in the palm trees and they are EVERYWHERE (except my house, of course :)) i usually see 25-50 when walking downtown at night. i absolutely hate them...only bug i cannot stand having around me. side question- arent cockroaches one of the oldest bugs on earth? i think i remember hearing theyve been around longer than dinosaurs...dont remember. their bodies seem perfect for adapting. anyway, someone correct me if im wrong
 
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