Tree roaches invading my home!

For every one you see there are a hundred more lurking in the shadows waiting to crawl across your face while you sleep. Muuuuuuhaaaaahaaaaaaa!

 

True story and absolutely no exageration:

When I was about 14 something I went over to sleep at a friends house. I got there in the evening and everything was cool. He lived in an apartment in Alvin by the way. Well we are playing Nintendo at night and I go to the kitchen to get a drink. I turned on the light and I witnessed simply horrified by what I saw. There were literally HUNDREDS of those small roaches squirming around all over the kitchen floor and walls and ceilings. I literally let out a small scream. My friend came running over and asked me what was wrong? I pointed to the kitchen! He acted like it was no biggie. I could not even go into the kitchen without stepping on like a dozen or so roaches. He merely stepped in and got me a glass of water. I had a sip just to be polite. When we went back to playing Nintendo I opened the cover to change the game. Out popped a few roaches from inside the Nintendo!!! I was feeling pretty damn sick. I hate insects!!! I then started noticing roaches all over the MF house!!! There were even a few on the bed that I was suppose to sleep on. I put one hand on my nose and the other on my ear before going to sleep. I was suppose to sleep over for two days, but I called me parents the next day and had them pick me up.

 

I'd rather have 100 spiders in my house than 10 roaches. I can't stand them.

 

Scariest thing ever... a roach you're looking whacking on the wall or ceiling ALWAYS knows you're about to do it, so what does it do? Damn thing starts flying at you... man, I hit some high notes screaming I doubt I'd ever be able to hit unassisted like that.

 

I'm guessing you are in Houston.

Roaches are a way of life in Houston. You can keep them controlled by maintaining your flower beds outside of your home...keeping cedar mulch in them helps.

Spray every once in a while professionally.

Clean up clutter.

Keep food sealed.

Put out those roach hotel thingies with the poison they take back in the walls.

Keep light colors.

Keep trees trimmed back away from your house.

You are going to get some roaches in your house when we have rain like we've been having.

 

Every apartment/home I lived in the Houston area was infested with either roaches or rarely ants. I was thankful the ants ate all the roaches. It's impossible to get rid of roaches unless all your neighbors do as well.

 

Brings back memories of that Bobby Jimmy and the Critters song.

"Look at all these Roaches, surroundin' me every day..."



Two Words: Bengal, Combat

Go get 'em tiger... "You wanna go to war? I'll take you to war."

 

It's that time of year. The warmer weather means increased activity. Plus right after big rains flushes them out. If you only see 1-2, then that is inevitable. It's when you see 1-2+ per day that you need to really start worrying.

You live in Houston. It is a fact of life.

 

Roaches are the official insect of the great state of Texas! Embrace them, then squash them!

 

Actually, if any Houston area homeowners need a good exterminator, I've got the best one in the city.

This guy has reasonable rates and uses totally bio-safe material so you never have to clean out your cupboards, etc. He services my house once every 3 months and sprays everywhere...outside and inside.

I have been using him since I bought my house in March 2001, and since that time, I have seen a total of two roaches in my house and both were dead.

Seriously, I have never had it this good with roaches living in the city of Houston. If any of you would like his name and number, email me.

 

My first Houston apt over by the Beltway and 45 (I was new to the area and didn't know better) -

I saw a roach as I was moving in during the daylight. I went to Kroger later and picked up a can of Raid later to get that one. I had left a can of Quick out earlier on the counter and when I got home from Kroger that evening, the can was black - completely covered in roaches. There had to have been 200+ roaches in that small kitchen. I went out to the car and even though it took me a while to find which bag had the Raid in it, by the time I got back I still had enough roaches out that I spent the largest can of Raid they sell. I went back to Kroger and got another can which I used to kill the remaining ones.

My life for the next 3 months was bad. I spent $80 a month in spray. I watched TV with a can to spray the roaches that came out to watch with me. I woke up with roaches in my bed. I took showers and roaches came in to shower up. I sat on the toilet and they crawled on my butt (I always lifted up the toilet seat after that to check it out beforehand). I complained to the apt mgr and they'd spray once a week, but it never got better. They said that they were coming in from the neighbors, but since they hadn't complained, they couldn't spray more than once per year. The last straw was when I put a cake in the fridge thinking that was a safe place. One day I opened it up and there was a roach on the cake in the fridge.

I broke the lease and they still had the nerve to put that (the only thing ever) on my credit report.

Oh - tree roaches don't usually make their home in your home - they are just visitors.

 

I had a similar encounter at a friend's house(which was actually in a pretty good neighborhood). I attributed to them just not caring or taking care of their house. So, it was a disgusting sh*thole. Personally, I would rather live outside than in a house like that. In my case, the friend's Mom was a fat lazy beast who liked to lay in bed and only get up for "emergencies". The friend's Dad was a Schlitz drinking fool who had no self-respect. The kids were regular angels of death now that I look back on it. I'm glad I don't know these people anymore and I'm pretty sorry I ever knew any of them in the first place. A typical dinner for them would be to order 4 pizzas, pig out, and leave the pizza boxes and crust laying around for days afterward. To top that off, they ordered pizza like that for Thanksgiving dinner...like it was normal. Those are some bad memories I would just soon forget. These people didn't deserve a house. They were scum. The "friends" also turned out to be conniving pieces of garbage with no future. I woke up pretty fast to the truth. I thank the roach population for that. Heh.

Surf

 

I have been going to war with the roaches in my house lately. I live next to a creek. And one of my neighbors refuses to clean his yard so I can only imagine what his home looks like on the inside. Anyway, I was doing a search and destroy mission on Saturday and I found the enemy breeding inside of a black and decker battery charger. I probably leave my house too cold and they needed a nice warm area to do thier stuff. But the enemy did not see me coming and I took them out with my weapon of roach mass destruction. (roach spray)

 

I guess I'm lucky.

I have an apartment on the NE side in Kingwood and have never ever seen a roach in 3 years.

I also never saw a roach in the 2 years I had an apartment in Humble.

 

I was at a hotel in Kasas in the middle nowhere. It was getting late and I pull the covers off the bed and here comes crawling out roaches of all sizes. I couldn't get another room because it was the only hotel and it was full for the night. I slept in my car rather than in that hotel. I hate roaches, they are demons you kill one and five more comes at you.

 

The bait thingies..the little black disks of death work well.

 

I *hate* roaches. HATE THEM. That's been one of the perks of living in Vermont -- no roaches. None. Haven't seen one in three years.

This was actually a consideration when we were trying to decide whether to move back to Texas or not. To me, roaches really affect a person's quality of life.

So what do my wife and I do? We buy a Brazoria County house in the woods that's right on the water. Dadgumit.

 

You can all clean your yards or whatever all you want, but having worked for the water company for a while I'm well aware of where roaches call home. Try lifting a manhole cover sometime. The tubes are red brick, but all you'll see is black from hundreds of thousands of roaches. The sewers are the greatest place EVER as far as roaches are concerned. I was never actually asked to go down INSIDE a manhole, and if I had been, I'd have simply quit on the spot. No way, man. Roaches are Satan. They are Satan. Satan, dude.

 

Holy crap...