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CathyA
3-7-11, 12:17pm
Wasn't sure where to post this. But since DD wants to be environmentally friendly with this, I'll post it here.
DD lives in an apartment. She just told me yesterday that she has a couple ****roaches. The owners spray occasionally, but she asked them not to spray her apartment.........since so much of that stuff is so toxic.
But that was before she had ****roaches.
The problem is.........she doesn't want to hurt any living thing. She's even a Vegan because of that. As you probably know...they are hard to catch. And of course, they come back.
She tries to keep her kitchen very clean.
So.....options? What would repel them, but not kill them?
For those of you who think she should squash them, you don't need to bring that up. I'm asking for reasonable ways of deterring them, without killing.
Thanks.

CathyA
3-7-11, 12:18pm
Oh I don't believe the filter here! hahaha

Crystal
3-7-11, 1:18pm
Bay leaves, cedar, make a spray using mint -- if she decides to use something that will send them to Heaven :), the 12 month Combat (little trays) works quite well. I've lived in a number of apartments that almost always came with their own "pets" (roaches) and the more expensive 12 month Combat works quite well and does not spread pesticide throughout your environment.

nswef
3-7-11, 1:35pm
Boric acid mixed with flour sprinkled along the baseboards seems to keep them gone- but I think it kills them...not a problem for me.

ApatheticNoMore
3-7-11, 1:45pm
Honestly I think I'd give up. Move! :). It seems to me, you can be Miss Super Cleanly in an apartment with roaches, especially if it's not well sealed from the outside world, and still be fighting a losing battle against them, and be Miss A Bit Of A Slob in an apartment without them and still manage to avoid them. It is because the roach problem is often building wide and can't be fixed by a single apartment.

I'd be happy if I had landlords willing to spray frankly (the kind of negligent, let all problems (bugs, mold, etc.) fester landlords I've had at times ..... landlords that actually deal with things are great! My current building has almost no bugs by the way, so I think it's a winner :D (the last place: roaches, spiders, clothing moths, termites, etc!)

The darn things are hard enough to get rid of if you shoot to kill. Roach motels (these are lame, they don't work, but some of the alternative brands based on the same principles (phermones) do), boric acid etc.. In all of these methods except Roach motel brand, the roaches do die, but still more come back ....

If you insist on no killing though:
- don't keep loose papers lying around, roaches love hanging around in loose papers. They loved them so much at my last place that now all my documents (warranties, financial stuff, etc.) are in tightly sealed plastic boxes!!
- watch out for water leaks. Roaches love water leaks
- keep things clean of course but again not a complete answer

IshbelRobertson
3-7-11, 5:14pm
I am SOOOO grateful to now live in a country where c o ck roaches are not common (they are around, many cases of infestations in some restaurants, or so I've read) - having lived in countries where they ARE common... I absolutely HATE them. It's almost a phobia with me!

Miss Cellane
3-8-11, 9:09am
If every apartment in a building is sprayed except one, the roaches will migrate to the unsprayed apartment. As a PP said, the problem is building-wide, not just in your DD's apartment. She can google all sorts of vegan remedies for roaches, which may help, but aren't going to solve the main problem, which is that she has basically given them an open door invitation to her apartment.

She should also google how other vegans feel about killing roaches. There are some who do use pesticides, because the alternative is to live in a roach infested dwelling.

She should also take into consideration that by not having her unit sprayed, she is harboring roaches who will spread out to other units in the building as the pesticides wear off. It's not just her unit that's affected, she's affecting the roach population in the entire building.

She should also look into sealing up any gaps in the walls around pipes and sealing any cracks in the walls or around baseboards, etc. Roaches are attracted to water--I know people who dry their kitchen sink at night before going to bed so there won't be any water in it. Roaches are also attracted to the glue used to hold paper grocery bags together, so she shouldn't store those in her apartment.

CathyA
3-8-11, 11:26am
Thanks everyone.
I've sent her some info on natural repellents, but I think she's going to have to bite the bullet and kill them. I don't like killing either, but there comes a point when its "them" or us, so to speak. That goes for mice, mosquitoes, ticks, flies, etc. I don't like thinking the fly on my kitchen counter was just over at the neighbor's hog farm, eating poop.

Miss Cellane........an interesting point for you. My mother moved into our vacant condo many years ago. There were 4 units per building. The condo management called her and said that all the units were to be sprayed. We said "absolutely not"!, since she had never had a ****roach. The chemical company kept saying what you said......all the roaches will flood to her apartment. Well, we refused to let them spray, and she never got a single ****roach. But what is possibly a tragic consequence of the spraying in one of the other apartments was that their small baby developed a very rare form of leukemia. The parents always wondered if it had been the spraying that caused it.

That's a good suggestion about drying the sinks out, and plugging holes.
I'm trying to convince DD that she needs to take care of this immediately, but she's hesitant. She's coming home for spring break in a week and I told her "DON'T BRING ANY HOME WITH YOU!!!"

ApatheticNoMore
3-8-11, 12:35pm
Well roaches can also transmit salmonella etc.. Now realistically, I don't regard this as a terribly likely path to salmonella transmission, but .... if she needs something to scare her ;) You know besides the fact that roaches are completely vile and gross.