Cockroaches..

pottssteve

Living in the UK I rarely saw a cockroach, although I never worked in a hospital....

Over here there are loads of the shiny little fucKers. I have great respect for the 'roach - anything that can run that fast, fly, and climb up a pane of glass deserves a tip of the hat. However, when they occasionally get into the house then the gloves are off....

So I just placed an order with Prendas and went to get the wallet from the bedroom. Turned on the light and the little b@stard shot out through the door and into the kitchen, and just vanished. Amazing. Grabbed the insect spray the wife buys (accurately called, "BioKill") and started looking. It ran out from under a chair and headed for the fridge before I could tw@t it with a sandal. FYI, men's Birkenstocks (size 10) do an excellent job of flattening a 'roach - it's the German-engineered hard sole. However, I did give it a fair old squirt with the BioKill. So I pull out the fridge and....it's gone. I reckon it's crawled into the vent at the back and is now either dying or recovering, depending on the dose it got. I just hope it doesn't screw up the fridge or set the apartment on fire....

I might not sleep well tonight.....

keef66

Research station I used to work at used cockroaches and they frequently escaped. I remember the feet of the vending machines sitting in little saucers of insecticide to stop the little buggers getting in and setting up roach hotels.

The Madagascan hissing cockroaches were the scariest though. Step on one of those and it's like a 6 legged roller-skate

mrfpb

Environmental health guy once told me that you never just get a single cockroach - there will be hundreds of them around somewhere.

Sleep well!

pottssteve

I've sprayed around the bottom of the fridge to deter it from coming out. Mind you, they can last for months without eating, I think, so it might be a long siege. We have a gecko that lives behind the kitchen wall cabinet, so hopefully he will get it. Outside in the village where I live the feral cat population keeps them down. Now all we need is something to keep the cat population down as well..... :roll:

pottssteve

mrfpb wrote:

Environmental health guy once told me that you never just get a single cockroach - there will be hundreds of them around somewhere.

Sleep well!

There are hundreds, the village is crawling with them. It's hot and damp at the moment, so they are loving it. We rarely get them in the apartment as we try to keep it clean, but they can get in through the vent in the bathroom. Killing the first one stops the little b@astards having babies, so hopefully we won't get any more. I got it pretty good with the BioKill...

homers_double

Isn't there a theory that you shouldn't squash them as females carry eggs under their wings and flattening them will release the spawn?

homers_double

And at last I thought there was going to be one politics free topic on the internet...

pottssteve

homers double wrote:

Isn't there a theory that you shouldn't squash them as females carry eggs under their wings and flattening them will release the spawn?

They lay eggs as we have found them occasionally. They look like dates, only about 5mm long. Not sure about the wings theory, but I am willing to take the risk.

darkhairedlord

pottssteve wrote:

. Now all we need is something to keep the cat population down as well..... :roll:

Kitikat with aspirin in it.

earthvspace4XTuUWcX

When a junior doc many years ago I can remember the crunching sound of walking on cockroaches as I past by the hospital kitchen late at night. Another time went to sit down at my desk in xray and found a cockroach drowned in my coffee mug which had an inch of coffee in it from the day before.

Stevo_666

A mate of mine had 4 pet cockroaches that he kept in glass cage when we were at Uni. He called them John, Paul, George and Ringo

keef66

Stevo 666 wrote:

A mate of mine had 4 pet cockroaches that he kept in glass cage when we were at Uni. He called them John, Paul, George and Ringo

But cockroaches aren't beetles. Schoolboy error, or did he know this and was just trying to spark controversy??

Flâneur

and I thought this was about Gove and his wife

Flâneur

keef66 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

A mate of mine had 4 pet cockroaches that he kept in glass cage when we were at Uni. He called them John, Paul, George and Ringo

But cockroaches aren't beetles. Schoolboy error, or did he know this and was just trying to spark controversy??

Maybe he wasn't very bright, he was friends with Stevo after all

ballysmate

Stevo 666 wrote:

A mate of mine had 4 pet cockroaches that he kept in glass cage when we were at Uni. He called them John, Paul, George and Ringo

Did somebody kill one of 'em?

Stevo_666

He wasn't the sharpest tool in the box, he only got a 'Desmond' when he graduated.

mallorcajeff

My flat in me orca years ago used to get them as it was a communal block and they would come in through the bathroom ceiling. Many a sleepless night chasing darting shapes in the night naked again with a birkenstock sandal lol. I found the gold can of raid the most effective. Disgusting things.

Bo Duke

We had 2 inch 'roaches when I lived in Brazil... used to make a real crunching noise when you smack'em with a flip-flop.
Geckos on the other hand I leave as they eat other inspects, flies etc.. plus they're pretty little things. The down side is they shi.t on the walls and it hangs there.