Roaches?????

Adult roaches fly at night/dusk. They come in through open windows and doors and once inside seek a dark place to hide and maybe some grease to eat. You usually find them belly up on the floor in the morning. Keep a broom handy! Now and then you find one dead in the back of a drawer. Don't worry about roaches too much unless you start seeing baby ones, generally under a kitchen sink or similarly damp location. That means you have new ones hatching and you should get pest control out immediately to deal with the infestation. A stray adult or two isn't a big deal.

Having one of the pest companies spray monthly does keep the bug population under control. Some still get in, but they soon die from exposure to the residual poison from the last spraying. The die hard pests that are nearly impossible to totally eradicate are more often the tiny sweet ants.

While spraying will keep pest infestations from taking hold, it won't stop the flying cockroaches from coming in at night. You'll still have a few dead ones to clean up along the way.

Yes, Terminix helps keep the population of critters down a bit, but never gone for good. As disgusting as many of these things are, remember that they all serve in important service somehow. Right now (STX) at my house, it seems as iff there are more bugs than usual, as well as more 'odd' types showing up. Usually, there's not much to be concerned about, just keep the nasties under control without killing the 'good guys' in the process. Also, it seems to me that at certain times there are innundations of certain bugs...like right now I'm in an all out war with fleas...in and out, but it was ticks last year (no fleas)...etc. Good luck!
Also, Terminix offers different services, like how often and what type of bug is the worst and so on.

We use American Pest control. Excellent service and reasonable price. They spray our house every month. We also had a terrible flea problem this year and had them treat our entire yard.

We spray monthly and often see dead "water bugs" in our back bedroom. We think, because the back bath is not regularly used, they come up through the shower drain. But these are the only insect we have in the house, so we consider ourselves lucky.

I live in a concrete house with regular sealed windows, no shutters. It's sprayed by Terminix monthly.

In the six weeks I've been here I've seen an average of a roach (I think that's what it is but not sure as it does look different from what I've seen in the U.S.) a week. They've all been adults and all but one or two were dead. The two living ones were in obvious distress from the poison I presume and I believe I see the roaches more often after a rain storm.

The only consistent issue I see is random appearances of sugar ants in one of the bathrooms and one of the bedrooms. I haven't quite figured this one out as we don't eat/drink in these areas and keep them clean, remove garbage daily, etc. The majority of the sugar ants I find are dead also but when I find living ones I usually find 3-5 running in random directions. They don't seem to run in streams/highways as an organized group attacking some food source like they do in the U.S.

Based on what I've read on this forum I had expected to see a lot of bug issues but really haven't. I do see a lot of geckos running around and on the house outside which I suspect helps a lot.

Not to say that there isn't a good side to roaches, but I can't think of any. (td)Can you?:S

Hi ddlvballstx,

Not sure where you are from in the states but here on STT, just like anywhere in the Southeastern US, there are big, flying cockroaches that will, unfortunately, get in your house at some point. As a matter of fact, I woke up this morning to find one belly up, but still kicking, on the floor at the foot of my bed. Time for my monthly Ortho bug spray treatment!! The spray will help, lizards (to my surprise!) eat them, and if you have cats, they LOVE to play with them and kill them(!). I absolutely despise them and they still freak me out but you do get used to them the more you are around them....maybe try calling them something else, as they do in the South...Palmetto bugs, water bugs, Mahogany bugs....that might help...although, that never worked for me.....it is still a big, friggin' cockroach!!! BTW, Windex kills them, too!

pilatesgal318

When I lived in the "buggy" house, my cat loved to play with the flying roaches too. She disabled them by removing one or two legs, and in the mornings I'd invariably find one on its back, still alive and kicking, and I'd sweep it up in a dustpan, take it outside, find a lizard and throw the roach near the lizard. The lizard would rush over and grab it in a heartbeat and start chomping away. Lots of fun!!!

Um... ew.

But seriously, I can remember my shrieks when I saw my first "Mahogany Bird", and even now, they give me a start.

I heard a tale when I first moved here about the legendary and magical "Mahogany Bird": hucksters used to catch them and put them in matchboxes and sell them to unsuspecting visitors as "Mahogany Birds"... money paid, the buyer would later open the box inside to keep the little bird from being able to fly away, only to discover a cockroach that is much larger than the usual German Cockroach that city dwellers are used to... I am sure there was much wailing and gnashing...

Don't even know if it's a true story... not many have heard it.

The hucksters of the story actually used shellac on the large, dead, flying roaches and sold them as finely carved, detailed ' Mahogany Birds' -- -- the flying away part does make it much funnier though!

Ah....! Nice to know someone else has heard this one, and that I am now closer to the truth. This is a lot like "Queez' he Eye!"...

one thing we do is to put the large roach baits in our septic tank on a ledge or taped to the wall, this stops them from coming into the house through the drains