Cockroaches

[Melalvai]

Help.
In the 1999 War of the Roaches, I won by coating the floor under the fridge and the stove with a bottle of boric acid. Cleaned it up a couple weeks later, put down a new layer, and they were gone and stayed gone the rest of our tenure in that house.

New house, football players live next door, roaches clearly had the upper hand (even if the football team DID beat Kansas this year) and sent raiding parties to my house periodically. Football players moved out a few months ago, and the guerilla warfare escalated. The roaches are now in control in my house.

The strategy employed in the 1999 War won't work this time, because the nest is inside the door of the dishwasher.

I called an exterminator and found out what they charge, and the nontrivial inconvenience to us and our pets. I want to exhaust all other options first.

[snapdragen]

Roach motel? Take the door off and get a new one? It's obvious I have no clue......

[Zen]

how did the cockaroaches get in there?
Boric acid is the best thing I know. Can you pour it down through the latch (whereever the cockaroaches are getting in)

[tc1]

No, really. Do some searching and see if you can figure out how to dismantle the door, and put it back together. Start by typing the name and model number into your search engine, and go from there.

I just went and looked at mine. It appears to be held together with little Torx fasteners. If you want to take yours apart, and a gasket is available for that piece, get the gasket before you proceed. Otherwise, water + wiring = a dead dishwasher if you are lucky, or a dead or injured person if you are not lucky. And the doors cost almost as much to replace as the whole unit.

Another option is to call the repair shop and find out how much it will cost for them to do this. I know some appliance repair people, they are used to seeing every kind of pest and won't be surprised. Cockroaches in the dishwasher beats rats in the stove any day.

[Trekhawk]

OMG!!!
It seems like all the TE girls are being invaded by bugs. Perhaps they could come visit my Millipede buddies.

I have no great tips Im afraid but I send wishes for a bug free house for you soon.

Trek-being invaded by Millipedes-hawk

[OakLeaf]

Cockroaches are just a fact of life in Florida. Only we call them Palmetto Bugs . It turns out that our three-inch variety are the true American Cockroaches, and the little ones you get up north are an import, German cockroaches.

Much as I hate to use poisons, the best solution I know of is the solid bait. It's a pasty kind of stuff that gets applied with a glue gun. You put it behind all the switch plates and electrical outlets, in out-of-the-way corners of all the cabinets, in the attic, under appliances, inside the vents for bathrooms and range hoods, all of those places that roaches come in (and pets and children can't get to).

Some exterminators use solid bait, some don't, so call around. Just recently I've seen this type of bait in home improvement stores, too. The advantage of an exterminator is that they offer a guarantee, and they'll come back for free if you have any more bugs within a year.

My dishwasher door is different from tc1's (Phillips head fasteners, and the gasket is on a different surface. Usually when a manufacturer uses Torx fasteners it's an indication they DON'T want untrained consumers taking them apart.) So yours might be different yet - but I'm not sure how much would be accomplished by taking it apart anyhow, since the roaches would just scatter and go elsewhere (and live for weeks and return to your dishwasher door the minute you got tired of handwashing dishes and put it back together ). What I might try there - just a thought - is tape glue traps up to the dishwasher vents, so the roaches have no other way out, and leave them there any time I wasn't using the dishwasher, particularly at night.

Good luck. And look on the bright side... it could be mice (one of the few things I really don't like about our house in the country)!

[mimitabby]

move

I left roaches behind in NJ. They are disgusting, dirty and persistent. THe only things worst than them are bedbugs.


I love Seattle!!


ps if you keep cats you probably will never have a problem with mice either. I never have

[Tuckervill]

My husband got some stuff from a guy he knows. It's a solid, like Oak described. Smear it on stuff, and then leave the house for a day (especially the animals). Dead cockroaches everywhere. I made him do it while the boy and I were out of town.

No more roaches.

Karen

[Melalvai]

I am not going to try to take apart the dishwasher. Call me chicken.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will let you know as the battle progresses. If I suddenly stop posting you'll know the roaches won.

We have 2 cats, one is a great mouser although she prefers baby bunnies, of which there are plenty. She's getting older and doesn't see or hear as well, but she can still catch a baby bunny. She is very generous, and often leaves half the bunny for us. On our doorstep. Always with the stomach prominantly displayed.

And yet a few years ago we did have a mouse problem, in the attic. Of course, we don't let her go in the attic, no matter how she pleads. We put out traps and poison and the mice disappeared eventually. Now that the field across the street is being developed, we will have fewer mice, and baby bunnies, and deer. Instead we will have college students. Of all vermin, college student infestations are the worst.

[Grog]

Instead we will have college students. Of all vermin, college student infestations are the worst.

Hmmmm...

I'm sure you could come up with something more charitable, considering the number of college students on this board.

[Zen]

Hmmmm...

I'm sure you could come up with something more charitable, considering the number of college students on this board.

I don't know...and I'm sure she's thinking (like me) along the lines of Animal House college students.

[Melalvai]

I'm sure you could come up with something more charitable, considering the number of college students on this board.

Oops, was I tactless and offensive again?
Some of my best friends are college students. Until very recently, I was one myself. I am married to a college student. Nonetheless...
Animal House indeed.

[mimitabby]

my mother wrote a poem:


The cockroach is an ancient soul
She must be old as Eden. (no offense to our Eden!)
She doesn't fight, or ever bite
Just feedin' and a breedin'.

She keeps her furry legs so clean
Her sable shell so gleaming.
Then why does her appearance cause
Disgust and even screaming?

She leaves no stains or holes behind
Her appetite's petite.
Then why do we begrudge her
The minutiae she'll eat?

She really needs a friendly press
Of this there is no doubt.
Why is there not a P R firm
Who'd bring it all about?

[Grog]

Oops, was I tactless and offensive again?
Some of my best friends are college students. Until very recently, I was one myself. I am married to a college student. Nonetheless...
Animal House indeed.

Don't worry about it.

[Eden]

nice poem

but I think the nasty bit about roaches is that they (like mice and rats) are incontinent.... so everywhere they walk around in your house they spread roach feces -ick!

anyway I though hippies were the ultimate houshold pest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrMcw...eature=related

(there's some weird stuff cut in with this, but its the only clip I could seem to find online)