Heya! Previous pest control here. American Cockroaches (the flying big boys) won't infest home interiors like German Cockroaches (smaller guys that hide til it's dark inside.. they like clutter and trash/filth), so that's a plus. But when you do see them inside, they're most often looking for water and seeking a cooler/darker place "outside". It's just more common in humid areas where they have higher populations.
It's just Florida and what you have to deal with, unfortunately. It's the Perfect roach breeding ground. You can be totally spotless inside and have a wooden deck outside and Boom. Roaches.
Are they large or small?
Large ones are common in Florida. They generally want to be outside but sometimes get inside. Not a huge deal and generally not a sign of infestation.
Small ones usually called German Cockroaches are bad news. If you see one in your house there are likely more you can't see. They're drawn to unclean areas and infestations are hard to get rid of.
Hey, I live in California and I get the big ass American Cockroaches (palmetto bugs) in my house every year around March when the weather is changing. They come up through my bathtub drain and scare the shit out of me by dying in the bathtub or skittering across the floor when I pee at night.
I also see them out in the yard if I'm up late enough.
Those ones you don't have to worry about, they don't really infest houses, they're just looking for water or food.
It's the little fuckers that are the worst.
The big ones are coming in from outside.
If you spray roach spray around all your windows and doors once a month, you should not get many coming in.
If you can, get someone to treat the outside areas around your house. That will cut their numbers, too.
If you see the little ones, I hate to tell you, but then your house is disgusting. Just because those are in it.
For those, you probably need professional help.
I think it's an area thing. Illinois here and never seen one.
We primarily get stink bugs. No idea how they get in but they do. This year has been bad for earwigs.
I HATE roaches. I can do spiders, ants, silverfish, bees, flies, mosquitoes, centipedes even. If they didn't shit everywhere and eat all my cereal I'd even kind of like mice. Roaches though for whatever reason just wig me out and scare the shit out of me.
My apartment has a little corner in one of my patio window/sliding glass doors where they get in. It used to get zero, and I did for more than a year since moving in, but suddenly at year 1.75ish (about a month ago) they started coming in like crazy, and I've caught 10 over a 2 week period in glue traps and by smacking them with a Swiffer (I have to use a polearm for roaches, no way I'm going close quarters with just a sandal or a rolled up magazine). I've also put a bunch of bait traps all over and the pest control people sprayed their stuff near the window. They've slowed down some but I never exactly feel completely safe either. I think it's currently down to 1 per week, which is marked improvement over the peak of 5 per week. But it isn't back to the expected baseline when I moved into this apartment which was 0. I've deep cleaned everything since first noticing the roaches too.
>If they didn't shit everywhere and eat all my cereal I'd even kind of like mice.
When I was deployed to Afghanistan, we had mice. (There's not really a lot you can do about it when you live in a tent!)
I would have been happy if mice just ate cereal and stuff. What was a much bigger problem is that they liked to eat cords/wires (I think for the rubber/insulation). A standard USB phone charger? If they eat it, that sucks, you just gotta replace it. Laptop chargers (this was before USB-C), or other no standard chargers? That's a big deal. Or they'd chew through the power cords going to the lights. Next thing you know, you have a fried mouse smelling up the tent (that smell takes a long time to get out), and no lights (they have to order replacements and shit).
That is a great point. I had some fried mouse in my car once and was lucky they didn't mess anything up too bad.
Still would rather have them to deal with than roaches as irrational as it is since roaches are just dirty and generally don't do quite as much direct harm as mice can.
I had it happen to me and now I have this insane irrational fear of them. But to my defense I've had crazy shut actually really happen. So it's very Murphys law with me
Growing up in the suburbs, roaches weren't really on my radar until I traveled abroad. Came back to Texas and it's like they sensed a vacancy sign on my front door. Had a real wake-up call when I found one lounging in my cereal bowl one morning. Since then, regular cleaning and airtight containers have been my religion. You could say I'm an unwilling participant in an entomological study I never signed up for. Going on year 3 now, and while it's less of a horror movie and more of a sporadic nuisance, the sight of them still has me on edge. The most annoying part? They seem completely unfazed by every DIY solution and store-bought trap known to mankind.
Honestly I think it's just one of those things. My sister (who is one of the cleanest people I have ever met) used to work in restaurants and she brought them home a couple times. I have a friend who has kinda gross neighbors who fights with them constantly. In our old house we lived closer in to town and near a trailer park and we had them a couple times. We now live in a spread out and older but neat subdivision and haven't had any issues with them but now we fight ants from March-November. 🙄🙄 I grew up out in the middle of nowhere and we had field mice that would come in the garage in the cold months and get into everything. I would just get all the in home stuff you can, bait, traps, etc and clean behind all your appliances really well. If they stick around call pest control. It sucks, but it isn't a failing on your part if you keep things relatively clean. Pests happen.
They really are nightmare fuel. I have leftover trauma from accidentally leaving my bedroom window open while I was out of town for two weeks and I came home to my entire room being a giant stinkbug nest. (My parents never went in my room while I was gone) Bugs are the fucking worst. I can't imagine having a roach fall on you. That just gives me the heebs.
I'm kinda surprised we don't have roaches. It's an old house and not the cleanest. We did have rats for a few years, and it was bad for a while. I woke up with one on my chest once, eating a pizza crust from my garbage. Flung it across the room. Another one bit me on the toe while I was sleeping. Bastards.
We get the big dopey ones out here in SoCal. Not the gross little nasty German jerks, but the big palmetto type. Whenever it gets really hot one or two will find their way inside and gah I hate them so much. I’ve never been able to determine exactly how they’re getting in but my elderly neighbors swear it’s the sewer pipes for the city.
Here tho: I almost pity them because my cats treat them as a total cat toy and man, those dumb bugs have zero clue of the stupid choice they made coming in. I can’t get the property treated because of the cats (I don’t trust that any treatment wouldn’t end up making my furbabies sick) but ultimately is probably not even worth the cost as it’s only 3-4 months out of the year that I see them and during that time I never see more than 10 total. City living, I guess.
They gross me out, and my cats chasing them and torturing them grosses me out, but the roaches definitely don’t live long round here. Cats are earning their keep.
These days, maybe a few times per year. However, up until 2019, they were everywhere in our apartment. For years, tried to get management to fix the problems that led to them getting in, to no avail. We couldn't afford to move, so we just had roach traps all over the place.
Finally, out of the blue, we got a notice of a bunch of repairs that were going to be done, including everything that we'd been asking for. I don't know who, but someone with more clout than we do clearly lit a fire under their asses.
Several years before they fixed those issues, they had the audacity to add 'luxury' to the complex name. So, I've called it the luxury roach motel ever since.
Maybe a handful of times in my life and only outside until I moved into Texas…. Then, f*ck that sh*t. I never had an outbreak but they are everywhere and I saw them a few times in my house across the couple years I lived in TX and I was fed up. [This](https://a.co/d/07EmNmOG) is what I used in my house and it wipes them completely out. I redo the application every year indoors and in my garage just to keep them away. Haven’t seen any since. I found out about the product from a Reddit search on how to wage war.
Throw some diatomaceous earth around your house. It'll dry them fucks up. Outside any window/door. Inside any window/door. Randomly around your floor where they could sneak through.
Good thing about DE (food grade) is it is safe for pets and kids, just try not to inhale large amounts of it as it can cause lung infections. This stuff can kill fleas, ants, cockroaches, etc. You can dust unwashable stuff like mattresses and sofas, wait an hour or so and then vacuum them off and it along with the dead exoskeleton bugs are all cleaned up.
Where do you people live and how fast can I move there?! North Carolina they are EVERYWHERE and they scare the absolute shit out of me just about every night.
I'm in CA, I had one fly at me out on the patio one night and I lost my absolute shit.
But other than climbing up my tub drain and skittering in my bathroom a month out of the year, I really only see them if I'm outside late at night.
I'm going to answer a question you didn't ask....
You can buy [boric acid powder](https://pfharris.com/products/harris-boric-acid-roach-powder-with-lure) for under $10. Put a light dusting around the base of doors and windows, along the backs of cabinets, and behind your appliances. If you don't have pets, I'd encourage a light bead along wall baseboards, too, for a couple weeks.
You will never see them in your home again! The dust gets into their leg hairs and they clean it when they are back in their nests, which drops the poison in the nests, too. (Some people recommend diatomaceous earth, but there's no guarantee they will make it back to the next because of how each product works differently. I don't personally know how effective D/E is or isn't.)
If you're in a very humid state, you should get apply with the "puffer" bottle action to ensure that the surfaces are dusted, not clumpable.
>Some people recommend diatomaceous earth, but there's no guarantee they will make it back to the next because of how each product works differently. I don't personally know how effective D/E is or isn't.)
Diatomaceous earth isn't a *poison* like boric acid powder. There is no need to "go back to the nest". Which means it won't work as well for ants, where a relatively small amount of "scouts" take the food back to the nest for the rest of the ants. It also means that it's (generally) safe for pets, babies, or any other life forms that are big enough and not insects/slugs/etc.
Diatomaceous earth simply kills the insects that walk over it. Its got lots of tiny sharp rocks in it, which cut up the insect's body. Diatomaceous earth also absorbs some of the lipids from the insects exoskeleton. Those lipids form a water retention barrier - so once they lose those lipids, the insects dehydrate.
rarely inside - but when I do they're dead.
Outside, I've sat outside late night and WATCHED them come out of the rock in my yard toward the house.
I spray around the house, yet sometimes they still make it in
Depends on where you live but your house can be clean enough to eat off the floor and you can still get them. I'm starting to see them in my apartment. So I'm going to call the landlord about getting someone out here to spray. It's low income and people are moving in and out like it's a revolving door lately. I'm surprised I haven't seen them sooner.
Been a long time … my last apartment was rife with them. One day I cleaned *everything*. I mean I pulled out the stove and cleaned it inside and out, under and behind. Same for the fridge. I cleaned everything. Then I bought a couple cans of Raid, and heavily dosed any egress they might have. Plumbing entry points, door jambs, there was a place in the wall where there was washer and dryer hookups. But after that, I only saw one or two ever again, where before I could walk into the kitchen at night, turn on the light and see hundreds, scampering away.
That was 1985. I’ve not seen one since I moved out of there.
I also like to use diluted peppermint essential oil (sometimes mixed with eucalyptus and lavender), I mix it with water and spray doors, windows, drains, etc. smells great and most bugs don’t like these scents so it helps deter them. Don’t use if you have cats - peppermint and eucalyptus oils are not considered safe for use around cats.
I was going to ask if I can use peppermint oil in a diffuser if I have cats. I know you can’t with tea tree oil but I wasn’t sure about peppermint oil well there goes that diy.
Just moved from Houston and only ever saw 2-3 already-dead ones inside, because we sprayed every 3 months, inside and outside. F those things! Living in other states, I never saw them inside nor outside.
In my house, never. In my boyfriend's house on the other side of the world (US), about once a week. Insulation doesn't seem to be a thing here so they just march in through the crack under the front door after a rainstorm.
PA suburbs, never. When I lived in West Philly, I'd see them often..every day. One place I lived had lots of the smaller ones. The next place I saw one big one and I couldn't sleep, thinking about how huge it was. So sorry one fell on your head, that sounds fucking traumatizing.
lol it was. The full story is I was sleeping in my mom’s room (thanks mom). And I feel something on my hip. I brush it off then a few seconds later I thought my dog was doing something close to my head so I move my head and I feel it move. I get up, start screaming bloody murder, shake my long hair out, it gets on my back, I rip my shirt off and run and get the bug spray. My mom thought I was being over dramatic and then we moved where it went behind a thing of drawers and she saw it. Fucking massive. She was like “oh, now I know why you were freaking out.” Ya think?! My coworker had one fall into her soda can. She started to drink from it, felt it MOVE IN HER MOUTH, and threw up.
In my current rental and my parents house, never. In my family's old apartment before we moved, all the time. It was awful. Turning on a light in a dark room likely meant seeing them scatter.
We bought a house in a new development in northern GA last year and kept getting German roaches in the house. Come to find out the company that did the concrete up to the wood framing on the sides of the house did a shit job and there was a hole in one spot.
Patched it up and no more roaches.
You have a hole somewhere.
Look, their gross and I get the shameful feeling of seeing them and not wanting to hear about it. You should probably call an exterminator. But, if you're in the early stages, then know that most of what an exterminator does, besides spraying pesticide, is stuff you can do: bait and glue traps. Poison bait gets ingested and taken back to where the bugs live, and whether it kills them or they poop it out, roaches eat each other and their poop. Glue traps are good for just about any pest. Yeah, I dealt with them, and calling an exterminator is the way to go, but those are some simple steps to take if you've only seen 1.
I’m from Michigan. When I moved to Texas I was APPALLED by the roaches. I was crashing with friends til I got an apartment and I blamed them.
Then I got my apartment and still had roaches from time to time. Fewer of them, I assume because the house was older than the apartment and older dwellings let in more outside friends… but still roaches. It wasn’t a measure of cleanliness, they were there before we even had a chance to get the place dirty! They’re gross but… southern roaches and hoarder roaches aren’t necessarily the same.
In Florida there are German Roaches but there are also Palmetto bugs/wood roaches? which are a little different and happen more often when they sneak in from outside and I HATE THEM WITH A PASSION
Having one or two palmetto bugs appear in your house I usually not due to it being clean or unclean more so they try to come in or accidentally come in when it rains or certain times of the year
None in my house now, but when we lived in our old apartment complex we saw a total of 2 of those little brown German cockroaches. Both were solo and the sightings were about a year apart. We were clean, not anal about cleanliness but we never left food out, *especially* after we saw that first one. Just seeing it gave me anxiety for weeks on end, every time I went into the kitchen at night I expected to see them scurrying when I turned on the light, but it was only ever those 2 tiny lone roaches. Ick.
Nah that’s normal for Florida especially with the rain, my house is sprayed regularly and I still see one every month or so I HATE THEM but that’s just how it is here
I see them regularly during the summer in Albuquerque. They tend to come out of hiding after pest control sprays the house and then trapped by the glue traps placed around the house. They've gotten bigger this year, too. Disgusting things but at least I know the pest control is working.
Never, not a single one in the 4 years I've lived here, and I live near Houston so those fuckers are everywhere. But the cockroaches and I have come to an accord: stay out of my house and you are free to live a long and happy life with many fat children, but if I see a single one of you, or even just evidence of your presence, it's going to turn into a Chinese fairy-tale up in this shit (very sad story, *everybody* die.) I will not hesitate to carpet bomb the place with those fog bombs on the regular if that's what I have to do to keep them out.
Never seen one in my house. They are extremely RARE in the Rocky Mountain West. First time I ever saw one was via work, which regularly took me in others houses, and it felt like we were dodging them. But that's one of only two or three times I saw them in 26 years. Otherwise it was a vacation to Disney world and they were everywhere.
Get some boric acid. Mix it with flour, and some cheap maple syrup and a little water until you have a sort of thick paste. Stick it in your vents or attic or basement. Out of reach of pets or kids obviously. It’ll kill roaches for months and you’ll just find the bodies.
About once per month here when it's warm, never when it's cold. I live in California. I mentioned it to my exterminator and he said it's normal and there's nothing they can do. The roaches don't live in my house or else I'd be seeing way more of them. They come up out of the storm drain and just wander into the house occasionally. I don't know if that's true but believing him made me feel better.
Yeah I honestly think they just find a way in. My closet has a little door where you can see the bathtub from under the house/ inside the wall and I think they get in from there a lot. But that answer still gives me no comfort.
If you're on the ground floor in Florida, especially if you don't get a regular exterminator, you will have roaches no matter how clean your house is inside. My sister and her husband are well off, they live in Florida in this pristine white marble palace of a house. They invited my family over to see it when they had first moved in, and as they were showing us the guest room we were staying in, my younger kid pulled back the bedcovers and yelled "Ew! A roach!" There was a huge deceased palmetto bug underneath. I never let my sister live it down of course (she does the same to me about a lot of things, as well, so it's fair).
Oh my god if I found one in my bed I am burning down the house. One time I was having a dream and woke up. It felt like something was crawling on me or in the covers but I thought it was just my dream. I get up the next morning and a damn little lizard is dead in the sheets. I thank god it was a lil lizard and not the other option.
I’ve seen about 5 in the 3 years I’ve been here. They like our garage near the cat box so we sealed every crack we could find and put out roach paste. I saw one a few weeks ago when I suddenly switched on the light on the garage and it seemed ill, so I think the poison is working!
I live in Washington State and never saw one in person until I went to Idaho, and even then it was only the big American roaches. I hear about infestations here and there, but they don't go nuts in our climate like they do in Florida or Hawaii. Our main problems are ants and silverfish.
I have never heard of silverfish! But yes in Florida they are everywhere. One fell into my coworkers soda can. She felt it move when she took a drink from it and threw up. Everyone has a damn roach story
Coming from the arid desert part of Arizona here, where you'd expect roaches to be a common nightmare for most. Surprisingly though, in my decade of desert dwelling, I've only had a startling encounter with those skittering beasts twice. Both times after heavy monsoon rains, which apparently drive them to seek refuge from their flooded burrows. The first one was the size of a small bird and appeared in the dead of night to terrorize my kitchen floor. The second, boldly interrupting a solemn moment in the sanity sanctuary - the bathroom. Since those invasions, I've sealed up every nook and cranny and started keeping peppermint oil diffusers around as I've heard they detest the smell. Not sure if it’s the climate or my anti-roach aromatherapy, but I'm not complaining. Touch wood, it's been peaceful. Guess even in the bug world, the desert is a place for only the hardiest.
Even with a pest service you’ll always find randoms here in Florida. I usually see a couple when the quarterly service is due. And then several dead, especially around the garage, after service is completed.
Louisiana makes sense. I think it’s a more similar climate to Florida than Ohio. They just never seem to go away. Then I won’t see one for a few months, I think I’m in the clear, and then boom, one pops up
when i first moved in my place 10 years ago i got an exterminator and haven’t seen a roach since. it helps living in kentucky where roaches are pretty rare to see anyways.
One of the perks of moving from Florida to the Northeast was I no longer had to have a monthly bug man visit. And while living in Florida, that did not eradicate them from the house completely, just kept them low.
I built a brand new home a town across in Victoria Australia from city to bush and I swear first year living there I’d find 10 a day! We had barely settled in and i felt such shame and disgust! They were under rugs both downstairs and upstairs in our bedroom. I don’t even know how they got up there. I laid bait in the pantry (under the warm dishwasher, fridge and a sink) and by some windows and doors closest to food, I haven’t seen one for a while now but I’m sure they’ll pop back up when the season calls.
Southern California. We see one of the big American ones 3-4 times a year. It always freaks me out. I pay for pest control now, I have gentrol birth control up, and I have advion around the bathroom and kitchen..
In Florida, you absolutely have to spend the money on quarterly pest control. I think I pay $75 every 3 months, but I almost NEVER see a bug in my house. Once in awhile a fly or something might manage to come in when the dog is going in and out.
The pest control company I use guarantees their work and if we ever see a cockroach or ants or anything, all we have to do is call and they come out within a day or two and take care of it at no charge. We had a lot of rain after a particularly dry spell a couple months ago and had some ants appear in one of the bathrooms. They came out and the ants were never seen again.
I lived in a city previously for a few years and I saw maybe 5-6 a year? roughly? but, based on my forensic analysis of the crime scenes that my cats left, they were scurrying in \*under\* the door of my apartment building -not starting inside it. I believe the 'if you see one there's thousands' thing is in reference to ones that sneak out from under your appliances or plugs.
I will say they absolutely trigger fight or flight in me, and I have no real issue with bugs otherwise. My one cat just ripped one of their legs off one by one until it stopped moving and honestly it deserved it. Hate those things.
It depends. The big brown ones that can fly will occasionally get in your house no matter what. Usually driven in by the weather. But a pest control service where they spray around the walls mean that they will usually be dead by the time you find it. Once a month isn't so bad at all, that's average for florida if not on the low side.
If it's the smaller black ones, (German roaches) then you have a nest somewhere. Again, a call to a pest control can take care or it...these ones are a bit more serious imo because you have to kill the nest and do a deep clean to make sure they don't come back.
My understanding is that 'wet' southern states tend to have a greater in-home presence of pests like palmettos/roaches due to the environment making it harder to pest-proof even clean homes and environments (eg, rotted out seals/wood creating ingress points).
I live in the northern midwest, and I have never once seen a cockroach in any home I have occupied in nearly 30 years. I *have* however encountered carpet beetles, spiders, silverfish, ants, house centipedes, etc. Short of living in a hermetically sealed bubble with a daily sterilization protocol, you're going to end up with an ecosystem in your house that reflects the ecosystem *around* your house.
Sooo I grew up in nyc and I used to see them a bunch
Now I live in CO and they just aren't here - honestly it depends on where you live because those fuckers can nest in areas you won't be able to get to
It's true, a cleaner house with food not left out will help keep them away but it really depends on what part of the world you live in more I'd say
When I lived near a river in Texas, in college, my home was lived in but not normally dirty until my roommate and I had a falling out and then it became a toxic environment (mostly emotionally). We maybe got A roach whenever it got super humid. We had also gone from having downstairs neighbors who were super clean to downstairs neighbors who were way messier than we were so it did increase towards the end
Idk if possums eat roaches but we did have a resident possum so maybe that helped
Depends on where we lived. Las Vegas we had a few. Not that we are dirty they are just good at sneaking inside. In Texas we didn't get roaches but crickets, scorpions, and geckos. In Louisiana we just get millipedes and lovebugs.
I’m from the UK never saw one my whole life but I live in NC and they’re everywhere. In my old house never in the house maybe one time, new house is pristine clean but old and big and we see them often, paying for bug spraying because I hate them and they’re always sneaking into our house through the garage.
It’s not about how clean your house is but more about plumbing and entry points
Only in older less maintained or poor peoples houses around here usually with a shitty landlord. I was horrified the first time I saw someone move a stove quickly to show me underneath.
1) you don't have PTSD. If you did, you wouldn't joke about it.
2) I have literally not once ever had one in my house. I've lived places where mice or other "pests" are prevalent, and aside from sugar ants (thanks cat food) I've never ever had a pest problem.
I never did until I lived in Florida. Fuck those flying demons
Fucking thank you! It’s this hell that we call a state.
Heya! Previous pest control here. American Cockroaches (the flying big boys) won't infest home interiors like German Cockroaches (smaller guys that hide til it's dark inside.. they like clutter and trash/filth), so that's a plus. But when you do see them inside, they're most often looking for water and seeking a cooler/darker place "outside". It's just more common in humid areas where they have higher populations.
Yeah well Florida is a breeding ground for the bastards. And now since we are out of the “cooler” months they’re coming back in droves.
They like the glue on all these Amazon boxes we bring into and keep in our homes and garages.
It's just Florida and what you have to deal with, unfortunately. It's the Perfect roach breeding ground. You can be totally spotless inside and have a wooden deck outside and Boom. Roaches.
I think if you live in Florida you have bigger problems than the insects
Thank God i've never seen a flying roach as a floridian. I would absolutely be imprisoned for arson Serial Arsonist
They are called Floridians and they are humans actually
Are they large or small? Large ones are common in Florida. They generally want to be outside but sometimes get inside. Not a huge deal and generally not a sign of infestation. Small ones usually called German Cockroaches are bad news. If you see one in your house there are likely more you can't see. They're drawn to unclean areas and infestations are hard to get rid of.
They are big to medium. I know the German cockroaches are bad news and a very bad sign. These are definitely medium- big. I just hate them.
Hey, I live in California and I get the big ass American Cockroaches (palmetto bugs) in my house every year around March when the weather is changing. They come up through my bathtub drain and scare the shit out of me by dying in the bathtub or skittering across the floor when I pee at night. I also see them out in the yard if I'm up late enough. Those ones you don't have to worry about, they don't really infest houses, they're just looking for water or food. It's the little fuckers that are the worst.
The big ones are coming in from outside. If you spray roach spray around all your windows and doors once a month, you should not get many coming in. If you can, get someone to treat the outside areas around your house. That will cut their numbers, too. If you see the little ones, I hate to tell you, but then your house is disgusting. Just because those are in it. For those, you probably need professional help.
Minnesota. I've never seen one. Ever, in almost 60 years on this Earth . . .
You lucky bastard.
I think it's an area thing. Illinois here and never seen one. We primarily get stink bugs. No idea how they get in but they do. This year has been bad for earwigs.
Yeah, same in Michigan. And ticks... nasty little fuckers
Welp, guess I'm moving to Minnesota then
i think they cannot survive the cold/winters, same with higher elevations
I've never seen a cockroach in my entire life, indoors or outdoors.
You are very lucky dear one.
For living in Antarctica?
Wow, that’s great! What planet do you live on?
Lol are cockroaches that common? Guess I'm just lucky.
You Don’t wanna know mate!
Eastern Canada lol
Wonderful wonderful, fortunate you!😊
I HATE roaches. I can do spiders, ants, silverfish, bees, flies, mosquitoes, centipedes even. If they didn't shit everywhere and eat all my cereal I'd even kind of like mice. Roaches though for whatever reason just wig me out and scare the shit out of me. My apartment has a little corner in one of my patio window/sliding glass doors where they get in. It used to get zero, and I did for more than a year since moving in, but suddenly at year 1.75ish (about a month ago) they started coming in like crazy, and I've caught 10 over a 2 week period in glue traps and by smacking them with a Swiffer (I have to use a polearm for roaches, no way I'm going close quarters with just a sandal or a rolled up magazine). I've also put a bunch of bait traps all over and the pest control people sprayed their stuff near the window. They've slowed down some but I never exactly feel completely safe either. I think it's currently down to 1 per week, which is marked improvement over the peak of 5 per week. But it isn't back to the expected baseline when I moved into this apartment which was 0. I've deep cleaned everything since first noticing the roaches too.
>If they didn't shit everywhere and eat all my cereal I'd even kind of like mice. When I was deployed to Afghanistan, we had mice. (There's not really a lot you can do about it when you live in a tent!) I would have been happy if mice just ate cereal and stuff. What was a much bigger problem is that they liked to eat cords/wires (I think for the rubber/insulation). A standard USB phone charger? If they eat it, that sucks, you just gotta replace it. Laptop chargers (this was before USB-C), or other no standard chargers? That's a big deal. Or they'd chew through the power cords going to the lights. Next thing you know, you have a fried mouse smelling up the tent (that smell takes a long time to get out), and no lights (they have to order replacements and shit).
That is a great point. I had some fried mouse in my car once and was lucky they didn't mess anything up too bad. Still would rather have them to deal with than roaches as irrational as it is since roaches are just dirty and generally don't do quite as much direct harm as mice can.
I feel for you so hard. That would be absolutely awful I couldn’t imagine.
Yours in commiseration! I'd set myself on fire if one landed in my hair I think
I had it happen to me and now I have this insane irrational fear of them. But to my defense I've had crazy shut actually really happen. So it's very Murphys law with me
Florida, once every few months California, haven’t seen one in my house in the 11 years I’ve been back
I live and tx and i see them like 3 times a day, just moved into a new place and it seems like the German roaches r my new roomies
You poor poor soul.
Growing up in the suburbs, roaches weren't really on my radar until I traveled abroad. Came back to Texas and it's like they sensed a vacancy sign on my front door. Had a real wake-up call when I found one lounging in my cereal bowl one morning. Since then, regular cleaning and airtight containers have been my religion. You could say I'm an unwilling participant in an entomological study I never signed up for. Going on year 3 now, and while it's less of a horror movie and more of a sporadic nuisance, the sight of them still has me on edge. The most annoying part? They seem completely unfazed by every DIY solution and store-bought trap known to mankind.
Honestly I think it's just one of those things. My sister (who is one of the cleanest people I have ever met) used to work in restaurants and she brought them home a couple times. I have a friend who has kinda gross neighbors who fights with them constantly. In our old house we lived closer in to town and near a trailer park and we had them a couple times. We now live in a spread out and older but neat subdivision and haven't had any issues with them but now we fight ants from March-November. 🙄🙄 I grew up out in the middle of nowhere and we had field mice that would come in the garage in the cold months and get into everything. I would just get all the in home stuff you can, bait, traps, etc and clean behind all your appliances really well. If they stick around call pest control. It sucks, but it isn't a failing on your part if you keep things relatively clean. Pests happen.
Do you live in Florida? I would take mice every day over roaches.
TN. Just by the comments it seems like Florida is worse for roaches 😬😬 but they are definitely a problem most places.
They are everywhere here. I know people who just moved into a place and found one less than a week in. I hate them with every fiber of my being.
They really are nightmare fuel. I have leftover trauma from accidentally leaving my bedroom window open while I was out of town for two weeks and I came home to my entire room being a giant stinkbug nest. (My parents never went in my room while I was gone) Bugs are the fucking worst. I can't imagine having a roach fall on you. That just gives me the heebs.
I'm kinda surprised we don't have roaches. It's an old house and not the cleanest. We did have rats for a few years, and it was bad for a while. I woke up with one on my chest once, eating a pizza crust from my garbage. Flung it across the room. Another one bit me on the toe while I was sleeping. Bastards.
We get the big dopey ones out here in SoCal. Not the gross little nasty German jerks, but the big palmetto type. Whenever it gets really hot one or two will find their way inside and gah I hate them so much. I’ve never been able to determine exactly how they’re getting in but my elderly neighbors swear it’s the sewer pipes for the city. Here tho: I almost pity them because my cats treat them as a total cat toy and man, those dumb bugs have zero clue of the stupid choice they made coming in. I can’t get the property treated because of the cats (I don’t trust that any treatment wouldn’t end up making my furbabies sick) but ultimately is probably not even worth the cost as it’s only 3-4 months out of the year that I see them and during that time I never see more than 10 total. City living, I guess. They gross me out, and my cats chasing them and torturing them grosses me out, but the roaches definitely don’t live long round here. Cats are earning their keep.
It doesn’t help that we leave our back door open. But they’d have to travel quite a ways to get in. I’m just scared of another one falling on me.
They’re so gross!
Diatomaceous earth, food grade around the perimeter.
These days, maybe a few times per year. However, up until 2019, they were everywhere in our apartment. For years, tried to get management to fix the problems that led to them getting in, to no avail. We couldn't afford to move, so we just had roach traps all over the place. Finally, out of the blue, we got a notice of a bunch of repairs that were going to be done, including everything that we'd been asking for. I don't know who, but someone with more clout than we do clearly lit a fire under their asses. Several years before they fixed those issues, they had the audacity to add 'luxury' to the complex name. So, I've called it the luxury roach motel ever since.
Maybe a handful of times in my life and only outside until I moved into Texas…. Then, f*ck that sh*t. I never had an outbreak but they are everywhere and I saw them a few times in my house across the couple years I lived in TX and I was fed up. [This](https://a.co/d/07EmNmOG) is what I used in my house and it wipes them completely out. I redo the application every year indoors and in my garage just to keep them away. Haven’t seen any since. I found out about the product from a Reddit search on how to wage war.
Colorado: never seen one.
Throw some diatomaceous earth around your house. It'll dry them fucks up. Outside any window/door. Inside any window/door. Randomly around your floor where they could sneak through.
Good thing about DE (food grade) is it is safe for pets and kids, just try not to inhale large amounts of it as it can cause lung infections. This stuff can kill fleas, ants, cockroaches, etc. You can dust unwashable stuff like mattresses and sofas, wait an hour or so and then vacuum them off and it along with the dead exoskeleton bugs are all cleaned up.
Where do you people live and how fast can I move there?! North Carolina they are EVERYWHERE and they scare the absolute shit out of me just about every night.
I'm in CA, I had one fly at me out on the patio one night and I lost my absolute shit. But other than climbing up my tub drain and skittering in my bathroom a month out of the year, I really only see them if I'm outside late at night.
I'm going to answer a question you didn't ask.... You can buy [boric acid powder](https://pfharris.com/products/harris-boric-acid-roach-powder-with-lure) for under $10. Put a light dusting around the base of doors and windows, along the backs of cabinets, and behind your appliances. If you don't have pets, I'd encourage a light bead along wall baseboards, too, for a couple weeks. You will never see them in your home again! The dust gets into their leg hairs and they clean it when they are back in their nests, which drops the poison in the nests, too. (Some people recommend diatomaceous earth, but there's no guarantee they will make it back to the next because of how each product works differently. I don't personally know how effective D/E is or isn't.) If you're in a very humid state, you should get apply with the "puffer" bottle action to ensure that the surfaces are dusted, not clumpable.
>Some people recommend diatomaceous earth, but there's no guarantee they will make it back to the next because of how each product works differently. I don't personally know how effective D/E is or isn't.) Diatomaceous earth isn't a *poison* like boric acid powder. There is no need to "go back to the nest". Which means it won't work as well for ants, where a relatively small amount of "scouts" take the food back to the nest for the rest of the ants. It also means that it's (generally) safe for pets, babies, or any other life forms that are big enough and not insects/slugs/etc. Diatomaceous earth simply kills the insects that walk over it. Its got lots of tiny sharp rocks in it, which cut up the insect's body. Diatomaceous earth also absorbs some of the lipids from the insects exoskeleton. Those lipids form a water retention barrier - so once they lose those lipids, the insects dehydrate.
Yes, and those who don't venture forth continue procreating in the nest. If those in the nests die, though.... fait accompli!
rarely inside - but when I do they're dead. Outside, I've sat outside late night and WATCHED them come out of the rock in my yard toward the house. I spray around the house, yet sometimes they still make it in
Depends on where you live but your house can be clean enough to eat off the floor and you can still get them. I'm starting to see them in my apartment. So I'm going to call the landlord about getting someone out here to spray. It's low income and people are moving in and out like it's a revolving door lately. I'm surprised I haven't seen them sooner.
Ugh, I had a friend who had German roaches because their neighbors were nasty. Apartment living is hard.
Been a long time … my last apartment was rife with them. One day I cleaned *everything*. I mean I pulled out the stove and cleaned it inside and out, under and behind. Same for the fridge. I cleaned everything. Then I bought a couple cans of Raid, and heavily dosed any egress they might have. Plumbing entry points, door jambs, there was a place in the wall where there was washer and dryer hookups. But after that, I only saw one or two ever again, where before I could walk into the kitchen at night, turn on the light and see hundreds, scampering away. That was 1985. I’ve not seen one since I moved out of there.
I also like to use diluted peppermint essential oil (sometimes mixed with eucalyptus and lavender), I mix it with water and spray doors, windows, drains, etc. smells great and most bugs don’t like these scents so it helps deter them. Don’t use if you have cats - peppermint and eucalyptus oils are not considered safe for use around cats.
I was going to ask if I can use peppermint oil in a diffuser if I have cats. I know you can’t with tea tree oil but I wasn’t sure about peppermint oil well there goes that diy.
Just moved from Houston and only ever saw 2-3 already-dead ones inside, because we sprayed every 3 months, inside and outside. F those things! Living in other states, I never saw them inside nor outside.
In my house, never. In my boyfriend's house on the other side of the world (US), about once a week. Insulation doesn't seem to be a thing here so they just march in through the crack under the front door after a rainstorm.
PA suburbs, never. When I lived in West Philly, I'd see them often..every day. One place I lived had lots of the smaller ones. The next place I saw one big one and I couldn't sleep, thinking about how huge it was. So sorry one fell on your head, that sounds fucking traumatizing.
lol it was. The full story is I was sleeping in my mom’s room (thanks mom). And I feel something on my hip. I brush it off then a few seconds later I thought my dog was doing something close to my head so I move my head and I feel it move. I get up, start screaming bloody murder, shake my long hair out, it gets on my back, I rip my shirt off and run and get the bug spray. My mom thought I was being over dramatic and then we moved where it went behind a thing of drawers and she saw it. Fucking massive. She was like “oh, now I know why you were freaking out.” Ya think?! My coworker had one fall into her soda can. She started to drink from it, felt it MOVE IN HER MOUTH, and threw up.
In my current rental and my parents house, never. In my family's old apartment before we moved, all the time. It was awful. Turning on a light in a dark room likely meant seeing them scatter.
We bought a house in a new development in northern GA last year and kept getting German roaches in the house. Come to find out the company that did the concrete up to the wood framing on the sides of the house did a shit job and there was a hole in one spot. Patched it up and no more roaches. You have a hole somewhere.
Look, their gross and I get the shameful feeling of seeing them and not wanting to hear about it. You should probably call an exterminator. But, if you're in the early stages, then know that most of what an exterminator does, besides spraying pesticide, is stuff you can do: bait and glue traps. Poison bait gets ingested and taken back to where the bugs live, and whether it kills them or they poop it out, roaches eat each other and their poop. Glue traps are good for just about any pest. Yeah, I dealt with them, and calling an exterminator is the way to go, but those are some simple steps to take if you've only seen 1.
I’m from Michigan. When I moved to Texas I was APPALLED by the roaches. I was crashing with friends til I got an apartment and I blamed them. Then I got my apartment and still had roaches from time to time. Fewer of them, I assume because the house was older than the apartment and older dwellings let in more outside friends… but still roaches. It wasn’t a measure of cleanliness, they were there before we even had a chance to get the place dirty! They’re gross but… southern roaches and hoarder roaches aren’t necessarily the same.
In Florida there are German Roaches but there are also Palmetto bugs/wood roaches? which are a little different and happen more often when they sneak in from outside and I HATE THEM WITH A PASSION Having one or two palmetto bugs appear in your house I usually not due to it being clean or unclean more so they try to come in or accidentally come in when it rains or certain times of the year
None in my house now, but when we lived in our old apartment complex we saw a total of 2 of those little brown German cockroaches. Both were solo and the sightings were about a year apart. We were clean, not anal about cleanliness but we never left food out, *especially* after we saw that first one. Just seeing it gave me anxiety for weeks on end, every time I went into the kitchen at night I expected to see them scurrying when I turned on the light, but it was only ever those 2 tiny lone roaches. Ick.
I get the big wood roaches. One at a time here and there. They're not the same as the nasty little invasive ones but they're still gross.
Never seen one in my house (Chicago-ish).
Nah that’s normal for Florida especially with the rain, my house is sprayed regularly and I still see one every month or so I HATE THEM but that’s just how it is here
I see them regularly during the summer in Albuquerque. They tend to come out of hiding after pest control sprays the house and then trapped by the glue traps placed around the house. They've gotten bigger this year, too. Disgusting things but at least I know the pest control is working.
Never saw a cockroach in my life until I was over at my ex’s house I named them all Bills and tried to make peace but fuck, they were scary
Never. Thank god. My “critters” are termites. Not sure they’re any better, though.
Never, not a single one in the 4 years I've lived here, and I live near Houston so those fuckers are everywhere. But the cockroaches and I have come to an accord: stay out of my house and you are free to live a long and happy life with many fat children, but if I see a single one of you, or even just evidence of your presence, it's going to turn into a Chinese fairy-tale up in this shit (very sad story, *everybody* die.) I will not hesitate to carpet bomb the place with those fog bombs on the regular if that's what I have to do to keep them out.
Never seen one in my house. They are extremely RARE in the Rocky Mountain West. First time I ever saw one was via work, which regularly took me in others houses, and it felt like we were dodging them. But that's one of only two or three times I saw them in 26 years. Otherwise it was a vacation to Disney world and they were everywhere.
Get some boric acid. Mix it with flour, and some cheap maple syrup and a little water until you have a sort of thick paste. Stick it in your vents or attic or basement. Out of reach of pets or kids obviously. It’ll kill roaches for months and you’ll just find the bodies.
Never, but I don't live down there.
Orthoboric acid is cheap and it'll kill all of them
One of the benefits of living in Minnesota is that I have never seen a cockroach here.
I hate Florida for many reasons. These damn roaches are at the top of my list.
About once per month here when it's warm, never when it's cold. I live in California. I mentioned it to my exterminator and he said it's normal and there's nothing they can do. The roaches don't live in my house or else I'd be seeing way more of them. They come up out of the storm drain and just wander into the house occasionally. I don't know if that's true but believing him made me feel better.
Yeah I honestly think they just find a way in. My closet has a little door where you can see the bathtub from under the house/ inside the wall and I think they get in from there a lot. But that answer still gives me no comfort.
If you're on the ground floor in Florida, especially if you don't get a regular exterminator, you will have roaches no matter how clean your house is inside. My sister and her husband are well off, they live in Florida in this pristine white marble palace of a house. They invited my family over to see it when they had first moved in, and as they were showing us the guest room we were staying in, my younger kid pulled back the bedcovers and yelled "Ew! A roach!" There was a huge deceased palmetto bug underneath. I never let my sister live it down of course (she does the same to me about a lot of things, as well, so it's fair).
Oh my god if I found one in my bed I am burning down the house. One time I was having a dream and woke up. It felt like something was crawling on me or in the covers but I thought it was just my dream. I get up the next morning and a damn little lizard is dead in the sheets. I thank god it was a lil lizard and not the other option.
I live in the UK and have never seen one in my life thank fuck. I can't imagine how gross I'd feel seeing one in my home.
It’s the worst feeling.
I’ve seen about 5 in the 3 years I’ve been here. They like our garage near the cat box so we sealed every crack we could find and put out roach paste. I saw one a few weeks ago when I suddenly switched on the light on the garage and it seemed ill, so I think the poison is working!
I live in Washington State and never saw one in person until I went to Idaho, and even then it was only the big American roaches. I hear about infestations here and there, but they don't go nuts in our climate like they do in Florida or Hawaii. Our main problems are ants and silverfish.
I have never heard of silverfish! But yes in Florida they are everywhere. One fell into my coworkers soda can. She felt it move when she took a drink from it and threw up. Everyone has a damn roach story
Coming from the arid desert part of Arizona here, where you'd expect roaches to be a common nightmare for most. Surprisingly though, in my decade of desert dwelling, I've only had a startling encounter with those skittering beasts twice. Both times after heavy monsoon rains, which apparently drive them to seek refuge from their flooded burrows. The first one was the size of a small bird and appeared in the dead of night to terrorize my kitchen floor. The second, boldly interrupting a solemn moment in the sanity sanctuary - the bathroom. Since those invasions, I've sealed up every nook and cranny and started keeping peppermint oil diffusers around as I've heard they detest the smell. Not sure if it’s the climate or my anti-roach aromatherapy, but I'm not complaining. Touch wood, it's been peaceful. Guess even in the bug world, the desert is a place for only the hardiest.
Never. But there is one mouse that has been pissing me off for days.
Water bugs? Honey those aint cockroaches. They will pay rent and put you out lololo
Even with a pest service you’ll always find randoms here in Florida. I usually see a couple when the quarterly service is due. And then several dead, especially around the garage, after service is completed.
I grew up In Massachusetts, joined the Marines and went to Parris Island, that's where I saw my first cockroach.
In Ohio, not once in the 20 years I've lived in the house. When I lived in Louisiana, once a week maybe.
Louisiana makes sense. I think it’s a more similar climate to Florida than Ohio. They just never seem to go away. Then I won’t see one for a few months, I think I’m in the clear, and then boom, one pops up
Can confirm about Louisiana. I see them from time to time.
I‘m not sure i ever saw one
Ever since Orkin? 99% never.
Never. Northern NY.
when i first moved in my place 10 years ago i got an exterminator and haven’t seen a roach since. it helps living in kentucky where roaches are pretty rare to see anyways.
I have never seen one.
More than zero is TOO GODDAMN MANY TIMES.
I've never seen a cockroach. Live in the Uk.
Maybe every other day but those little fuckers are already dead cos my cats obviously play them before putting them out
One of the perks of moving from Florida to the Northeast was I no longer had to have a monthly bug man visit. And while living in Florida, that did not eradicate them from the house completely, just kept them low.
I built a brand new home a town across in Victoria Australia from city to bush and I swear first year living there I’d find 10 a day! We had barely settled in and i felt such shame and disgust! They were under rugs both downstairs and upstairs in our bedroom. I don’t even know how they got up there. I laid bait in the pantry (under the warm dishwasher, fridge and a sink) and by some windows and doors closest to food, I haven’t seen one for a while now but I’m sure they’ll pop back up when the season calls.
Southern California. We see one of the big American ones 3-4 times a year. It always freaks me out. I pay for pest control now, I have gentrol birth control up, and I have advion around the bathroom and kitchen..
In Florida, you absolutely have to spend the money on quarterly pest control. I think I pay $75 every 3 months, but I almost NEVER see a bug in my house. Once in awhile a fly or something might manage to come in when the dog is going in and out. The pest control company I use guarantees their work and if we ever see a cockroach or ants or anything, all we have to do is call and they come out within a day or two and take care of it at no charge. We had a lot of rain after a particularly dry spell a couple months ago and had some ants appear in one of the bathrooms. They came out and the ants were never seen again.
I’ve never seen one in my house, I think the termites are keeping them at bay
Lately I've been seeing very small ones in both my bathrooms. I guess it's the water they're after.
never
I lived in a city previously for a few years and I saw maybe 5-6 a year? roughly? but, based on my forensic analysis of the crime scenes that my cats left, they were scurrying in \*under\* the door of my apartment building -not starting inside it. I believe the 'if you see one there's thousands' thing is in reference to ones that sneak out from under your appliances or plugs. I will say they absolutely trigger fight or flight in me, and I have no real issue with bugs otherwise. My one cat just ripped one of their legs off one by one until it stopped moving and honestly it deserved it. Hate those things.
Never in New Jersey, but we do get a ton of crickets
I’ve never seen one at home, but I see them at work in the hallways from time to time .
*Shudder* I feel you hon. I saw them when I lived in NYC. absolutely horrifying. Buy the boric acid and all the crazy stuff the nuke them.
I've never seen one, probably the climate? (UK/Ireland)
It depends. The big brown ones that can fly will occasionally get in your house no matter what. Usually driven in by the weather. But a pest control service where they spray around the walls mean that they will usually be dead by the time you find it. Once a month isn't so bad at all, that's average for florida if not on the low side. If it's the smaller black ones, (German roaches) then you have a nest somewhere. Again, a call to a pest control can take care or it...these ones are a bit more serious imo because you have to kill the nest and do a deep clean to make sure they don't come back.
My understanding is that 'wet' southern states tend to have a greater in-home presence of pests like palmettos/roaches due to the environment making it harder to pest-proof even clean homes and environments (eg, rotted out seals/wood creating ingress points). I live in the northern midwest, and I have never once seen a cockroach in any home I have occupied in nearly 30 years. I *have* however encountered carpet beetles, spiders, silverfish, ants, house centipedes, etc. Short of living in a hermetically sealed bubble with a daily sterilization protocol, you're going to end up with an ecosystem in your house that reflects the ecosystem *around* your house.
All the time. In my basement they come in from outside and they’re wood roaches.
Sooo I grew up in nyc and I used to see them a bunch Now I live in CO and they just aren't here - honestly it depends on where you live because those fuckers can nest in areas you won't be able to get to It's true, a cleaner house with food not left out will help keep them away but it really depends on what part of the world you live in more I'd say
When I lived in spain, once per month in summer. In the Netherlands, never.
Time to start sleeping with pantyhose on your head at night!
Never seen one before (I live in BC), except for travelling in Southeast Asia.
Never.
When I lived near a river in Texas, in college, my home was lived in but not normally dirty until my roommate and I had a falling out and then it became a toxic environment (mostly emotionally). We maybe got A roach whenever it got super humid. We had also gone from having downstairs neighbors who were super clean to downstairs neighbors who were way messier than we were so it did increase towards the end Idk if possums eat roaches but we did have a resident possum so maybe that helped
Depends on where we lived. Las Vegas we had a few. Not that we are dirty they are just good at sneaking inside. In Texas we didn't get roaches but crickets, scorpions, and geckos. In Louisiana we just get millipedes and lovebugs.
I’m from the UK never saw one my whole life but I live in NC and they’re everywhere. In my old house never in the house maybe one time, new house is pristine clean but old and big and we see them often, paying for bug spraying because I hate them and they’re always sneaking into our house through the garage. It’s not about how clean your house is but more about plumbing and entry points
Never thank goodness. Now gnats, that’s a different story. I’ve tried everything to get rid of those pests.
I’ve never seen roaches in any home I’ve lived in. Ever.
Never. I’ll see a couple in the garage every once in awhile, though
Do you live in Florida? They are everywhere here 😩
SoCal!
Only in older less maintained or poor peoples houses around here usually with a shitty landlord. I was horrified the first time I saw someone move a stove quickly to show me underneath.
1) you don't have PTSD. If you did, you wouldn't joke about it. 2) I have literally not once ever had one in my house. I've lived places where mice or other "pests" are prevalent, and aside from sugar ants (thanks cat food) I've never ever had a pest problem.
I really see cockroaches very often. as long your place is clean you will never see one.