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So my immediate family and I had to move to hawaii because the main source of income into the house (my father) had his job moved here.

Sure, the weather is nice, there are many babes here, and much delicious foreign food to be eaten. But there are cockroaches at night!

I have lived in Western Samoa for over a total of 12-15ish weeks over the years, in a village, and had no problem dealing with the cockroaches there because we had mesquito nets to sleep under, not a lot of furniture, a plain old concrete floor, all sources of water such as shower, toilet, and kitchen stuff are outside the main house, and have high-up places to hang and store food.

In Hawaii, our house is foolishly (IMO of course) westernized with things like carpet on the floor, the bathroom in the middle of the house, and in a few weeks, tons of furniture for them to hide in.

So far I have learned from google:

- Keep your room clean (every monday I'm vacuuming, then of course I'll do the other things like carpet shampooing, not leave food out).

- They are attracted to water foremost, and things like paper bags and cardboard boxes. Oh, and they breed in them!

- They will come through unsealed drains such as the bath tub, or any sink in the house.

- Various chemicals will kill them, and odd household solutions like baking soda + sugarwater can also bait and kill them.

We are renting the place so I guess we have the potential help of a landlord. Also, this is a house, which I'm very un-use to living in a house-house since I have always lived in apartments with little immediate nature (trees and grass for example) close to our door.

This is my first time living in a westernized home in a place that cultures cockroaches in vast swarms (More than I've seen in any apartment in western washington).

Any tips for dealing with the war I'll likely be having with these things? If only real life was like the Army Men series of video games by 3DO and my plastic soldiers came to life and killed cockroaches, and most of the time each other.

Catch them. Cook them. Eat them, or sell to gullible tourists.

Living in the UK cockroaches are seldom seem, but my advice would be to get one of those 'Roach Motel' things you yanks seem so keen about. Baited traps would keep the populations low and concentrated in strategic areas.

As for more interesting solutions, invest in some insectivorous pets you can let out of a cage to hunt every once in a while, would be entertaining and help keep numbers down.

Also, look up on the internet natural solutions, many plants produce chemicals which repel most insects (as a defence mechanism) for instance, wasps are repelled by the Wormwood plant, just the smell tends to be enough to deter them, so find some plant that is known to repel cockroaches and keep them in pots around the house (providing of course that the smell of the plant is not more repulsive than the cockroaches themselves)

Borax crystals around the ways they use in and out, and any surfaces you commonly see them walking on. Do not bin crushed corpses as the eggs inside them may still hatch inside your garbage and re-infest. Flush them instead, or burn and then bin them. Keep all food sealed away (airtight bags are good) and if possible put borax crystals around the routes into your food storage areas. Borax can be toxic so don't use it in your cooking or food storage areas themselves, but any vents or other areas they could be getting in by. A good regieme of cleaning, borax and careful management of where your food is should solve the problem within a fortnight. American posters may have better advice as roach infestations are more common in the states

Good luck! Had a bad infestation in my old apartment due to garbage in the apartment above- they flooded down through the vents, and it was absolutely disgusting.

Had 5 minutes spare in work, found this helpful site:

http://www.dailypuppy.com/articles/plants-to-keep-roaches-away/7d2f7249-9303-9369-af6b-8b91eef853a9

I'll just leave this here.
http://compare.ebay.com/like/170525303153?var=lv<yp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&_lwgsi=y

Spray on Axe and a lighter.

Pro Tip: Don't burn the place down.

From the pest control reference I keep around wrote:
Roach Control is a five step process

1. Exclusion. Keep them out of your house. Most roaches like it outside until they get hungry, can't find anything tasty there, and walk in through a house's holes or cracks to feast on the water and food crumbs left from dinner. To stop them, use caulking, steel wool and copper mesh to fill the cracks in masonry, spaces between trim and brick, and holes of all kinds, including spaces around pipes. Put wire screens in air vents and stop up any other entryways.

2. Elimination of cracks. Fill cracks and crevices inside the house. One of the best weapons against roaches is the caulk gun. Every time you fill in a crack with caulk, you reduce the number of roaches that your home can support. Roaches will not mate unless they are nestled in the security of a very small space.

3. Removal of cardboard boxes. The honey-combed design of cardboard offers miles of tunnels that are perfect hiding and mating spaces; the glue on cardboard boxes and on paper sacks is attractive food for these critters.

4. Cleanliness. Eliminating food and water sources such as dripping faucets, leaks, pet water and food, and dirty kitchens makes your home much less attractive to roaches.

5. Baits. Once the roaches are in the house, there's a two-step attack. Boric acid dusted lightly where the bugs are seen is very effective, but use light dustings. If you can see the material after an application you've put out too much. Diatomaceous earth products also work well. Effective homemade baits can be made by mixing one part sugar and one part Arm and Hammer detergent. A pinch of boric acid added to this mix makes it even more effective. This mixture has extremely low toxicity, but it still should be put in bait stations or lids and located in areas where pets and children can't get to them. Stronger baits can be made by mixing two parts flour, one part boric acid, and one part sugar and moistening enough to form little balls or cakes. Add more moisture from time to time to keep them more appetizing.

Out here there are tons of those things. Is what I have found that works is just keep your food taken care of, take out your trash regularly, and clean regularly. You do those things and you should be ok.

Cockroaches make good pets...

Unless you like taking your pets for walks and playing fetch.

My picture should tell you plenty.

And you can take a cockraoch for a walk...

They're probably just looking for a place to stay, just put em in a hotel...

Soladrin wrote: And you can take a cockraoch for a walk...

I wouldn't be worried about the cockroach itself but how other people would react. Mostly the squishing of said insect. If only the world was like Joe's Apartment where they would song and dance and be friends with us. Personally, I have no gurdge against the little things, just that they shouldn't try to eat my food and live in my house. They want to do those things then I'll just have to collect rent checks from them.

You can also look for pyrethrum based powders. it is an organic based insecticide.

I get jars, and fill the bottom with about 1/6 an inch of honey, and put them in corners, so far it works, but, then again, I really don't get roaches that often, now, click beetles, that's a different story.

WARORK93 wrote:They're probably just looking for a place to say, just put em in a hotel...

this. you should be rewarded...internet cookies?

smash them.spray them. shoot them. print a declaration of war and go ape gak on there ass...do they even have those?

lord commissar klimino wrote:

WARORK93 wrote:They're probably just looking for a place to say, just put em in a hotel...

this. you should be rewarded...internet cookies?

smash them.spray them. shoot them. print a declaration of war and go ape gak on there ass...do they even have those?

Killing them physically only draws more.

Ummm. . . you live in Hawaii. Spend less time in the house with the roaches and more time on the beach with the babes.


Problem solved.

remilia_scarlet wrote:

lord commissar klimino wrote:

WARORK93 wrote:They're probably just looking for a place to say, just put em in a hotel...

this. you should be rewarded...internet cookies?

smash them.spray them. shoot them. print a declaration of war and go ape gak on there ass...do they even have those?

Killing them physically only draws more.

dang. exterminator. bait them. if that doesnt work.....

rubiksnoob wrote:Ummm. . . you live in Hawaii. Spend less time in the house with the roaches and more time on the beach with the babes.


Problem solved.

lord commissar klimino wrote:

WARORK93 wrote:They're probably just looking for a place to say, just put em in a hotel...

this. you should be rewarded...internet cookies?

Nah, they'll just end up going in the garbage and attracting more cockroaches...

WARORK93 wrote:

lord commissar klimino wrote:

WARORK93 wrote:They're probably just looking for a place to say, just put em in a hotel...

this. you should be rewarded...internet cookies?

Nah, they'll just end up going in the garbage and attracting more cockroaches...

then ill just reward you with a handful of Internets instead.

rubiksnoob wrote:Ummm. . . you live in Hawaii. Spend less time in the house with the roaches and more time on the beach with the babes.


Problem solved.

The problem lies at night, not during the day with babes. In fact the problem wakes up during the night! Ho ho ho!

Living here reminds me of zelda, the ocarina of time where out in the wilderness, when it turns dark, bad things spawn. Except the roaches that spawn are not really trying to murder me.

Also, about the people talking about having one as a pet; if I find a roach-sized leash, I can be like my World of Warcraft character and walk around with one. Perhaps I'll get my pet roach a red bow tie.

Pretty sure the flamethrower was invented for this reason...
Your house is insured right?

purplefood wrote:Pretty sure the flamethrower was invented for this reason...
Your house is insured right?

I thought flamethrowers were invented for clearing out bunkers and for people to claim insurance money from their homeowners insurance before they are foreclosed upon.

ivangterrace wrote:

purplefood wrote:Pretty sure the flamethrower was invented for this reason...
Your house is insured right?

I thought flamethrowers were invented for clearing out bunkers and for people to claim insurance money from their homeowners insurance before they are foreclosed upon.

The first one is wrong. Otherwise you are correct.
Flamethrowers were also called scamthrowers during the mid-20th century by insurance lawyers.

ivangterrace wrote:

purplefood wrote:Pretty sure the flamethrower was invented for this reason...
Your house is insured right?

I thought flamethrowers were invented for clearing out bunkers and for people to claim insurance money from their homeowners insurance before they are foreclosed upon.

*ahem* flamethrower were invented to be badass

lord commissar klimino wrote:

ivangterrace wrote:

purplefood wrote:Pretty sure the flamethrower was invented for this reason...
Your house is insured right?

I thought flamethrowers were invented for clearing out bunkers and for people to claim insurance money from their homeowners insurance before they are foreclosed upon.

*ahem* flamethrower were invented to be badass

He has a point...

http://www.amazon.com/PEST-OFFENSE-Electronic-Pest-Repellant/dp/B001U585WY%3FSubscriptionId%3D06KMPSHEDSXXQMQVT482%26tag%3Daskcom-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB001U585WY

These work great, and don't spread deadly chemicals all over the house.

Swordwind wrote:Catch them. Cook them. Eat them, or sell to gullible tourists.

I spilled my drink, lucky It went back in the cup!!

Buy a lizard or two. Let them run rampant in the house.

Suck on that roaches!