Screw apartments and neighbors...

[01rangerxl]

This might be the last straw for me with apartments...roaches. Not acceptable, not okay.

When I was in college I lived with roommates, and between 3 of us we were able to rent houses. Plus it was in Charlotte where there are foreclosures everywhere, so you can rent a pretty nice '80s-'90s 1500-1800 sq footer for like $900 a month total. We were living large for college kids...with no roaches.

2012 I end up down here and get an apartment by myself. Convenient location, and no bugs, until last week.

Now all these small roaches are entering the apartment. I sprayed Hot Shot all around the perimeter, but the little pieces of [censored] are still coming in. These are those tiny roaches, about 1 cm in length or less. The building is old (1920s), and has indoor common hallways. I'm not the one attracting them, someone else is. My apartment is super clean, and always has been because I just can't live in nastiness. Like I said, this is the first time since 2012 I have seen bugs of any kind.

I sent the landlord an email today, but don't expect to hear back until during the week if at all. Today I bought boric acid tablets and Combat bait stations and put that [censored] everywhere. I don't want to attract more to my apartment, but the Hot Shot didn't stop them, and I need to kill the infestation wherever it is. I have been spot killing with carb cleaner.

Any other suggestions are appreciated, though at this point I really just want to make the landlord fix it or move. Roaches are the filthiest, nastiest things on earth and I will not put up with them.

What really ticks me off is someone is being nasty and drawing them in. Roaches don't move to the fourth floor for the [censored] of it, someone is attracting them. That is so disgusting that someone would live in enough filth to cause a roach infestation on the fourth floor of a previously roach free building. Now I am spending my time and money dealing with it. I am sure the number of roaches I am seeing is a fraction of what the source's apartment has...and they are living with that [censored].

If you live anywhere near other people, please be decent and take your trash out, put food up, clean up your dog's [censored], and DON'T ATTRACT ROACHES!

/rant off

 

[SuperDave456]

Call your landlord.
They can call in an exterminator and get him to check out other people's apartment.

Keep calling your land lord, if they do nothing leave your landlord a message telling them that you are going to call the city/state about it.
Typically they will call in an exterminator, or let you out of the lease for being a pain to deal with.

Keep up the pressure on the landlord and the bugs will go away one way or another.

 

[JHZR2]

Lots of people are slobs, just is what it is. You may keep your apartment clean, but even it, in the nooks and crannies, may be nasty.

Plus heat rises so higher floors in the winter may be a draw.

When I lived in AL, I had a two bedroom apt but only needed one, so I closed the vents and door to the other, and didn't go in for months. It was unfurnished and I had no need. When I moved out, that room, and only that room, had a ton of dead roaches on the floor. I never saw any in the areas I inhabited... Ever. So who knows why they are where they are and doing what they are...

 

[01rangerxl]

Forgot to mention, the roaches, live and dead, are all over the common hallway. That's their highway.

I don't think it's just happenstance they all of a sudden showed up in these numbers. Animals follow food. I think a nest/infestation/spawn hatched, and the babies are seeking out new places to feed and live. Not here [censored], unless you want carb cleaner and boric acid for dinner.

Also a new neighbor moved in around about when this started happening, not trying to blame her solely on coincidence, but a sudden roach appearance is kind of odd.

It has been much colder than usual here, but it was dropping below 20 back in like Nov/Dec.

 

[daves87rs]

That just sucks...and they are getting even harder to get rid of...

 

[SuperDave456]

When one person gets roaches in an apt complex, everyone gets them.

That's the deal.

You have to fight them in the whole building.
That is why the land lord coodinating this is such a big deal.

Otherwise you are going to lose, big time.

 

[01rangerxl]

Yeah, I'll call them on Monday. They need to fix this.

 

[Anduril]

Won't work for you, but our roach problem stopped when we started letting our chickens roam around the yard. Seems they're eating them before they get to the house.

 

[SuperDave456]

My brother-in-law tells a story about his apt in College.
A bunch of slobs moved in to the apt that was behind his and he started seeing roaches, much like yours, about 1/2" and 4-5 of them a day.

The Exterminator that showed up seemed to live for killing those things.
One visit to his apartment, his neighbors, and the adjacent apartments, and no more roaches.

 

[97f150]

We had a similar problem at the apt we lived in before we bought our house a couple years ago. Shortly after moving in, a woman and her 4 kids moved in next door. Before long, we started getting roaches. We called the management, they had maintenance come out with different approaches to extermination...all unsuccessful. Out comes Orkin....still unsuccessful.

A few months rock along with Orkin coming once a month, and the maintenance guys putting out roach motels and other poisons in the interim. One day a piece of paper pops up on the neighbors door, an eviction notice, which I can clearly read through my peephole is for non payment of rent. They pack up and leave in the middle of the night, and where their car was laid a pile of trash, dirty diapers, skid marked underwear, and smelly socks. BUT, the roaches disappeared a within a couple weeks and never returned for the remaining 2 years we stayed there.

Edited to add: Funny coincidence. As I was typing that a friend texted me complaining that her neighbors are again playing loud music and talking loud enough to wake her up and prevent here from going back to sleep. Nah, I dont miss apt living at all.

 

[Anduril]

Originally Posted By: 97f150
Edited to add: Funny coincidence. As I was typing that a friend texted me complaining that her neighbors are again pla seesying loud music and talking loud enough to wake her up and prevent here from going back to sleep. Nah, I dont miss apt living at all.

We live in a house, in the country, with a good bit of distance between us the the neighbors. We STILL hear their music, inside, with the doors and windows shut, at midnight from time to time. I can only imagine how ungodly loud it must be to be right there next to the speakers.

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl

Also a new neighbor moved in around about when this started happening, not trying to blame her solely on coincidence, but a sudden roach appearance is kind of odd.


Is there any chance that the roaches were in her apartment this whole time and now she is insecticide-bombing them and they all suddenly just moved out of her apartment into yours?
No matter what, it's not acceptable.

 

[zzyzzx]

Watch the TV show Infested.

Get some Roach gel and use it. The stuff works, really good. They have it at Walmart, and it's cheap and little bit goes a long way.

http://www.amazon.com/Combat-Source-Roach-Killing-Grams/dp/B000QRAXSG/

 

[dlundblad]

x2 on keeping up with the landlord.

 

[65f100]

Boric acid is the cheapest and most effective way to kill a roach infestation. It takes a couple weeks to kill the nest. They don't eat this powder, but they walk through it and it tears them up. They also track it back to the nest where others are exposed.

 

[Donald]

I thought down south bug in general were a lot more common. But the landlord needs to deal with this. You will not get too far by yourself.

 

[04SE]

Do you have a department of public health you can file a complaint with? We have a state and county level in IL. They will lite a fire under the landlord, mention children being there, they will definitely make a visit/inspection.

 

[cashmoney]

Roaches only can live where there is 1) a safe place to hide, 2) a reliable food source.

Roaches move into human dwellings (homes, townhouses, apartment buildings, etc) because they love wonderful dark safe hollow walls with plenty of nesting places. The roaches only stay, multiply, and prosper when there is a reliable food source which is usually old garbage, food, and/or dirty dishes/pots and pans, containers left out by person(s) living like pigs.

If you are in a multi family dwelling there is nothing you can do to stop roaches if just one unit contains a human living like a pig. In a multifamily dwelling there isn't enough dangerous pesticide in the world to make the roaches leave when the have a great food source and a nice warm place to live.

 

[datech]

I think sometimes roaches come in with boxes. Sometimes boxes of food. Sometimes boxes of other goods that might have been stored somewhere with roaches present.

Even if your walls are full of bugs, they have to have some kind of opening to enter your premises, so check for holes and cracks, especially under sinks, etc., where they can get in around the openings for pipes.

One place that's hard to block them is from the drain pipes. Roaches can live underground in the sewers and come up the drains.

 

[hattaresguy]

Sounds like you have a pig in the building. Roaches and their eggs travel on cardboard, SOP on a boat in tropical waters is to remove everything like cereal from the cardboard boxes in the cockpit and throw it right back on the dock.

You can still get them though, its a never ending battle.