Let's say you saw a roach in your bedroom right before bedtime...

[ChristusG]

Not just any roach....a small(ish) palmetto bug....you know, those wonderful roach-ish bugs we have down here in Florida. Well, if you saw one of those in your bedroom as you were coming in to go to bed, and then you couldn't find it, would you still sleep in there??

 

The other night DD4 and I walked into our bedroom for bedtime, where DH and DD6 were already asleep, and I saw something skitter past my feet. :svengo: At first I thought it was a shadow since it was dark....but then the shadow kept moving underneath our chest of drawers. I ran and got a shoe to whack it with. But when I got back, I couldn't find it!! There's not many places to hide in our room and I still couldn't find it. I'm crawling around, in the dark, on my hands and knees, shining a flashlight in every nook and cranny while my 4 year old cowers on the bed and my DH and DD6 sleep peacefully unaware.

 

I DESPISE roaches. DESPISE them.

 

Since I couldn't find it, I began pulling the mattress off the full bed in our bedroom (we have a queen in there for us and a full for the kids) and hauling it into the playroom to sleep.....cause I sure as heck wasn't sleeping with a roach!

 

Am I crazy? LOL! I woke DH up and he said to just leave him in there. :001_huh: I was taking the kids into the playroom with me. I'm way too paranoid of having a roach crawl into my ear, nose, or mouth! My skin crawls just thinking about it.

 

Thankfully, when I was pulling up the mattress, the roach appeared on the wall RIGHT BEHIND OUR PILLOWS. If we had just laid down, it would have crawled right on us! DH was able to get up and squash it. Then I changed our pillow cases (just in case that icky bug had touched them) and we were able to sleep in our own bedroom that night.

 

Is anyone else as paranoid as me? Or would you have just sucked it up and slept in there?

 

We have our house sprayed monthly so usually any roach that we may see if either dead or dying. This one obviously had not yet encountered any of it LOL...it was moving quicky.

Edited March 20, 2011 by ChristusG
typo

[Mommy22alyns]

:001_huh: I would have had a major freak-out too.

[Miss Peregrine]

I wold not have slept in there. I had one IN MY BED WITH ME. I lifted up the covers when DH came to get into bed and it ran across my legs.

 

Dh laughed like crazy. I screamed so loudly. I was so mad at him. Thankfully, that was a lifetime ago in a different house. Far, far from here.

 

Yep, I would have done what you did.

[i.love.lucy]

Oh. NO. I have a completely irrational fear and hatred of those things. I might have gone to a hotel for the night.

[Starr]

Living in Florida you have to be very brave! :D

[Just Robyn]

No way. I have lost sleep before over seeing a roach.

[AuntieM]

I would not have been able to sleep unless I found him. I would be the gal with the flashlight, just like you.

 

One night dh was out of town. We were talking onthe phone when one of those Orkin commercials came on, the one that makes it look like there's a big roach crawling on your tv screen. It was the first time I'd seen it and dh was laughing at my reaction when they "got" me. I laughed and shook it off when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw wiggly antennae on the edge of the chair I was sitting in, ready to jump on me! I shrieked and dh just said, "It's just a commercial!" Of course I was screaming back, no, this one is for real!" It was quite a comedy. Our back yard there was a pine forest and palmetto bugs love pine bark. Next day I called the exterminator and gave the kids a lecture about shutting the back door ALL THE WAY!

 

Still, nothing to this day tops my mom and dad doing battle with both a mouse and a giant spider in their master bedroom at the same time. I was about 5 years old and that memory is absolutely seared in my mind!

[mom2denj]

You know that I am right here where you are. I am petrified of them!!! The problem is that they just come in through the door during the summer. So, you can spray every month (which we do also) but, they get in when the kids open the door. I have never really had a problem with those. Maybe once or twice a year one will get in. Our problem is spiders!!!! I HATE them!!!! We don't get bunches of them, but at least once a week in the summer we will have one in the house. :glare: To answer your question though, NO, I would not be able to sleep!! My husband on the other hand is like yours, he would not be bothered at all. :tongue_smilie:I will also make him get up and find it which usually makes for an unhapppy guy, but he knows that he will NOT get to sleep if he doesn't!! :001_smile:

[Punchie]

I would have been there with you. There is no way I would have been able to sleep w/o finding it. And if I found it in my bed, it would be stripped and all sheets thrown in the washer. I HATE HATE HATE!!!! roaches.

 

I live in AZ during college. DH (then BF) was visiting. I had just taken a shower, was chatting w/him while drying myself off, looked down at the towel and saw a HUGE roach on it. Yeah...my reaction involved much screaming and throwing of towels and taking a shower again. DH kindly dealt w/the roach while I was screaming like a banshee.

[zaichiki]

Well, if you saw one of those in your bedroom as you were coming in to go to bed, and then you couldn't find it, would you still sleep in there??

 

No. I'd move to Maine! :D Aint no palmetto bugs in Maine! :D

[Mergath]

It wouldn't have bothered me, but I'm weird like that. We have at least six spiders in our bathroom at all times. Dh used to try to kill them all, but they were quickly replaced by new ones, so he finally gave up. I just let them be, since they eat more annoying bugs and don't seem to bite. Plus, watching them gives dd something to do while I shower. :D

 

Really, what's the worst that can happen? So you eat one in your sleep. That's just a little less protein you need the next day.

 

;)

Edited March 20, 2011 by Mergath

[ChristusG]

Thank y'all LOL!! DH made me feel like I was the only one who is paranoid to sleep in a room with a roach! I'm so glad I'm not alone in this. Maybe I should have him read this thread LOL!

[Sunshine State Sue]

We have our house sprayed monthly so usually any roach that we may see if either dead or dying.

Wow! Monthly?! We have our house sprayed every 3 months. I've been if FL for almost 7 years now. I'm at the point where I just let them crawl because I know they will be belly up by morning. However, I don't think I've seen a live one in my bedroom. Mostly, they are in the FL room. I'd never sleep on a mattress on the floor, though, especially after a live encounter. That creeps me out.

[mom2bee]

Bless you, for behaving so rationally. Growing up, we had a fly-swatter for every member of the house, because if a fly got in the room. My father made everyone stop what they were doing, close the doors and windows and kill that darn thing. He hated them (found them extremely annoying). My mother is like that for bugs, rodents, amphibians, insects, small mammals and generally any non-human creature that gets in the house.

 

When we were little, my sister and I bred roaches O_O. I'm not sure what we were thinking...We kept Orkin in good business though.

[Abigail4476]

Oh, my goodness. We lived in Louisiana for 4.5 years, and the first time I ever saw one of those horrid things scuttle across my kitchen floor, I thought it was a MOUSE! It was that huge!

 

NO, I wouldn't [couldn't] sleep in a room with roaches. Or even one. *shudder*

 

When my oldest daughter was a baby, we rented a house that had those awful little roaches, and the first night we slept in that house, they were coming out of the woodwork and falling off the ceiling. I FREAKED out. :ack2: I turned all the lights on in the house and left them on all night, and we called the landlord the next morning. He had a guy come out and spray for bugs [several times], but they never did completely get rid of them. We moved out a few months later, and I was SO glad.

[Rebecca VA]

In Guam every building is infested with giant roaches and geckos. No matter how clean you keep your surroundings, they find a way to get in. They're especially active at night. When I lived there, if I had to get up and walk around at night (which was almost every night, since I had a newborn and a six-year-old), I'd shine a flashlight along the floor in front of me.

 

I used to suck them up with the vacuum. Finally I just started leaving the geckos alone (they were harmless) and hitting the roaches with a broom. If I squinted my eyes and kind of looked away, I could even sweep them into the dustpan without freaking out.

 

One awful night I heard a high-pitched creature screaming and thrashing. I had no idea what it was. I didn't find out until weeks later that a gecko had crawled onto some packing tape on a moving box and gotten stuck. He tore himself to bits trying to get free, poor thing.

 

Another time, I was getting ready to take a shower, and I found a gecko and a giant roach chasing each other around the bathtub. I was very weak -- I'd just given birth days before, and my husband was out of the country -- so I just took the vacuum to both of them.

[jenn&charles]

In Guam every building is infested with giant roaches and geckos. No matter how clean you keep your surroundings, they find a way to get in. They're especially active at night. When I lived there, if I had to get up and walk around at night (which was almost every night, since I had a newborn and a six-year-old), I'd shine a flashlight along the floor in front of me.

 

I used to suck them up with the vacuum. Finally I just started leaving the geckos alone (they were harmless) and hitting the roaches with a broom. If I squinted my eyes and kind of looked away, I could even sweep them into the dustpan without freaking out.

 

One awful night I heard a high-pitched creature screaming and thrashing. I had no idea what it was. I didn't find out until weeks later that a gecko had crawled onto some packing tape on a moving box and gotten stuck. He tore himself to bits trying to get free, poor thing.

 

Another time, I was getting ready to take a shower, and I found a gecko and a giant roach chasing each other around the bathtub. I was very weak -- I'd just given birth days before, and my husband was out of the country -- so I just took the vacuum to both of them.

 

Ok...that made me shudder, lol....no problem with the geckos but sweeping up roaches....EW! :D

I don't think I'll ever live in Guam!

[Perry]

I'd rather have the bugs than the pesticides. Well, I'd rather not have bugs OR pesticides.

[Bird Girl]

Obviously, the original poster needs a gecko.:D

[*********]

Let's say you saw a roach in your bedroom right before bedtime...

 

Um, how 'bout we DON'T say that.

 

'Cause if we say that, I'll never sleep in my bedroom again. Ever.

 

You see, I've lived in Michigan my whole life. We don't have roaches here. (Ok, at least not that *I* know of). So, to me, a roach is this mythical sort of nasty, grody, bleck, worst sort of bug E.V.E.R.

 

No. Let's not say I saw a roach in my bedroom. It's not funny, even as a joke.

 

:D

[Spy Car]

I'd rather have the bugs than the pesticides. Well, I'd rather not have bugs OR pesticides.

 

I'm with you. I'd be way more freaked out about sleeping in a house that was sprayed monthy with pesticides than one with a palmetto bug on the loose.

 

Bill

[Peek a Boo]

I'm with you. I'd be way more freaked out about sleeping in a house that was sprayed monthy with pesticides than one with a palmetto bug on the loose.

 

Bill

 

ya know, those nasty big roachbugs are the only thing that make me scream like a girl, but I don't like sprays. I can't kill the dang things --too icked out to feel/hear them crunch [::shudder::]. I have a 50 cent bounty on their dead carcass, inside or outside the house. Thankfully Mr. Boo can bravely kill them w/ his bare hands. ick.

 

I have found that those Combat Gold Large Roach traps work very well here in TX: I buy them [practically] by the case and put them under EV.ry.thing. and change out often.

 

Last year we had a nasty flea infestation and i ended up sending the kids to a friend's and dusting the ENTIRE carpet all over the house w/ diatomaceous earth. Very liberally. We had a not-so-fine layer of white powder covering the entire inside... in the ductwork, in the electronics... everywhere. worked well and fast.

 

I have seen very few bugs at all since then, including those big nasty monster roaches.

I was kinda bummed that it killed the spiders we had above the bookshelf: they had an awesome Addams-family-ish look.... ;)

[Spy Car]

ya know, those nasty big roachbugs are the only thing that make me scream like a girl, but I don't like sprays. I can't kill the dang things --too icked out to feel/hear them crunch [::shudder::]. I have a 50 cent bounty on their dead carcass, inside or outside the house. Thankfully Mr. Boo can bravely kill them w/ his bare hands. ick.

 

I have found that those Combat Gold Large Roach traps work very well here in TX: I buy them [practically] by the case and put them under EV.ry.thing. and change out often.

 

Last year we had a nasty flea infestation and i ended up sending the kids to a friend's and dusting the ENTIRE carpet all over the house w/ diatomaceous earth. Very liberally. We had a not-so-fine layer of white powder covering the entire inside... in the ductwork, in the electronics... everywhere. worked well and fast.

 

I have seen very few bugs at all since then, including those big nasty monster roaches.

I was kinda bummed that it killed the spiders we had above the bookshelf: they had an awesome Addams-family-ish look.... ;)

 

Breath that diatomaceous earth into your lungs and it can cut them up like tiny shards of glass. Spreading this stuff in your home and in duct-works is monumentally unwise.

 

Bill

[Peek a Boo]

Breath that diatomaceous earth into your lungs and it can cut them up like tiny shards of glass. Spreading this stuff in your home and in duct-works is monumentally unwise.

 

Bill

 

not really. depends on the type- we used food grade [and wore a dust mask while applying it].

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth#Safety_considerations

 

the risks are pretty low.

 

I've got seven people that can attest to the excellent filtration of the human body. Besides- once the stuff gets moist upon entering the human body, it loses its razor sharp quality [which is mostly only an issue w/ exoskeletons].

 

it beats the heck out of a flea infestation.

 

and we lived to tell the tale..... ;)

[Devotional Soul]

LOL! I've seen many gecko vs. cockroach battles. Sometimes I hear a knocking on the window and find it's a gecko slamming the caught bug back and forth on the glass!

 

As much as I can't stand roaches, I don't want to hurt or kill any living things, so I catch them and the kids have a blast letting them go down the road. All you need is a glass vase, bottle neck works best. Put some snacks in there and they can't crawl out!

 

Once, I was doing the dishes and a cockroach somehow crawled on the underside edge of the counter and up onto my shirt! I freaked out...way too close for me.

 

Oh, and I will not sleep with a roach in my room.

[Giraffe]

One night, with my daughter asleep in a pack & play next to me and my husband on the other side in bed, I felt a roach crawl across my face. I freaked! I spent the next two years in that house looking for roaches at every turn. We couldn't spray with a baby and pets, and I couldn't take the bugs. (The house had lain vacant for a year and the bugs apparently made themselves comfortable.)

 

I was so happy to move from that house, until I realized that roaches in Texas are Texas-sized. Luckily here I can do limited spraying and that (fingers crossed) seems to keep them at bay.

 

I used to live in Hawaii where I occasionally awoke to a centipede on the wall next to my bed. The kind that stings. I won't even go into the geckos and flying creatures!

[Ibbygirl]

Ya'll need to get some of this stuff. You can thank me later! ;) :D I hate palmetto bugs and roaches. Just typing the words makes me want to pass out. :svengo: When I was a kid we had an infestation in our house. We had two cats that used to chase them all night long and even still you couldn't get up in the night and walk anywhere in the house without a crunch under your feet. *shudder* I used to sleep underneath my sheets with them all tucked in under every part of my body and head for fear of them crawling on me in the night. Too many times I was woken that way. :eek: :svengo: I wish we had had that roach killing gel back then! That stuff is awesome and no sprays! :)

 

Mergath, palmetto bugs are about 4-5 inches long and about 2.5-3 inches wide AND THEY FLY! You just have no idea how horrid they are until you've encountered one.

 

It's always funny to go to the beach at night and you see the tourists climbing up into the life guard stands thinking it will be fun only to run out screaming a few minutes later. Those bugs are straight from the pit of hell I'm sure of it! :ack2:

[Giraffe]

Ya'll need to get some of this stuff. You can thank me later! ;) :D I hate palmetto bugs and roaches. Just typing the words makes me want to pass out. :svengo: When I was a kid we had an infestation in our house. We had two cats that used to chase them all night long and even still you couldn't get up in the night and walk anywhere in the house without a crunch under your feet. *shudder* I used to sleep underneath my sheets with them all tucked in under every part of my body and head for fear of them crawling on me in the night. Too many times I was woken that way. :eek: :svengo: I wish we had had that roach killing gel back then! That stuff is awesome and no sprays! :)

 

Those bugs are straight from the pit of hell I'm sure of it! :ack2:

 

Me and my bronchitis-strained lungs that just spent 5 hours in the ER are going shopping tomorrow!

 

And yes, they are straight from the pit of hell. Lower level.

[Ibbygirl]

Me and my bronchitis-strained lungs that just spent 5 hours in the ER are going shopping tomorrow!

 

And yes, they are straight from the pit of hell. Lower level.

 

Oh poor you!! 5 hours! That's awful!! :grouphug: Home Depot sells it as well and probably Lowes too if they are closer to you. It's a godsend believe me. We had some our ouse that we're living in now underneath the stairs. They were coming out through the crevices at night. We put the nozzle of the gel tube in one of the crevices where the stairs meet the wall and just squirted some gel down there and haven't seen a bug since. It's been about 3 years now and there were quite a few down there. :)

[Peek a Boo]

Ya'll need to get some of this stuff.

 

 

got that too, lol! ;)

love Combat!!

[lincap]

No. I'd move to Maine! :D Aint no palmetto bugs in Maine! :D

 

:iagree: I have lived in Miami and now Maine.. Seriously no crazy palmettos here or those HUGE spiders!

 

In Miami roaches are just everywhere.. I was so not ready for that. I used to set up sticky tape traps to get them. UGH. I am shuttering remembering all the roaches I have seen and well... killed.

[Violet Crown]

Or would you have just sucked it up and slept in there?

Oh how I wish you had phrased that differently.

 

We use a completely organic technique and have no more palmetto bugs. We acquired a little cat that is the world's most vigorous bug-hunter. She can detect a palmetto bug from rooms away, dispatches it, and eats the remains. Occasionally I will find a leg in the morning when sweeping up. She just did in a huge, fluttering one last night; I shut the bedroom door to keep the battle royal on the other side, and this morning, all is as if there was never a roach.

 

I kind of wish she weren't spayed. I think I could have made money selling her kittens to other Texans.

[Spy Car]

Oh how I wish you had phrased that differently.

 

We use a completely organic technique and have no more palmetto bugs. We acquired a little cat that is the world's most vigorous bug-hunter. She can detect a palmetto bug from rooms away, dispatches it, and eats the remains. Occasionally I will find a leg in the morning when sweeping up. She just did in a huge, fluttering one last night; I shut the bedroom door to keep the battle royal on the other side, and this morning, all is as if there was never a roach.

 

I kind of wish she weren't spayed. I think I could have made money selling her kittens to other Texans.

 

Cloning ;) :D

 

Bill

[Violet Crown]

 

Cloning ;) :D

Good thinking! I'll have her over to Texas A&M's Dept. of Animal Science on Monday. Maybe they can tinker with the genes and come up with a variety that doesn't poop in the bathtub.

[Giraffe]

Cloning ;) :D

 

Bill

 

Good thinking! I'll have her over to Texas A&M's Dept. of Animal Science on Monday. Maybe they can tinker with the genes and come up with a variety that doesn't poop in the bathtub.

 

SOLD!!! Mine dispatch and leave the remains as proof of death in exchange for treats.

[fourisenough]

Folks, you just need to move to Michigan. Winter is intense and lasts forever, but I've never seen a roach here!

[Mom0012]

You know that I am right here where you are. I am petrified of them!!! The problem is that they just come in through the door during the summer. So, you can spray every month (which we do also) but, they get in when the kids open the door. I have never really had a problem with those. Maybe once or twice a year one will get in. Our problem is spiders!!!! I HATE them!!!! We don't get bunches of them, but at least once a week in the summer we will have one in the house. :glare: To answer your question though, NO, I would not be able to sleep!! My husband on the other hand is like yours, he would not be bothered at all. :tongue_smilie:I will also make him get up and find it which usually makes for an unhapppy guy, but he knows that he will NOT get to sleep if he doesn't!! :001_smile:

Yeah, spiders are what really freak me out. Those, and centipedes.

[Shellydon]

It wouldn't have bothered me.  I don't understand why most women are so afraid of bugs. 

[Maela]

I'm not afraid of most things, but roaches and mice really bother me for some reason.

 

 

Spiders don't bother me at all. Which is good because DH does not like them!

[MollyAnn]

We were living in Georgia when we saw a huge roach in the bedroom right before bed. DH and I tore that room apart, even tipping over the hutch on the desk and breaking the knickknacks.

We found it and smashed it.

 

I have three cats, all rescues who must have caught and eaten bugs when they were strays. Now, they all watch the bugs scurry across the floor and don't do anything.

[Holly]

Our 3rd apartment was in the country and we had an occasional roach in the house...some big and some little.  While I was blow-drying my hair, I hear a crackling noise.  When I looked in the mirror there was a huge German cockroach in my hair. I think it had been on the hair-dryer and blew into my hair.  I started screaming at the top of my lungs.  DH quickly rushed in and was mad because it was "just a bug" and he thought I had electrocuted myself.   :lol:  I told him it was worse than that.  

 

I don't think you over-reacted at all.   ;)

[wingedradical]

Roaches give me the heebie-jeebies but I used to live on the Mesquito Coast so I eventually got sort of acclimated. Besides, they were nothing compared to the termites. Some of my books still have tunnels through the pages that they made. And every May, you would wake up in the morning and find their wings on your sheets.

 

I know roaches are considered dirty and no doubt they are, but the human race has survived them somehow, even before bug spray. In the long run, who knows but what the bug spray might be more harmful?

[...................]

I lived in FL for 14 years. It's important to understand that Palmetto Bugs are American Cockroches but they come from the outdoors, and they come in looking for water and then they leave or die depending on what you have as far as baits etc.

 

So if you are clean and the roach wandered in here and there, it has never been in the sewer and isn't as gross as if you has bugs up north.

 

 

Now, that said, I screamed, freaked out and waged all out WAR every time I had one!!!!

 

Make sure your exterior gets sprayed right away. Don't let them spray inside as that is unnecessary and the chemicals are dangerous. But the exterior should be sprayed 4x per year around the perimeter if your house/apartment. Inside, just use baits.

[...................]

Inside you can also use eucalyptus oil. Depending on the ages of your kids you can use boric acid in the holes or corners inside closets. Do not keep ANY cardboard corrugated boxes because they will nest in there. Pour bleach down the drains once a week when you clean because that'll keep them from crawling up.

[AimeeM]

I'm so over it.

I'm in SC. Those little snots run RAMPANT around here. I mean, they march the streets of our lovely subdivision at night. I am so ridiculously used to seeing them in the house. I don't even bat an eyelash anymore.

[AimeeM]

I'm so over it.

I'm in SC. Those little snots run RAMPANT around here. I mean, they march the streets of our lovely subdivision at night. I am so ridiculously used to seeing them in the house. I don't even bat an eyelash anymore.

[Χά�ων]

Can't be worse than having a tick crawling up your leg triggering an automatic kicking reflex. I hate ticks. I have almost caused a wreck when I had one climbing up my arm while I was driving. Two separate occasions.

[Starr]

We must love our roaches. This thread is from 2011 and was brought back to life by a first time poster.  :lol:

[beaners]

We must love our roaches. This thread is from 2011 and was brought back to life by a first time poster.  :lol:

 

I was in the middle of a heartfelt post before you pointed this out. I'll just keep it to myself. 

[foxbridgeacademy]

When we lived in Florida we would get a couple HUGE ones every month (spraying doesn't help when they fly in the open door). The worst was NC(giant and fast). I became very good at killing them. They were all over. At least 1 a day. DH would often laugh at me while I "stalked them. Thank goodness they don't eat your food, otherwise we would have left NC much sooner.