Cockroaches in Florida.... ewwwwww


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Old 09-20-17, 07:21 PM
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Thumbs down Cockroaches in Florida.... ewwwwww

Need some advice and possible someone to walk me off the ledge.

Information about my dwelling, I live in Central Florida, third floor of a 3 story apartment building. Always have been paranoid about bugs since I moved to Florida several years ago and one way I cope is an never ending supply of glue traps (Yes, I know about the harm they can cause bugs and animals and don't want to start a debate on that) My apartment is about 900 sq ft and I have about 30 traps in place, basically one in every corner and under cupboards, in closets and on baseboards just all over. My reason for the glue traps is that I figure if something is crawling around in the middle of the night I want to know about it as it gives me peace of mind.

Last week I went into my laundry room and saw the most vile creature I have ever seen on a glueboard that I have under/next to the washer (it was right under the entrance to where the hose goes into the wall) and sure enough it was a cockroach. I attempted to identity it but it was hard after I smushed it but I think it was either German or a Brown Banded one.
I don't usually have the apartment xomplex spray in my apartment as I know from speaking directly to the guy that sprays that its a repellent and not really something that kills the bugs and it always gives me a headache.

I got some combat roach traps and placed them all over the kitchen and bathroom as described and replaced the glue traps and... nothing... No feces evidence, no egg sacs, no dead roaches, nada, zip, zilch, nothing.
Until... this morning I was doing discs and had one crawl over my foot and give me a good scare.

To my question, sorry for the long story
1) should I be doing more than the combat roach traps? or do they work? They have good reviews
2) common sense would say if I had a huge infestation that I would have caught more on glue traps or am I not knowing something about cockroaches and there behavior?
3) any non-spray I should be using besides to make myself sleep a bit better? Boric acid tablets?
4) or just time to burn down the house and built from scratch? lol jk

Sorry for the long post and questions, those suckers just make me so squeamish, I can handle spiders, a few ants here and there but cockroaches, nope
 
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Old 09-21-17, 02:43 AM
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I used to live in central fla and understand the roach problem My best deterrent was monthly spraying. Short of that I'd try the traps and powders - you have to keep after it! Being in an apartment makes it harder to control the roaches, especially if your neighbors have them. Our bug pro should be along later with better advice for you
 
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Old 09-21-17, 03:54 AM
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How do the tenants on the 1st and 2nd floors deal with them ?
 
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Old 09-21-17, 04:45 AM
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I have not had great luck with big brand name products. Advion Cockroach however has worked very well.
 
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Old 09-22-17, 11:17 AM
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For cockroach baiting I too like Advion. If that’s not available then whatever gel cockroach bait you can get. The bait discs will work if the roaches enter and eat the bait, but one drawback to them is that they are dry. Gels are more attractive to them. You can put the gel on small squares of wax paper for sanitation purposes though I shoot some into the walls where the pipes go through.

If you have german roaches then another glue trap that you might consider is the Victor Roach Pheromone trap. It is not a food attractant but an actual pheromone. Roaches can reject food for various reasons but can’t resist pheromones as they are a force of nature. These traps have an “aggregation” pheromone inside them which is specific to german roaches only. Keep that in mind before purchasing. Maybe if you can capture a specimen and post a pic of it we can help ID it.

Most likely you will have to go online to buy these products. Keep us posted.
 
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Old 09-23-17, 10:31 AM
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Another possibility is boric acid. It's sold in dry granulated form as "Roach Prufe" and about a hundred other brand names. It's also the active ingredient in Terro ant killer, but that's liquid and too expensive by volume to use over a widespread area against roaches (but it's great against ants because they carry it back to the colony and feed it to the babies). Roach Prufe actually repels most insect critters, including fleas. My local Wally World carries it as Enoz Roach Away, and Ace Hardware has Harris Boric Acid and Eaton Answer Boric Acid.
 
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Old 10-02-17, 08:09 PM
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The Harris Famous Roach Tablets worked very well for me. We had the larger American types and some Europeans that started creeping around in the house. I put the tablets in hidden spots all around the house and behind the toilets. I was finding dead ones for a few weeks, and haven't seen any for months since. The funny thing was I thought I had a mouse because it kept chewing into the bread packages. I had no luck with traps, and then I finally caught one of the big roaches in the act late one night.
 
 

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