Comments on: Cucarachas

By: Tory

Tory — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Scissor Sisters OMG! I submit also that I have been bitten by a ladybug. They do bite. It will surprise you and make you go GRA.

By: HERMANA MEJOR

HERMANA MEJOR — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

hermanita! i am sorry about your cucarachas. i like usher - does this make me a tween? my new obsession is scissor sisters, though, elton john lives again…

By: sarita

sarita — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I live in minnesota. No cucaracha`s. woo ha. Though, we have had some spiders in our apartment that were as long as my thumb. Try getting the cats to not eat THAT.

By: Alena

Alena — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I live about a hundred feet away from a huge plot of woods and all I can say is just be glad you don`t live in my apartment. Aside from the freaky, skanky redneck neighbors, my other neighbors include googols of ginormous spiders, roaches, flies, mosquitos, wasps, and last fall, thousands upon thousands of Asian ladybugs (I still have random ladybug carcasses all over). Not the normal domestic red ladybugs we`re accustomed to, either.. rumor has it that the Asian infiltrators bite. I`m gradually getting accustomed to sharing a Bug Palace with my unfortunate neighbors.. only now I have a digital camera to document them: http://alenasjunk.blogspot.com/

By: Tory

Tory — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I believe my exact words at this point were “Oh, now that`s exciting,” but said in a dry and stern fashion and immediately followed by a Warglike “GRRRAAAA!” as I realized my swiping actions were not solving the yellow jacket issue. Ponytail elastic was rapidly removed. Hair was swatted. Jake was freaked the f*ck out (so much for safe backdoor pippy time). But no one got stung and all was well and Janice the Cucaracha Killer is going to take care of it so rock on.

By: Tory

Tory — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Heh heh heh — about the yellow jackets — and I hope I`m not complaining about the bug situation too much because it`s really not that bad. But Jake the Dog doesn`t like to go out the front door to pee because it`s usually loud and scary for him and in fact we had a submissive protest pee incident indoors through which he indicated, “Mm, yeah, if it`s OK with you, could I just pee here?” So I started taking him out the back door. I had noticed there were some dead yellow jackets on the carpet by the back door but I didn`t think too much of them because I am an idiot. Out the back door we go for pippy time a couple of times with no incident. Then one morning when I had just gotten back from running so I had my hair in a ponytail (that figures in in a moment, y`see) we go out for pippy and, hm, there`s a couple of yellow jackets floating around here. Then one goes BZZRT right into my hair and gets trapped by the ponytail.

By: Tory

Tory — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

CUCARACHA UPDATE: Janice the Cucaracha Killer came today to spray. She complimented me on my dog food in resealable bags and I would have rolled on the floor in glee if I weren`t deadly deadly afraid of the floor. She opened up under the kitchen sink and said “there`s one” and sprayed the living crap out of it. And I was all like, “can I see?” and I watched her kill it and killing bugs all day can`t be pleasant but gawd it`s got to be satisfying. She also sprayed the yellow jackets on the back patio, but she said she`d have to send around a dude to caulk their hole because she didn`t want to start an electrical problem with spraying in there. Hmm… did I tell you about the yellow jackets?

By: Tory

Tory — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Heh heh heh Florida cucarachas. But they call `em Palmetto bugs so it`s like they are tropical exotic and not vermin.

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

This is the part I am not looking forward to as far the move to Florida goes - the cucarachas. We have em here but they are not nearly as prolific.

By: Flonkbob

Flonkbob — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I had some skank neighbors years ago who shared their little friends with me. At first it was a bit off-putting, but I got over it. Put out the adhesive `motel` type traps and captured them…then held the trap to the light and looked in to taunt the little bastards. Nyaaa nyaaa nyaaa! I also got very good at the `quick slap` method of disposal. If I turned on the light and there was one on the counter…WHAP! It be dead. Once the neighbor`s moved (with gentle persuasion from me…abusive bastard decided he would be better off to leave his wife and child in peace after I offered to remove all his various appendages. I caught him screaming at and threatening his TWO YEAR OLD CHILD) and the landlord replaced the carpet and sheetrock (yes, both had to be replaced…utter pigs) the problem went away.

By: Tory

Tory — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Ew ew ew ew. I saw only two yesterday — including the tiny one in the peanut butter — so maybe the bait traps are starting to work. It is good to hear that spraying for them mostly works. Mostly.

By: Crystal

Crystal — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

We had a cockroach infestation in my dorm a few weeks ago. One crawled on one of my neighbors and she was jumping up and down screaming and trying to find a shoe and a paper towel and “get it off, get it off!” etc. it was funny, but i felt bad for laughing. they sprayed for them, and we havent had a relapse. but we still have ants in the showers.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

That`s right–just read Consumer Repors magazine. They publish findings showing the “acceptable” parts per million of lots of different foods. I remember an old study they did on peanut butter saying that Jif was the cleanest; i.e. it had the fewest parts per million of insect fragments, rodent feces, and…what was the other component? Rodent hairs I guess. Now I know why we grew up so strong. It wasn`t just the Wonder Bread, but all the extra-added protein in it and in the pb and j!

By: stagger lee

stagger lee — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Use self-adhesive stamps, because roaches also eat the glue off stamps. They like envelope glue, too. Just think - you can lick where roaches have been. Mmmm….And on the peanut butter, if you knew the amount of FDA approved feces and animal body parts and other shit that are allowed to be in there, you wouldn`t eat it anyway.

By: Tory

Tory — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Ooh — also introduced to my lifestyle is kicking the trash bag before I put anything in it. Not that I`ve seen any cucarachas in or even around the trash bag — just better safe than sorry. Also, I can`t bring myself to sit on any of my cloth furniture — I saw one on the arm of the couch once. I just sit on either my wooden chair or the floor. Ewww.

By: Tory

Tory — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Random update — last night I heard my dog going scrapey scrapey scrapey at the carpet. I think, ew, he`s got a cucaracha, but good for him to catch it. It turned out to be a normal old beetle — not exactly yummy, but not a cucaracha either. Also I`ve seen a couple of spiders (YAY! I like spiders a lot — the good garden kind, not the bitey kind, of course) and a big old ant. So maybe there`s just a sealing problem and not an infestation problem. In any event, there does seem to be a decrease since I put out the Combat bait traps.

By: Tory

Tory — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Because the cucarachas live in the cardboard and eat the glu-u-ue! Ew ew ew. Not to just make the phobias worse. Also, I found a tiny cucaracha in my PEANUT BUTTER this morning. Like, lid screwed on peanut butter tightly but cucaracha anyway. Okay, it`s my dog`s peanut butter, but I eat from it sometime. Not. Any. More. Honestly, the tiny cucarachas (like, smaller than the head of a pin) I don`t mind because I can sort of pretend they`re something else.

By: Alena

Alena — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

What`s the deal with cardboard?

By: KahluaDiva

KahluaDiva — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! Serious phobia. over here, and I couldn`t even read the whole post. I have to clean my kitchen on Sunday, and, THANK GOD the pest control ppl will be here Tuesday, but I am going to be paranoid about those things all weekend, through Tueday. And believe everything cardboard is going out this weekend somehow.

By: Tory

Tory — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

AARGH. Yeck yeck yeck. At least now I understand the cucarachas are a rite of passage and not punishment from the fates. I`m gonna use your alcohol idea, Angie, and I`m gonna commemorate it to you appropriately, like “Angie`s Foolproof Cucaracha Killer.” That way I will laugh as I kill. Laugh!

By: Sanguinity

Sanguinity — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

The fridge. Or the oven. Those are the only two insect-proof locations in a kitchen. — And you have brought horrible memories of the cockroach infestation I lived through, and how I`d get to campus and realize that one had hidden on me somewhere and was crawling through my hair…

By: Angie

Angie — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I find that a spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol set to “stream” does a wonderful job of cleaning up las cucarachas. The alcohol quickly tuckers them out (one or two good hits does the job), allowing you to keep your distance with the added bonus of disinfecting. A quick swipe with the paper towel, and no more mess. Its not as complete or instant as coating your house in toxins, but its cleaner and I sure feel better knowing I have taken back control of my own habitat.

By: Alena

Alena — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Oh, and I rather enjoyed your comparison between the two types of roaches.

By: Alena

Alena — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Okay, while I`m not certain what kind of cucarachas I have (they`re probably the good ole red-white-and-blue-gun-totin`-redneck ones, to match my neighbors), I share your pain. I live in an old apartment building inhabited by skanks (not including myself, of course) and the roaches aren`t really mine, but they show up now and then just to share my company. I understand what a staple toast is, my only suggestion is to place the toaster in a hard-to-reach place, if you have one. For example, my old toaster used to reside on top of the microwave, which is itself on top of a stand away from the wall. Yeah, I know they could get to the top if they really want to, but I`ve never seen any in the vicinity and I consider it relatively safe. You`ve made me a little paranoid about my toaster oven, though, which is currently placed on the counter next to the stove, a place I *have* spotted a cucaracha not terribly long ago.

By: Tory

Tory — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I`m also wearing flip-flops around the house. Ewwww.