How do you get rid of cockroaches?

[Kristyx]

Just as the title suggests, I'm wondering if anybody knows how to get rid of cockroaches. I've been told it's common to see them here in the South but a friend said you can buy something that smells bad to them and makes them go away?? Does anybody know what this is and if it works?

[imron]

I just buy the cockroach traps available at many larger supermarkets. They little black boxes and come in packs of three. They are made by Raid, and there are also several similar products made by Chinese firms.

[aeon]

There's no point hitting them: unless you beat them to a sticky smear spread over wide area then they'll just wriggle a bit, collect the detached appendages and hobble away while quickly reassembling themselves...

[muyongshi]

You could also buy a cat...

My cats play with them until they die...and there is no squishy mess either.

[Kristyx]

Thanks for your help. I'm off to Walmart to buy some traps. (I didn't know such things existed! Thanks!)

[Rincewind]

I use a spray called Miehailing that seems to be better than the Raid equivalent. The spray leaves a residue that kills anything that craws over it. Lasts a few days or so. Just spray the areas where they hide out regularly until they have stop appearing for a while.

Course the best option is not to get them in the first place. I didn't have any till I bought a second hand fridge last year, then I had loads. Once I got on top of the problem they were gone and this year I haven't had any problem at all. It's mainly down to basic hygiene.

[madizi]

I also use spray which is produced by 立白 (Liby) company. It has a rose fragrance (cockroaches die in fragrant death:D).

I had a problem with cockroaches when moving in my apartment at college. They were really big. Of course, I terminated them. But then, after few days, appeared little "baby" cockroaches. I found out that they were coming from a pipe of bathroom's wash-hand basin's sink. It seems that there is a place under the sink where water doesn't flush. I sprayed a sink and after an hour turned a tap on. Because basin pipe is installed so, that water flows directly to squat toilet, I could see results of my spraying: dozens of dead little cockroaches and pieces of their "nest".

[heifeng]

Ok there's a 4 step system (50 yuan) that has worked for me so far....

1) zhanglang xiang. It's like the spiral wenxiang thingy for mosquitos but for roaches.

basically you smoke them out of their dens first. (FYI you should leave your apt for a few hours while this is burning...)

2) this where you need the little traps that they crawl into, eat poisen and die (The raid ones seemed to work well). So basically lay out these traps in key roach hideouts before step 1...ok well maybe this procedure isn't following a logical order

3) Spray. After you use the zhanglang xiang there will be a period of roach activity since they will come out from hiding...so now you can attack them on the spot. The good thing is they will be a bit slower from all the zhanglang xiang.

4) Clean up. Get disinfectant and mop mop and clean clean clean until your apartment smells like a hospital. Roaches are nasty and dirty...ew...plus after you put poisen all about you need to clean up their carcasses.

( Repeat you'll need to do this again after 15 days too)

have fun

and related to this thread

When you look at apartments try to avoid those chinese kitchens where your roommates or previous tenants stir fry everyday, turned the kitchen into one huge oil pit, and never ever cleaned it up...I'm convinced this and the general bad design of restroom water drainage is why apartments turn into roach grand central station.

And, if in doubt, perform the above in your room even before you move your stuff in...

[Lu]

In Beijing I used the little black boxes, might have been Raid, and they worked fantastically. No more cockroaches when I put some of those boxes in the room, don't know if they died or just stayed away, but I didn't see any for about half a year, and then the boxes stopped working, so bought new ones and they were gone again. Definitely worth a try. (Beijing cockroaches are the insect-sized kind though, not the mouse-sized kind you get in the south.)

Here in Taipei I get little ants. The best, actually the only, remedy is being very careful that I don't have anything lying around they can eat, and this includes things in the wastebin. That way I almost completely got rid of them in the course of some weeks.

[madizi]

Yep, as you said, mouse-sized.

[Kristyx]

Thanks for the advice guys. I bought the little round traps and we haven't seen any since.

[Beijingistops]

I hope you realize that, " Only you dirty foreigners get cockroaches"!

At least that is what my ayi tells me and expects me to believe.

[madizi]

Ha, of course, she has prejudice.

When I moved in my apartment, cockroaches were already there. Some Chinese students lived here for a half a year and they left a real mess. Dirty walls, dirty floor and I don't want to waste my time for describing in what state a kitchen was. All in all, a perfect habitat for cockroaches.

A person is clean or not, no matter where he/she comes from......

[wobblythoughts]

I'd like to add a little tale as a wrap up for this thread.

I once moved with my family into a huge one-story house, with a very large garden and many, many rooms. The thing was that it hadn't been lived in for a number of years and was in a very hot and humid city. The roof came with many leaks (when it rained we had to break out virtually every tupperware and pot, turning the place into something like Merlin's joint in The Sword in the Stone) and the garden came with many fruit trees and many, many ant holes and accompanying ants. Another added attraction was a 2 per room population of rather large cockroaches, some of which had the ability to fly. My brothers and I didn't take a liking to these creatures and had to team up and figure out ways to get them out of our room without squishing them. I remember once we put a bunch of hair gel on a piece of paper and set the trap on the cockroach's most likely route. It worked, but the piece of paper was too small and unstable on account of the weight of the gel: the disposal of the paper was no easy task either. On another occasion, we had to take out our belts to try and persuade a flying cockroach to leave our room.

Anyhow, one day my father came with some traps made by some company called, mmm... Target, I think. These traps are the same as the traps recommended here. In the back part they explained that the cockroach goes in for a bite of poisoned food and contaminates itself or takes the contaminated food to its home. After that, the disease is spread to the other cockroaches that live in the same neighborhood. We put one in almost every room. It was extremely effective. It is much better than the older "roach motels", where "Roaches check in but they don't check out!". Actually, I think that these traps deserve the name of "roach cemeteries" and the effective ones "roach motels", considering that they work more like motels.

These "traps" are by far the best thing out there. Personally, I find Raid cans quite nasty. A nasty kill with a nasty smell and a nasty clean-up. I haven't bought one in years.

[flameproof]

You can blow chilli powder into the cracks. Most insects dislike chilli. Work with ants too.

[Sebastian]

Check this video out!

Super Timor the remedy to all your problems haha.

[arkins]

Ok, help me out here folks. Where I come from I don't think I've ever even seen a cockroach - I don't know if we don't have them, if the cold climate keeps them away, or if they're just sitting under the ground waiting for that nuclear war to come.

But since I moved into my apartment in Beijing a month or so ago, this has changed. It's not like there's an infestation or anything - they're only in the bathroom and kitchen, and it's not as if every time I go in there I'm attacked. But once every day more or less I'll open the kitchen or bathroom door and there's a cockroach scampering across the wall or floor.

I've been Raiding them when I see them, but they don't seem to be stopping. I'm also starting to see baby ones, so I guess they're breeding somewhere close. I'm not leaving food out over them, sealed containers for all food, etc, etc. I've also just put some roach motel things down.

So should I just accept that a low level of cockroach activity is normal for China? I can't exactly fumigate the entire building. Do I just have to live with the odd cockroach?

[hector]

That is not just some china problem. Here in mexico happens the same thing, what you normally do in situations like that is buy some poisson for cockroaches and use it. It can be chalks, it can be "food" or it can be can spray. And yes, roaches are more likely in not cold places.

[adrianlondon]

I didn't see one in Beijing, but the student block I lived in would be sprayed (all around the edges of the floor) around once a month to keep them away.

[Madot]

I had the same experience in Beijing. And freaked out! I loathe the things.

I got cleaners in, I cleaned everything I could myself. In the end I threw bleach EVERYWHERE! (You can find Clorox if you look in Korean shops.) After that, I really didn't see any more of them. YUCHK, I hate them. The problem really did abate once I cleaned thoroughly with bleach and, of course, as you did, put all food in sealed containers, etc. Good luck.

Mado