Henry Tapia

Under General, Personal

We are all familiar with one of the major issues of today, facing the city of Sydney and many other places. Yet it is one that is given little media coverage and therefore minimal public debate. I’m speaking of home invasion, invasions that happen every day. They happen at night, in our sleep, and the perpetrators are even so bold as to show their faces in the light of day. I’m talking about cockroaches. Specifically German cockroaches, Germanica Blatellica. And I’ve recently done my part in contributing to the War on Cockroaches.

Know your Enemy

On the weekend, I hired a professional. He applied an industrial (but ecologically friendly) dry gel into every strategic corner, crack and crevice in the kitchen and a few other areas. He also was able to share very detailed knowledge on cockroaches and the art of killing them. Allow me to share:

• Permethrin – a neurotoxin to insects – is the active constituent in the gel (approximately 1%). The gel uses a bait to attract cockroaches, and the chemical kills them and infects their bodies. This has the secondary effect of poisoning the nest and any cockroaches that cannibalise their corpses, as cockroaches are wont to do.
• German cockroaches go from hatching to sexual maturity in approximately 42 days, or “6 to 8 weeks”. Not so coincidentally, this is the time it takes for the gel treatment to complete its work. If it hasn’t, you need a gel top up. In my case, this is covered by the 3 month warranty I received with the service. (If your dwelling has cockroaches for wallpaper, you don’t get the warranty. And I crap you not, that level of infestation happens more than you think, according to my pest control professional.)
• The immediate reaction to the gel is the cockroaches become disoriented, and climb up the walls and on the ceiling. This shows that it is working and happens because they are whacked-out and will soon die.
• German cockroaches are most common in rental properties. And bakeries. German cockroaches are always introduced to a dwelling. This is always caused by either carrying live cockroaches or their eggs. They eat any organic materials and like to live in and lay eggs in corrugated cardboard. So, the theory is they get in to the space in the cardboard, lay eggs. You pack your boxes and move house, they come along for the ride. Next thing, that place is full of cockies too. They also are transmitted via removalist trucks.
• (Gross-out warning.) People who have had cockroach problems would be familiar with cockroach droppings. They are the small black pellets that look like small poppy seeds that the roaches leave in your cupboards and under your kettle. I have also since been taught how to identify cockroach vomitus. The vomit is the brown/olive smearings that you find in cupboard hinges and other places where their droppings accumulate. This is often the result of cockroaches feeding on their own feces.

Anyway, so far, so good. It was only yesterday morning I had the treatment done. There are already visibly less cockroaches running around (none really), more so the ones we see are dead

I’ll keep you posted on the progress…

Updates

• 07/02/06: Dead cockroaches all over the kitchen floor. Great!
• 23/02/06: Cockroaches? What are they??