Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cirval]

Jesus Christ.

I just moved to a new house and it is infested with thumb sized cockroaches. Just today, I came home at about 7:00 and since that time I've been on a killing spree. I killed three in the first hour and I thought I was okay, but now I just saw one crawl across my TV and into my clothes before I could get it. I'm trying to wait it out, right now.

On Monday, I'm going to bitch out my school and tell them that I want my place bug bombed, but if that doesn't work, what should I do? I've lived in Seoul for 5 months and never seen a single cockroach. Now they are everywhere. I don't know how long I can handle this.

Advice?

[Skipperoo]

Don't squash them, don't leave the corpses around anywhere near your apartment. Their kids will continue to incubate and hatch after the death of the parent.

Best thing is to get some industrial strength spray for any that you see, and a whole load of roach traps for the ones that slip under the radar. I had a small roach problem a few months back and within a few days of using the traps (the kind that gives them poison food and they take it back to the 'nest' or whatever, for the rest to feed on too) I never saw them again.

[ttompatz]

search back here and there are decent, easy, affordable solutions to your problem.

.

[Enigma]

I'm not trying to one-up you, but maybe this will make you feel a little better about your situation.
When I was going to university in Montreal, I had a little one room apartment, which had a tiny kitchenette behind a closet door, in an old building in the McGill ghetto. During the day it was fine, but when I came home at night, the kitchenette was covered with well over a hundred cockroaches (not exaggerating) every night. I'd grab a shoe and go crazy killing them, but the next night there'd be just as many there. It was bloody disgusting.
Me and the girl living in the apartment next to me finally convinced the landlord to get an exterminator, but I had to live like that for at least a month.

[orosee]

I wonder why "Cockroaches" hasn't made it to "Sticky" status yet. Or call it "Pest Control", anyway it always ends up with the same (good) advice e.g. "Don't just crush them" all the way to "Use Borax". Same goes seasonally for the drain flies (boiling water, bleach) and that scary but harmless centipede (let live) as well as moulds and mildew (bleach, vent).

Cockroaches are much more affordable in Thailand (from rents as low as $60 a month) and come in larger sizes, in fact Thai cockroaches eat Korean cockroaches for breakfast. Bring one back next time you visit there!

[Evanzinho]

I've killed a couple of cockroaches in my apartment the last few days as well. Never had this problem before. Is it because of the change in weather or something?

[dharma bum]

I had a similar problem, and, in addition to cleaning everywhere and throwing out garbage as quickly as possible, sprinkled Borax wherever I thought the roaches might be walking (and/or coming from) and planted some little Raid traps in corners, under my sink, etc. The traps seemed to work fairly well.