Those wonderful cockroaches

[ZEROPILOT]

True ROACH story.
Last night my wife woke me up to tell me "There's a roach in the kitchen"
I sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, but it became CLEAR that it was an EMERGENCY!
I walked into the kitchen and saw him. A big sucker, crawling across the wall towards the refrigerator.
I sprayed him with some Raid and he did a 180 and scurried back towards the oven. I lunged at him with a paper towel...Wife screaming. Dog barking...And he fell behind the oven.
I was pretty sure I got him with the spray. So I told me wife he's as good as dead. "Let's go back to bed".
But NO
She demanded proof.
So I waited. Spray can in hand....And waited.
Nothing!
She demanded I drag out the oven. Not just to find him but also to try to see if there's a hole where he could've gone....or have come from.
The stove has only been moved once and that's when I put in our flooring a few years ago. It's heavy and we have a small kitchen.
I tugged and wiggled it out, sweating and cursing the whole time.
Finally it was pulled out enough that I could get behind it. Sure enough there was a dead roach. 3 of them actually. One still slowly twitching.
AND that's when things got GOOD. I noticed that there was NOW a leak in the natural gas line going to the stove from my pulling the stove out. It was a rigid copper line that got pinched and cracked.
I had to turn off the main valve outside.
She went back to sleep.
I took a cold shower (No gas for the water heater) and stayed up until 7:30 when the hardware store opened up.
I got a new flexible gas line, expanding foam and cement to patch up any gaps in and around the area. (Weather any bugs come through I have no idea)
Then I was able to replace the stove and clean up the mess that was created.
My already bad back is absolutely killing me. But I have another half dozen relatively important chores to do still.
All for a cockroach.
And a wife that freaks out about them.

 

[Yvonne G]

You're a good husband, Ed.

 

[TammyJ]

Ed, you have done the best you can, and suffered considerable effort, expense and pain. It has to count for something.
But they'll be on this planet (so I have been informed) long after the human species has vanished.
Even so...gotta keep fighting.
Thanks for that entertaining story! Hope your back recovers quickly.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Ed, you have done the best you can, and suffered considerable effort, expense and pain. It has to count for something.
But they'll be on this planet (so I have been informed) long after the human species has vanished.
Even so...gotta keep fighting.
Thanks for that entertaining story! Hope your back recovers quickly.

It's not so bad.
I think that the garage is the roach city central. But how they get in there I don't know.
The next free time I get I'm going to drag the motorcycles, tools and most other crap out of there and do a good dusting of BORIC ACID all around the walls.
It's getting out of hand.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Friends of mine picked up roaches from doing the nice thing of storing a family members electronics for them. The roaches had moved into the dvd and blue ray players when they had gotten cold and the electrics kept them warm.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Friends of mine picked up roaches from doing the nice thing of storing a family members electronics for them. The roaches had moved into the dvd and blue ray players when they had gotten cold and the electrics kept them warm.

Sounds like German roaches?
Those are nearly impossible to wipe out. I hear.

 

[Tom]

@ZEROPILOT

Our wives might be related... Or maybe that is just how all of them are...

 

[ascott]

There are about two dozen insect species that are referred to as "palmetto bugs". As a roach hobbyist, I would love to see some pics of yours to ID them. Can you bring yourself to catch one and take some close up pics?

Oh gross... Tom, that made me cringe....I apologize, I don't mean to insult your fondness of these critters...but ugh. I do have to say that from time to time one of those "water bugs" will make its way into the house and if my female dog does not see it first, (she face plants the bug over and over again and then looks at me proudly, waiting for me to pick up the body), I will make noises of gross surprise and then I have my bugger cup and piece of paper and I will scooch it into the cup and give er a good ole toss back outside....you know, have to have something for the lovely spiders to eat (eww).....

 

[ascott]

Is it just me, or do only the winged ones seem extra creepy?
When they're small, the house geckos usually eat them.

Super creepy....kinda like when you look up on the wall and you are eye level to a large Praying Mantes , with their little arms that reach out slowly towards you, their eyes that look in different directions and their head moving all around on their skinny little necks....ew.

 

[ascott]

Friends of mine picked up roaches from doing the nice thing of storing a family members electronics for them. The roaches had moved into the dvd and blue ray players when they had gotten cold and the electrics kept them warm.

Dirty bast%$#s....

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Super creepy....kinda like when you look up on the wall and you are eye level to a large Praying Mantes , with their little arms that reach out slowly towards you, their eyes that look in different directions and their head moving all around on their skinny little necks....ew.

I actually like them

 

[Tom]

Oh gross... Tom, that made me cringe....I apologize, I don't mean to insult your fondness of these critters...but ugh. I do have to say that from time to time one of those "water bugs" will make its way into the house and if my female dog does not see it first, (she face plants the bug over and over again and then looks at me proudly, waiting for me to pick up the body), I will make noises of gross surprise and then I have my bugger cup and piece of paper and I will scooch it into the cup and give er a good ole toss back outside....you know, have to have something for the lovely spiders to eat (eww).....

HA! "Water bugs" in the desert? I'll bet you've got Blatta lateralis out there. The females look like what most people call "water bugs", and the males are a dark tan color with wings. Sound familiar?

You can make fun of my roach interest. Its a weird thing and most people feel the way you do about it. I'm definitely the odd ball here, so I don't mind some ribbing. Having them around just makes feeding any insectivore so easy, and I have some insectivores. My chickens and my aquarium fish love them too!

 

[Tom]

I actually like them

Roaches are universally despised and disliked all over the globe. But their closest living relative is the most revered, respected, honored and liked insect all over the globe. The mantis.

If you look at the two in profile, the similarities are obvious. I like them both.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

We have something called WATERBUGS here.
Sometimes you'll see one after a big storm.
These are very large. Dark colored, long and have front arms that curve inwards like pinchers.
The exoskeletons are so hard that if you drive over one with your car, it sounds like it could puncture a tire.
They are formidable.
But too gigantic to sneak into my house easily.
I've never even seen one on my property.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Roaches are universally despised and disliked all over the globe. But their closest living relative is the most revered, respected, honored and liked insect all over the globe. The mantis.

If you look at the two in profile, the similarities are obvious. I like them both.

The cockroaches being closely related to lobster has me put off of them as well.
Just watch one walk around under water.. ..pure roach!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Some roaches...Like the big Madagascar hissing ones, don't bother me.
There's something about the speed or the flying of the American cockroach that puts it over the top....
I just can't put my finger on it. (And I don't want to.)
Like I said, once they get large and get those glossy wings and those "hairy" legs....That's when they simply MUST DIE if I see one.
If you moved to Florida, you wouldn't need to raise roaches.
They're just here.

 

[Tom]

The cockroaches being closely related to lobster has me put off of them as well.
Just watch one walk around under water.. ..pure roach!

BUG HUNTING!!!

Term scuba divers use to describe searching for, and catching lobsters for consumption...

 

[Relic]

Picked up a used cordless telephone base station and additional satellite phones many years ago at a garage sale. Brought the box full of electronics home and tossed the box on my favorite, most comfortable, leather recliner. Immediately a dozen or more roaches swarmed over the top edge of the box and scurried into the folds and crevices of the beloved chair. Without even giving a second thought I grabbed that chair - with the box still perched on the seat - drug it out of the house, heaved into the back of my truck, and took it to a Goodwill drop-off location. I figured the chances of me EVER sitting in that chair again, reading a book, and finally falling asleep with my mouth open...well, it was just never going to happen again. When my wife asked what happened to the chair, I relayed the sequence of events and she heartily endorsed the swift action - and she was the one who bought me the chair for my birthday.

 

[Tom]

Some roaches...Like the big Madagascar hissing ones, don't bother me.
There's something about the speed or the flying of the American cockroach that puts it over the top....
I just can't put my finger on it. (And I don't want to.)
Like I said, once they get large and get those glossy wings and those "hairy" legs....That's when they simply MUST DIE if I see one.
If you moved to Florida, you wouldn't need to raise roaches.
They're just here.

I have hissers!

We have roaches running around outside here too. I contain and breed them indoors in my roach bins to make sure they are gut loaded and free of parasites or pesticides that might be picked up by the wild ones living outside. My colony of Blata lateralis was started from a couple dozen wild caught ones here.

 

[TammyJ]

Super creepy....kinda like when you look up on the wall and you are eye level to a large Praying Mantes , with their little arms that reach out slowly towards you, their eyes that look in different directions and their head moving all around on their skinny little necks....ew.

Hmmm. Religion aside, I find Praying Mantis to be extraordinarily beautiful.