Casualties of War

jeeff: 19th May 2005 - 16:28 GMT

no. i was dealing with a major cockroach infestation for the first time in my life (they're much more common and larger in size in tokyo than in toronto). i wanted to keep track to see whether my methods of killing were winning the battle or losing it. that way i could switch tactics if i was just propagating the eggs or something. i heard lots of conflicting advice from people telling me what i should and shouldn't do.

i originally had a big year-long calendar taped in sheets all around the top of my walls. i liked being able to see my whole "year in japan" stretching around the room. so i just made tally marks with a pen. in the end i found it made the whole situation more enjoyable and the roaches didn't bother me at all.

for those interested, my prefered method of killing was smushing with my hand. anything else was too slow. then i'd spray the spot with bleach. and a few roaches that strayed into the sink got flushed down the drain with scalding water. smushing was probably more humane.

elaine: 19th May 2005 - 16:53 GMT

cockroaches here are usually confined to restaurants, you are very unlucky to get a domestic infeststion, and they are smallish as well, and if you do get an infestation you can get sprayed and that will usually be the end of it. i stayed in a flat in sydney years ago and wsa utterly horrified by the roaches there, big tawny see through buggers. you could feel their presence in a room before you saw them and there were so many of them you had to warn them you were coming to clear yourself a path. utterly utterly revolting

fuzzytank: 20th May 2005 - 05:30 GMT

dont go down south if you dont like roaches

my great aunt swears the reason she fell an broke her hip was cause she tried to step on one to squish it, and it ran an pulled her foot out from under her

they grow real big in Charleston South Carolina

cafeconleche: 29th Jul 2005 - 03:41 GMT

One time this roach was like---playing hide and go seek--I swear--the sucker ran from one corner and hid behind a post then to another post..I thought I saw "something " zoom from here to there---but when I looked again there was notheing--I turned and there it was casting an all mighty shadow --Ewww I get the heebee jeebies just thinking about it--worst thing was when we moved in (the first week) we slept onthe floor because they had just fumigated and we didn;t know about the infestation--first time apt. seekers ASK the tenants who live there about the bugs--don't ask the manager 'cause they'll lie.....

jeeff: 29th Jul 2005 - 05:01 GMT

cafeconleche - good advice. even beyond that, "did you have any problems with this place?" is a good general question to ask tenants.

the thing that creeped me out about the roaches: when i came home at an odd time they'd be all over the place. but during my normal home-time they were totally hidden. hard to imagine something with such a tiny brain adapting so well to my schedule. i guess it's just natural selection - the ones that like to come out when i'm around get killed, the others survive.

dan: 9th Sep 2006 - 02:41 GMT

so how did you kill them besides with your hand was that all you used

tiara lingua: 18th Aug 2007 - 14:25 GMT

Oh my freaking goodness, Jeef, my side hurts from laughing. This is the coolest freaking thing I've read in AGES! There is no way he'll read this because his comment is from 2006, but Question to Cafe con Leche: Did you live in Key West? Fuzzytank, you are just plain awesome! Jeef, do you think the changes in population were weather-based or handsmush-based?
In Thailand, we put chalk around the floor and this suffocated them because their breathing apparatus was exo-skeletal. But I thought the chalk had some weird chemical and my cat was around so I just embraced the cockroaches and got used to the feeling of them under my feet as I made my morning coffee. Totally gross, but human to adapt methinks, and I just plain never cared about anything when I first woke up until I got my coffee.

jeeff: 28th Apr 2008 - 02:37 GMT

thx tiara i think many of us are still around. i'll remember the trick with chalk, but i agree that ultimately you must adapt. to answer your question, i think the change was based on both season and evolution. i found roaches increasingly difficult to kill as time went by, to the point where they sometimes seemed to be waggling their antennae at me...

Peter: 28th Apr 2008 - 13:16 GMT

this is definitely one of my favorite posts... interesting, re: the chalk trick. hmm, perhaps that explains the heavy lines of powdered blue chalk around my building's back door...