CommanderBacon
Arachnobaron
- Joined
- May 21, 2018
- Messages
- 498
Hello, folks. I need your expertise.
I live in an apartment complex of approximately 40 units, and I have approximately 56 pet tarantulas and various other assorted pets.
We had some really gross meth heads living above us, and after they were booted out out at the end of November, we started seeing what I believe are German cockroaches creeping into our kitchen. I've never seen a single bug in this complex in the ten years I've lived here, so I'm not sure what to blame it on, but the fact remains that random cockroaches in my home freak me out, so I have been cleaning my kitchen obsessively and trying to treat the kitchen by dusting the corners of the cabinets and cracks with diatomaceous earth and using Combat bait traps.
(Note: I have noticed these roaches in other parts of the apartment complex after I saw them in our unit.)
That seemed to work for a while in our unit, but then new neighbors moved in above us a few weeks ago, and the roaches have returned and been persistent. I will see at least one per day. One day I saw five. I was about to administer another box of bait traps, and had packed all of our boxed and bagged food into plastic bins to prep for treating and filling up all the cracks in my cabinets with caulk and spray foam, when my partner found one in his bathroom; so, they are either in the walls, traveling along the plumbing system, or are in the ventilation system. The cleanroom lockdown has not worked, and I am losing my mind. I hate this so much.
I requested to speak to a pest control specialist about a possible treatment to see how it would impact my pets. The pest control people want to treat my kitchen and bathrooms with Essentria IC3, which is peppermint and rosemary oil based and will undoubtedly kill my spiders if they come into contact with it.
I am comfortable with moving my spiders out of the apartment for a few weeks to give this stuff a chance to settle and am fortunate enough to have a few places to keep them, but the pest control people have no idea how it will impact any of my pets or how long this stuff will disperse into the air. I had a few chemists look at the MSDS and they seem to think that the oils are heavy and should settle relatively soon, but they will spread easily via contact and may continue to disperse for some time.
If I agree to have the unit treated, my chemist friends advise that I adopt clean room protocols when I finally do introduce my spiders back into my apartment, which I am fine with. I have disposable gloves and I can be careful with the storage of my spider stuff.
In the event that I agree to having my kitchen and bathrooms treated, how long should I keep my spiders out of the apartment before I can safely bring them back?
Or should I just suck it up and continue to do my best to treat it on my own with bait traps and resign myself to with living with roaches?
My spiders' safety is my first priority, but this is also impacting my peace of mind and is exhausting me. I haven't dealt with this before and have no idea what an effective course of action will be that will be safest for my spiders.
Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.
I live in an apartment complex of approximately 40 units, and I have approximately 56 pet tarantulas and various other assorted pets.
We had some really gross meth heads living above us, and after they were booted out out at the end of November, we started seeing what I believe are German cockroaches creeping into our kitchen. I've never seen a single bug in this complex in the ten years I've lived here, so I'm not sure what to blame it on, but the fact remains that random cockroaches in my home freak me out, so I have been cleaning my kitchen obsessively and trying to treat the kitchen by dusting the corners of the cabinets and cracks with diatomaceous earth and using Combat bait traps.
(Note: I have noticed these roaches in other parts of the apartment complex after I saw them in our unit.)
That seemed to work for a while in our unit, but then new neighbors moved in above us a few weeks ago, and the roaches have returned and been persistent. I will see at least one per day. One day I saw five. I was about to administer another box of bait traps, and had packed all of our boxed and bagged food into plastic bins to prep for treating and filling up all the cracks in my cabinets with caulk and spray foam, when my partner found one in his bathroom; so, they are either in the walls, traveling along the plumbing system, or are in the ventilation system. The cleanroom lockdown has not worked, and I am losing my mind. I hate this so much.
I requested to speak to a pest control specialist about a possible treatment to see how it would impact my pets. The pest control people want to treat my kitchen and bathrooms with Essentria IC3, which is peppermint and rosemary oil based and will undoubtedly kill my spiders if they come into contact with it.
I am comfortable with moving my spiders out of the apartment for a few weeks to give this stuff a chance to settle and am fortunate enough to have a few places to keep them, but the pest control people have no idea how it will impact any of my pets or how long this stuff will disperse into the air. I had a few chemists look at the MSDS and they seem to think that the oils are heavy and should settle relatively soon, but they will spread easily via contact and may continue to disperse for some time.
If I agree to have the unit treated, my chemist friends advise that I adopt clean room protocols when I finally do introduce my spiders back into my apartment, which I am fine with. I have disposable gloves and I can be careful with the storage of my spider stuff.
In the event that I agree to having my kitchen and bathrooms treated, how long should I keep my spiders out of the apartment before I can safely bring them back?
Or should I just suck it up and continue to do my best to treat it on my own with bait traps and resign myself to with living with roaches?
My spiders' safety is my first priority, but this is also impacting my peace of mind and is exhausting me. I haven't dealt with this before and have no idea what an effective course of action will be that will be safest for my spiders.
Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.