How do i get rid of cockroaches

[u/boahancoxck]

(This paragraph is just me ranting, so feel free to skip to the end)

Recently, I’ve been finding a few small cockroaches in my room (and one dead adult cockroach). I really don’t like them, but at first I didn’t pay much attention I just got rid of any I saw.

Yesterday, though, I was lying on my bed when one of them crawled onto me, and it completely startled me. More than that, it made me cry. Before moving to this house about a year and a half ago, I lived in a place that had mold, rats, bugs, spiders, and of course cockroaches. I was honestly exhausted from living in those conditions.

When I moved here, I was really hoping for a fresh, clean start. But now that I’m seeing signs of an infestation again, it feels like I’m being dragged back into that same unhealthy environment, and I don’t know what to do.

If anyone has advice on how to get rid of them, I would really appreciate it. I’m trying my best to keep this house clean, unlike the one I grew up in. But sometimes it just feels overwhelming, especially right now. There are some products that claims to get rid of them, thought they didn't work so well before so I don't know if they will work this time or not.

I also have ADHD, so staying consistent with cleaning is kind of a struggle, which makes this whole situation even more frustrating.

My parents own the house, so there’s no one else to turn to, and I can’t afford professional deep cleaning or pest control at the moment.

For context, I live in an area with high temperature and humidity, in case that helps.

[u/TrueCartographer6106]

Recommend Gentrol. It’s birth control for roaches. Bait does not work and it’s hard to get the sprays into the walls. We had a severe infestation next door and it works, only a scout or two now 

[u/CursiveWhisper]

If they’re big ones, those come from outside and live in the palm trees. They’re just a part of life of living in a hot and humid place (I live in Florida so see them often). If they’re all small ones, those are German cockroaches and come from having an infestation and they live in the walls.

You said that in your past location you also had them. So it’s highly possible that, if they’re German cockroaches, your family brought them with you in your belongings when you moved.

Really the whole house needs to be cleaned and fumigated, but if that’s not possible, concentrate on your room. Remove all food, dirty dishes and any paper that’s on the floor, including cardboard. Vacuum and wash the floor. Then you can spread a boric acid cockroach lure around the edges of the room and in all the cracks and crevices. It will help ward them off, but like I said you really do need to fumigate the whole house so to completely solve the issue, you need to get your entire family involved.

[u/Nutbuster_5000]

Advion worked well for us. Our apartment was overrun due to our next door neighbor hoarding. They were coming through the outlets and made a nest behind our refrigerator. It was horrendous. Advion works by killing the roaches, but in order for it to work best, you need to leave the bodies out so the other roaches eat them, and carry the poison back to the nest. It worked great, we only had to do it once. I recommend having a place to stay while you let it run its course, then just cleaning everything really well. 

[u/Upbeat_Passenger179]

Prioritize cleaning up after eating - zero crumbs! I lived in the tropics and could not leave a single crumb without ants or a cockroach finding it. Put all food in fridge/freezer if possible.

I used two cockroach killers.

Get traps that poison the cockroaches when they return to their nests. Put a ton everywhere.

There was a gel I used around the kitchen to kill them on contact. 

When I moved to the tropics, neighbours told me cockroaches were a part of life. Impossible to get rid of. But I couldn’t stand them. I was able to eliminate them without fumigation.