What’s With All the Cockroaches in the Valley? (And How to Get Rid of Them)
Excerpt from Valley 101: A Slightly Skewed Guide to Living in Arizona, a collection of Clay Thompson’s columns for The Arizona Republic. (Originally published August 1, 1999.)
Q: We thought we left cockroaches behind in Chicago. Instead, we find they’re huge out here. My wife is completely freaked.
A: Oh, yeah, and you’re not freaked? Perhaps no crawly thing, aside from the Legislature, invokes more horror and disgust than a big old sewer roach skittering around your bathtub or grazing on a box of saltines in the cupboard. Or coming at you across the sheets.
Roaches. We hate ’em. God probably had some good reason when he created them, but it’s a mystery to mortals.
Perhaps it was to keep us humble. Scientists have said their survivability is such that, in the event of a nuclear holocaust, roaches would dominate the charred new world. This raises an interesting question:
If we wiped out our world with nuclear bombs and only roaches survived and evolved, would there be, in a gazillion or so years, a roach Jerry Springer Show?
Anyway, we’re infested with three kinds here in the Valley and, reflecting our diversity, they are the German roach, the Turkestan roach and the good old American roach.
The small German model is most likely to take up permanent residence in your house. They like kitchens, especially the insides of electrical appliances. They can fly but prefer to scurry.
The big ugly suckers you’re seeing are the Turkestan and the American. They’re gross and are lumped together under the term “sewer roach,” but only the American is usually found in sewers. It can be hard to tell an American from the Turkestan if you already whomped it with a Size 12 Florsheim.
However, in its pre-whomped state, the Turkestan roach is about an inch long, brown to black, and it actually prefers the out-of-doors. If it is inside, like any roach, it’s going to want a drink and will likely
end up in or near a sink or tub.
The American roach runs up to about 2 inches, is shiny and brown and sometimes flies. Ayaaaaaa!
The American roach, according to Insects of the Southwest, by FloydWerner and CarlOlson, was once nominated as the official U.S. insect but was rejected by the Entomological Society of the United States in favor of the monarch butterfly.
Just think, if roaches had become the official national bug, they might have become a flash point for protesters, and we might now be debating a constitutional amendment to outlaw the burning of an
American roach or whomping it with footwear.
Yes, the American roach dwells in sewers. (A city employee once told us it looks like the walls are moving. Euuuu!) Contrary to what some think, however, they don’t swim up the pipes into your home.
It is theoretically possible, because roaches can swim (and survive on wallpaper glue and, in some countries, vote). But roaches are most likely to enter your house through openings around pipes or wires, under loose weather-stripping, through pet doors, or any other opening that presents itself.
We say hanging’s too good for them, plus they reproduce faster than you can tie the nooses. The Florsheim approach can be viscerally satisfying, but you have to find them before you can whomp them.
Roaches are nocturnal, so the best hunting is at night.
We once read that if you spray roaches with dish detergent, it eats away at some sort of protective outer skeleton and leaves the roach to die a lingering, awful death. It’s a nice thought, but chasing a roach with a bottle of Palmolive is time-consuming, messy and undignified.
Geckos, those little lizards you see on fences and outside walls, are said to be hell on roaches. But trading bugs for lizards isn’t everybody’s idea of victory.
Cleanliness is next to roachlessness. Keep your cupboards and counter tops free of crumbs, keep food containers sealed shut. Don’t leave pet food out in the open unnecessarily. You know what they feed roaches in research facilities? Dry dog food.
Plug up any openings around pipes or wires, inside and outside.
Most Valley cities will dispatch a crew to dust manhole covers in your neighborhood for roaches. Look in your city’s listings in the Blue Pages, usually under the sewer department.
Boric acid is a good deterrent, but if you’re going the do-it-yourself extermination route, be sure to read all the warnings on the label.
Your best bet is probably regular visits by a good exterminator.
Roaches—spray ’em, gas ’em, starve ’em, whomp ’em. Show no mercy. In a gazillion years, they’d do the same to you.
Excerpt from Valley 101: A Slightly Skewed Guide to Living in Arizona, a collection of Clay Thompson’s columns for The Arizona Republic. (Originally published August 1, 1999.)
Diatomaceous Earth really slows ’em down!
We live in the San Joaquin Valley of California. We keep the entire perimeter of our house lined outside with Diatomaceous Earth.It stops most of the roaches that live in the ground from entering the house. The others that do make it through get their exoskeletons badly cut up by the Diatomaceous Earth and we usually find them dying or dead inside the house from it. It is non-poisonous and safe for pets, as it is only made of Silicon dioxide crystals. if you touch it, it feels like fine flour, but it kills all crawling insects including ants, silverfish, earwigs as well as roaches. You can buy it at Home Depot or similar stores. You will have to keep renewing it , as moisture and rain wash it into the soil.
When I was growing up in Marin County we used boric acid mixed with powdered sugar for roaches. You just sprinkle it where they generally roam. If you have or have had them, then you know where those places are. Make sure your babies with or without fur, can’t get to it! But the sugar is their siren and once there they walk through it and in so doing they give it a ride back to the nest too! They lick their feet and die. And all those joining in thr feast die and lots return to tge nest long before death. So it is a very safe and effective not to mention inexpensive way of eradicating them from your home. It works for most creepy crawlers. But I am wondering if it works on scorpions?
I’m familiar with the German and American cockroaches but not with the Turkestan; I don’t like any of them however and while I know they’re harmless, aside from carrying diseases, I still don’t like the sight of them! Luckily I’ve never been faced with such an infestation and can only imagine having to deal with one…ugh, makes me shudder just thinking about it!
there is a funny smell from our bathrooms that precedes a cockroach being wrangled by our cat. In the middle of the night and she leaves it in the hallway for us. I hate those things.
Even if you don’t think you have a roach problem, if you are faithful about replacing them with fresh ones when the package instructions tell you to, Combat brand roach baits really do work. They work on the principal that a roach eats some of the contents, returns to the nest, dies from ingesting the bait, and, since roaches are cannibals, other roaches eat it and are also poisoned, die in the nest, are eaten, etc. They can be hidden inside cupboards, closets, or under kitchen appliances where children or pets won’t disturb them. The baits come in small and large sizes for the different types of roaches. The hardest thing about using them is that you have to resist the urge to whomp the roaches you see so they can take the bait back to the nest and make the system work.
When we lived in the Valley, our first year I had the exterminator come out regularly and spray baseboards and outside. Until the visit when birds started dropping dead out of the trees in the backyard and our pet birds inside both died in horrible seizures. About an hour after the spray. I had toddlers and freaked. Sooooooo ….. we got house geckos and let them loose. We began to tolerate wolf spiders in the house (they’re nocturnal and we didn’t have to spend much quality time with them, just not step on them when they ran from one hiding place to another). Our roach problems greatly diminished and we stopped spraying poison.
You’re a god Damn liar. Yeah, bug spray really kills birds. Troll
EXACTLY! the poisons of big corporations dont need extra help. we KNOW they do harm.. from pest things to coka cola. So making crap up isnt really needed. all you have to do is use the actual side effect. if people dont care about those and want to use them anyhow? thats on them.
Its like smoking.. What idiot doesnt know the crap is an addiction and increases your risk for everything under the sun and they are getting rich off you and even after you stop it will still catch up with you when youre 60 and the cancer pharma people dont care abut cures because they are looking to make money off you dying.
Its on you to make that. No need for graphic commercials.
If people cant grasp things, then they never will. why lie?
They really dont want to grasp it.
I will spray the bug crap. And yes its a poison.
While Im worried about that? the usa, asia and everyone else has dropped giant nukes and less into the ground and wrecked the air at levels we cant imaging till this very day.
Right? so who stops them?
It most certainly does. I have two. We cannot use any chemicals or insecticides around them. No candles either. They can get very sick with respiratory problems as a result of using them. I have to use natural things for the insects that we do get.
Omg. My family friend used to treat around her house. She owned 2 different breed dogs and both had seizures! We thought maybe it was the new pergo flooring. But they did spray and worried about it, seeing your post confirms it.
What a well written article…
Very colorful and funny..
Great job!
J-ROC, bug spray would damn near kill you if sprayed accordingly!
I’ve never seen a roach since I moved to central Snottsdale 9 years ago (and hope I never do). Are there parts of the Valley that get them more than others? But, I don’t get what people have against lizards/geckos, which I DO have, on my patio….I think they’re cute!
I remember in the mid 70’s I went to a Mervyn’s store. It was at night. One whole outside wall of the store was covered with the big guys and there were some on another wall. It was pretty scary. They were there for several nights. Living in Oregon now, I sure don’t miss the roaches or the black widows.
Pls help. I live in a small house in Sun City, AZ. (RENT}. So far this month I have killed 22 roaches. My landlord said I need to get used to them. I can’t. I am 77 yrs old and am having a very difficult time with them. I want to break my lease to get out of this house. Is this possible?
Lol
Just moved to Arizona from Oregon. Saw the a turkestan cockroache in the living room, then one scurrying by my sleeping significant other a few hours later. About had a full on panic attack. Thank goodness I found this post I am happy to know that it was probably a fluke and not a regular thing. Perhaps now I can sleep I was up all night imagining them crawling on me as I slept. I have never had the pleasure of a run in with a roach before, and might I say it was quite the shock.
I enjoyed this article it put me a bit more at ease, and made me laugh. Thank you so very much for the information.
There is a difference… the roaches in your house in chicqgo come from being nasty… the roaches in arizona dont… the post is not making that clear point. Im from chicago and knows what this person is talking about..
Lastly… no the man didnt freak like the woman did.. My daughters didnt even want to enter the room until I removed it.
Thats “totally freaked”. I had to go buy spray at `11 pm. thats “totally freaked”. Stop trying to make this an issue of men and women are the same. we are not. I dont care what the tv says… the planet has thousands of years of history behind it. the usa, and th Apa cant change that in a couple decades.
Can you tell us more about this? I’d want to find out some
additional information.
[…] control in Phoenix AZ is serious business. The cockroach problem in the Valley is an unhealthy reminder that overpopulated areas need to be treated regularly to keep health risks […]
Coming from New Orleans I know a bit about The big American Cockroaches… what you want to spray twice per year is Cypermitherin, labels at Cyper WP or Demon WP. It’s made from chrysanthemum and is not “too” toxic to human or pets. Works well for ants, spiders, and scorpions. Not very expensive either.