Killing cockroaches

[snopes]

Comment: Is it true that when you kill a cockroach you should put it in a
plastic bag because they can release up to 500 babies after death?

[franjava]

It is highly unlikely that a cockroach egg case (ootheca) would survive ... snip ...the ootheca and contained eggs are huge and mechanically fairly fragile. Any good mashing should kill them all.

Found on the FAQ page of this site. It even mentions that it's a UL.

[Mosherette]

In my experience, they just release an amazing amount of horrible white goo after 5 severe thwackings with a Doc Marten boot.

:shudder:

[Fun with a 9mm]

Painless for ME, I mean.

We have palmetto bugs down here, which are like giant (mouse-sized) cockroaches with wings. My preferred method of destruction is the vacuum with hose attachment. 2 seconds and GONE with no clean-up!

On the main page it came up looking like this:

Killing cockroaches
by Fun with a 9mm

I thought to myself, "Self, wouldn't that put a lot of holes in the wall?"

[Griffin2020]

Originally Posted by Fun with a 9mm

Painless for ME, I mean.

We have palmetto bugs down here, which are like giant (mouse-sized) cockroaches with wings. My preferred method of destruction is the vacuum with hose attachment. 2 seconds and GONE with no clean-up!

What prevents the bug from simply crawling out of the vacuum once you turn it off? Roaches are amazingly tough critters...

[Kutter]

As a kid, I used to go out and shoot palmetto bugs off the side of the house with a BB gun. Now generally flush them, figuring that should they survive the trip, a veritable vermin paradise awaits them Down Below.

[Brad from Georgia]

Originally Posted by Kutter

As a kid, I used to go out and shoot palmetto bugs off the side of the house with a BB gun. Now generally flush them, figuring that should they survive the trip, a veritable vermin paradise awaits them Down Below.

Years ago I taught at the Georgia Governor's Honors Program in Valdosta, Georgia, a charming burg which combines all the worst of Florida with all the worst of Georgia in one dismal package. And the dorms there were infested with so-called "palmetto bugs".

Now, we had a poet come and lecture to our students--a poet not of our choosing, but selected by the State Board of Education. His name, let me make something up, was Frank Gatz. Frank wanted all the students to write a short poem "about something you've discovered in Valdosta, Georgia, that you've never seen elsewhere." We teachers were expected to participate.

So here's what I wrote:

Palmetto Bug

A palmetto bug's a critter
That skitters
Off as you approach.
His friends call him "palmetto bug,"
But I just call him "roach."


The poet told me off in front of the class because he said I wasn't taking the assignment with sufficient gravity and decorum.

Later on, one of my students slipped me a little piece of paper on which she had written

I'd rather housebreak ten thousand cats
That read one more poem by old Frank Gatz.

I'm proud to say that today she is an award-winning and widely published poet.

[Bassist]

Originally Posted by Griffin2020

What prevents the bug from simply crawling out of the vacuum once you turn it off? Roaches are amazingly tough critters...

Can't speak to all vacuums, but my old (circa 1960) reliable Kirby has a rather large impeller assembly just ahead of the bag that would likely mascerate most larger insects/objects. Haven't yet seen a roach/palmetto bug crawl out (and being in Georgia, I've seen far too many)!

[tagurit]

I've heard that if you're going to kill a roach, don't step on them, because if you do, you'll carry their eggs home in the tread of your shoes. Don't know if it's true or not, but I couldn't stand the thought of stepping on one, anyway.

[Venus]

It's not going to release 500 babies. I don't know about all roach species, but i know the german roach (most common species to infest a house/apartment) only carries 30-35 eggs in it's eggsac.

[BamaRainbow]

Having done my fair share of justified roachicide, I can safely say that there's NO WAY that a dead roach will release any babies UNLESS an egg sac comes out with the rest of the innards. If the sac does come out (and I've had only a few do so), it's easily disposed of--either step on the damn thing or flush it down the toilet with the mama's dead body. (Warning, the egg sac is surprisingly tough--and sticky. If you step on it, check the bottom of your shoe, since it may stick to your shoe without being squished.)
Note: If you use a poison that the roach will ingest (like boric acid), the egg sac typically won't survive (and, if really lucky, the poison will screw up mama's reproductive system so that no eggs will be produced anyway). Most sprays don't "kill on contact" no matter how much hype there is--I've literally sprayed half a standard can of Raid on ONE roach and the damn thing still scampers off (spiders getting the same treatment have the decency to at least curl up and die*; regular ants getting the same treatment are also pretty good about giving up--I don't bother spraying the occasional fire ant that I see indoors 'cause those things laugh off anything short of a good stomping, but make sure the footwear has a "solid" sole, as in no treads, otherwise it may take two or three stomps to make sure the ant gets between the ground and the shoe). Standard fly swatters can also be pretty ineffective (though if you get one of the flying variety, a swatter is a good way to get it on the floor); a rolled-up newspaper works much better, especially a standard Sunday edition. Books actually work even better but since the roach's innards will tend to adhere to the cover or dust jacket, you may not want to keep the book afterwards (yes, you can clean the book, but depending on your level of comfort with the memory, you may be incredibly reluctant to ever touch the book again).
Now, what you really DON'T want to see is a dessicated roach corpse (one in which you didn't participate in the roach's immediate demise) AND a split sac lying nearby.


*For the very easily-entertained, just watch a spider that's just been sprayed by half a can of the stuff. It will stumble around, walking a couple of steps then falling and, if the spider's small enough, an additional spray can actually blow the spider around (even if you've just emptied the can of the chemicals, it still has a little compressed air). Eventually, the spider will just sort of lay on its back, curl up its little legs and die.

[rogue74656]

Originally Posted by BamaRainbow

...(spiders getting the same treatment have the decency to at least curl up and die*...).
...
*For the very easily-entertained, just watch a spider that's just been sprayed by half a can of the stuff. It will stumble around, walking a couple of steps then falling and, if the spider's small enough, an additional spray can actually blow the spider around (even if you've just emptied the can of the chemicals, it still has a little compressed air). Eventually, the spider will just sort of lay on its back, curl up its little legs and die.

Why would you want to kill the spiders???

They EAT roaches and other pests and are really no threat to us.

--rogue

[Floater]

Originally Posted by rogue74656

Why would you want to kill the spiders???

They EAT roaches and other pests and are really no threat to us.

Killing a spider also causes rain, as the saying goes in Sweden.

[Ana Ng]

Every time I see this thread I shudder... we live in a gritty place in Brooklyn, and damned if every summer we don't get the odd roach floating around. I am suburban born, and the sight of a roach makes me queasy and terrified.

Despite all our best efforts, though, we need to get an exterminator in like once a year. It was fine until about two days ago when my ex accidentally broke a small bit of the bathroom molding. I was up all night, terrified, I slept clutching my son.

I saw one in the kitchen, one crawled up on the couch with me, and there was one lurking on the bathroom floor at 1 am. I'm thisclose to absconding to my mom's.

Any tips, anyone? Besides cleaning and whatnot.

Okay Folks, here comes the serious grossout factor.... I used to work at a company that was not very clean. (Diesel truck repair shop) we had a microwave available for us to use, problem was the cockroaches used to run around inside it. You could run the microwave on full power and watch the roaches run around inside. They survived quite nicely, thank you.

Somebody once said cockroaches are the only living thing that could survive a nuke blast....

[Radon Girl]

Originally Posted by bear68

Somebody once said cockroaches are the only living thing that could survive a nuke blast....

Yeah that legend has been floating around for a while now but it's not actually true. Cockroaches have 16 times higher tolerance to ionising radiation radiation than humans but that is a regular light weight compared to some other insects. Come the nuclear armageddon the cockroaches will be just as dead as us. Fruit flies and parasitic wasps on the other hand will be lapping it up in the nuclear winter.

Radon (off to find me a wasp skin coat) Girl.

[Ana Ng]

Originally Posted by Radon Girl

Yeah that legend has been floating around for a while now but it's not actually true. Cockroaches have 16 times higher tolerance to ionising radiation radiation than humans but that is a regular light weight compared to some other insects. Come the nuclear armageddon the cockroaches will be just as dead as us. Fruit flies and parasitic wasps on the other hand will be lapping it up in the nuclear winter.

Radon (off to find me a wasp skin coat) Girl.

Thanks for the clarification- roaches are a big topic of discussion here in the summer and Every. Single. Person. says that when the topic comes up. A girl in my skate club just moved and when we discussed them she mentioned she moved in mid-July and had "only seen 3 or 4" so she was "lucky."

Is that an acceptable cockroach level? I'm moving to Wisconsin.

[Radon Girl]

Originally Posted by Ana Ng

Thanks for the clarification- roaches are a big topic of discussion here in the summer and Every. Single. Person. says that when the topic comes up.

Yeah it's a real stayer amongst urban legends, it sounds believable so people don't question it they just repeat it. It's also difficult to find decent cites and wading through the papers written on insect radiation tolerance can be pretty dull. Here is a fairly good cite although I'm biased 'cause Dr Karl is my hero.

[BamaRainbow]

Originally Posted by rogue74656

Why would you want to kill the spiders???

They EAT roaches and other pests and are really no threat to us.

--rogue

You obviously haven't seen the size of the roaches that take up residence in the Heart of Dixie. A spider the size that can even trap one of our roaches is one that I don't want to see.
I'm not talking of some measly little roach the size of a fingernail. I'm talking a beast that's as big as your thumb. A roach that can't be covered up just by a silver dollar.
Technically speaking, roaches are *really* no "threat" to us either. They're rather disgusting (and really NOT what you want to wake up to crawling over your body) and they do carry diseases but spiders have venom, and I'd rather have a disgusting, disease-carrying pest than risk a spider bite.