Roach (and other vermin) Stories

[frigilux]

Roaches in dishwashers! Roaches in kitchen drawers! Roaches playing hide-'n'-seek!

I was fascinated by the stories that cropped up in the Cascade Platinum thread, and felt the genre deserved a home of its own. Tell us your most disgusting roach/vermin stories (don't worry, we won't judge....much, LOL).

My house, fortunately, is a roach-free zone; but I do have an entry for the books.

A lifelong friend was returning to Minnesota after a decade in Sacramento, CA. I flew there to help with a yard sale and the big move. She lived on a block full of duplexes and roaches were a continous problem that required monthly visits from the exterminator. Knowing she was moving (and being short of funds) the exterminator was eliminated during the final month. You can imagine the result. With nearly everything sold or packed, we lived on toast and cereal during the final 48 hours. The morning of the move I got up, made coffee, and decided a couple of slices of toast would hit the spot. I dropped the bread in the slots, pressed the lever and....a half-dozen roaches came scurrying out of the top of the toaster! It was something straight out of a horror film and an image that remains seared into my memory a good fifteen years later.

 

[runematic]

Being in the appliance biz, we get into a fair amount of roach infested houses in the rougher parts of our fair city.  It always amazes me how the residents seem to just ignore them while we're trying to avoid 'em.  We have a lot of renter-occupied places around here.

 

I've had roaches come out from under an appliance and out of the corner of my eye could see resident just calmly step on the bug like I couldn't see it.

 

We were delivering a refrig to a house about two blocks from our store and when we got to the back door and opened it, you could see hundreds if not thousands of dead roaches smashed in the door jams.  I looked at my brother and said "uh oh, this is going to be bad."  You could smell the cat & dog urine odor from outside.  We got in and the room was a little dark where the refrig was going.  But you could see roaches all over their non-refrigerated food.  Not a roach or two, but generations of roaches!  Inside the refrig, on the refrig, on the counter, the floor, etc.  Of course this was a refrig we had to take apart to remove from the house.  Kneeling down to remove the bottom hinge revealed that the rug was indeed urine soaked and REEKED something fierce.  What a house.  I could go on about this place.  These were poor folk.  We left this refrig out behind their house in an alley, ran and bought roach spray, came back, soaked it with three cans, and picked it up the next day.

 

We are sooooooo roach conscious.  We won't buy an appliance from some houses in certain sections of town.  Even if it looks clean but we can sortof see roach droppings, we're out of there.   We do not want roaches near our store & warehouse.  Some people say just spray it up and your good.  We say F-that!!!!!  

 

I could go on & on & on & on & on.......lol!!!

 

[runematic]

OH!  I just thought of another more recent story.  My dad & I delivered a used washer to an old guy out in the country near my house.  He lives in an older farmhouse that was in decent shape.  The washer was right against his gas stove in the kitchen, so the washer had grease on it, but we thought we could fix it up and resell it.  So we put the used washer in place that we sold him & took his kenmore back to the shop.  We were really busy at the time so we off-loaded his washer to our elevator in the shop and let it sit there.  It was on the elevator for about a week or so.  To digress, my brother & I work every Sunday when we're closed to repopulate the floor with appliances to sell for the coming week (it's impossible to work in the shop during the week, too many  people coming in, phone calls, deliveries, etc).  Anyway, we were working on this particular sunday and the kenmore washer my brother was fixing had some issues.  He figured he'd go on the elevator and strip this particular kenmore washer we had brought back & set there a week or two ago.  When he removed the side wing (if you know kenmores, the piece of plastic on the control panel that covers the screws), frickin LIVE roaches by the dozens under that wing.  WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The washer was infested!  MF'er!!!!!   Out the door to the parking lot and sprayed up.  We loaded down the elevator and anything on it with roach spray.  Sumbitch, we never expected roaches out of that place and the washer was just greasy looking.  We hadn't seen a roach, but we called an exterminator friend and he sprayed the building for us.

 

I can't believe you started this damn thread.  NOW I"M THINKING ABOUT ROACHES!!!!!

 

[paulg]

TV shop

I worked in a TV shop for years. Roaches were common.
There was this one VCR that had a tape stuck in it.
I took it to my bench, popped the top on it and this wave of roaches just poured out.
Literally, I ran the unit out the back door and onto the landing. We had compressed air so I blew the roaches out. However the damage was done. Once roaches infest a VCR you do not fix it.
The sad thing is that you have to inform the customer that the unit cannot be repaired.

In a similar tale, I learned my lesson long, long ago that if anyone gives you something for free, you take it to your yard or garage and open it up first.
I was looking for the matching tuner for an amp I had and a co-worker found one! Free. Looked good.
Took it home, put it in the garage and opened it up. Live roaches all over. Unit went straight into a bag and into the garbage.

A microwave came to the shop. Looked ok. When it was plugged in at the counter and the display lit up you could see the roaches pressed up against the display window as if they wanted to escape.

Those of us in the trade know the smell of roaches. I will still smell a unit and tell if its infested.

 

[DADoES]

 
Apartment I rented circa 1987.  First time I turned on the nice vintage GE electric range to bake a frozen pizza, buncha roaches started crawling out as it heated up.  It was a garage apartment unit, not a commercial establishment.  The owner was FIL to one of the owners of the business where I work.  He kept the property in good repair and condition but his extermination efforts apparently weren't fully up to par ... although I never saw roaches anywhere but in that range.  I did report the situation to get it sprayed again.

 

[whirlcool]

I've posted this before, but for the valuable information I'll post it again.

When we first moved to Houston we lived in a few apartments. All of them were roach castles. People always said "Well, if you live in an apartment you are gonna have roaches." I didn't believe it. And we were tired of stomping our feet before we went in the kitchen at night to make all the roaches scurry away.

What I did was bought a couple cans of that Roach Pruff powder which is basically boric acid. I took off each outlet & switch plate all through the apartment one by one. I poured in about 1/2 a cup of the boric acid between the walls. When I finished all the switched and outlets on that wall I took our vacuum cleaner and put it on "blow" and put the wand in the hole where I just dumped the boric acid. I left it there for about 30 seconds. The I'd replace the outlet or switch cover and move on the the next wall. Then I dumped almost a can in the hole under the kitchen sink where the pipes came out of the wall.

We nor any of our neighbors saw another roach for at least two years! I'm willing to bet that 25 years later that apt still doesn't have roaches.

The landlord explained that he used to have an exterminating service come out monthly to spray all the apts. But several residents said they were allergic to the spray and didn't want their apartment treated. Before you knew it very few people in the building actually wanted and exterminator come in their apts. So the roaches thrived.

http://

 

[tolivac]

Yes,at one time me and some other guys used to collect and fix older Tv's-Someone gave one of my freinds a what appeared to be a nice older metal cabinet table model RCA color TV-tubed one.When the unit was fired up-outside-roaches came pooring out of it-left it on until there was no more.Cleaned it out-the set lasted a few years.VCRs,CD players,DVD players-yes,if the roaches get into them their toast.Chuck 'em out.If worst to worst-take the condemned roach filled machines-in a bag-to the gravel pit shooting range and and open up on the things-roaches can make intreresting targets!Good with .22s.The housing area I live in has roaches outside-you see them at night-even step on a few while getting into the car to go to work on my mid shift.one night the garage and driveway was covered with em-don't know what brought them out-was really creepy.Another night the area was covered with frogs!Neghbors in the area here mention the roaches,too.they are larger ones,not the smaller German cockroaches.These are dark brown in color.
Those big roaches were the ones that I found in the dishwasher when I tried not prerinsing dishes.Guess the prerinsing would be OK here if you load the machine and start it right away.
And sometimes those roaches get chopped up in the mower while mowing the lawn.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I have couple of Roach stories

First my Mom always said "there was no shame in getting them, as it happens." "The shame is keeping them as pets."

When I worked for a video store, it was not unusual for a customer to bring in a VCR that had a tape stuck in it. I got pretty good at taking a machine apart and freeing the stuck tape. One Sunday morning a man brought in a machine with a stuck tape. So I proceed to remove the top. Now it is well documented that my vision is not too good, but I noticed that the circuit board appeared to be moving. So I put my face a little closer and see that the entire inside of the machine is crawling with roaches.

I quickly put the top back on and advised the customer that he had to take the machine to a repair shop as I couldn't help him.

Another:
There was a grocery chain that took over a local store after Safeway left Kansas. This store was known for being less than clean. It was close to work and if anyone purchased anything there, it was dictated to be in a sealed container and shake the bags before taking them into your home, car or place of business.

One day I was buying a bottle of orange juice when I looked over at the produce department and there was the largest roach I have ever seen sitting on top of a bag of potatoes. I swear this thing could have worn a collar and leash. In any case I quit going there at all and so did many other it appears for they sold to another chain shortly after and now has a better reputation.

Last one:
We lived in a older part of town where the rent was cheap, but the houses not too run down. The neighbors across the alley moved out in the middle of the night (after the raid not "RAID").
A few weeks after their departure we began noticing "guests" coming over in droves searching for food. These things were aggressive, like jerk the refrigerator handle out of your hand aggressive. Eating roach proof out of the can aggressive.

I ran to the store and bought Malathion and sprayed the outside of the house and clear across the alley up the side of the wall to that house. Then bombed the inside of our house. The guests left, but the landlady over there spent weeks cleaning up the mess when code enforcement got on her. No one ever lived in that house again, it was torn down.
[this post was last edited: 4/16/2013-11:34]

 

[whirlpolf]

roaches smell?

How do they smell? One post mentions that you can tell by sniffing that a unit is infected.
Sorry for asking this, but I have never seen live roaches in my life.

The only thing we have here are some rare and single mice in the basement every once in a blue moon (or cold winter), some flies in summer (sleeping on the kitchen ceiling) and an occasional ladybug getting to life in spring and humming its way towards the sunny window pane after having spent the winter in the window blinds roll-up box in the wall. No more than that.

 

[westie2]

The big ones are the Palmetto or American Roach thes big things wait at your door to come in when opened.  We had to have the outside of house sprayed monthly along with the inside when we lived in Nw Orleans area.  These things even swim could find them in toilet freaked my wife out.

 

Here is link to them.

 

 

American cockroach - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[jerrod6]

Not my experience but on a bus

I am sure you all heard about the bus traveling from New Jersey to New York City, but here is the link.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/16/us/greyhound-bus-roaches

 

[whirlaway]

Projects!!!!!

I worked at the phone company for 30 years,the projects were the pits.Id see roaches crawling all over dishes stoves that were just chock full of grease.I had no idea how people live,what a shock.My grandmother always said being poor is no excuse for being a pig.Roaches luv telephones,people would call phone wont ring! You would pop the cover of and there would be so many in there,they would clog the ringer.The filth was incredable.Yes roaches smell,ive been to the red lobster and turned right around and left for the smell.Ask any utility worker!!!

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Roaches.

I have never seen them personally but a chemical rep who came to my former job said he had an account where the roaches were living in the vent ducts above the dishmachine. How gross is that! The dishes get roach crap dropped on them as they come out of the dishmachine! So much for that 180f rinse. The health department soon condemned the machine and it's ventilation system and the repacement cost over $100,000. One question, how did they ever live in all that heat?
WK78

 

[maytagbear]

The "joke"

"Which life forms will survive nuclear war?"

"Cockroaches and Cher."

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[westie2]

Roaches like the moist heat why they collect inside in the colder climates. 

 

[wayupnorth]

Many years ago

A good friend gave up his job in Houston because of the roaches and neighbors in his complex that didnt want to be sprayed and came back to his parents in Maine to start over and asked if I would come out and help him unpack. His vehicle and U-Haul was out back in a cow pasture and he had a huge bag of bug spray cans. After taking everything out, opening it all up he pulled all the carpet out of this gorgeous 73 Corvette. There were roaches at least 3 inches long crawled out. Thankfully it was going below freezing that night because, hopefully, it gets too damn cold for them here. Mice,rats,bees, CROWS, especially right before sunrise and agrivating biting bugs are about all that bother you around here.

 

[mickeyd]

All squiggley but curious ~

Around here people complain about the geese. Guess they really haven't lived!!!

I'm with the cock roach virgins here--haven't seen one. Do they look like giant crickets?

And what do they smell like? Poop, perhaps, or far far worse?

 

[norgeway]

A friend..

Works at a vacuum store in Chicago, once I visited and saw he had several machines sealed up in plastic bags??? Why I asked, Oh , he replied, those are from Gary Indiana and they are always FULL of roaches!!I used to do heating and AC repair, once I serviced a floor furnace in a older house, a nice couple had bought it and didnt realize it was a roach nest, when I fired it up the roaches poured up out of the grate, the lady was running around trying to step on them...in high heels!!!...Also a good friend had several rental properties, one was a trailer,in a somewhat sleezy neighborhood, he said to me one day, I have something you wont believe! Well, the tenants had moved,but they didnt thake the roaches, We got there just after dark, he opened the door and turned on the lights and I must say, I have NEVER seen anything like it!! the walls,floors, counters, even the refrigerator was FULL, we set off four foggers and went back the next day...we swept up..and im not stretching it, a five gallon bucket 3/4 full of roaches!! I told him why didnt we just burn it down!!!LOL

 

[frigilux]

And it's Hans for-the-win with "Sleazy Neighborhood Trailer"! Yikes, indeed.