A Prompting for Glue Traps

As many of you know, we've been struggling with cockroaches for a long time. We first saw them in August of 2013. We saw a few here and there, but after a few months they disappeared. Then, in April of 2014, we began to see a few again.

Since then, it has gotten worse. For the first few months, we'd only see one every few mornings. Then, we began to see at least one every morning.

Then, we began to see four or five (or more) a morning, and some out in the middle of the afternoon.

We couldn't understand why there were so many and why the problem kept getting worse.

Our home really isn't dirty. Yes, we have two dogs and a baby, but we try to frequently clean everything. Occasionally we may not get all the dishes done before evening, but we try.

Spraying for the cockroaches did nothing, cleaning did nothing, squashing everyone we saw didn't seem to put a dent in the population. I was growing frustrated and sick of it. We even bug-bombed the apartment when we went to Idaho for a weekend, and it did nothing.

We live in an apartment complex, so the bugs can leave when threat comes, and return when the threat is over. It is possible that someone else in our apartment has created an environment perfect for the insects, or that someone has brought a population with them.

About this point, we felt impressed to move, and the cockroaches provided motivation as well. My hatred of cockroaches reached a head when I found them inside my microwave in between the display and the glass. That really grossed me out.

We are determined not to bring the bugs with us when we move, and as I've prayed and read and studied how to do so, I felt prompted to take the glue traps that were placed under the sink and place one between the microwave and the sink, where we usually see the cockroaches.

This one act has made a huge difference. I knew that was the largest area of bug traffic in our house, and the glue trap has proved that. Where poison and bug bombs have failed, the glue trap has succeeded.

The glue trap has caught over 60 cockroaches. The first day, we caught over 25. After that, it was two or three a day. Recently, we haven't been seeing any outside of trap, and there have been fewer caught every night.

You can see we've already ripped off a chunk of the sticky trap and threw away the dead ones in it. This is the second load we've caught since then.

I don't think we've caught them all yet, but we have definitely killed most of the population. I haven't seen any small ones in a while, and the only ones we're catching lately are mostly grown.

I'm so grateful for promptings. We did everything we could think of, and then we prayed. I know we're going to be able to move now without bringing the bugs with us. We're going to fast for it this Sunday, and then we're going to pack carefully and freeze what we can't examine.

I've learned some good things from having cockroaches in the house though. I've learned to not let dishes pile up and to vacuum frequently. I was pretty good before, but the cockroaches forced me to a whole different level of cleanliness.

There's always a silver-lining, right?