What Happened to the Cockroaches

I don't know if anyone is curious about this, but I thought I'd give you an update anyway.

While we were staying at our previous apartment, we had a bit of a bug problem. Cockroaches became way too frequent visitors at our home and especially in our microwave. We'd see small ones crawling inside of the clock display screen, and it was pretty disgusting.

When we bought our home and moved, we tried our very best not to bring the little critters with us. We went so far as to leave our microwave and toaster at the apartment and we got new ones to replace them.

Once all of our items were in the moving van, we bugbombed the van and left it closed tightly for a couple of days. (We moved over a weekend, and since we didn't want to work on Sunday, it was able to stay closed all of Sunday as well.) Before we left, we opened the back and let it air out for a while.

Then, when I unpacked, I carefully would bring one box into the kitchen at a time, unpack it, examine each item, and then take the empty box back out to the garage where it was pretty cold. (We did move in February, after all.)

I haven't said anything before now, because I was afraid that if I said anything, the next day I would wake up to find my kitchen crawling with cockroaches. I have had nightmares for the last few months and I kept dreaming that I woke up to find one in my kitchen.

However, after six months in our home, I feel that I can finally say: WE DON'T HAVE COCKROACHES ANYMORE!

I know that was a miracle. Everyone I've talked to says that it is nearly impossible not to pack them up with you. I found one dead baby one when I was unpacking, but I didn't even see any dead adults.

I am so grateful to not have cockroaches at my house anymore.

I am grateful that we were able to leave our boxes in such a cold place. I feel like that gave me peace of mind, if nothing else. Our garage gets pretty cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

I don't know if any of you prayed that we'd move without bringing cockroaches, but if you did, thank you. I was definitely praying for it. I think we were inspired to leave the microwave and the toaster. I was going to bring the toaster, but every time I went to get it, I got sidetracked and eventually just forgot about it.

I will not miss our uninvited guests.

I am super grateful they're gone and that they didn't hitch a ride to our new house.

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?

Good News on the House!

So, excellent news on our house.

A couple of days ago, I was waiting for my lunchtime call from Grig, and the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID, and it saw that it was our real estate agent. We had finished the inspection the previous week, and we were waiting for the lenders to do the appraisal.

Worried, I quickly opened the phone, not sure what I was going to here. If the appraisal had told us we needed to fix the roof, I didn't know what we were going to do, because neither the seller nor us could afford it at the moment.

However, to my delight, it was good news! He told me that the appraisal had come back and they assessed the home as worth more than we were paying for it! That means that the lender is willing to loan us money for it. Also, they didn't flag any repairs, so there is nothing holding back the rest of the process! That means that we are clear to submit our loan to the USDA.

That is supposed to take 8-10 days. That means that we may get the house as soon as the 1st of February! That's 11 days before the closing date on our contract, which would be just fine. The sooner the better.

Honestly, I'm ready to move now. I would love to be packing already, but with our little cockroach problem, we can't pack until we're ready to take things out of the house.

We really don't want to take any of the little critters with us, so examining everything closely and taking it right out of the house and then freezing everything (with the hopefully cold temperatures that we'll have that week) should do it.

We're super excited and grateful. The Lord is answering our prayers.

Part of the backyard, including Kevin's playhouse

The Lesson I Learned from a Cockroach

This morning, I woke up early (at about 3:30 a.m.) and couldn't go back to sleep. So, I decided to make Grig breakfast and do a few other things before he got up.

Things were going well. The pancakes were cooking and I was loading the dishwasher. Suddenly, as I opened the cupboard to put something away, I caught a flash of movement. To my disgust, I recognized a cockroach.

I quickly emptied that cupboard and crushed the cockroach. It has been months since we've seen any sign of cockroaches, and though the manager had told me that some of the other apartments had been harboring them, I had hoped that we had seen the last of them in our apartment. Hopefully there aren't anymore, but I can't be sure.

In trying to figure out what to blog about today, I kept feeling frustrated about the cockroaches. You work really hard to keep your home clean so that the cockroaches have no place to live, but sometimes after months of not seeing any cockroaches you grow a bit complacent. You think the danger is over and you don't have to take the same precautions anymore.

Cockroaches are just like sin. Often we try really hard to overcome particular sins, and after a few months, we relax because we think that we are immune from temptation anymore. The truth is, you never can relax. We are in a battle against the devil. If we relax our guard for an instant, sin will creep back into our lives like cockroaches. Often you won't even know they are there until it's too late.

If you do find cockroaches in your life, don't be discouraged. Having a cockroach doesn't mean you are a terrible person, or that your home is filthy. We weren't the ones who brought the cockroaches into our home, and often our personal struggles are the results of other's actions. We can't always help our circumstances, but there are things that we can do to counteract them.

There are things you can do to protect your home and family from cockroaches, but if the infestation becomes too serious, it can require outside help (the exterminator). Sometimes when we get caught up in serious sins like addiction, we can become so "infested" that we need to seek outward assistance. No one judges people for calling in an exterminator when things get out of hand. Likewise, we should only support those who are seeking aid for struggles that they are facing. Whether it is sin, mental disorders, or physical ailments, we should do our best to help others and support them when they seek assistance. The very fact that they desire aid should let us know that they are trying their best and they didn't mean to allow their homes to become infested.

So, if your home (whether it be your actual house or your personal life) has an infestation of cockroaches, don't be afraid to seek help or give it where it is needed.

That's the lesson that a cockroach taught me this morning.

Cockroach: MENACE or Misunderstood?

Cockroaches: MENACE or Misunderstood?

From my childhood, I have heard of a creature that cannot be stopped, that is impossible to kill, and that reproduces at an astronomical rate.  Stories abound that this creature would even be able to survive a nuclear blast.

This almost sounds like a mythical creature, and, in a way, it was to me.  I grew up in one of the few states that has no native species of cockroaches, and if there were any, I never saw them.  However, we had heard of them, and we were very careful when we bought things from people to leave the boxes outside in the cold for a day or two just to be sure we didn't become infested.

So, a month or so after we moved into our new apartment, I was startled to see a small creature in the sink that looked like the dreaded menace.  Quickly, I squished it.  However, the next day, my husband announced that he had found another one and that it definitely was a cockroach.

Not having dealt with cockroaches before, I did what every self-respecting American would do:  google it on the internet.  I could have immediately reported it to my manager, but I didn't want to be a bother, and I wanted to see if I could take care of the problem myself before I went to someone else.  What I found surprised me.  Are you ready for this?  Cockroaches aren't monsters.  They're just bugs.

According to some of the experts, the cockroach menace is completely manageable, but some people (particularly pest control) thrive off of the abhorrence that people have for this small bug.  From looking at pictures, I figured out that we had a  couple German Cockroaches in our home.  According to a couple experts, cockroaches are a useful creature in their natural habitat.  They help get rid of  garbage in the environment.  However, in a home without proper cleanliness, they can quickly turn into a problem.  Some of the stories horrified me, but others made me laugh.  I won't relate the gross stories here (unless someone wants me to add them in the comments), but one of the stories was about a scientist who spotted a cockroach on his table at a restaurant.  Instead of killing it, he put a small drop of wine (about as big as the bug) on the table.  The bug quickly drank it up and then went and hid behind a painting on the wall.  A few minutes later, it came back out and he gave it another drop.  It drank that drop too, and then went and hid again.  As they watched, the bug presently fell from the wall and began to spin in circles on the floor, obviously intoxicated (http://insectexpertphd.com/cockroaches.aspx).

After reading these accounts, I came to a shocking conclusion.  Cockroaches are just bugs.  I've seen stinkbug infestations as bad as cockroach infestations.  Cockroaches might be resilient, but I've killed more than my fair share, and they've died.  Cockroaches aren't evil or good, and some are quite beautiful.  Don't believe me?  Well look below.  I think these are pretty bugs.  Click on the pictures to read the article about them.

The internet then instructed me to make sure that there was no food out in the kitchen, but more importantly, that there was no standing or leaking water.  The sources I read explained that even though bugs can survive for a long time without consistent food, if cockroaches don't find water within a week they will die.  I quickly cleaned every surface I could and put everything away.  Our home, which wasn't really dirty before has become spotless.

After talking to my mother about the problem, I did inform the manager that we had spotted a few, and she immediately called the exterminator.  They came yesterday and put a little borax poison down in the hinges and sprayed around the baseboard.

They informed me that though there was no sign of roaches in our home, there were a couple other apartments in our complex that wouldn't be able to completely rid themselves of this pest until they were cleaned.  Meanwhile, we will continue to put our food completely away.  As much as I am now looking at cockroaches in a more realistic, non-panic-stricken way, I still don't want them on my shelf or in my home.

Old fears die hard.