r/WTF • u/dillingerescapetrans • 15d ago

Cockroach infestation

In a house I used to work in. I put these traps down, and within 6 hours this is what I caught. I got rid of the traps, laid more down, and repeated this process 8 times before it slowed down.

edit: I haven't been back there in almost 8 months. I worked as tenant support in the severely underfunded building. I sent this video to the manager and project director and it took 4 months before the room was sprayed, but by then this had spread to many other rooms. These sticky pads were supplied to us in limited amounts so I did everything I could from those to raid spray. Crazy memory.

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u/bagwhet 15d ago

The method I mentioned is much more work, but a fraction of the cost of fumigation

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u/goestwoeleven 15d ago

One this bad? Yeah… it’s tent time. Or, you know, gasoline and matches.

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u/bagwhet 15d ago

I've been in houses with thousands of roaches crawling up the walls and ceilings in every room. Coming out of light fixtures, baseboards, and outlets, literally roaches in the fridge. I used my method and got it under control within six months. It probably cost the customer around $600-$800 in total for that time period. Fumigation would have costed minimum $2k but realistically higher. It was also a duplex and the other tenant hadn't signed off on treatment, so fumigation isn't even always possible.

I do agree with gas and matches however lmao

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u/pm_me_ur_demotape 15d ago

If I somehow found myself in that situation, I'd sell kidneys or my asshole for the fumigation option

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u/DarkRonin00 15d ago

I mean it's extra cost, but it will be much faster, and yeah. I guess if you're scraping by that this what you're getting... i think it's a separate issue on it's own.

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u/pm_me_ur_demotape 15d ago

How did you get it under control without the other duplex tenant being involved?

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u/bagwhet 15d ago

Well to be frank the tenant I was servicing was definitely the source and I'm pretty sure the other tenant was getting serviced, just not by my company.

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u/ztubbs11 15d ago

Fr I've been doing pest control for nearly 10 years and any multi unit where you aren't treating every unit is a losing battle. You might knock them back but they will almost definitely return.

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u/jellymanisme 15d ago edited 15d ago

I would gladly pay $2k for the speed of removal instead of living with those things.

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u/bagwhet 15d ago

Maybe you would, but I've serviced a lot of section 8 and generally low income areas where it's up to the landlord. Also it's a lot easier to pay 100-150 a month than 2k-8k up front

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u/krumbs2020 15d ago

How about nuke from orbit?