Roach spray in food cabinets

[CathyA]

I posted awhile back that my daughter had roaches in her apartment. She didn't want them to spray, but finally realized that it was necessary.
They showed up this morning and sprayed IN her food cabinets, with all the food packages there.
I'm so PO'd. What makes it worse is that usually she's gone all day to school, but she woke up sick and now has to lay in her apartment all day.
I told her to put her AC on fan, and open the windows. She was removing alot of the foodstuffs from the cabinets, when I told her to wear gloves and cover her nose and mouth with something.
She thought they would only be spraying the baseboards.

I've never had to spray for roaches. Is this common to just spray the inside tops of food cabinets, with food in them???

Hopefully the spray stays put and doesn't aerosolize much. I'm worried about her being in there all day and night now. She's trying to find somewhere else to spend the day, but she's so sick, she can't do much.

Should I/she raise hell with the sprayers, ......maybe even have them pay to replace all the food..........or is this something we shouldn't worry about?
thanks.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Well I'm not sure exactly what we're talking about here - glass containers? cereal boxes?

But at any rate roaches can definitely hide in cabinets (they like nothing more than hiding in drawers and the like). And if we're talking cereal boxes and the like the roaches could hide in them. It's what roaches do, hide away from the light.

I think you imagine the insects are easy to get rid of but they aren't. I tend to see it as WAR :D. There will be unintended causalities (the food). I wouldn't eat the food that had been sprayed. I'd just throw it out and start over. Yes, it's wasteful, but like I said THIS IS WAR! Really, an insect infestation (especially roaches) isn't easy to get rid of, and whatever necessary steps must be taken ....

[SRP]

Yes, I think it's normal - and necessary - to spray in cabinets for roaches. ApatheticNoMore is right. Where roaches are concerned, it's an all-out war. They are very hard to get rid of. My first home was a used mobile home, which came complete with roaches. I bug-bombed it myself. But first I stuffed whatever food I could into the refrigerator, and moved everything else, including dishes, pots, and pans, outside. I actually stored them in the trunk of my car overnight - and slept elsewhere, too.

[CathyA]

I guess DD didn't get enough warning......plus she's sick, and couldn't move anything out of the cabinets. She said there was alot of foodstuffs in there. It will be expensive to replace all of them. :(

[janharker]

I would complain about not getting enough warning, send an invoice for food (maybe a copy of the receipt from replacements), and see what happens.

[Cheryl]

When I lived in an apartment in Texas, I had a big roach problem and I used a lot of roach motels. I was also warned about putting alot of sweet stuff in glass or secure plastic containers or even the fridge. I don't like using poisons and they are very harmful to us. I hope your daughter gets better soon.

Cheryl

[chord_ata]

The problem with roach sprays is they only kill the the roaches they hit. There is not enough residue to take out the rest of them.

Have your daughter get boric acid powder (from a hardware store) and spread it all along the baseboards. The roaches take the powder back to the nests and spread the powder around there. I understand that it basically cuts holes in their exoskeleton, which makes them dry out (and die).

[CathyA]

Well, for all the worrying we did, the roaches came back on no time. She's going to get some Combat.
She was cooking for the week because she's so busy, and had used alot of her bulb of garlic..........when she realized there were baby roaches in the middle! Seems like garlic should repel them. I think she's getting pretty disgusted and is willing to compromise quite a bit now. I knew she'd get to that point!
She's coming home this weekend (hopefully sans roaches), and I'll give her some of the borax I have. That would work too, right?
Thanks.

[Rosemary]

Borax kills roaches by scratching their exoskeleton so that they dehydrate and die. I used it successfully against monster roaches in North Carolina by sprinkling it on the floor, under the overhang of the cabinets. But those were roaches that normally lived outside and got in, not the usual type that you find in cabinets.

I'd suggest she keep all her food in the refrigerator or perhaps in a large, securely-closing cooler until the roaches are gone. Borax would work in the cabinets, but it would be somewhat messy to clean up afterwards, and I wouldn't want to have food in there at the same time.

Does she suspect her neighbors have roaches, too? Perhaps it's a good time to look for a new apartment when her lease runs out, if this is going to be a continual problem.

[CathyA]

She's moving in August.
While at her reception at her apartment for her horn performance recently........I saw how dirty her stove-top was. (underneath the elements). I told her that that was a huge draw for the roaches. (at least I'm assuming it is). She is not the greatest house-keeper. :(

[Packratona!]

Does she have a cat? Cover up the cat food every evening. They love cat food.

[Miss Cellane]

When I lived in Boston, the apartment management sprayed three times a year for roaches. We got a couple of days warning, so that we could take everything out of the kitchen and bathroom cabinets.

Other things to watch out for are standing water--I had friends who would dry their kitchen sink out before going to bed. Paper grocery bags--there's something in the glue that attracts roaches. Food--clean up all crumbs. Put all food in the fridge or in containers.

Use that expanding foam stuff to seal around all pipes in the kitchen, or wherever she thinks the roaches might be getting in. Use the roach traps, or spray or borax.

And before she moves, she should spray the moving boxes before packing them. And spray the apartment she's moving into as a precautionary measure, in case any roaches decide to hitchhike along.

[pinkytoe]

I think that when you live in an apartment, fighting roaches is a lost cause. You have no control over how tidy your neighbors are even if you do everything to repel them. I would not eat the food that had been sprayed if it is any sort of permeable container, ie cardboard. Roaches in garlic is just plain weird. We have not had any issues in our present house except for an occasional palmetto bug, ie gigantic flying roach that crawls in under the door. I am adamant about not using poison but so far so good without it. Roaches love clutter, moisture, paper and cardboard.