OMG - disgusted!

[MushyMushy]

The house next door to us is a rental and has been a complete eyesore (living a block from a college campus, we're surrounded by rentals, but also by some very nice homes). I was thrilled last week when they started to finally take care of the house, tearing down rotting wood from it and putting up new siding.

Well, now I've found 3 cockroaches in the past week. Obviously, we need to take care of this ASAP, but do you think the owner of the rental should be partially responsible? If so, how would we even go about proving it's that house's fault? We have NEVER had a bug or rodent problem in this house until now, so we're fairly certain that they're coming from that house.

Now it's got me wondering if that work has stirred up any other critters that may come over here for refuge.

 

[Tuffcookie]

I would call your city's building inspector or someone in the health dept.

TC

 

[Ohiodislover]

Uggg--That happened to us a few years ago. The little old lady passed away that lived next to us. My girls were outside when they were cleaning out her shed. They saw about a dozen mice run out No need to guess where they decided to move to.


Not sure you can prove that your issues came from them though.

 

[VAN]

Otherwise, I think you need to take care of this immediately with an exterminator!

 

[Hoodie]

I don't think you can prove that the roaches came from that house. I've had a similar problem. Our neighbors started doing renovations and suddenly we spotted bugs. We know that they came from there and moved over, but there's really nothing to do other than get rid of them. Thankfully, after a bunch of $$ to Orkin and no more renovations next door, we haven't had a single sign of them in well over a year.

It sucks, but it's one of the joys of homeownership.

 

[ZuZugal]

First let me say "ewwwww!"

Now I would call an exterminator and have those bad boys taken care of. I think it would be very difficult to prove in any way that they came from that house, and/or that they traveled from that house to your house.

Our neighborhood backs up directly to a new subdivision. There is any empty lot behind our house, and whenever they mow that lot (very large) we get mice in our garage. We just take care of it and consider it a part of life I guess.

 

[KristaTX]

It sucks, but it's one of the joys of homeownership.

Yep. I guess all you can do is hope that maybe the owners are going to get rid of the problem even if you have to suffer some of the temporary consequences.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Honestly... I don't think you have a claim at all as you can't prove they did it. It is the nature of bugs and Critters to find a new home when theirs is disturbed. We deal with this in Florida all of the time. Call pest control and they can take care of the problem. While inconvenient, you really cannot prove that the roaches came from the neighbor.

 

[MushyMushy]

These neighbors are such pains in the neck! Is it too much to wish that they would be financially responsible for this?

I suppose so.

 

[wendy46001]

Honestly... I don't think you have a claim at all as you can't prove they did it. It is the nature of bugs and Critters to find a new home when theirs is disturbed. We deal with this in Florida all of the time. Call pest control and they can take care of the problem. While inconvenient, you really cannot prove that the roaches came from the neighbor.

This ^

We have a similar problem with our neighbor and our lawn
a bug problem slowly starting on his side took over and killed the grass in between the two houses. We had to pull up all the grass and lay new sod...he refused to fix his side...Now the new sod is failing because he still wont deal with it Short of paying to fix his lawn this is going to be an ongoing issue

 

[clarabelle]

I think roaches must be more common here.
You can get some boric acid and sprinkle it around the foundations of your house if you don't want to call the exterminator yet

 

[LuvOrlando]

Are there any yard sprays that will keep them from coming your way? I use insecticide all the time for fleas and ticks but I would imagine at least some might be good for roaches? I would also have my inside sprayed ASAP so you can get rid of them before they have a chance to settle in, from what I understand they are hard to get rid of once they decide to set up.

Ahh, I just checked my bottles and the Black bottle of "Spectracide" Triazicide Insect Killer concentrate that hooks up to a garden hose and sprays on the lawn and yard includes cockroaches on it's kill list. The stuff runs under $10 and can be found in places like Home Depot.

 

[Wishing on a star]

For now, I would definitely get lots of those Roach Bait/Traps and place them around wherever these godforsaken critters might choose to congregate.... They do work!

Ewww!!!!

 

[Robmom]

Any kind of construction will bring out critters. My next door neighbors were doing a bathroom and kitchen reconstruction. Our houses are semi attached. All of a sudden, I had mice. I know it was because of the construction. I lived there for years, and never had a problem. Now, my neighbors are very clean, so it wasn't because of their neglect. I never said anything to them. We just had to put down traps, and plug up any holes that we found.

 

[MushyMushy]

Am I a freak for wanting to buy paper plates and stuff to eat off of until we're sure this is cleared up? I also want to go through and wash ALL of my dishes, which should take a couple of days. We won't be able to eat off of them.

I just need to repeat to myself that I'm glad this house won't be an eyesore anymore.

Thanks for the ideas though. I'm going to go out and look for that spray that hooks up to the hose. I was reading up on these roaches and it also said to get traps to set along the walls. I think we can try to do this ourselves before it gets out of hand, but I'm definitely willing to call in a professional if this doesn't work!

 

[SandrA9810]

living in FL all my life, i just chalk it up to one of the many things that you have to deal with. My grandmother was clean as can be, and here and there we'd find a roach in the middle of the night. Sure it's gross to see it, but it was a fact of life.


Wendy: have you tried spraying over to your neighbor's lawn a few feet?? I know you won't replace the sod, but if you kill the bugs off a few feet into their yard, maybe they'll stay on that side and out of yours entirely. And if it's along a fence, have you tried creating a plant bed?? Mulching it up with a few plants that wouldn't be bothered by the bugs?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

This reminds me of the time I had a babysitter who I knew and was a nice person but going through some rough times financially. I let her use my washer and dryer while she was here so she started bringing her laundry over. When summer came she started bringing her own child and feeding herself and her child from our pantry (which I was ok with, ie helping out the less fortunate and all that), but leaving the dirty pots and pans in the sink, and sleeping/snoring on the couch while my kids were napping. And oh, I almost forgot - she requested she be allowed to leave "for an hour" each day to take her daughter to local swimming lessons. Anyway, we began becoming a little paranoid - DH: "I swear there was a $20 in the drawer", lol. The final straw was when she told us she "helped herself" to some chicken in the freezer at the house she was dog sitting for.

During this time, we found a roach in the house. I freaked. I called an exterminator who examined it and it turned out it was a wood roach. He explained that these are outside this time of year but somehow get in (?fly). They're not the kind that are related to uncleanliness. Is this by any chance what it looked like?

(Just FTR, my mother lives with us and was always here the entire time she was here so my kids were always well cared for. But what an experience!)

 

[HunnyPots]

Am I a freak for wanting to buy paper plates and stuff to eat off of until we're sure this is cleared up? I also want to go through and wash ALL of my dishes, which should take a couple of days. We won't be able to eat off of them.

I just need to repeat to myself that I'm glad this house won't be an eyesore anymore.

Thanks for the ideas though. I'm going to go out and look for that spray that hooks up to the hose. I was reading up on these roaches and it also said to get traps to set along the walls. I think we can try to do this ourselves before it gets out of hand, but I'm definitely willing to call in a professional if this doesn't work!

Three bugs in a week and you feel the need to eat off paper plates and rewash all your dishes? Yeah, I'd say that is a bit of an extreme reaction! Come and live for a while in the south/southwest region of the country and you'll be amazed at what you can live with and still feel normal!

 

[MushyMushy]

This reminds me of the time I had a babysitter who I knew and was a nice person but going through some rough times financially. I let her use my washer and dryer while she was here so she started bringing her laundry over. When summer came she started bringing her own child and feeding herself and her child from our pantry (which I was ok with, ie helping out the less fortunate and all that), but leaving the dirty pots and pans in the sink, and sleeping/snoring on the couch while my kids were napping. And oh, I almost forgot - she requested she be allowed to leave "for an hour" each day to take her daughter to local swimming lessons. Anyway, we began becoming a little paranoid - DH: "I swear there was a $20 in the drawer", lol. The final straw was when she told us she "helped herself" to some chicken in the freezer at the house she was dog sitting for.

During this time, we found a roach in the house. I freaked. I called an exterminator who examined it and it turned out it was a wood roach. He explained that these are outside this time of year but somehow get in (?fly). They're not the kind that are related to uncleanliness. Is this by any chance what it looked like?

(Just FTR, my mother lives with us and was always here the entire time she was here so my kids were always well cared for. But what an experience!)

Give people an inch and they'll take a mile, won't they? Holy cow!

No, it doesn't quite look like that one -- this is longer and skinnier, but similar legs and antennae.

Three bugs in a week and you feel the need to eat off paper plates and rewash all your dishes? Yeah, I'd say that is a bit of an extreme reaction! Come and live for a while in the south/southwest region of the country and you'll be amazed at what you can live with and still feel normal!

I know! I'm totally not a germ freak either, but just the thought of these unseen critters crawling on my dishes has me all skeeved out. Some bugs don't bother me, like spiders, flies, ants.... but a cockroach just touches some primal part of me and makes me shudder.

 

[TinkerBean]

I could have written your post. We live near an Ivy League University. Beautiful houses on our block (ours is a 135yrs 15 room Queen Anne Victorian - painted lady - that we have been restoring for the last 20 years) they are mostly Victorians, but with a bunch of student rentals on the block as well. Next door they have crammed in as much as 11 college students. They generate *tons* of trash. So instead of the roaches we have racoons and skunksthat end up dragging trash into my yard (think half eaten pizza, chicken bones).

Landlord is a slum lord and won't even provide barrels for the trash - my ultimate revenge would be to trap those critters and release them in his yard along with the half eaten food stuff. Hmmmm... If I could just find his address