New house + cockroaches = NBD

[urbpan]

My friend just bought a house in West Roxbury. She was horrified to discover cockroaches in and around it! At my insistence she captured one, and I identified it as an Ectobius cockroach, probably the Mediterranean spotted cockroach E. pallidus, but also maybe the dusky cockroach E. lapponicus. In either case, these are not pest cockroaches—the Latin name Ectobius translates to “lives outside,” which is what they do most of the time. They get into houses about as often as earwigs and maybe a little less often than ladybeetles. Both Ectobius species in New England are native to Europe.

Comments

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but while I won't scorch the earth over a spider in the house, a croach will send me into a killing frenzy. Earwigs are quickly stomped, too. And the meal moth I nabbed in the kitchen this morning will not see another dawn.

Right or wrong, I associate bugs with squalor.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Meal moths are bona fide pests, and inspire me not only to kill, but to store my rice in the freezer from then on.

Earwigs and Ectobius roaches are just wandering in from outside to investigate the strangely warm and well-lit cave that is your house.

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing that your friend did not want any kind of cockroach in her house, regardless of your assurances. How did you suggest she remove them?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I didn't. I assured her that they only come in ones or twos, not the numbers that pest cockroaches do, and that they aren't eating her food. It's a problem that will correct itself in winter when everything dies again.