the Village Knittiot

I posted awhile back about my discovery that living in a large city on the East Coast where it is warmer than the tundra I was raised in meant contending on some level with cockroaches. And I told you all about my very irrational conclusion that the presence of 2 or 3 bugs most certainly meant we had an infestation. Well, there have been a few more sightings in the last several days. Yes, I know, the weather was almost 80 degrees yesterday and this has a tendency to draw them out. Still, not pleasant. Especially not if you are phobic to the point that these tiny little creatures reduce you to a hysterical pool of tears and hyperventilation.

I think a lot of times people are afraid to admit that they have cockroaches, because they are associated with filth and poor cleaning habits. Filth, however, is something that I cannot abide. My house is very clean, though I must admit that prior to meeting my first cockroach, I was known to leave the dishes in the sink overnight and just deal with them in the morning. I was more relaxed about how often I scrubbed the kitchen floor. I also probably vacuumed a little less frequently and didn’t always use the crevice attachment on the edges of the wall. This has all changed. And for that I’m glad, grateful even (but don’t tell them that, they might get ideas). I have always wanted to be the kind of diligent person who kept a tidy and neat house and now I have the proper motivation. For me, it was a choice of learning to be vigilantly clean, moving to a tundra-like climate where the vast majority of the bugs die every year or just dealing with them from time to time. Last two items? Not even a remote possibility.

To be fair, we’ve been here in the apartment for nearly 5 months now and I’ve seen a grand total of 6 bugs. Not exactly an infestation *knocks on wood* but certainly a little more than I’d like. It is an old building. We have quite a few neighbors whose cleaning habits I cannot control. And did I mention it is an old building?

Anyway, since I am such a big believer that knowledge is power, I decided that after having a total meltdown some mild anxiety after killing my first cockroach ever (and requiring a good 15 minutes and lots of “you can do it” coaching from my husband to get up enough nerve to use a tissue to pick up the dead thing and put it in the toilet) the best way to confront my fears was to do some research. Get to know what I was dealing with. And even more importantly, find out how to get rid of them.

I can tell you that after perusing a vast number of sites that there is pretty much a universal hatred and revulsion of the creatures. And that if you are looking to alleviate your fears, most of the information out there will be of little help. A lot of the sources were actually pest management places that wanted to scare the beejesus out of you in order to “entice” you into rushing out and hiring them to infiltrate your home with frighteningly toxic chemicals that it turns out have little actual effect on cockroach populations. (Yes, I do realize that 6 critters in 5 months isn’t exactly a huge problem). Still, I stuck with it, fighting off the cold sweats and panic inducing images and just trying to gather the facts.

A little later in the search process, I finally came across a few academic articles, websites and other assorted information from entomologists — you know, people who actually study bugs and understand them. This is when I realized when it comes to bugs, you should never ask a layperson questions that can be answered by an entomologist. The entomologist by and large has a respect for their subject matter. They understand how they fit in on the food chain and in our various environments and therefore have a much greater appreciation for the roles they serve. And, it turns out, are the people who are most likely to help me think rationally about my “problem.”

What we’ve got are commonly called “water bugs” — they generally live outside and only come in to find food and/or water. Deny them both (which I have to the best of my ability) and prevent them from entering and they will go away for the most part.

There are more than 3,000 different types of cockroaches worldwide and only a handful of them are actually classified as pests. The ones who aren’t pests serve useful and less creepy functions, the most important of which are the breaking down of organic matter and supplying birds and other animals with a source of food. The pest kind can be a big problem and are often linked to childhood asthma and allergies. So, you don’t want pests around, but there are things to be done that don’t involve nasty chemicals — a fact which my sensitive lungs and skin are grateful for.

I joke about how panicked I get at the site of these, but you must remember that I grew up watching horror movies that ascribed a collective sense of malice to groups of bugs including ants, cockroaches, bees and spiders. I watched these movies at far, far too young and impressionable an age. Not to mention the fact that I was raised by a woman who told me that the reason we moved away from California was because of cockroaches. This is the same woman who, when she walks into a room, always scans the corners of the ceilings for potential spiders. Over the course of the last several years, I managed to completely overcome my fear of spiders (and now am actually quite fond of them). I doubt I will ever like cockroaches, but I can at least find a place of understanding and become less paralyzed by it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006 at 9:18 am and is filed under this Random Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.