Giant flying cockroaches who come into your kitchen when the weather starts getting hot and stay out of the way so you can't squish them, not that you'd really want to considering the mess it'd make

Sitting on my porch the other night, I saw one like cat-sized. Must have been 2.5" long. Summer sucks.

Well, a tiny cat. Two and a half inches, which sounds small but is huge when you're talking about a winged, armored, goo-filled monster.

b) lovebugs - these are small and look a bit like fireflies and they swarm at a certain point of the year down south. during the swarming season they fly around in twos, piggyback-style, mating in the air - hence their namesake.
Yup, they always pop up in March and September here, unless it's really cold. This past March was chilly for Floridian standards and so I saw very few lovebugs.

and do they?

I don't know what I would do about flying roaches. People keep telling me to move to the South, but I am not going to move anywhere that has flying roaches, even if I could see El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico play every week.

how?

I was pretty green at that point. Once I moved in I vaguely remembered having heard something like that. I do know now. Oddly enough though, I ended up moving over another restaurant at another time, but I was pretty high up and didn't have bug problems beyond the ordinary. However, I did have some problems with exhaust and an odd smoke problem. (I would probably end up giving away the exact restaurant if I explained that further.)

Here's a link to an article with a photo (the one that says Rittenhouse Coffee Shop and has a cute facade) of the former soul food restaurant (now one of a series of buildings in a well-publicized state of limbo):

http://www.preservationalliance.com/news_19sansom.php

I also lived in the building on the left in the photo, a few years later. (It was a good building from a noise control perspective. My bedroom shared know walls with any neighboring apartments. Had to fight like hell to get heat though.)

http://buten.net/max/cc/tn_1904Sansom_2537.JPG

i saw it crawling around my cats' litter box. a chase ensued, lasting aproximately ten minutes. the ungodly beast hid behind a desk, then behind some boxes, only to meet its fate at the hand of my trusty bug swatter.

YE UNHOLY BEASTS OF SATAN, BEWARE!

Getting along to even less appealing aerial beasts than grackles, last night at about 10 I had my first encounter with a flying cockroach of this season. I'm in a new apartment (new to me - I think the building is probably 25-30 years old), and it's always exciting here in the hot and humid zone to discover the bug-proofiness or lack thereof in a new dwelling. Anyway, this three inch fucker was whirling around my living room and lighting on the walls - including some drawings I had just pinned up. So, squashing him where he stood didn't seem to be a good option. I ended up capturing him in a paper bag and then smushing him by hand through the protective layer it proveded. Still gross, though, feeling and hearing the carapace shatter like they do.

Enjoy your lunch!

Sorry, about the grackle thing - repost from elsewhere.

ew. i'm dreading this.

I didn't even know flying cockroaches EXISTED. The return of the lord is truly near.

omg once i was playing my keyboard, and THE FUCKING FLYING COCKROACH JUMPED ON THE KEYS

enough said

I love grackles!

Man, why?

They're so full of themselves. I like their odd legs and how they walk, I like watching their mating rituals which involve a lot of puffing up and two-stepping. I like their sounds. I like that they're dirty looking and homely but still very egotistical. I like most every bird, tho.

giant bugs are easy to catch, at least. i need something to eat all these goddamn mosquitos and things... maybe i'll build a bat house.

Baby geckos that live in my house eat the baby cockroaches that live in my house. Thanks and much <3 you adorable baby geckos.

I want geckos!

lesson from when i lived in florida as a kid: never kick a palm tree at night. you will be horrified at what comes out of every nook and cranny of that thing.

i hate cockroaches' oily rootbeer colored guts so much! and the flying big ones are definitely the worst. they will fly right at your head. i've made many horrible man-yells when they've done this.

ha, man-yells.

they are so unafraid of humans and the cat doesn't concern herself with them. once, when i was taking a shower, one entered the stall with me! NOOOOOOO!

i probably mention my beloved sophie the rat too much, but another great thing about her: ace roach hunter/eater!

(RIP sophie!)

wait surmounter don't you live in brooklyn? we don't have these here....do we? please say no

i have the smaller version of these things in my new apt.
any tips on how to deal with these things?

Sprinkle boric acid underneath and behind everything. It kills them when they lick it off of their legs and antennae. The ones that make it out into the open are slowed down and sickly.

This solution is less toxic than Combat brand bait poison containers. Use those as well.

Maintain a perimeter of wildlife friendly landscaping around the exterior of the house to encourage lizards, toads, and spiders. They may eat the roaches before your walls are penetrated.

Might not be the right climate for lizards - but we have spiders and cats all around the house.
I do have a pet chameleon tho! - but the last thing i want to do is keep him in the kitchen (where the fuckers are) or expose him to any chemicals.
thanks for the tip - will def look into boric acid. any idea if it's safe to use in the kitchen area?

we do under the stove and sink, behind the refrigerator, things like that. It doesn't emit anything as far as I know. Keep it away from animals and utensils I guess.

i have had palmetto bugs fly into my bedroom on two separate occasions in the last couple weeks

fuck these things imo

See if you can figure out where they're coming in, maybe an open drain? They can fit through smaller spaces than you might think, so if your sinks and/or tub have stoppers, try closing the drains at night. Just an idea.

One billion of those smaller roaches invaded my mom's house last summer. They started living in her desk and printer so she chucked the printer, stuck the desk outside in the sun for a few days with all the drawers emptied and laid out. She emptied every cabinet in the kitchen and sprinkled Borax everywhere including all over the couch. Borax is non toxic, she has two cats and they weren't harmed by it. Within a week they had moved out. Now she is insane about crumbs and doing dishes immediately after using them but still no cockroaches.

The geckos that lived in my former house were just geckos that came in from outside. I didn't buy them or anything. Deliberately buying them would be like the time my parents bought a goat in the hopes that it would eat all the cheat grass on their 1.5 acre plot, ie bad value for the cost & inefficient.

I always had good luck w/the bait poison containers, where they take the bait back to their homes & feed it to babies = dead baby roaches. I also loved imagining this. "Go poison your children!"

Also, I know you moved into a place w/them, but once you get rid of them, be like peacocks' mom and keep that shit clean. Also keep your food containers closed tight.

i'm normally a clean enough person - and have pretty much been off the charts since i first spotted these fuckers! on my way to buy Borax now.

oh man, that SUCKS. hate to tell you but if it's an apt, you might be doomed to live with them unless you leave or the whole building is dealt with (maybe it's small??)

had them once when i first lived on the Quay at the bottom of Spadina (supposedly nice place) and they were absolutely everywhere, two varieties even so they must have been there a good while. horrifying! roommate and i freaked out, sterilized and bug sprayed, and had basically no food in the place at all, but they still came up from the other apts via plumbing, inside the walls and out from the baseboards, running across my bed etc... i was literally in tears over it every day and was considering breaking the lease to get out, and then like some miracle, service staff entered all the apts for "maintenance purposes" (never officially admitted there were roaches) made a bunch of little holes in all the under cabinets, and secretly fumigated the little creepers out of existence.

never saw another one after that and i ended up staying there about 7 years. so i'd lean hard on your landlord if i were you. good luck - i feel your pain!

Oh, Kim, that sounds like a nightmare.

i would move out of they were turning up in my bed! fortunately i'm not seeing them outside the kitchen very often.
just put down the boric acid under the sink etc. hopefully that keeps em down for a while.

I went downstairs in Dad's "man cave" to get some stuff out, and... some coo coo critter (insect division) has taken up residence down there. At least it isn't a hornet's nest. But I am scared of how it got in there.

http://i.imgur.com/aUhRk.png

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/docs-remove-live-cockroach-from-womans-nostril/articleshow/56942752.cms

fuck ya

DARRAGHMAC DON'T READ THIS
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http://shanghaiist.com/2017/02/07/cockroach_ear.php

That wasn't so bad man

What else u got