Hi all,

We moved on friday to a nice flat in an old building.

Yesterday I saw and killed a massive black cockroach I found in the living and today I saw (and killed) a similar one near the kitchen's door. (they weren't too fast though)

Should I be concerned or just assume that I am in Australia?

how clean is your apartment?

i suggest you spray mortein/baygon.

Get spray and dowse the place, fast. Spawn of Satan, they deserve a nasty death

The flat is tide and clean, I'm considering using one of those bombs.. But should I keep the windows closed when I go out?

Give them no reason for being there by having no food out. Then do the roach bomb with windows closed for best effect, follow instructions on product. Also, buy those poison bait traps and put it under all furniture you can (fridge, stove, couch, etc). This will poison them in the long run. Remember that although you have now killed the ones inside, others may still come in from outside, so try and plug every gap you can think of. You may have to repeat your efforts every 3 months or so. Some areas of the city is worse than others, especially if you live near restaurants.

Pest controller will come in mid spring for $200 and spray the loft entrances window frames and eves.....Awsome in the mornings when a positive mass of dead and 1/2 dead bodies who have tried to 'unlawfully enter' the house have melted their feet and are in the process of passing away......

FFS dont tell the landlord or you'll get charged for extra tenants.

I think they may come from outside; they are the kind that you find running around when you walk in the street.

This flat is in northern suburbs and restaurants start around two blocks from here.

Having roaches in Aus doesn't mean you have an untidy home. They get everywhere in an awful lot of areas. Our 1st home here was full of them and had been empty for many months prior to us arriving, so no dirt nor food for them yet they still gathered quite an army. Bombed the house and got rid of most of them, still had the odd 2 or 3 every now and then to spray or our cat would eat them to keep them from getting to their previous numbers.
Our current home gets the odd roach, cat eats em or they get whacked with a newspaper. No idea how they get into the house, as we've screens on all opening windows & don't have the doors open very often as it's usually 30c odd outside.

that made me laugh!

You are in Australia, they are a fact of life im afraid.

They DO NOT mean you have a dirty flat, they will come in looking for the tiniest bit of food, just crumbs. You can put down cockroach baits and traps but they are the ultimate survivors.

Even if you close the wondows etc they come in under the skirting boards or any tiny gap. I think they can live in the walls

My problem is ants at the moment.....

Umm, Chatswood?

I rented a house there a few years ago and we had loads. You just need plenty of baits, especially around your kitchen. They are a fact of life - some places worse than others.

They are a part of living in Australia (it's the same in Africa), does not matter how clean your house is.

Insect bombs would be the way to go.

I was tormented with roaches when we moved in first. We didn't actually have that many in fairness but I was compeltely freaked out by them. Our solution was to:

1) bomb the house. Not with napalm (although it was tempting at times...), with a roach bomb. Be prepared for carcasses to start appearing for a few days.
2) spray all the windows, doors, gaps in skirting etc. You can buy stuff in supermarkets/K-Mart etc.
3) buy those insect repellant units that let out a spray of mist every ten minutes or so. I firmly believe this was the one that finally got rid of them. They're not the cheapest (about $30 for the initial unit and $15 every 28 days for the refills) but since we've been using them we've only found the very odd dead roach in the living room or bathroom. And no living ones!!

Little b@stards....