Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Kill The German Cockroach

Last week I watched 24: Redemption. A memorable line uttered during the show was, "Kill the Cockroach."

When 24: Redemption ended I went to my kitchen, turned on the lights and saw a big bug trying to hide. It was hard to track down. But eventually I executed it.

When I Blogged about 24: Redemption, I mentioned the irony of finding and killing my first Cockroach after 24 ended. But, I thought I was taking poetic license. I did not really know what type of bug it was.

But. Ever since that first one there have been more. They are kind of amusing the way they try to escape as soon as the light comes on. I sprayed some all purpose bug spray thinking that'd get rid of them. It didn't. They survive a direct hit of the bug spray.

This morning, like I said earlier, I was up by 3am. When I turned on the kitchen lights, to make coffee, there was one of the bugs to greet me.

I decide it was time to Google "cockroach."

Well. I'd only seen one Cockroach, previously, in person, that being a dead one out in the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce Tourist Center. It was big. My bugs aren't big, which is why I didn't really think they were Cockroaches.

Til I Googled. I now believe I have what is known as the German Cockroach. I don't like Germans, but I'm glad I have been visited by German Cockroaches and not the American or Australian Cockroach. They are huge. My Germans are little things compared to the Americans.

Wikipedia had a solution to getting rid of the pests that is supposed to be very successful. It is called the Las Vegas Roach Trap. Following the directions I took a canning jar, smeared petroleum jelly on the inside, put coffee grounds and water in the jar. And then put duct tape all over the outside.

The Cockroaches are supposed to be coffee addicts and so will follow the smell. The duct tape gives them traction to get up the jar. They can not climb on glass. The petroleum jelly is a back up in case, for some awful reason, the Cockroach falls into the coffee and gets such a buzz it's somehow able to climb the glass wall. The bug will stick to the petroleum jelly.

I will report tomorrow on how many Cockroaches I have trapped in my coffee jar. What if it is full of roaches in the morning? That will be truly disgusting. But, I'll take a picture and share.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

scary to turn lights on and find such things.
like the idea of the natural roach trap.
just hope a loved one doesn`t think that the new redneck way to ingest coffee.