[adhoc_slime]

Roaches are notoriously hard to get rid for a reason. If you don't call an exterminator with the proper poison almost any effort you make will be moot.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that roaches will move with you. My partner's old apartment had roaches and even though we took great care to clean and separate everything, keep all of her kitchen stuff in tubs and slowly sort through it they still managed to come to the new apartment.

The author lacks self-reflection if they truely thing each brand new place suddenly gets roaches.

[virgilp]

> If you don't call an exterminator with the proper poison almost any effort you make will be moot.

Nah, not true. I lived in a student housing that was positively _infested_ with cockroaches (and had stuff like wood paneling on the walls, just to get an idea - i.e. lots of places for roaches to hide). We managed to largely get rid of cockroaches in our room (you still get the occasional one, because well, you had to open the door, and hallways were infested as I mentioned).

It's not _that_ hard, there are a lot of solutions. You need to do 3 things:

a. seal all holes/cracks/niches (e.g. with silicone). cover ventilation holes with nets. Install sponge/rubber bands to make sure doors/windows close well.

b. kill them once when you move in (after doing the work at point a) using copious amounts of insecticides; then install roach traps (sticky ones are good) to catch the occasional one that makes it through your defenses. Keep occasional spraying in the corners/ behind the fridge/ near the pipes/ in places where they are likely to gather.

c. Keep it clean/ don't offer a lot of incentives for roaches to come over to you (no breadcrumbs all over the place, food in closed containers etc)

Do these well and you should be largely roach-free, regardless of the building. But yeah, it's an annoying fight if the building itself is infested.

[throwawayffffas]

I lived in an old but thoroughly maintained building, every 6 months and at the beginning of summer, there was a thorough extermination routine applied through out the whole building, you could see a ring of dead roaches around the building the next day, 2 to 4 weeks later you would start spotting them in the apartment again. They leave and die and new ones move in. In old buildings they are just a fact of life, keep your home clean and crumb free and they will prefer your neighbors.

[JackFr]

My building is 15 stories, built in 1916. I’m on the 2nd floor. Every apartment can sign up for the monthly exterminator when he comes to do common areas. Are there roaches? You bet. Not a ton but you’ll see one or two a few times a month.

[qup]

I have a business where it's important we don't have roaches.

So we spray more often.

It costs me $83 per three months. I haven't seen a roach in sixteen years.

[astura]

My parents used to be landlords. For years they always bought used appliances for the apartments to save money until a used stove came with a surprise roach infestation. New appliances only after that.