by John R. Sennett
Currently living at Avenue Living's Garden Villa, #404, 268 7A Avenue South, Lethbridge.

More than a month after I moved in, I saw the first adult cockroach since the mid-1980s.
I was most surprised. I had never seen them while living in British Columbia for 10 years and for several decades before that I had not encountered them in any of the locations I had lived and worked in while in the province of Ontario. The first adult I discovered in the bathroom on July 25. A second I found in the kitchen 3 days later on the 28th. Lastly, I found two tiny ones coming out of a wall switch plate in the living room on the 29th. I have seen none since. When KAZ arrived from Avenue Living on August 10th, he found no cockroaches or the bedbugs he was scanning the building for. Why? What had I done to contain them OUTSIDE my apartment. Where and why, and how had they arrived?

During the mid-1980's, I moved into an apartment in an older building in Toronto, Ontario.
The day I moved in the apartment had been doused with a highly toxic liquid pesticide. The drawers and cupboards in the kitchen dripped with it and the air was so charged that my eyes and nostrils burned. As a health researcher I was aware of the dangers of such pesticides. Symptoms commonly reported by persons living in locations bathed in such chemicals, AFTER the chemicals had dried were these: headaches, irritability, lowered immune function (became sicker easier and longer), nausea, digestive problems, and, hypersensitivities. I did not need or want these to impose disaster on my health, lifestyle, relationships, and ability to work. I thoroughly washed down all of the apartment.

Within two weeks, cockroaches began to appear.
I woke up one night to the pain of a nip to my leg by one on my bed.
That was not acceptable. As often can happen, I became visually alert to both cockroaches and any mark or shadow that approximated the size of one. As I had learned to do with other threats, I determined to find out all I could about this lifeform and take back control of my environment through knowledge and safe response. Too often, we humans react in fear and take drastic action to counter a problem which ends up bringing us many more problems which are ever more difficult to resolve. Where did they come from. What attracted them? What were their weaknesses? Over the next several weeks I answered these questions, rid my apartment of cockroaches in a neighborhood invested with them, and offered the information to the landlords who might hopefully share it with the other tenants.

Like many other lifeforms, cockroaches have their own form of intelligence.
If you fail to appreciate their intelligence, it simply leaves you displaying your proud ignorance and endangering the health of yourself and your family. To a cockroach or most other insects, a human crumb of food is like a football sized basket of food to them. If you don't care about the integrity of your food, you are sending a signal to them that they are welcome to share. Why should they let your waste go to waste? We can minimize this with a few housekeeping formalities. I took all of my dry, powdered, flaked, and cardboard or paper packaged goods and transferred them into mason jars. That keeps them fresh, easily and securely closed, visually attractive and identifiable, and safe from insect eggs, excrement, and feasting. Any food and food contaminated garbage went into a single, easy-to-open and close tightly container, Paper garbage could be in an open container. Dishes were always washed after every use, or, at least rinsed clear of obvious food remains. Floors were swept as often as carelessness required. No more invitations.

Cockroaches, flies, and numerous other insects have sticky pads on their feet.
These sticky pads enable them to walk up walls, across ceilings, and fly safely from one surface to another.
These pads pick up dust and other dirt and more dirt means less stickiness. For safety and survival, these insects are very cleanliness conscious and clean these pads frequently. Their only method of cleaning is to lick off the dirt and expel it. But, what if the dirt they are licking off dissolves and they ingest it. If it is food, it is nutritious. If it is dust or fiber, it passes as neutral. And, if it is an acid, the more they clear off their pads, the stronger the solution becomes inside them. Enough of such a powder and they literally burn to death from inside.

Boric, or Boracic Acid Powder is one such insect detriment.
Humans use it safely as an eyewash and as a component of laundry detergent. It is white and odorless.
Children would have to eat it by the handful to become seriously sick. A teaspoon of liquid chemical pesticide can kill an adult. And for cost ... ten years ago, in British Columbia, I purchased a 150 gram bottle of Bio-Health Boric Acid in powder form (Crystals are ineffectual; don't stick to the pads) for $3.85. At that time I was using it for ants. I gave half to a neighbour. I dusted a little around several times and I still have a quarter bottle left. One bottle could possibly cover 4 heavily infested apartments easily, and safely. I use a turkey baster to blow it behind the refrigerator and oven, and into difficult-to-access areas.

In my long ago apartment, I discovered WHERE they came from.
First, that was a time during which in-building incinerators for garbage were regulated out of existence and dumpsters replaced them in the basement. Garbage chutes dropped down from each floor in the building to the basement collection point. Garbage often accumulated for a week before pickup. Part of this apartment garbage was food scraps, leftovers, surplus, and skins and peels. These were all welcome by cleanup insects like cockroaches. These collection areas became insect community attractions. And when life is good, insects procreate. And when population density reaches a threshold point, individuals and groups begin to expand their territory and search for new opportunities. And, it is relatively easy to follow the garbage chutes back upstairs to the floors ... then along the carpet and under entry doors .. into a possible new shangri-la.

Cockroaches are not native to Canada so how did they get here?
Native to the tropics, cockroaches and their eggs travel with produce and people traveling from Central and South American countries into Canada. With the expansion of plantation crops, such as bananas, into the North American grocery in the 1960s, so also arrived the cockroach and its eggs. Beginning in the 1960s, considerable immigration from these tropical locations also rose sharply. Again, roaches and their eggs can travel in luggage, clothing, and on persons. And with the continuing and expanding use of cars and trucks, in place of trains and ships, cockroaches hitched a ride to new adventures. Persons and families moving from one contaminated and infested location to a new and clear location ... quickly result in the contamination of the new location. This importation and spread of cockroaches will continue.

Other transmission avenues or vectors that allow for point-to-point travel are numerous.
Cockroaches have wings. Tiny or large, they can run FAST and with dexterity. In a crunch, they can take to the air and disappear. There was another infested building across a narrow alley from ours. The desperate and the risk-takers would take flight from a higher floor and jump-drift across to the window ledge of my building. If a window was open and not screened, it was an invitation. Plumbing drains became another avenue. To these insects, a drain is like a big tunnel connecting many food warehouses.

Water always flows along the downside of a horizontal pipe, so, travel along the upper side, or, clamp your sticky feet to the wall for a moment of flooding. Then, move on to the next apartment. Plugs and covers went on EVERY drain when not in use. At worst, when somebody nearby was hugely infested, insects would follow the cavern opening in the walls and baseboards and enter in the apartment by way of switch or duplex outlet box covers. All they had to do was follow the cabling from one apartment to the next. A little powder blown into the box with the cover removed, ended that.

Sloppy workmanship can be found anywhere in construction, especially in areas that are usually out of sight.
One of these areas is the through-the-wall opening that the plumbing waste and water supply pipes pass. Some of these are big enough to allow a mouse, or even a rat, entry. A cockroach and other insects are dozens of times smaller. Walls can often provide passageways between apartments and rooms. When I saw ONE cockroach in my bathroom, I closed off the through-wall holes behind the toilet and under the sink with clear packing tape. Duct tape may be preferred by many as it is easier to use, It is partly reinforced and is much less likely to split lengthwise when you are making an effort to unroll it. Also, duct tape is much less attracting of and generating of static electricity which has a tendency to result in the ends folding over on themselves leading to waste and annoyance. These are easily available at most Dollar Stores, Canadian Tire stores, and, hardware stores. When I saw ONE cockroach in my kitchen, I closed off the huge through-wall hole under the sink with tape. In each case, I then added the equally good practice of ensuring that the drains were plugged when not in use. This becomes more difficult with pop-up drains as these can rarely be closed tight, and, for hygiene purposes are best removed totally and replaced with an easy flush open drain with plug.

Cockroaches are aware that other and predatory lifeforms see best in the light, so, they tend to be most active in the dark, at night, in dark places ... like cupboards, inside furniture, behind baseboards and curtains ... and sometimes in clothing or bedding. Ensuring that these were clean and that crumbs were not carelessly salted in these areas reduced their attractiveness to the insects. There was no ceiling light in one room. I ran an extension up the wall and across the ceiling to a temporary fixture. to keep everything in place, I added duct tape along the cord to hold it to the wall and ceiling without a hoard of nails and screws. When I left, the fixture and the tape came down. On the back of the tape in the tight airspace between the cord and the wall, there was a filling of dead cockroaches. They had snuggled into the dark out of sight in expected safety, and had become entombed there.

Steps to Minimizing Insect infestations.

1. Put all dry foods into glass or other tightly closed non paper containers.
2. Keep floors, carpets, cupboards, and clothing clean of food crumbs.
3. Close off, tape over, through-the-wall plumbing access holes.
4. Stopper all drains when not in use.
5. Spread a light dusting of Boric Acid powder at the back of cupboards, behind appliances, under furniture, and in electrical boxes, as and when required.

If each tenant were aware of these nuggets of knowledge, they might do their part and keep themselves and their families safe from the bacteria and viruses that insects can carry and contaminate their surroundings with. They would also be less anxious and paranoid from the constant appearance of insects crawling across their walls, ceilings, furniture, clothing, and out of their cupboards and over their food. Finally, they could be happy that they were not being assaulted by toxic chemicals which could impose on them, temporarily or permanently, symptoms like headaches, irritability, lowered immune function (became sicker easier and longer), nausea, digestive problems, and, hypersensitivities. Such disadvantages could significantly impact their home life, relationships, and ability to do their job and bring in an income. All it takes is for adults to behave like adults and encourage their children to respect themselves, others, and, the insects. Why invite insects into an environment where they will make humans sick and likely end in a horrible death themselves.