Waterbug Misery | Imamother

amother

Thu, Mar 02 2023, 1:06 pm

We have big, disgusting waterbugs and I can't take it anymore!! We've had an exterminator numerous times. So now we have dead bugs. We had a leak fixed, and the plumber insisted it would do the trick. It didn't. What can we do? It's horrible. Has anyone had success getting rid of them? We've had them here and there over the years but now it's non-stop.
Please help!!!

amother

Amethyst

Thu, Mar 02 2023, 1:42 pm

Where are they coming from?
What's the source?

You need to take care of that.

Sending so much hugs!

+ I put a combination of liquid bait, spray bait, bait stations, and the gel.

I saw a tremendous difference BH

nicole81

Thu, Mar 02 2023, 2:32 pm

Yes, another lovely vermin I had the privilege of becoming expert at removing over the years.

Let's call them by their real name: the oriental cockroach. They are disgusting, disease harboring little foul creatures. People pay tons for exterminators and continue to have issues but really you can do everything yourself. It will be hard work but it is possible to get rid of them.

Firstly, for every one you see, accept that you have at least 20 more living within your walls. The eggs from the previous year hatch in the spring, and the nymphs from last year are full grown and mating in the spring. The only way to guarantee you are rid of them is to kill off all the adults, while simultaneously leaving poison for the nymphs that ensure their reproductive systems never develop. That way the cycle of mating and egg laying ends.

The process is fairly cheap and will take the purchase of insecticide and the hormone treatment, plus glue boards, all of which can be purchased on Amazon. That's the easy part.

Now for 2-3 months straight, more if you're paranoid, you need to keep your house immaculate and dry. These things eat garbage, sewage, they will literally eat out of dirty diapers they're so nasty. Your house needs to be spotless. You also need to dry out sinks at night, make sure no cups are laying around, no spills, etc. I'd even get rid of plants.

After you clean your floors at night, run the real poison along the floors and baseboards. If you can find out where they nest, or at least where they like to hang out, thats where you want to concentrate the hormonal poison since the nymphs don't travel as far. They like dark, damp places. For me, this was under the dishwasher and in the basement bathroom.

Continue this daily routine of spotlessness with poison laying 2-3 times a week, while laying glueboard under appliances and in dark potentially warm or damp spaces. Monitor the glueboards and over time, the numbers should go down until you dont see anymore for a long time. Any nypmhs that may still be around wont mature and will die out.

Also familiarize yourself with what the eggs look like. Idk about you, but I had a lot of things stored in the basement. Go through everything thoroughly after you've rid the bugs, vacuum carpets multiples times, and make sure there are no eggs laying in things (like I found one in the back of a basement closet). That's the last step of getting rid of them.

For me, in the summer, this took about 2 months straight of staying up until at least 1am cleaning and applying chemicals nightly, but it worked and I'm one of the rare success stories to get rid of these creatures.

amother

Charcoal

Thu, Mar 02 2023, 2:45 pm

Oooh they are absolute HE*LL!
It’s possible they’re coming from the radiators.
They just show up out of nowhere .

amother

Fuchsia

Thu, Mar 02 2023, 2:53 pm

Waterbugs don't like the smell of lavender. If you spray lavender oil around your house every week, you shouldn't be getting new ones, and the ones that you have will either go back to where they came from or try to find hiding spots that weren't sprayed.
I fill a spray bottle with water and add a few drops of lavender. That works enough for waterbugs (but isn't strong enough for mice).

nicole81

Thu, Mar 02 2023, 2:54 pm

amother Charcoal wrote:

Oooh they are absolute HE*LL!
It’s possible they’re coming from the radiators.
They just show up out of nowhere .

My Brooklyn house is by the water and they literally walk around the streets outside in the summer evenings. That's how we got them! They'd walk right through my back door when we came in and out of the yard. It got to the point where I laid the poison on my front and back steps, too, and I cant tell you how many times we walked out to dead bugs who had been trying to get in overnight.

amother

Charcoal

Thu, Mar 02 2023, 3:04 pm

nicole81 wrote:

Brooklyn is also infested. They walk around the avenues like proud pedestrians. Ugh!

amother

Lawngreen

Thu, Mar 02 2023, 4:20 pm

Combat bait stations according to instructions got rid of my water bug problem permanently Bh!

nicole81

Thu, Mar 02 2023, 5:01 pm

This is the poison I recommend: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004.....ss_tl

And this is the growth regulator I recommend; https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007.....ss_tl

I wrote above that it took months but now that I look back on my order, I see it only felt like it took that long. Looks like it took about 3 weeks of meticulous cleaning and application and monitoring until they were gone.

amother

Thu, Mar 02 2023, 7:41 pm

I feel so validated! Thank you everyone who responded! But gross, I don’t know if I can do all that. I’m going to try a bunch of these suggestions. Nicole81, are you hireable???