Cockroach Castle

Okay, I lost it the other day.  I hate HATE cockroaches!  About 25 years ago back when I was poor as a church mouse I used to live in a nasty apartment in Holyoke with my old college roommate.  The building owner was a scam artist.  He purchased apartment buildings collected the rent and didn't pay the bills.  He would purchase several buildings in the same location and then skip town with all the rent money.  In the meantime plumbers would quit in the middle of jobs, no one would come to pick up the trash and eventually the cockroaches would move back in.  It was the roaches that drove me out of there.  I didn't care that we hadn't paid rent in months.  That the place was free until the bank sorted out the ownership.  There were cockroaches crawling in my hairbrush and you had to turn the lights on so that you could safely traverse the apartment at nighttime without stepping on the little bastards.

Well, I guess after a year of the housecleaning being left to my husband and teenage son the roaches decided that my house was a nifty place to set up shop.  Probably has something to do with the piles of dishes that sit on the counter for days on end.  I do have a cleaning service that comes in once every few weeks to do the heavy work: mopping the floors, vacuuming and cleaning the bathrooms.  I would hate to think the level of filth I would be living in if they didn't come.  However, since I lost my income we had to cut them back to once every three weeks instead of once every two.  Guess what?  We are being over run by roaches, ants and spiders.  Gross!!

I sent the kid to buy traps.   By observing the ants I figured out their hidey hole and with strategic placement of three traps, two inside and one outside the house I managed to get rid of them.  The roaches are another story.  I have had four sightings and three kills over the course of one month.  I have managed to identify them as American Cockroaches, one of the easier breeds to eliminate.  So two weeks ago hubby set out traps and I read up on the little buggers.  Guess what?  You have to clean all the counters off every night, take up all the pet food, take the garbage out every night and do all the dishes.  Yeah, like that is going to happen around here.  The dishes are basically a game of chicken between the guys: lets see who can out wait the other.  The first one that blinks looses and has to do them.  They can sit on the counter for DAYS.  ICK!!  The food is so crusted on the dishes the dishwasher can't get the crude off and I end up rewashing stuff.

Three days ago was my forth sighting and my third kill.  I couldn't stand it anymore and I went on a cleaning rampage.  I threw everything I could get my hands on in the dishwasher.  The kid and I did two loads before hubby made it home.  I had scrubbed down the kitchen island where I do food prep and dismantled the toaster oven and stove and washed all of the parts.  I also hand washed pots and pans that I couldn't squeeze into the washer.  My son couldn't believe how much work I had done.  When hubby came home he helped empty out the lower cabinets in prep for roach dust application.

By dinner time my neuro symptoms had set in.  I had the headbobbing and limb jerkies.  I was going to pay for my cleaning fit.  Yesterday I couldn't stay upright for more than an hour.  I went to bed and slept twice.  I needed help walking around the house.  I kept having neuro symptoms just when I thought I was doing okay.  Today I went to bed and slept for two hours after only being up three.  I am doing a bit better.  I haven't had any neuro stuff today.  I am feeling irritated though.  Aggravated.  Agitated.  I want to move.  I want to annoy someone or something.   I want to DO something.  My brain keeps going over lists of things I want to do: blog posts, cleaning out kitchen drawers, eat, run, skate.  I can't settle down to watch a movie or TV show or read.  I keep page hopping on the net.  Everytime I get up though waves of dizziness over come me and I have to grab something to steady myself.  I'm tired but I can't get to sleep.  I'm so frustrated I want to SCREAM!

All this because of a few cockroaches.  ARGH!!