The Most Important Plant on the Planet
The Diatom

#11

by Wallace Tharp

Previously published in the Home Gardener

Since roaches are such a major problem in many parts of the country, it was decided that a special chapter be devoted to them, so, the first thing we need to cover is that Roaches have been on this planet much longer than Mankind, and will likely be present, long after man is gone.

You can get them out of your house but you can never keep them from wanting in, so the battle is continuous.

The first thing to remember is roaches want food. If there is no food, they will be no problem to you. They will be going where the food is. However, remember they can eat almost anything, so it is not just crumbs from your table you need to worry about. For example, they even eat cardboard boxes.

The worst house I ever saw was a cheap rental in which a service man with both legs amputated, confined to a wheel chair, with a wife and four children, oldest age seven.

The roaches were so bad that they no longer tried to hide. In the day time, they were all over the Ceiling, on the walls and very lively on the floor. The family was in desperate shape financially and the Welfare department called and asked if we would volunteer to try to help.

The house should have been burnt down, but since the family had no where else to go, we went to work. In insisted that everyone get out of the house for four hours.

With power blowers, we blasted the entire home, even into the kitchen cabinets. the bed rooms and in the clothes closets, etc. We found roaches in the beds and in the clothes hanging in the closets.

Four of us worked the four hours, and swept up a five gallon bucket of dead roaches. We even separated the clothes and shook them out, took the dishes out of the cupboards, washed them and put them back after treating the shelves.

When there were cracks and crevices, we treated them with a small hand held applicator and we taped the holes where the plumbing came through the walls, drilled tiny holes in the walls and blew product inside the walls.

We vacuumed up all the product on the floors, and dusted the counters and furniture and, and found we had a five gallon bucket full of dead roaches.. We went outside and with a power unit, blew product under the house, and in minutes hundreds of roaches were coming out to try getting away from the danger, but they could not as each had a coating on his body. We let them alone, letting them go as far as they wished to find a place to die.

We left them extra products and applicators and instructions in case we missed any.

That was the worst place I ever saw, and cost four people a half day’s work, but we were grandly paid by the gratitude of the people.

Most cities raise roaches by the millions in the city sewer line, and every spring, hordes of roaches leave that filthy place, looking for more congenial quarters—YOUR HOME.

As soon as the outside air becomes warm enough the bugs spread out over the neighborhood seeking shelter and a hand out of better food. It would be nice to not invite them in. At my own home I dust my entire yard. Starting at the foundation of the home, I apply a thin coating of product clear across the yard to the property line. When they hit my place they change directions to my good neighbors.

When you see a roach in a home, you can know there are hundreds. Some time you bring them home in a cardboard box from the grocery store, who don’t mind sharing a few with you. In no time two roaches can produce hundreds.

If you want to get quick results, place some food on the floor in the kitchen. Draw a circle of our product around the food so that they must cross that to get something to eat. If you have a serious roach problem, you will find dead roaches all over the house. How far they go depends on how much product they got on them.

Find out if you have roaches around the house by baiting them in other rooms. On carpet, put a paper or plastic down to put the food on so as not to mess up your rug.

If you kill every single adult, don’t get the idea that your problem is over, as they have been stashing egg capsules around the place that will hatch in about two weeks. The young ones are so easy to kill, and if you keep at it, you will suddenly find yourselves OUT OF ROACHES!

We have had contractors that place our roach killer inside the hollow walls (maybe a teaspoon) and no roaches will ever be in that space. As long as the product is dry, it is very high repellent—NO BUGS ALLOWED

Wallace Tharp CEO
PERMA-GUARD, INC.