No no; I know you meant well. It is my over-sensitivity and almost as soon as I had hit the enter button, I felt like a b*tch, and guilty for being overly defensive. You made a really good point (and I know it!!)

I know what you mean; I am sorry. I really don't like the idea of using poisons for all of the reasons, son, cats, me and bf, everything. I used baking soda to scrub the sink today... I like being as green as possible although with BF around it's not always 100% possible.

I am scared to put the dishes away because there are roaches that live in the cabinets and they are like everywhere in the cabinets... so on the countertop there is a towel and like, a big pile of clean dishes. But then those dreaded bugs crawl all over everything and I don't use a single dish without recleaning it. Tired of living like this... urgh.

Sorry again Zeff; I'm Miss Hypersensitive.

it's fine. Believe me, I understand being hypersensitive. Just today I called DH at work and told him that he didn't care about the family because he had taken all of the leftovers from last night......and I cried and cried and cried.....thankfully he understands pregnancy.

Anyway, let me do some research and get back to this roach problem...

LOL. I did similar things during pregnancy... pretty emotional at the time, but in retrospect, pretty funny.

If you find anything, anything at all, I would appreciate it. I keep googling and coming up with boric acid and sticky traps, and I am very leery of Boric acid now. Sticky traps won't help my problem.

mmk...I found some info....some of it is pretty off the wall, but I'm sure you're willing to try anything at this point.

Hard boil eggs - take the yolk out and mash with boric acid. Put in a little alum. foil bowl behind refrigerators and under sinks...

sprinkle pure boric acid behind the stove and under sinks - your cats probably won't be able to get back there (and if they do....start entering them in some shows). I read that if you can see the boric acid, it is too much. Apparently the roaches will avoid it if they can see it - who knows.

make a mixture of powdered sugar and baking soda - put in alum. foil cups and put them in your cupboards. The sweetness will attract the bugs and the baking soda makes them explode (take pictures).

Move your refrigerator out and sprinkle some boric acid down. The kitties won't be able to get to it and neither will DS. Have bf move the fridge for you.

Apparently a good way to get the boric acid down without it being too much is to put it in a spray bottle and you will get a fine mist.

A roach's favorite food is not garbage...it is glue (from boxes, bags, etc.)....put everything with a glue seal on it (everything basically) in a plastic bag.

Step on every roach egg sack you find and then clean it up....when a female dies, she expels an egg sack - which will give you quite a few more roaches.

Diatomaceous earth is apparently great for roaches - killing them that is - you should be able to find it at garden centers and it is non-toxic for your family and kitties.

lastly - get a few geckos....I'm not sure how long they will last - but the kitties should enjoy them for awhile before they kill them Geckos like to eat roaches....and kitties like to eat geckos.

Good Morning everyone! (err...evening for the most of ya). Yesterday they put into effect, strict water restrictions, as the water shortage has become a critical problem. bucket baths limited to 1 every 2-3 days, sheet washing every two weeks, water gets shut off at 6pm, We had been supplying water to a neighboring village who ran out of water a few weeks ago, we had to stop as our wells are critically low. Last night, a light rain started which lasted through the night, all my plants look happy this morning, dust settled. It was only 4/10th of an inch according to my rain gauge, but it's a welcome start to our non existant monsoon.

Have a good evening everyone!

Hmmm... Gecko's.... I have lots of them living here. , behind picture frames, under my fridge... I'll send ya some Melanie!

Thanks Zeffryn! I in particular like the idea of the baking soda and sugar. Explode b@stards explode!!!!

I am gonna get that diatomaceous earth stuff... though I'm curious, do you just throw it in cabinets or what? Never seen it before.

The spray bottle thing may work for me as well, I can spray it where they gather up high without having powder poison all over the place.

Getting rid of the gluey stuff is gonna be hard though.

I would get a gecko but, if my cats ate it, I would probably cry. lol.

Really great ideas. Gonna start implementing Operation Die-Roaches-Die tomorrow. BF calls them super-roaches, cause they won't die. Hopefully these things will do the trick. I really, really DO NOT want to have to spray this ortho poison I got from bf's ex-wife.

Thanks again!

Geckos are so cute!

Melanie - We're under temporary orders right now that give me custody with him getting visitation Wed from 5-7PM and 1st, 3rd and 5th weekend Saturday and Sunday noon to 5PM. No overnights although I have allowed him a couple. The counselor has to complete the family social study and write up the report and send it to the court before the divorce and then custody is decided at that time. I'm asking for sole managing conservatorship with Robert getting standard visitation (same Wed night, the 1st, 3rd, 5th weekends he would have him from Friday night until Sunday night) and he would have him for a month in the summer. Robert doesn't like the sole managing part but my lawyer explained that if we did join he could do stuff like make Brian see a counselor who he picked and then that counselor could be prejudiced against me. Right now I wouldn't put it past him. He also doesn't like that the divorce lists a cause of family violence but I will negotiate on that and make it irreconciliable differences if he give something up. We just need to get to mediation. I suspect the trial will be sometime in the last quarter of this year. At least I hope it is that soon. I really don't want to have to file joint income taxes again this year especially since he took all the economic stimulus package and refused to give me my share.

Good luck with your roach battle. When I switched to Tupperware it really helped because they can't get to the food. I also keep the catfood in containers so they can't get to the bags. It is rare that I ever have a roach and when I do, the cats kill it.

I think you would use the diatomaceous earth like you would boric acid. It's ground up shells.

If you do have a roach explode...take a picture!


Thankfully I super hate geckos...they are all over down here. Our kitty eats them all the time...and my son chases them around the house. They are fast little buggers.

If you do have to do the ortho-bomb.....try to get your animals and kid out of the house for at least a day (and you and bf too!)...

I wouldn't put it past him either; not that I know him obviously, but I've dealt with a lot of spiteful people and I know exactly how they will behave. He sounds um, charming (not! ) I bet the counselor is going to write a very good report about you. I hope the trial is soon as well. My mom was telling me yesterday that sometimes custody and stuff like that drags on forever, and it's so much easier on the children and everyone else when it can get done sooner than later. (like in bf's case, if his mother hadn't had temporary custody for 3 years, she wouldn't have grounds to try to win custody, for example.) Then again, I guess it differs from state to state. In NC divorce is usually done in 2 months if uncontested, easy and simple, but bf's lawyer lied and lied. When ex-wife filed for the divorce, and bf signed his papers, it took just a few weeks and it was finally done and over with for good. So that part is simpler here, but the custody thing seems to be a lot more difficult to get done.

That is very lovely of him, how he didn't give you your share of the stimulus package, especially considering there is a son in the mix! I say again, he sounds very charming. If you get to mediation, I hope it goes really well for you. Keep us updated on what goes on, and I hope things get better soon.

That's a great idea to keep the cat food in containers, because those nasty bugs just LOVE cat food. I have come out in the middle of the night to get some water, just to see roaches swarming in the cat dish. It was looking like Joe's Apartment up in here! Ugh.

OOh, that stuff sounds interesting, definitely gonna try to find it, sounds very safe. (diatomaceous earth, = d earth, minus r, = death! dieee!)

I will definitely take a picture because if those nasty things start exploding all around, I will be happier than I have ever been. It WILL be a camera-moment. Like- SERIOUSLY. I am dead sick of these bugs. I see them out now, and I'm just like, w t... grrr!

I think my outdoor cat was eating a gecko the other day; it certainly wasn't a lizard. But then again, I'm not sure if we have geckos in NC, although I don't know why we wouldn't. I imagine we do. Bf is scared he would wake up with one crawling on his face if we got some.

Grr now I have to do the dishes from dinner, and I am lazy. I have one more question though. How old are you? I don't know how old your picture is, but I'm guessing you are not too much older than me (22.) Since you're married with children, I am guessing mid 20's or almost mid-20's then. Am I right?

An uncontested divorce without children can be very fast here. I've done that before and it was easy. Having a kid makes it a lot tougher because they require the social study. They also required a parenting class that was really good but Robert was in the same session and he kept making remarks about me. And since this is contested, that makes the divorce take a LOT longer. I feel like my life is on hold until it is final though. Especially since he is convinced I was having an affair (I'm not). I'm certain he is the one that spread rumors among my scouting friends so that I had to answer to the district executives. He almost got me removed from running Twilight Camp because the new district director didn't know me. Luckily I am well respected within scouts so he couldn't hurt me as much as he tried.

I do feel for him because it's tough for him to support himself after going 6 years without working. I'm sure he doesn't make much working at Starbucks. The child support is based on minimum wage since he wasn't working when they figured it. He was a Unix system administrator for many years but he didn't finish his college degree and computer companies seem to care these days. I guess the pending criminal charges for family violence also caused a bunch of companies to turn him down. The police filed the charges though so I never had a chance to refuse to prosecute. He has an anger problem and this batterer's intervention program they are going to make him take will hopefully help.

I love lizards and geckos! We used to play with the ones that ran wild in our neighborhood in Florida when I was a kid. We'd have lizard hunts and wear them as earrings. Looking back, that was definitely weird.