Bug Feces?

[spackard]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
Well I yanked the tub out today, it's definitely not mold and there were no dead bugs in the wall cavity. If it were cockroaches I'd think there would be a few dead ones back there? There is a ton of room under the tub and in the wall for them to croak.


Roaches are omnivores and will readily eat other dead or dying roaches.

 

[JHZR2]

OP, is your home at ground level, or barely off of that height at the main floor? It seems to me that this has a lot to do with bugs in homes. Ive personally never understood why people build homes at ground level, whether its the case here or not.

We've never had roaches, ants, etc in any home weve ever lived in, growing up, living now, etc. Granted we keep pretty clean, and some of itmay be climate, but I think its because every home Ive ever lived in has had to have at least three steps to climb to get in to the first floor.

One I rented an apartment in Alabama, ground floor. It was two bedrooms, I lived in one and closed off the other. I never saw a roach where I was, but after opening the other room for the first time in months, there were lots of dead roaches on the floor, and you could see that they ate each other on their travels. Gross.

Where my aunt lives in TX, again slab floor right at ground level, they have roaches that you can see creep across the floor in front of you in the summertime. And her home is VERY clean.

Yuck.

 

[DBMaster]

^Good points made. If your home is in a natural bug habitat, or in a migration path, you are going to have bugs in your house on occasion. I have researched the types I have seen in my house, including the large disturbing-looking American cockroaches (the huge ones). They do not come into the house looking for food. Mostly, they end up trapped in the house by accident. That goes for the big wolf spiders, too. Those, I catch and release outside. There is nothing in here for them. In this area, you'll see black crickets often, too. Again, they end up in the house unintentionally and usually die in here unless I catch and release them first.

If people would do a little research rather than simply trying to make their homes into chemical experiments I think we would be better off. I have tried the chemical approach when I was less informed about my local fauna. Now, I try for more of a natural balance and I don't become upset by a few bugs. Texas is a bug utopia so thinking one can live bug-free is a pipe dream.

Coexistence is the key. I think we all realize by now that in a battle between humanity and nature nature will always win.

 

[dishdude]

Ok hope no one is eating as I have some additional picture from today's demo. The good news is I didn't see anything active, except for that one silverfish. This is a one story home built on a slab. I have no idea what type of insect these are...

 

[Mr Nice]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
OP, is your home at ground level, or barely off of that height at the main floor? It seems to me that this has a lot to do with bugs in homes. Ive personally never understood why people build homes at ground level, whether its the case here or not.

We've never had roaches, ants, etc in any home weve ever lived in, growing up, living now, etc. Granted we keep pretty clean, and some of itmay be climate, but I think its because every home Ive ever lived in has had to have at least three steps to climb to get in to the first floor.

One I rented an apartment in Alabama, ground floor. It was two bedrooms, I lived in one and closed off the other. I never saw a roach where I was, but after opening the other room for the first time in months, there were lots of dead roaches on the floor, and you could see that they ate each other on their travels. Gross.

Where my aunt lives in TX, again slab floor right at ground level, they have roaches that you can see creep across the floor in front of you in the summertime. And her home is VERY clean.

Yuck.


JHZR2,

I've heard roaches can go from the sewer and 'swim' through the pipes in your sinks and get into your house.

Have you heard this before, maybe she has this problem ?

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette

I've heard roaches can go from the sewer and 'swim' through the pipes in your sinks and get into your house.


Back when we were rehabbing real estate we invested in a 4-plex. While we were reviewing the property and planning the work, we ran the water in one of the ground level unit kitchen sinks. When the water was turned on a flood of roaches came up and out. The unit had been vacant for several months before that-my guess is that they were feeding on the debris in the drainage pipes.

There was evidence of roaches in the rest of the unit, but we didn't see live ones until the water was turned on.

 

[dishdude]

Well the exterminator came out, he thinks it's cricket feces. The other dead insects are a larvae that are non wood destroying. I had him spray everything as a precaution even though he didn't see anything active.

 

[JHZR2]

I thought crickets in the home were lucky!

 

[DBMaster]

It's pretty much impossible to never see a cricket (the black ones) in your house around here no matter how much you spray. Sticky traps in the attic do help. As the bushes in my front flower bed have become a thick hedge I have several good size lizards living there. I see a lot fewer crickets these days with no spraying. The only con is the occasional lizard dropping (looks like bird droppings) on the front porch in the summer. They hang out under the porch light to eat the crickets and june bugs.

I was never a proponent of this sort of "natural balance" thing, but it sure does seem to work. I have occasionally sprayed around the foundation and doors in the past, but I have never applied insecticide on the yard. I have a greenbelt behind my house with a lot of birds. The birds and spiders keep the bugs in check. The birds and mud daubers keep the spiders in check.

 

[Lester24]

I think you should try only green cleaning green cleaning products to remove stains or you can make some green products of your own. Vinegar and lime juice are two main ingredients that I use to make green cleaning products at home. If you don’t have time to make then get them from market.