waterbugs

I assume you need to have a contractor or similar crawl around and find every single hole in which wires or plumbing are coming in or out of your unit and all other holes and fill them with steel wool and some sort of sealant or glue. Because almost any hole big enough for water bugs is big enough for mice.

The exterminator has no incentive to suggest this BTW.

Are you trying to say "roaches"?

In that case, you need to get to home depot or similar store and buy Combat Roach traps. Get the large and small sizes. You will be grossed out by dying roaches for a couple of days, but they will not reproduce. The traps will be good for about 4-6 months.

Don't bother with Raid, or any type of spray. They don't work. Just don't.

Then try to figure out where the holes are.

I don't think these are roaches. I had one come up through the bathtub plumbing.. they are massive and disgusting. No idea how to resolve.. luckily one round of the exterminator has kept them away since (a couple of months now). I'd be mortified if I saw another one.

Technically they are roaches, but when people say "roaches" they generally are referring to the much smaller German cockroaches that you'll see in dirty kitchens. Waterbugs are American cockroaches. If they're freaking you out now, wait until they start flying! That's a treat.

They are American roaches (the German ones are the small ones). They might have nests by your neighbors. They like heat and water.

Is anyone painting in your building? That often causes them to come out of the woodwork and move greater distances.

If you renovated it is possible you opened new accesses for them from other apartments or parts of the building. They will travel the pipes (sewer, steam, conduits, etc.) in search of food and water. Also in search of warmth. Best to seal all cracks and holes with steel wool. You could also spread diatamatious earth around.

re: "I had one come up through the bathtub plumbing."

Adding a layer of fine wire mesh to your drain trap might help. It will also slow down drainage in the other direction, so don't let hair accumulate.

AvUWS >> They are American roaches (the German ones are the small ones).

I agree - this 'waterbug' business is sometimes a creation by brokers, landlords and management companies to avoid admitting there is a roach problem in the building. Once we went to view a rental and there were a few dead roaches on the floor and we got the same response "oh those are waterbugs". Of course we never came back. Call them whatever, but I dont want to see them where I live.

We live in a very old building and this year have experienced issues with "waterbugs" and german roaches (we're looking to move, needless to say). The only treatment we found that worked 100% was Boric Acid - harmless to pets and children but really does a number on the roaches. We were seeing 1 roach every few days (I was losing sleep too!) and within 48 hours of using BA there were none except for a couple of dead ones.

Also keep in mind that even the big roaches need only a crack no larger than 1/16th of an inch wide; they can flatten their bodies.

"Also keep in mind that even the big roaches need only a crack no larger than 1/16th of an inch wide; they can flatten their bodies."

Exactly. You will never find all the cracks.

That's why you need the Combat bait traps, they are attracted to the poison, eat it and die. Then the other roaches are attracted to the carcasses and eat those, poisoning themselves. Gross but true.

Combat. They work and you will be roach free in three weeks.

Change them every 3 months, and you will never see another roach.

I disagree on the Combat. Waste of money, particularly since after only 20 generations (believe it or not, that's less than three months!) the roaches build up immunity to the chemical poison.

The only thing that works is boric acid -- it's impossible for them to become immune to it.

Here are waterbugs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_water_bug

I am 99% sure you have an "oriental coackroach."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_cockroach

I think they like to be referred to as "Asian cockroaches," by the way.

You need to destroy the nests in the walls. You'll have to pay extra for the exterminator to do this - basically he has to drill holes near the baseboards and spray the poison directly into the walls. A friend of mine had a huge problem in a rental down in Brooklyn and this was the only thing that got rid of them.

Incidentally, if a building is permeated with a sicky-sweet "woodsy" scent, that's the smell of decaying cockroach bodies.