San Diego Housing Market News and Analysis

Black Flag used to make a awesome product called Roach Ender. It sterilized any roaches not killed by the insecticide. I suspect that product is only available to pest control now.

Where was the place that you rented. In my twenty years as a Temeculan I've lived in 7 places and have never seen a single roach. When I was younger and lived near the coast and in some apartments in college, I saw them, maybe not an infestation but they were there. From my understanding, while they are practically invincible, they can only live 10 days without water (and 10 days without a head) so their one weakness is water and I think the arid climate here makes them not so prevelent.

I've found numerous black widows, some scorpions, a couple tarantualas, snakes, coyotes, ants and the smartest most risilent gophers on the planet, but no roaches or termites (I've never seen a house tented locally). So I would file that under the "scardey's long list of irrational fears."

If you do find yourself needing pest control services, vineyard valley pest control is my favorite, hands down. A locally owned outfit that is a little on the environmentally conscious side but they are good and they know their stuff. The only time I ever had ants was during the times when I switched to a cheaper pest control company or tried it on my own, always ended up going back.

Since I'm ranting about the gophers, I've tried everything and have not caught a single one, they have a logistical advantage as there is a fenced in, multi acre hoa owned hillside desending down from right behind my place so I cannot bring in a predator or flush them out with water. I'm convinced they eat the poison pellets as an appetizer, they trigger the traps without getting stuck in them, I am just going to give up. Can you buy gopher snakes and just release them into the holes? Since you are fearful of zombies, you can have my gophers because zombies are no match for my gophers.

I had roaches and fleas in a fixer I bought and a good cleanup of the filthy yard, then poisoning got rid of them. I spread something like dianazon around the yard. I don't think you can buy that anymore either.

TG, As you probably know the gophers migrate to wet soil if they are not there already and that they pop up every few feet. I put a clean perimeter around my vegetable garden so I can see them coming towards it. This way you get a chance at dealing with them on less than prime real estate.

You can also use large pavers, about 18"x18", by standing them up, end to end in a trench, leaving just enough showing to make an attractive and sturdy border for whatever it is you are trying to protect. It isn't perfect, but that plus some vigilance will work. If one climbs across the border and digs in( which won't happen often), you know it is in a confined space and you can use the hose or what ever you want to go after it. They can hide from water by climbing up into a raised part of the tunnel system and watching the pretty river go by. I got rid of one last year, that I knew was confined to a small area, by making a probe that I could inject water into the surrounding areas with. You can feel a give when the probe finds a tunnel and turn the water on. I think it drowned, not sure, but the damage ,which was happening to a huge pumpkin plant, stopped and the pest never re-appeared.

I spent one summer feeling like Bill Murray in Caddyshack tracking down unstoppable gophers on my hillside. It was amazing, overnight 10 more holes would pop up.

I tried pellets, etc. with no luck.

The solution to the problem turned out to be getting a cat. Gophers took off shortly thereafter and I gave that cat a bonus.

the rental was out of state, southwest hot location; it was truly horrifying, not like some slight ickiness. we had a little baby, and we'd just moved in, and we had a used diaper that we hadn't disposed of right away, and that morning there were a bunch o roaches crawling on it. . I've only seen ants and spiders, rats and mice and such around temecula. I have no problem with ants spiders rats and mice, but hate roaches. i don't know if roaches qualify as an "irrational fear" yet; there was just something about that place we checked out yesterday that made me think, hmm, wonder if there are roaches here.

When I lived in San Bernardino I had 4 gophers. the 2 in the back I flooded them out and when they poppped out I shot them with my 22 rifle. The cops never came lol. I figured the larger the caliper ups the chances of police in that city. The 2 in the front I flooded and kicked them in the head so hard with my steal toed work boots. Man those little suckers can fly. Fun times. I have probably 10-20 gophers currently on my acre but do not think I can shoot them here. Be funny to put a video on utube kicking the crap outta em.

Use baby carrot sticks on the opposite side of the traps. They cannot resist carrots and lose all sense of danger it seems.
Anyway works for me.

As far as the roaches I agree it's probably a water issue.

I tried everything including staking them out with BB gun (should have used the 22), this is the only thing that work for me....
http://www.gardenfun.com/solar-gopher-co...
they were gone after 2 weeks.

There are roaches here, but I think they are the outdoor roaches version: those really big ones that come in from outside, similar to Hawaii. Not the smaller roaches that live in your house with you. We use pest control every 3 months on the outside perimeter, and no problem.

A bigger problem is mice! Have mouseproofed the house twice in 4 years, and they keep coming back and making new holes. Not found of glue traps, or the snap traps as they are inhumane. Snap traps don't always kill them in one fell swoop, and it is just painful to find one alive scrambling to live. The poison pellets cause them to die of thirst, and they come running out for water, and sometimes die inside the walls, so until the rotting carcass is gone, it is a smelly ordeal. And, the tenant had 3 cats and that didn't stop the problem, so go figure.

SC,
I think Ablify would handle the problems you have described in your last 5-10 forum topics.

I just ordered 2 of them, thanks for the tip!

for cockroaches use maxforce-nothing better,may have to get it over the net.
for gophers I concur they are a tough lot to get rid of but ultimately a good tom cat should do it.

Boric acid powder works wonders for roaches. Non-toxic to mammals, but highly toxic to insects. You can get it at Home Despot.

I heard for gophers, plant garlic plants. Do a google search for this, but from what I understand, plant the garlic plants around the areas you want to protect. The plant actually blooms pinkish/purple flowers. But the bulb underground and the oils are repellants. I haven't personally tried this, but I heard it works. They will go to other areas where the garlic is not. That may mean your neighbor.

jp, I tried that one, they don't eat the garlic but it only pushes them a few feet and they will go around or under it. I'm not sure I have normal gophers, I may need to contact some scientists because it's possible that I have a mutant species with superhero abilites, they may be related to the monty python killer bunny. They got by a retaining wall that goes below the surface two feet, past a stretch of concrete, beyond poison pellets, poison gas and a trap laden minefield about twenty feet long to their promiseland of my front yard. I fully expect that the morning after I place the solar powered sonar repellers, I will walk out to my car and find them sitting on the wall, smoking cigarettes, drinking 40oz malt liquor and laughing at me while I look down to see the repellers broken into a dozen pieces. My gophers have tattoos and wear raiders jersey's. I was thinking of waiting hawk's method of a .22 but not sure if that will kill them, it might just make them mad, I may need to jump straight to Allan's aresenal. I'm just afraid that the authorities will get suspicious if I start running internet searches for "yellow cake uranium."

We've had 2 gophers and I shot them both with my trusty Daisy bb gun.

The only people I've known that have had roach problems in the area tend to have older buildings right near the beach. When I lived in Philly though, ugh, I had them badly in an apartment and they still freak me out. I can remember just closing my eyes when I turned on the kitchen lights to give them enough time to disappear and I would pretend that I didn't see them.

We've had to deal with a few indoor mice. This electontic trap did the trick every time. Easy to set, more humane (I think), and you don't have to handle or even see the mouse, as you can toss the entire thing in the trash (we dump the mouse in a bag and keep the trap).

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000E1RIUU/ref=...

Gophers - The Black Box. Find it at Hanks hardware or Ace. It's a black box with a small hole in one end. Bury it so the hole is exposed to light. The gopher will try and close the hole and will trip a spring trapping the varmint. Worked after trying flooding, road flares, guns, etc.

Roach and Silverfish - Roach Proof - Again at an ACE Hardware. It's a fine powder much like the Boric Acid and sprinkled around will work. Give it a couple of weeks.

Good Luck.

I've had the black box for one year, not one catch. I loaned it to friends and it worked like a charm (3 dead in 48 hours), It's been in place for one year, been tripped a dozen times, not one dead gopher. I move it to the freshest holes every few days, I trip it to make sure it works, I've tried various strategies of deployment, the square version and the tubular one with the light hole, burried it deep, shallow, angles, you name it. I know they work, I've seen them outperform every other trap, I've even seen this exact unit work on other people's gophers, which is why I am only partly joking about my "supergophers."

If I do ever catch one, I wonder if eating it will make me immortal?

TG,

This may give you some hope...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU3A_F8lRpY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0XCOPEIW...

Friend at work vacations to Utah every year for this..

Not that I ever would approve of this...

Luck In OC

TG - Sounds like you need to watch Caddyshack.

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so -- not sure -- anyone have conckroaches in temecula? doesn't seem possible not to. san bernardino has plenty. and while it's dry, plumbing leaks...

You have no other option --- you need the Gopher Blaster !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrGnW0KLFZk

Roaches-- agree that water, followed by food, is the key to having roaches.

I was in an apartment complex in NW Escondido that was roach-infested and has been for years (it had roaches the last time I was in there, a month in 1995).

These apartments have lush, wet landscaping right next to the buildings, the buildings are made of wood, and pets are allowed so there are any number of dog and cat dishes out in the units to feed the roaches. Of course the roaches migrate between units so the management's token spraying of each unit when it comes empty is useless.

In the house I'm currently living in we see an occasional roach. It has a hot tub built into the upstairs master bedroom (I know, "WTF???") which leaks when filled above a certain level. My housemate/landlord drained it at one point but I'm not sure if he's refilled it since he started bringing his girlfriend over for dates.

OTOH I lived in an apartment and a condo, each in RB, which had fairly "dry" landscaping, minimal pets, newer stucco construction, and never, never saw a roach in those places.

Mice are magnetically attracted to seeds, birdseed, rice (esp brown rice), mice/hamster/etc food. Keep these sealed in glass jars and that will solve the problem.

Temeculaguy, you may want to doublecheck and see if what you have is moles, not gophers. Moles are bug-eaters while gophers are herbivores, so if you have white grubs or lots of worms in your lawn, moles will be attracted. I think also they will react differently to the various traps etc than gophers. If it's moles, a good dose of BT on the lawn vs white grubs might help with the problem.