Hello,
I posted about this issue before when I was having a terrible (shit) week back in June.
After doing more research on the issue on Mumsnet, I've also noticed seems to be an issue affecting residents in South West London, and cockroaches seem to be emerging from gardens.
So to go over our issue, since June we've seen cockroaches in our flat. It's a Victorian ground floor maisonette, two out door spaces. Back garden, entrance from our kitchen, internal courtyard, door on the opposite end of our kitchen (it's a big open plan room).
Not lots, but on a couple of occasions I've seen and removed two in one night.
I saw another one tonight, on our kitchen ceiling. Above be our plants. Apparently they do like plants (according the last pest control technician).
I've had two different pest control companies in. The council contractor one, and a private company. The private company have done THREE visits with their spray. Last one visit was last Tuesday. The guy did the spray, and we followed the rule of not cleaning the floor for four days.
So now I'm just bereft, angry and fucking miserable.
Our place is very clean, the cleaner comes to do a full clean of the whole place every week and I clean too be because I really do like a clean and tidy place. I'm a bit OCD in that respect.
ChatGPT seams to suggest I get the pest control company back in to inspect rather than treat to find a source. I'm out of ideas so perhaps it's right? The only other things I can think of doing would be to:
- Replace our dishwasher with a new machine, as it's well over ten years old (could that be the source?)
- Flush out the outside drains with a nasty chemical to nuke the batards, whatever napalm equivalent I can find
- Re-do our flooring to help seal the outside / garden a bit better, this is a job we were looking at doing a few years from now as they need restoring somewhat
We're in a bit of an unfortunate situation with the house, as we're surrounded by a mixture of older Victorian properties and a row of relatively new-builds next door. I'm assuming the new-builds are much more tightly sealed, with smaller gaps and fewer potential entry points, whereas our Victorian property is obviously a lot less well sealed. We're also right on the edge of the Common, so there's a lot of vegetation and wildlife around us.
We've never had this problem before. DH has owned the property since 2010 and this is the first time we've ever seen cockroaches. The extension was done in around 2015, so I don't know whether that's relevant either.
What's making it particularly difficult is that I have a three-year-old. I feel like such a failure for not being able to get on top of this and give him a completely safe, pest-free home. I know that probably sounds irrational, but it's genuinely upsetting when you're responsible for a small child.
I've reading Good Housekeeping that cockroaches are becoming more common because of warmer temperatures/climate change, and we certainly seem to be seeing them outside too. We have what is effectively a wall of glass at the back of the house, and at night I've noticed them on the outside of the back-door windows. Obviously that's less concerning than finding them indoors, but does that suggest they're primarily garden-dwelling cockroaches that are trying to get inside? Or does seeing them outside tell us anything useful about where they're coming from?
We've now had pest control treatments, but I'm still really anxious about the situation and would love to hear from anyone who's experienced something similar. Has anyone else had a persistent problem in a Victorian/older property, particularly near a park or lots of vegetation?
Is there anything practical that genuinely made a difference for you — sealing particular gaps, dealing with drains, changing anything around the garden, replacing appliances, etc.?
I'm mainly looking for a bit of reassurance and practical advice from people who've actually been through it. It's horrible, and I'd really appreciate hearing that we're not the only ones!