It's been very very dry here. We have had little rain for many weeks. I shudder to think what my water bill will be for using the sprinkler on the garden and orchard....
One thing we get around here when it is either very wet or very dry are water roaches. Ugh.... Shudder.....
I generally have a staunch countenance. I can really handle most gross, gooey, sticky, smelly, bloody or yuck things. One thing I cannot handle is roaches of ANY kind. Total girl-shrieking, lose-my-shit freak out. So of course, since they were looking for water, guess who decided to come visit us through the sewer line.... And I was not prepared.
When I moved in, the biggest threat I had in the office was little tiny ants. I had the exterminator come and he set it up on a monthly visit and off we went towards bug-free bliss. I cannot afford to have the bug-man come take care of this anymore and also hadn't given it much thought as there wasn't anything needing taken care of anyway. Spraying just to be spraying isn't really my thing; I'm not pro-chemical anything. I knew the name of the spray he used to use and was able to order it online without an applicator's license. I paid for the fast shipping.
In the meantime, I cleaned out any fresh food items, put any cooking items and dishes away, removed the kitties' food and the kitties from the office. (They stayed in the barn for a week until the smoke cleared.) I turned off the air conditioning and any fans. I made sure I had a route of spraying in mind that led me out the front door. This spray is used for both outdoor and indoor applications so I knew which way I was going to turn when I went outside. I just generally got prepared for the spraying to happen. It had been in the high 80s for a few days prior to spray day so I knew the whole ordeal wasn't going to be pleasant.
When I was in college, part of our training included a chemical application course. That prepared me for what to wear and how to suit up for this particular pursuit. While I didn't have professional garb for this, I'm sure I was quite a sight to behold. My winter shoes, long pants tucked into my socks, long sweatshirt with my hood up, and yellow latex dish gloves because that's what I had on hand. I topped the whole look off with a disposable mask. The farm-chemical dousing had already happened and I wasn't about to get coated in anything else.
I had also purchased a brand new gallon yard sprayer just for this. You know the kind that you fill up and pump the handle to make pressure? Yeah... the damned thing didn't work (which I didn't find out until I had it filled) and I had to make a flying trip to get a different one. I wasn't about to strip out of said hot outfit to do it either. Once that portion of the activity was settled, I went about my spraying.
What I wasn't prepared for was the sheer amount of spray that would come out of the thing. Let me tell ya, every nook and cranny got filled with the mixture; especially the drains. Then I made it outside and sprayed the entire perimeter of the building. I locked up and stripped off my outer layer of clothing, being careful to not touch anything that had come in contact with the chemical. I let the office marinate in that for 24 hours and came back to turn on all the exhaust fans and ran back out again.
A couple days later I came back and got the place opened up and attempted to get back to work. Once I knew all the smell was out and everything was dry (the chemical is rated to be pet and human safe once it's dry) and I had mopped everywhere the kitties touch, I brought them back to their home.
It even smoked the fruit flies! Bug-free bliss achieved! Or so I thought.
One more water roach showed up but passed quickly either from the chemical or my foot, I'm not sure if he was already dead when I squished him. THEN I had one come up the bathroom drain in the house!
We finally got some rain overnight so hopefully they can go back to living in their regular yucky places and leave us the heck alone. I don't want to have to uproot the kitties or suit myself up in my spraying garb again anytime soon.