Northern Virginians/Marylanders... termite and pest companies...

[K Frame]

My termite protection period is coming to an end soon, and I want to get the house and grounds retreated.

But, I don't know who to use...

Any suggestions?

[wmenorr67]

Surround your property with burning floppys.

Someone had to say it and I might as well be first.

[vaskidmark]

Call any of the big-name companies.  Compare guarantees if you want to - you will never collect unless you keep perfect records and pay forever for the "follow-up" and "maintenance" treatments that go on for the life of the guarantee.

That being said, they are all about equal unless you need someone to deal with an existing infestation.

Oh!  Nothing kills cockroaches.  Your best bet is to make your neighbor's place more attractive.  A word of warning - making your neighbor's place more attractive is difficult if they ferment their own kim chee.  Don't ask me how I know, but trust me on that, OK?

stay safe.

skidmark

[MicroBalrog]

Oh!  Nothing kills cockroaches.

K-300 does. Have you never tried it?

[BrokenPaw]

Mike, recently we discovered that the BrokenHouse was the location of an apocalyptic ant battle; apparently the black ants in our yard were invaded by an expanding red ant empire, and were losing badly.  It seems that they left a small force to mount a rearguard action, while the majority of the nest moved the queen and every egg and pupa they had...into our attic. 

BrokenMa called two places: Terminix and Orkin.  The people at Terminix seemed indifferent about our business, and told us that they couldn't have anyone out to our house for days (the woman told my wife this as my wife is watching ants fall from a tiny hole in the ceiling onto our bed at a rate of about one every five seconds).

Orkin, on the other hand, hard far better customer service, cheaper prices, and got someone out to the house same day.

-BP

[ilbob]

About ten years ago I had a serious infestation of earwigs outside. They were everywhere in my lawn. I called several lawn services that advertised on TV.  They all told me they could only apply pesticides that killed grubs and some other insects, but nothing the EPA allowed them to use would kill earwigs, and said I would have to call an exterminator.

Several exterminators told me they were forbidden to treat the lawn more than 5 feet away from the house by EPA rule and I would have to call a lawn service to treat the lawn.

I ended up going to Home Depot and getting something that I applied to the lawn. Amazingly it actually worked.

BTW, boric acid does work on cockroaches.

[Paragon]

An old home I rented previously had a bad roach problem.  After some inaction by the landlord, I went crazy with boric acid for a few weeks.  The infestation subsided, and then I moved out.  I used a combination of boric acid and store-bought foggers in the truck when we moved, and I haven't seen a single one (knock on wood) since we moved into our new house. 

[vaskidmark]

Oh!  Nothing kills cockroaches.

K-300 does. Have you never tried it?

Like many modern politicians, it appears that I misspoke.  I should have said that nothing /eradicates/ cockroaches.

Yes, you can kill the individual roach.  Many products, including hairspray and a lighter, do a wonderful job of this.  Completely eradicating the entire colony (what is the correct term for a herd of roaches, anyway?) is not possible.  Boric acid and all the other chemicals, as well as controlled fire, merely make most of the survivors look for a more hospitable place - you may still find the lone survivalist who simply will not give up their homestead no matter what you do short of assasination.

stay safe.

skidmark

[MicroBalrog]

There are exterminators in Israel who guarantee your home will be perfectly roach-free for one year.

What they do is tell you to vacate the premises and pour giga-craploads of  K-300 or any similar product onto the floor. You come back six hours later and there's still puddles of it everywhere - but the roaches die. In fact, if a roach wonders in half a year later, they'll flop on their back and die. It's THAT frakkin' strong.

K-300 and other similar products also sell in cans. They're horridly dangerous to humans, though. They actually kill the roaches by melting portions of their body off.

[Marnoot]

Our home, which we just bought in February, was previously simultaneously inhabited by 4 families that brought cockroaches with them from their country of origin. Eradicating them involved an exterminator (paid for by the seller and thus, I'm sure, the cheapest he could find); completely gutting the kitchen down to plywood and drywall, and in some places floor joists and 2x4s; disposing of the existing appliances (the dishwasher was pretty well infested); 8 simultaneous bug bombs (the kind you activate by inverting in a small container of water); and some permethrin spray. Haven't seen a single one since, thankfully the climate in Utah is not cockroach-friendly.