Breaking Rental Lease

[lynncwy]

I have just rented an apt and while doing the spring cleaning before I officially move-in, found cockroaches crawling out. I thought it was just a few since the owner has just move out.
But it become worst. For the past 13days after moving into the apt, I have killed ard 30+ small cockroaches.
I have used dentol to clean the house, put cockroaches trap, spray insecticide but still there are cockroaches around.
This really scare me as I feel very uncomfortable. Now its winter time and there are so many cockroaches, really can't imagine what will happen if it is summer.
I'm going to use Fumigator to "smoke" the house this weekend and hopes that this will really posion and kill all the cockroaches in the house.
But, if this still don't work, I think the last resort is to break the rental lease.
However, I will loss the 2 months deposits which was held at the owner side. Is there a way to get back the deposit since breaking the rental lease is not really what I want to but kinda force to due to the cockroaches in the house???
Please give me some advice.....

Thanks

[jimbo]

Speak to the landlord and tell him of the cockroach infestation first of all.

Also try and find out where they're getting in from and see if you can seal the entrance.

[Alby]

Agree with JIMBO and be prepared that the LL will say cockroaches are common - which they are given the tropical climate but it sounds that you have an unusual amount.

Ask you landlord to fumigated and if they don't do it yourself and with hold the amount spent in the next rental payment...be sure to hold on to receipts to show how much you in fact paid if asked.

Also, you may consider geecko's ... as they eat cockroaches but you just have to be able to tolerate a geecko or two crawling around.

[lynncwy]

Thanks for all the advice. Tomorrow will be the last chance since I going to fumigate the house (brought the fumigator from supermarket).
If this still doesn't work, then I shall iron this out with the owner....
Can't imagine if now is the SARS period, its will be too unhygenic to live in here....

[Ariakas]

I had this issue with the place I'm staying at. There was a few cockroach at first but gradually got worst. I would kill like 20 adults each night, I only really see them late night. Our home is very clean as we have kids so helper cleans daily. I did a lot of research on this situation. First off the cockroaches you have are likely German cockroach. Worst of the breed since they lay a sh*t load of eggs and females carry their eggs on them. I see you bought a supermarket fumigator. Fumigation will kill the cockroach that are live but its ineffective against the eggs. I also went the path of buying traps and spray from supermarket, it was a waste of money in my opinion. I then got a professional company to come in to my place and then place a bug bomb in the house, left the house for 3 hrs, came back and picked up about 50 or so dead cockroaches plus assorted silverfishes. Cleaning up was a pain as it left a residue on the floor and furniture. Fumigation last for a couple weeks, then the odd small cockroach came back. I complained to the company since they guarantee no cockroaches for 2 months but they gave some lame excuses about fumigation is most effective for the existing roaches and not the new ones. I yell at them and they finally sent in another dude to lay down roach bait. Basically this white gel with poison in all the crevices of your home. The bait takes about couple weeks to work as the roach would ingest it will die eventually and other roach that ingest the poisoned roach will also die so it spreads around. The bait last for a couple months. After using the bait, the roach count was reduce to 0. Haven't see them the last couple months.... knock on wood.

Since I am currently renting I did discuss with the owner regarding this situation, they were understanding about it and split the cost with us for the professional help. Your miles may vary of course pending on your landlord.

So in summary, go professional, supermarket grade won't do the job if you have a bad outbreak....once the roaches are in your home, those biatches are everywhere... damn I hate them.... and yes talk to the landlord.

Sorry for the long rambling, hope this helps

[hktraveller]

I heard that Cockroaches don't like dry air. So a dehumidifier might help. Can anyone confirm this?

I run a dehumidifier 24 hrs per day and have not seen more that 2-3 dead Cockroaches in 3 years.

By the way, it saves a lot of electricity to have the temperature in summer at 27 degrees and humidity at 50%, which feels cool enough. At 80% 27 degrees are already hard to take.

[hktraveller]

I just found this:
Entomology (Study of Bugs): cockroaches

It says: Cockroaches need humidity to survive.

So the dehumidifier is the solution.

[sfosymphony]

I face very similar situation as lynncwy - just rented a new apartment and was horrified to find cockroaches crawling in the kitchen and other places. I've placed many baits and have seen a number of small dead roaches as a result, but still spotting at least 5 every night since the first night I've moved in.

I did not expect this at all as my previous apartment was 20+ years older and there has not been a single roach before. Also the previous tenant at this new place seldom cooked.

Sounds like a combination of different methods would be most effective, but there is high probability the creatures will come back again? I will probably ask the professional to come in now, have not been so keen before for the fear of chemical harm to human bodies.