I’ve been assured, and I believe, that the effective way to get rid of the roaches in your apartment is to clean the place, put poison in the cracks, and then seal them. Some people do that. But a lot of people go for the “bombing” approach: the exterminator comes to the building once a month, drops the bomb, leaves, and comes back the next month.
My question is: what are these people thinking?? Why do these people willingly get bombed once a month instead of following the simpler and effective approach? Part of this is ignorance, surely, but I think there’s more to it than that, some underlying psychological appeal. I don’t think it’s just ignorance because, when I talk with people who get bombed and discuss the “clean, poison, and seal” approach, I’ve found them to be very resistant and (I would say) “defensive.” They seem to want to believe that bombing is effective and really don’t want to hear about alternative strategies.
What’s going on? I have some theories. Maybe bombing seems like less effort than cleaning the food out of your closet and sealing the cracks. Also it seems sort of decisive. On the other hand, shouldn’t people pause a little when they think about needing the exterminator every month? Yet, that doesn’t seem to bother people. Conceptually, getting the exterminator to bomb your apartment feels to me a bit like “taking a pill.” Maybe there’s some technological appeal. Sort of like the way that photovoltaics are sexy in a way that passive solar isn’t.
I don’t know. I’ll have to ask some psychologists of my acquaintance who work on environmental decision making.
My apartment is a studio. I have no idea where the cracks are, and if they are behind the stove or the sink (likely), forget it. I'd have to stay home from work and arrange for someone to come in. Other cracks I could clean myself, but it means things like emptying out the closet, moving the bookshelves, etc.
I'm not even sure what your logic is. Its cheaper at least in terms of time to bomb. Is the only furniture in your apartment a futon?
The best anti-roach practice I've found is to eat immediately after cooking, clean up immediately after eating, take out the trash frequently, and eat out fairly often (never take delivery, physically go to the already roach infested restaurant and eat there). You won't see many roaches if there is no reason for them to go there. If you live in Manhattan, there will be tons in your walls and you just have to deal with it.
Bellicosity?
Ed,
We don't actually have roaches, but the exterminator comes every month, and people in our building do sign up, so I imagine they have infestation.
Bombing's romantic.
In grad school, our apartment got bedbugs. I hired an incompetent bomber who set off so much stuff the apartment was uninhabitable for maybe a week. During that time, we moved in with our girlfriends. Both of us have been married to these girlfriends for over 30 years.
People are lazy. "Can't someone else do it?" is their motto!
I think this is probably similar to why people prefer to have our roads salted in winter rather than sanded. By salting the roads we see a 'cleaner' road. Even if this road is not safer, it feels safer because the snow is gone. While the salt on the roads is damaging to the ecosystem, and using sand instead, we cling to the idea of one approach being better because of the appearance, rather than the reality and the health outcome.
I suspect it has to do both with the difficulty of locating and sealing all cracks and maintaining the necessary cleanliness. They know they aren't going to catch them all or do it and will end up with them anyway.
@ Ben Clark:
Do you have a reference showing sand effectiveness >= salt effectiveness?