Wondering what you use & how often you treat for roaches in your multis.

It always amazes me how some tenants are never bothered by roaches & others think that it's time to burn down the building if they see even one roach. If we notice or our tenants mention seeing roaches, we'll do a treatment otherwise, we treat each unit every 6-9 months. For the last few years we've been using Advion for one of the treatments & for Vendetta for the next one. So far it seems to be pretty effective.

I normally get mine from Do My Own. Today when I was looking over their products, I noticed that they now have something called Vendetta Plus which in addition to having Abamectin 0.05%, it also has Pyriproxyfen 0.5%. I decided to order a case of that & a case of their Alpine Gel which I've never used before. Our next scheduled treatments start in March so I wanted to be ready.

Have any of you tried either the Vendetta Plus or the Alpine Gel?

I have units in "A", "B", "C" and even "D" locations with mixed tenants. There is always someone somewhere that leaves food out, has an open kitchen trash container or brings in boxes lined with roach eggs.

For this reason I have contracts with a pest control company to spray the exterior of the entire structure once a month on a curtain date, like the first Tuesday of every months. Included in that monthly service is ONE TREATMENT inside a unit.

Why do I do this? So if any tenant notices a problem, I can arrange for their unit to be treated and inspect the entire property.

I had a situation that a Mexican market that buses shoppers to and from their apartment to the store to buy bulk food. Instead of giving them bags, they give the shoppers cardboard boxes to transport stuff home. The only problem is these boxes are from delivery's to the store and are placed outside in their lot so over night roaches lay eggs. Then my tenants take the boxes home and cause infestation through my property.

We've been using Maxforce FC Magnum as our go to gel for the last few years. One of my associates had a unit done from A1 using Vendetta Nitro so I haven't tried that yet.

Been dealing with a roach infestation since last August in a building. Delta dust in the electrical boxes and along base boards, vendetta plus in the cabinets, Gentrol disc placed in kitchen, I'll put out advion/and or MaxGel disc. Keep going back once a month to freshen up. Key is the tenant. If everything is clean, seems to help a lot.

I have even mixed up boric acid and sugar, placed on grey tape. Good indicator if you still have some running around. The sprays... no good luck with them. I sprayed Cy-kick outside. Not sure if it really helped or not...

Frank, the technician in this video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwIO8KRsm1Q) does an excellent job explaining the correct way to treat for roaches. Whether you do your own treatments or have a service do it, he shows the way that it should be done. Even though for years we've done it pretty much the same way as what he shows, I picked up a few ideas.

Before watching him use one, I had never seen an applicator extender (www.technicide.com/products/tech-reach-bait-pro-bait-gun-extension). I think it would be a great tool to have. I also never gave any thought to treating the ceiling lights & will start doing that. We have always treated outlets, switches & SDs. I will also start adding boric powder to the trays under the refer. We normally shoot some behind the gas stoves but only have used gel for the refers.

Whenever we do any remodeling as we close up the walls, we put some boric powder along the lower plates. During base cabinet installations we also put boric powder there as well. As a preventive measure we treat the back of new stoves before installing them. We also remove the cardboard cover & treat the back of new refers as they are installed.

Interesting that he was advion bait. Vendetta plus has been getting a better response lately...

Steve,

We treat for bugs and mice at every turnover. I believe this has helped a lot.

My theory is that many bug problems unknowingly arrive with the new resident.

We keep trying the chemicals as they come out AND dust areas like Steve mentioned and the crawl space. The dust lasts forever.

I like Steve's location suggestions.

I do not like the gel bait because it dries in a few days which makes it useless.

If anyone in a multi spots a bug we treat the entire building including basement and crawl, with a 3'high 3'wide perimeter spray around the ENTIRE foundation exterior.

If you are having trouble getting rid of roaches, check next door. I watched HUNDREDS of roaches leave my house as it was being sprayed, as they walked across my neighbor's gravel driveway into HIS house. Yikes. They already knew where to go. Needless to say he was upset.

Another house had unending roaches after many many sprays. Turns out MY rental next door was totally infested. The critters were traveling. Special thanks to Covid for suggesting we not enter homes for quarterly checks.

BRAD