Return of the Roach

This past weekend, I was just thinking how I hadn’t seen the big cockroaches in awhile (not even outside on the building walls at night), and that it has been really nice not to have to deal with them. I spoke too soon...

They’re BAAACK!!! On a night like any other, I wandered up the stairs half-asleep to hit the hay, and there he was. The big cockroach. On the steps between me and my bedroom. He was looking right in my direction, so I didn’t want to walk up the stairs and risk spooking him (aka risk him flying at me). So I got a big Tupperware container and threw it at him, hoping it would land over him and trap him. Unfortunately, all it did was the thing I didn’t want to happen: he spooked and flew haphazardly directly at me. I scrambled down the stairs and he landed on the bottom one. He was kind of close to the door so I thought maybe I could use the broom to push him out. When I tried that, he ran quickly across the living room floor, and somehow I managed to throw the Tupperware and this time trap him. I was tired and wanted to go to bed, so he got to sleep in the Tupperware that night.

The next morning, I had to figure out how to get him out of the house, now that I had him trapped. The Tupperware was quite large so using a piece of paper under it (like I normally would) wasn’t really an option since it was too small, and too flimsy, to keep him in. I ended up pushing the Tupperware across the floor towards the front door. A few times he came close to escaping since the floor is uneven and at times there were small gaps, but luckily he stayed trapped. I finally got a photo of the invader (see below) and while I was getting the camera I could hear (across the room) his little feet madly trying to push himself out under the Tupperware. Quite creepy. I eventually got the container to the door, and decided the best thing to do was just push it out as quickly and as far as I could. Of course he only went a few feet, but luckily his leg got caught on a thread of the welcome mat so he couldn’t scurry back in. I used this to my advantage and pushed the welcome mat (with the broom of course, in case he disentangled himself) all the way to the sidewalk. Once there, I nudged him with the broom to disentangle him, and he proceeded to scurry back towards my house. I definitely wasn’t going to put up with that! So I pushed him with the broom until he changed course and ran for the street. Mission accomplished!

Of course that couldn’t be the end of the cockroach invasion. I was taking a shower the next night and when I was drying off I felt something on my leg, and when I looked down there was a cockroach crawling up my leg. Granted, it was a small one, but creepy nonetheless! Since this one didn’t pass the size threshold to be captured instead of killed, this one got the shoe. I can’t have cockroaches in my shower!

I have two more weeks left, so let’s hope that the next two weeks are peaceful and cockroach-free!

The intruder, plotting how to escape from the Tupperware...