Sorry for the long post ahead..
We just purchased our first home, we did everything leading up to closing as we should we got a general inspection, plumbing inspection, termite inspection and all came back clear and with very little things that needed to be taken care of. We went from renting, we were comfortable at our other place but wanted to find a house with a nice yard and a home that could be ours. We have young kids as well. We walked through the home about 4 times before closing, we did initial walk through then came in two other times to measure and then final walkthrough 3 days before closing. I noticed they had glade plug ins throughout the property and it was so strong I was like I am definitely taking those out before moving in, but thats all you could smell was glade. The seller apparently bought the house 2.5 years ago, ”re did the interior” and rented it and then decided to sell it now. House was on the market for over 60 days because they priced high, so it sat vacant. So great we get everything done and taken care of, the house a little bit out of our budget but we made it work because initially we thought we have minimal work that needs to be done to it. So we close on the house 2 days ago on Monday. I left the closing, came straight in and wanted to clean the house because we had little time to be able to move before my husband went back to work and we have 10 days left in our rental before there is a new tenant. I went immediately to the kitchen. I noticed a dead bug in the corner I was like okay that’s fine maybe came in from people coming in and out. I didn’t look at it too much I just wiped it up. I moved an foot down the counter and there is another one. Im like hmm, I continue on and I find 4 dead bugs flipped upside down on the counter all the same type of bug so I am suspicious at this point like it’s not a one off that flew in. so I take a picture of it and upload it to Google… this is where I about died inside. it said “German cockroach.” so I go balls to the wall and I start opening cabinets to look inside I see black flecks in the corners of the cabinets and what looks to be like grease and dirt over all of the hinges. I open up the cabinets next to the stove one crawled out and it smelled disgusting, it smelled musty and that had the most dirt on the hinges. so at this point I just start crying, I just bought the biggest purchase of my life so far and there might be a cockroach infestation… not to mention I have kids and I don’t want them living in this. I took pictures of everything, I pulled the oven tray out and sure enough… 2 combat max roach bait trays under there with a few dead roaches around it. I pulled the fridge out there was dirt, combat max trays and some flipped over dead roaches. I open up the kitchen cabinets and up top there was more combat max bait trays. on top of the fridge more combat max bait trays with dead roaches next to it. I decided to look in the bathroom so I pulled the bathroom cabinet drawers out and sure enough brown flecks and a few dead roaches. I have 7 days left in my rental we already moved everything here I haven’t unpacked a single thing, and we aren’t using the kitchen yet since finding the bugs. I am so upset and feeling huge remorse and almost as if I made a bad decision purchasing this home and choosing to move my kids here instead of just staying in the rental we had because now we are stuck and I am terrified at the thought of having to put all our pantry products in bags and not be able to set plates down in the kitchen for however long we live here. not to mention I unplugged the glade plug ins and every time you walk in it smells musty. I have yet to see anymore live ones but finding a lot of traces of them and I am scared about bringing food in here or unpacking anything here and it drawing them out. None of this was mentioned by the seller, inspectors or nor were there any visible bugs when walking through. I would have never purchased. the home if I knew there was a possible cockroach infestation, and finding the trays it makes me feel like they knew about this. We called an exterminator and are having the place bombed Saturday but still feeling horrible that this might not be the end and I potentially just moved my children and my family into a place where we can’t really live. I feel like the kitchen is dirty and cant for see myself feeling comfortable enough to cook in there. I attached pictures to show. If you have any experience with a situation like this can you please share your experience - please no mean comments I suffer with ocd and specifically contamination and I am really struggling mentally for what’s ahead.

Best picture I could get. Is this a roach and if so is it a German or American baby? The antenna is kind of long so part of me is relying on that to see say it’s not a roach. But…maybe wishful thinking?

These things are torturing me 😭😭 how do I keep them out of my house?!? I see dozens every morning dead outside of my front door and back door - we’ve kept the lights off, we have regular pest control - I’m out of ideas!! Then every time I see them inside I spiral what if they are German and that’s why they won’t go away.

No ants yesterday, today we woke up to about 20 of them. Nothing has changed other than the garbage disposal broke lol but the ant aren’t in the kitchen, they’re in the hall. We can’t see where they’re coming and going from. They’re big and I don’t think they’re fire ants.
Thanks in advance

I’ve found several of these cockroaches in my house over the past few weeks. However, I often leave my windows open, so I’m not sure if they’re coming in from outside or if there’s another reason. Does anyone know what species this is, I live in Germany and aparrently there are also roaches that aren‘t a pest.
Pls help

Currently living in an apartment that’s infested with roaches, but am moving to a new place in September! I’ve asked the landlords to deal with it many times, but they won’t do anything other than send bug control (who aren’t doing anything other than spraying). I want to start preparing myself for the move, but idk what all I can keep/discard.

Do you guys have any tips on steps I should take, what I should chuck, and what I can keep? Any advice would be hugely helpful for the coming months!

I just noticed this dust on and around some of my books on a bottom shelf. I then found a little hole at the top of a book and what looks to be a dead larva of some sort. After doing some googling I think it looks like a bookworm hole but I’m not sure. What is the best way to isolate and exterminate the bugs with preferably minimal damage to the books? How far do I have to worry about them having spread? This shelf is on floor level and it’s the only place I have seen signs of bugs, how far could the be spread across the bookcase and to books set on the floor next to it. Also this is right next to my bed could they have gotten into there?

I've tried everything at this point aside from poison and/or air rifles (wife is worried I'll get in trouble by shooting/poisoning the rats); I've tried mesh, I've tried distractions, I've tried rat traps, I've tried ultrasonic noise emitters + flashing lights, I've tried pest repellent sprays and I've tried live trapping... While the latter seems to be effective in the short term, as I've caught & relocated about 10 squirrels at this point, they're permanently in the area, as new squirrels take the place of old ones since my neighbours feed these tree rats for fun. The only method I've had that keeps them away for the most part (until I water the lawn/it rains) is spices... But raiding the pantry every so often isn't entirely cheap, given how pricey some spices can get!

They don't even dig to bury food stuff, I've found wood chips and leaves stuffed into these ripped up holes in my lawn or the odd peanut *shell* (they're empty almost every time I've looked) and it's fatiguing just how persistent these shits are! We're expecting our first child this year and our yard was previously just barren backfill, but I wanted a green lawn for our daughter to play in, but the damage these things keep doing to the grass is pretty much unreasonable (part of me is hoping they're going to calm down by next year, since the grass *is* a new addition for this season) and I can't help but get frustrated that a swarm of rats is tearing up all my hard work, day-after-bloody-day, that I've put in to have a beautiful play area for our child come next year.

Anyone have a recommendation for spices that I can apply to my lawn that are cheap and still do the job of repelling? Thanks in advance!

So, I have a large cloth travel bag to carry two cornhole boards on my deck. When I picked it up to move it, that’s when I discovered there are a ton of yellow jackets (or similar) inside. A bunch came flying out and I got stung right above the eye. It appears I didn’t zip the bag completely and they’ve been hanging out in the bag, for up to a couple months since I last played cornhole.

Hopefully they’re not destroying my beautiful American flag cornhole boards. I’m nervous if I try to open the bag to let them free, I’ll get swarmed.

Any suggestions? Would a 2 or 3-foot yellow jacket / hornet spray be able to get through a thick cloth bag and help solve the problem?

I have been getting occasional bites from fleas. Not while at home, but when at my job.

I drive bus, and I strongly suspect that my moron coworkers are feeding squirrels while at a university campus, on break, and the idiots are letting the squirrels enter onto the bus.

The squirrels then leave behind a few fleas, which are biting me.

I have cats that are absolutely indoor only cats, and I don't want to bring fleas home.

Is there something I can apply to my skin and clothing that will either kill or repel fleas, and prevent bites, as well as kill or prevent eggs from being left on me, while at work?

Reporting this to management is an amazing idea, and it will result in absolutely nothing actually being done.

Please help identify.

So I posted almost a month ago about seeing a German roach (or at least I think that’s what it was) in my shower. I took your advice and covered drains, left no standing water or opened food, etc. I did not set bait as I only saw one and my mom was worried I’d bait more into the house.

Last night I was in bed with a lamp on and saw the big black/brown cockroach in the first picture come out from under my dresser, which is against my only shared wall. In the photo, it’s dead and on its back, but in person it appeared completely black on the top. It’s about 1.5”-2” long not including antennae. It ran into the bathroom, and I saw two small ones in the bathroom! I never even turn that light off after the first incident 🥲

The second photo is one we spotted in the lobby downstairs. It was curled up and dead but about an inch long even then.

Can anyone help me figure out wtf is going on? My mom has contacted the housing authority because of this issue and the apartment company won’t fix the AC (Nebraska is in a heat wave and the feels like is 110).

Here’s a link to my previous post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pestcontrol/s/v981UalIet

only thing i’ve seen in the crevice of my headboard. nothing i can see on the mattress, sheets, etc. i have no bites.

photo is as close as i can take it on my phone. on a piece of toilet paper.

chicago

It's been four months, (Landlord) has been hiring a Pest Control company that comes and sprays the furniture, has done absolutely nothing up to this point. They've visited four times in four months and only the last visit got decent results, they sprayed a wall in our house (that is nothing but wooden boards and we have visibly seen bugs crawling in and out of) and sprayed around the attic this last visit. Bugs were back in less than two weeks though. They've been over several times in the past few months to check but we can never seem to find actual evidence of bugs nesting in the furniture, but I see live ones on my bed all the time and I've seen several of them crawling around the house since the second day we moved in. I have a mattress protector on my mattress. They've taken back a bug I was able to capture on a sticky trap to try to confirm that it was a bedbug, it is. (Landlord) is saying that they've never had issues with this company before and the company has told them that it's our fault for not following protocol or that we are bringing reinfestation back into the house somehow. I've told them that I see several adults in the house even after treatment. We run our laundry constantly and I keep anything that I take to work in my car. I know it's not on us anyway but I don't know what kind of evidence I could possibly propose to him. I've told him on several occasions that multiple Pest Control companies have told me this was a long established issue with this property, and that we've been advised by everyone on the Internet and several companies to get the house fumigated because spraying will not alleviate the issue.

Can someone identify what this is? We found it inside our window. And then we saw I believe wasps? going in and out from outside the windowsil.

Hello! I started getting carpenter ants in this windowsill. I started spraying Alpine WSG and baiting with Advion ant immediately.

I noticed that some are coming out of this little crack underneath the windowsill on the corner. Outside of the house I saw that there were some holes on the top of the window and along the same side here that they were going into.

Where should I do void injections? Just every 6-12 inches along this side of the wall and at the top? Is it possible to make the problem worse with void injections?

They’ve always gathered here but not this much. Looked out this morning and it looked like a D Day out there. We’ve only been in this house for a year and front door has been a variety of bug magnet. No matter what we spray on it.

Hi can someone help me I went from ants to flying ants now to these they are dark tiny and fly I think they bite they fly close to the body too ..Exterminator spayed here twice for ants now these please tell me what you think I cant eat here im grossed out thank you

They're very small so its hard to get a clean picture. They seem to have black heads with white-ish rears. Ive tried Terro, Combat Max 2-in-1, and something that starts with an A that my building maintenance used. So far they completely ignore it all.

My roommate has 4 partially outdoor cats all with fleas. I dont let the cats go in my room but Ive started to see fleas in my room.
She wont treat her cats. What can I do for my bedroom? Everything im reading says you have to start with the pets...

I started seeing a few ants now and then near my front double door on the inside. (Half always closed). But today to my horror, I discovered a ton of them all seem to be scurrying about not carrying food. But carrying what appears to be eggs (small white sacs). And I see them on the floor near the door, amongst other debris they must have dug up.

I’ve put some ant baits there now. But I’m curious on why they are doing this. Isn’t it weird to be putting eggs not in the nest? And there isn’t any food source near my front door.

Will baits be sufficient? Is this situation indicative of some bigger hidden issue? At least they are not termites right?

Eastern PA. This is in my detached garage. I clean it up and it's back a few days later. Very small droppings with some other debris mixed in.