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Infestation!
Jan. 9th, 2009 01:23 pmI've had a cold for about three months, one I caught off Tomaso when he first showed up, and which was exacerbated by the fact that I was in a high-stress job on a film at the time. It's finally gone away, and so I can positively identify my remaining hay-fever-like symptoms as an allergy to the German cockroaches that showed up around the same time Tomaso did. (I don't think he brought them into the house; I think they arrived in the glue of a paper bag from Starbucks. It's hard to say with German cockroaches since they carry their eggs in a sack instead of laying them in something else.) We have been fighting an all-out war with poisons and with personally killing any of them we see (which is not hard because they move slowly and aren't bothered by light).
This is pretty much they only thing you can do, since from what I've read this particular breed is not particularly affected by high-attrition methods like bombing. There are a few big guns I haven't rolled out yet, like keeping the apartment freezing cold and bringing in a dehumidifier, because I'm not sure this wouldn't make me more miserable than the roaches do. It's also been tough to declutter things to make fewer hiding places, or to keep areas free of dust, water, and food residue, because there are three adults living in a very small space, all of whom have different ideas about how things should be done, and all of whom will agree to do things and then don't always do them (myself included, so that although I'm pretty resentful about the situation I can't really say that I'm not part of the problem).
In a totally lame confluence of events, I am both the one person who is reactive to roach proteins in the air, and the person who is at home the most, since I work from here. For this and other reasons, I try to spend most evenings out. I'm taking lortadine, which usually does a good job with any seasonal or pet allergies, but it's not making much difference here. I'm dozy and unmotivated, and have a constant anxious agitation, which is my usual reaction to hystamines but reads as a personality trait.
This is pretty much they only thing you can do, since from what I've read this particular breed is not particularly affected by high-attrition methods like bombing. There are a few big guns I haven't rolled out yet, like keeping the apartment freezing cold and bringing in a dehumidifier, because I'm not sure this wouldn't make me more miserable than the roaches do. It's also been tough to declutter things to make fewer hiding places, or to keep areas free of dust, water, and food residue, because there are three adults living in a very small space, all of whom have different ideas about how things should be done, and all of whom will agree to do things and then don't always do them (myself included, so that although I'm pretty resentful about the situation I can't really say that I'm not part of the problem).
In a totally lame confluence of events, I am both the one person who is reactive to roach proteins in the air, and the person who is at home the most, since I work from here. For this and other reasons, I try to spend most evenings out. I'm taking lortadine, which usually does a good job with any seasonal or pet allergies, but it's not making much difference here. I'm dozy and unmotivated, and have a constant anxious agitation, which is my usual reaction to hystamines but reads as a personality trait.
