I know that the majority of people here are not Canadian but I figured I would still ask this question. Right now I live in northern Ontario and I've never seen a cockroach in my life. I have a phobia of large insects, I can't even look at pictures of them on the internet. Anyway, I'm moving to Ottawa next year and I'm wondering if there's any cockroaches there? If there is, how bad are they? Are they everywhere? Are they common in large Canadian cities? Even if you don't know Ottawa, feel free to share information about your location and the cockroach situation there. I guess this probably sounds rediculous if you don't have a fear of insects but I'm being serious.

In some countries they are considered a delicacy.

Damn, I paniced so bad trying to exit my browser.

I have the fear too, which is bad as I live in Hong Kong. We found a a couple in the store room and I started spraying. Turned out to be a nest so we had a hundred angry roaches - I ran out an slammed the door. Spent the next four hours standing in the hall with a raid can in each hand spraying them as they came around/under the door.

I hope that I don't survive if global war or global warming causes the breakdown of our society because it will be roach overlords who emerge as the new rulers of the world.

Quote: Original post by X Abstract X
I know that the majority of people here are not Canadian but I figured I would still ask this question. Right now I live in northern Ontario and I've never seen a cockroach in my life. I have a phobia of large insects, I can't even look at pictures of them on the internet. Anyway, I'm moving to Ottawa next year and I'm wondering if there's any cockroaches there? If there is, how bad are they? Are they everywhere? Are they common in large Canadian cities? Even if you don't know Ottawa, feel free to share information about your location and the cockroach situation there.

I guess this probably sounds rediculous if you don't have a fear of insects but I'm being serious.

Even when I lived in Florida, the only time cockroaches were an issue was when you went to a particularly unkempt house. Keep your place clean and you won't have a problem.

It's not the big ones that are a problem - after living in Sydney, which is infested with all kinds of the things, I found it pretty easy to keep the big ones under control with Raid etc... You can even just hit them with a shoe if one flies in your window.

...But the little ones are near impossible to wipe out once they start living somewhere. They'll eat anything (the grease off a dirty bench, the soap off a clean bench, their own crap in the cracks of a bench), can survive for months without a food source, breed ridiculously fast, hide everywhere and anywhere (including inside my hot appliances!), the most deadly poison only seemed to slow their movement (allowing you to fall back on the shoe), and they carry their eggs from place to place to avoid being killed. Even if you did manage to wipe them out, in an apartment building they'd just immigrate again from your neighbours.

Thank god Melbourne seems to be too cold for them to get a foothold!

My mother had a VERY close encounter with one of these Tarantula Hawks a few years back in New Mexico. The buzzing from this largest of all wasps woke my mom up in the middle of the night. She turned on the lights and screamed for someone to come in and get rid of it.

These lay eggs in living, paralyzed tarantulas. The eggs hatch and then the larvae eat the internals of the tarantulas (saving the vital organs for last) before finally bursting forth like a FRICKIN ALIEN!!! It's said that their sting is the most painful insect sting in the world.

when I was in Ottawa I don't remember seeing a single cockroach, but there was ton of earwigs

Guys, the most effective Domestic Cockroach Terminator are those small Traps with a small Entrance that mimics the Places where they hide.
I think they are from Bayer. They contain a chemical Substance that appears delicious to the Roaches. The Roaches enter the "hideout", eat the substance and they drop dead by the dozen.
I eliminated an infestation of small Roaches with only 2 or 3 of these traps in strategic places

Quote: Original post by Obscure
Spent the next four hours standing in the hall with a raid can in each hand spraying them as they came around/under the door.

Spawn camping noob!!!111

Quote: The eggs hatch and then the larvae eat the internals of the tarantulas (saving the vital organs for last) before finally bursting forth like a FRICKIN ALIEN!!!

Don't they even affect the neural system and cause the host to become zombie like, still moving around but not doing any useful function until they die of hunger or something similar?