We've Got The Willies! The Apartment Therapy community has had its share of battles with bedbugs, mice and ants. The newest issue of New York Magazine features The Everything Guide to Pests and offers advice and knowledge concerning Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Mice & Rats...
These guides are great quick resources for pest control...this post will show up in our archive if you ever encounter a pest problem! We wanted to be sure to share this tip from exterminator Matthew Hill: Don�t line cabinets with contact paper: Roaches will eat the glue and use the area between the paper and the shelf to breed.
(Pics: Catherine Chalmers, Charles Nesbit, Getty Images, )
Related Links:
• The True Story on Bedbugs
• Good Questions: What's the Best Way to Catch a Mouse?
• Good Questions: How Do I Stop a Really Bad Roach Infestation?
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Uggh that picture is creepng me out!!!
Better than contact paper is to use wallpaper remnants to line shelves and cupboards. Go to the wall paper store and get the funky psychedelic remnants especially those that arent prepasted. Its much cheaper than buying contact paper or expensive liners.
Also a wonderful source for pest control is Harvard University's Pest Control site at http://www.uos.harvard.edu/ehs/pes.shtml which has short and informative fact sheets on all types of creepy crawlies.
view Trumystique's profile
Gross. Please post a warning above the scary bug-rat-mouse pictures. I was scrolling and that popped up.
yikes!
thank you for the articles!
view brooklynjennie's profile
This is going to seem much... snarkier... that I mean it. Do the pictures of bugs, mice, etc really bother people? If so, I find it very interesting. I mean, I'm not a fan of pests but I can handle a picture on a website without warning or recoiling in horror.
I'm seriously not trying to be snarky.
(Or hijack a thread..)
view Swan's profile
Swan, yes these pics bother people. My sister who is a foodie and rat/mouse phobic had to close her eyes at some of the scenes in Ratatouille! I usually am not such a scaredy cat and can pick up live mice, deal with cockroaches etc etc. But there is something about that picture that creeps me out (Stop staring at me !!!). Maybe its guilt from all the mice I had to send back to the Creator.
Do you remember those Ripleys Believe It or Not specials on insects and parasites? After watching those you would be uncomfortable, itchy and paranoid about everything you touched. This pictures have a similar effect.
view Trumystique's profile
No contact paper?? No one told me this! Ugh... I hate our cabinets now, more than ever. How reasonable is it to request new ones (or maybe used ones, so long as they're ACTUAL cabinets!) from a landlord/management company?
view sparkle's profile
OH GROSS! I never knew that about contact paper! And I just put some down a couple months ago, when I moved!!!!! EWWWW!
Okay so the next questions is: How do I remove the contact paper, and really get clean the old wooden cabinets that the previous tenant took terrible care of? Will put down some wallpaper remnants later, but first I want to get em really clean.
AND - it's about to get gross, warning - I have bugs, and I don't know what they are. They're not bedbugs, and I don't think they're roaches, unless they're baby roaches. They're small and brown, with a darker brown round little head, and they crawl pretty fast but don't fly. Any ideas about what I'm dealing with here?
Ew ew ew.
view Moxie the Maven's profile
Oh and the little buggers are mostly confined to the kitchen, if that makes a difference.
view Moxie the Maven's profile