fatvegan

Lib and I have had big problems with cockroaches since we got here. We didn't know what to do. We didn't want to kill them using baits or bombs, because both are pretty awful. Every suggestion we found was either nasty or didn't actually work.

But the other day I was browsing through the supermarket shelves and I found one cockroach spray that didn't say "kill" anywhere on the front. It was "Baygon Cockroach Stopper". I wasn't keen on killing, but stopping cockroaches is something I heartily support (at least in our house). I read the back of the bottle, and I talked vaguely about stopping the female cockroaches reproductive cycle, which is exactly the sort of solution I'd been hoping someone would come up with. It's like an analogy between condoms and genocide. Libby had ethical concerns about the female cockroach's right to control her own body, and thought it might be even more inhumane than killing them outright. She certainly had a point, but we decided that we should give it a try.

And it seems to have worked. I've been trying not to actually spray it on them, since it's main function is meant to be a surface barrier thing that stops them from moving around. But a couple I accidentily sprayed it on didn't seem to mind, which I found very reassuring. Our cockroaches have almost completely gone, and I haven't found any dead bodies, so I'm hoping they've just moved outside. There were thousands of the little guys, so if they'd all just been dying I think we would have noticed. But who knows, maybe one day we'll uncover a mass grave, and all of this will be for naught.