How To Get Rid Of Cockroaches

Mild Kanto Plain winters, brutal summer humidity, and cramped city living all combine to create perfect conditions for buggy creatures.  Giant spiders and centipedes abound (I hear those two are seen on base quite often, but I have never had either in my apartment, thank GOD), but the cockroaches are the bane of my summer existence.  Now that the weather is warming up, I am busy replacing my cockroach deterrents.

Sold at any 100 Yen or hardware store, these little disks are your must-have weapon for cockroach battle.  Cockroaches here are big and fast and prolific.  They speed down sidewalks and zip up exterior walls.  They wiggle their way inside everywhere, even into unoccupied residences.  I spent our first Japanese summer armed with a can of hairspray; having an crawling Little TF made traditional bug sprays a bad, indoor idea.  Of course, there are two problems with the hairspray model.  First, you have to stand there and spray a lot until the cockroach finally flips over into its death throes.  Second, if you use the hairspray from your bathroom cupboard, you will have to switch hairspray brands.  Otherwise, your hair will forever remind you of cockroaches.  Which is gross.  

Of course, no one in Japan kills cockroaches with hairspray but me.  People use these, instead!  I don't know what's in those black containers, but they work.  So well, in fact, that after setting out about 30 throughout my house, I only saw one cockroach last summer.  I didn't even find any dead ones.  Cockroaches prevented!  Success!

Japanese literacy is not necessary for figuring out what to purchase.
Just look for the dead cockroach illustration!

Simply unsnap each unit to separate.

Find sneaky places to hide them!  I tuck them well away from Little Tofu Fox
(after this photo, this little guy is going under the rug).  Under couches,
behind the refrigerator, and in closet corners are all good locations.

 What about that one cockroach that I saw last summer?  I was late for an appointment, running out the door, when I saw a cockroach skittering around my bathroom.  I was running so late that I didn't have time to grab the hairspray. Instead, I simply scooped up three black disks and lined them up in front of my bathroom door.  The disks were about 5 inches apart from each other, spaced across the bottom of the door frame.  When I came home a few hours later, that cockroach was dead.  Hooray for effective bug elimination!  Now, I just need to find something that gets rid of all those mini, jumping spiders...


Ganbatte!

-The Tofu Fox

Disclaimer:  I don't know what's inside these disks.  Something in them attacks the cockroach's nervous system.  Whatever it is seems strong, given the effectiveness. This is absolutely not a green way to go about bug destruction, and these are absolutely not something I want my kid to get ahold of.  But when a cockroach falls off the ceiling into your mom's hair and you hear one rattle across your darkened bedroom wall when your husband is deployed and unable to do his BUG-KILLING JOB, these little disks are literally balm for the cockroach-traumatized soul.  So with that in mind, do with this information what you will.  

Disclaimer:  I do my best to make sure all my information is accurate.  However, details may change or I may just be flat-out wrong.  Please let me know if something needs a correction.  Thank-you!