So, my first thought was "pesticides." I wanted something that would kill these bugs fast and wouldn't involve much effort on my part. I cruised the hardware stores -- walking up and down the aisles, carefully considering cost versus efficacy.I hit the internet -- reading forum posts, and whatever message board chatter I could find on the topic. That's really where I got the most info. Let's go wayyyy back. .
According to Ohio State University, Pesticides are typically of chemical or biological origin, and folks use them to improve life as they know it. They're made to control bugs, but not only bugs. They can also be used on bacteria and rodents -- maybe weeds, too.
The word finds its origins in the Latin words pestis, meaning plague, and cidu, meaning to kill. In essence, it's a product that purports pest control. An interesting tidbit: many active ingredients in pesticides are used to destroy human pathogens in medicine form.
The first step is to identify the pest. And I sorta did that. My house had roaches... ostensibly. There could be all kinds of vermin crawling around in the walls that I was unaware of, but my first target was the roaches. I'll tell you what kind of roaches in an upcoming post. I trolled some forums, one of which was Australian, and found more info on what to buy. Pesticide products tend to be specific in their spectrum, so you have know what kind of bug you're dealing with. You could also be killing the wrong bugs with your pesticide, who could potentially have been the natural enemies of the ones you wanted dead, ergo aiding the enemy.
After you ID the pest, you have to do a little preemptive P&L. Is buying all of this stuff cost effective. Will the money I put down for a dozen cans of whatever have the value I intend them to? Some people call this economic threshold, but we're not aiming for an MBA here. Lots of initial-isms in that paragraph, huh?
I'd kind of ruled out the rolled up magazine at this point and decided on one particular product. In all honesty, the ones that looked to be the most effective had been recalled because they either violated some environmental ordinance or were unsafe to kids or pets. Well. at the time I had neither, so I set my sights on some black market action.
