Found a bug on used furniture, should I call an exterminator?
Spotting a few stray German roaches makes it hard to tell if they are just "lingerers" that fell off the furniture or a reason to call someone to spray. The primary difficulty is figuring out how to eradicate all the hidden eggs before moving the piece inside so you don't cause a full infestation.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Getting rid of the infested furniture immediately out the back door.Did this help you?
- 2Monitoring the house for a few days to count how many pests appear before calling an exterminator.Did this help you?
- 3Leaving the furniture outside.Did this help you?
- 4Using boric acid roach bait tablets and wiping it down.Did this help you?
- 5Sprinkling borax inside cabinets and drawers.Did this help you?
- 6Using insect growth regulators, delta dust, or diatomaceous earth.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“We had someone give us a bedroom set. It stayed in the room about 3 hours. I walked into our bathroom and noticed a bug on the wall.”source ↗
“Since then I have seen 2 more around my house. I am wondering if they are "lingerers" that fell off the furniture or if I should call someone to spray.”source ↗
“When I was inspecting it I saw some german roaches.”source ↗
“Is there a way to kill all the eggs so that I can bring it inside without worry.”source ↗
“I’ve pretty much eradicated the larger bugs but when reinspecting today I found two more.”source ↗
“I just don’t want to end up with an infestation when I bring it inside!!”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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