You've got at least a day (maybe two or three) to finally relax and catch up on lost sleep. Maybe you can even get out of the house for a while without worrying about your mother.

In Hawaii, where one of my relatives once lived, geckos are used for roach control. I don't know if you can get rid of all the insects with a reasonable number of geckos. And then, of course, you have the reptiles running all over the place, which could be as bad a having roaches. There is some common substance other than the copper sulfate that Kristoff mentions, which is toxic to roaches. It is something quite alkaline, but I don't remember what the stuff is exactly. I've been told that the number of roaches can be reduced by taping over the cracks where they hide or filling the cracks with silicone rubber, plastic wood, or something of the kind, but, of course, an older house has a great many places where roaches can reside.

Keeping the kitchen and other places where roaches might find food spotlessly clean also will theoretically reduce the number of the bugs. But it's very difficult to remove all possible food sources for the roaches. Kristoff is, incidentally, correct in saying that you have to get the poison into the walls to have any hope of killing off an insect population. This is also true for ants. One method for killing ants is to take off the faceplates from outlets and light switches, and taping containers with the poison in them on the junction boxes in the walls.

I only had a problem with roaches one time when I lived in Southern California, and that was on an occasion when somebody moved out across the hall, and all his roaches migrated to surrounding apartments. Only lasted about a week until I had them all killed, though.

I have heard that cockroaches have been observed running around on operating nuclear reactors which are so radioactive that no human could survive being in the containment structure with them for even a few minutes.

They have been around since the Carboniferous Period, their heyday about 250,000,000 years ago, when they were as large as 6" long. They will probably still be here long after the human race is extinct.

Now there is an idea for a story...

A Cock Roast on a Nuclear Reactor...what's that?>>> OH! CockroaCH!

...nevermind...

I heard a rumor in the late seventies that sensible people avoided the El Cortez Hotel in San Deigo. It seems its basement was inhabited by dozens of carboniferous cockroaches which often made it to the higher levels.

If you had paid for a room, imagine your horror of going out of your room to the Coke machine in the hall and meeting up with a six-foot long cockroach.

I just now gave the x-ray department at the hospital permission to do a cat-scan on mom's lungs. It appears she has a "mass" in her lungs that they want to examine closer.

I like to think of myself as fairly intelligent...at least in some areas.

However, not in business/financial matters.

I hemmed and hawed and ignored filling out the Conservatorship papers because they are too deep for my brain to understand. I've tried several times and they are a tough read.

I say this now because a social worker just left inspecting my house. Because of my roach problem, she is recommending mom be placed in a care facility permamently. I'd hire a lawyer to fight but, without funds, that makes my attempt mute.

The social worker said she'd file for mom's income as well. When that goes through, I'll have nothing to cover the utilities, let alone a luxury item called food.

Yup, I'm an idiot.

bloody social workers cause more problems than they solve i hope you resolve all your problems and have the strength to get through all your problems i might not know you personally but my thoughts are with you at this time

tinydick (imported) wrote: Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:12 pm bloody social workers cause more problems than they solve i hope you resolve all your problems and have the strength to get through all your problems i might not know you personally but my thoughts are with you at this time

I agree.

It might take a village, but it does not take a village idiot...you're not the idiot, Mackie.

People are funny. I would question extraordinary life-saving surgeries if your mother's mass turns out to be malignant.

They cannot file to get your mother's incomw without proving you unfit. Tell me, does this social worker come from the hospital or the welfare department?

If she is hospital you had better file for medicade for your mother before they do it. The welfare cannot take the house if you have nowhere else to go.

Find a legal aid society and go ask for help...

A nurse at the hospital suggested a two gallon spray from the local Home Depot to kill the roaches. I bought it. Tonight I'll clear out all the dishes, jars and packaged food from the kitchen. Then I'll spray every cupboard, countertop, corner, cracks, hidden area, etc. Hopefully by morning I'll see results.