Hello All

I thought you might be interested in what happened to me when I moved into my new pad upon arriving in Phnom Penh a couple of months ago...
I'm not great with creepy crawlies, rodents or any of that stuff, but having visited SEA for nearly half the year for the last 13 years I have learned to deal with a few here and there. Having said that, I haven't got any better with them.

Anyway, I got a hotel in PP - the White Embassy down on 240 - the one I have stayed at for the last few years. Wonderful, gorgeous, lovely restaurant, all good - but expensive, so quickly set about finding a property. In a matter of days found a lovely little 2 bedroom place, huge front room, kitchen, both rooms en suite - PERFECT! So I gave a deposit, and moved it.

On the first day I was surprised and shocked to find a few dead cockroaches. And then a living one on MY SHOULDER! And then another living one, and another - in the first day I found and killed 9 roaches. Not great. It started to leave me a bit on edge. Every time I waled into a different room I would hear them scuttle away.

During the night I could hear then in the walls. Day two same story. I told myself it was maybe because the property had been vacant for a while. Then, I was in the bedroom and the BIGGEST roach I had ever seen - I heard it before I saw it - came out of the air-con and fell on the floor beside me. Being naked I felt a bit vulnerable so I jumped onto the bed. The roach ran behind the bed so I decided to pull the sheets out the way so if it got on the bed I would know. I lifted up a pillow and under my pillow was A HUGE SPIDER. Shit! My heart was already racing because of the cockroach, but I am TERRIBLE with spiders and I had never seen anything this big in the flesh. It was easily the size of my hand.

Now the thing is - I didn't know if it was poisonous, if it would bite, whatever? And I didn't have tome to think as it sprinted - and I mean sprinted - before JUMPING onto the wall. It continued it's light-speed sprint up the wall, before succumbing to my notebook which I launched at it with incredible force. You see - as much as I am a proper little girl with spiders, if I hadn't of killed it - I would never have been able to go in that room again, let alone sleep in it.

Then, heart still pounding and now sweating like crazy, there was the cockroach to deal with, I located it in the corner of my room and killed it with my shoe. The gunk inside those things is hideous, they are really vile little sewer crawling bugs.

That day I caught 8 more roaches. That night I was up late working, and from the front room I could hear them in the walls again. I went into the bedroom for a closer listen and realised - to my horror - it wasn't roaches, but a couple - at least 2 - rats, gnawing away at things in the ceiling, between my room and the room above. I could hear them moving across the ceiling at speed. And when I went into the upstairs room (finding 2 more roaches as I did) I could hear them below me.

The next day I tried to tell myself to man-up. The kids in the house next door seemed to be fine with all this, that I would just have to get used to it or leave the country. But then I remembered in over a decade traveling in SEA I had only seen a handful of roaches, and never a spider that big. I told the landlord about them, and left a pile of dead ones (about 30 by now) on the doorstep for him to see. He said he'd sort it out and sent a man round with a bottle of Raid! HAHAHA.

The next day I left. I have now got a gorgeous apartment on the third floor - not part of a block either, it stands alone as the only third floor room. I have had no rats, no spiders and no roaches. Phew.

Anyone else ever known anything like this? A friend said it sounds definitely like an infestation, and the whole property would need treating. He said the roaches will live on the rat poo and the rats live on the dead roaches, with both breeding at phenomenal rates. Yuk!

Dramatic, what?

Of course it's an infestation. They aren't going to go away on their own. Get some of that other spray that comes with the thin strawlike plastic tube to spray into nooks and crannies. Use it everywhere. Don't breathe it in. Shut any doors you can. Go out and leave the apartment for the day.


Edit. Good move.

The next day I left. I have now got a gorgeous apartment on the third floor - not part of a block either, it stands alone as the only third floor room. I have had no rats, no spiders and no roaches. Phew.

Now that's a Happy Ending.
Say thank you to the roaches who made you move out.

never had one in any of the places i live due to the large population of tokay and chingak lizards

Spray doesn't last.

The Mom and Pop stores sell packets of stuff in little green packets you sprinkle, 5000 riel, you'll never see another roach. Well, for 3 months or so, then repeat.

Years ago, I went to Pencil Supermarket near the Riverside one morning. The shop had just opened for the day, and they hadn't removed the glue traps with rats in them. There were a lot of rats. So if you think the markets too dirty and only shop at the supermarkets, you'd be in for a shock at what runs around and pisses on the fruit in the middle of the night. 24h supermarkets seem to be the safest option.

The giant roaches here are disgusting, but you won't get so many of them everywhere. I rarely see them in my place, the odd one might fly in though every now and then. They often live in drains and cracks around drains. I was doing some work at a restaurant near the riverside and someone must have uncovered a drain in the alleyway next door. Suddenly about 1000 of them turned up running and flying in the doorway of the place, which was full of customers. I had to go into a frenzy of whacking them with my shoe and stamping on them, it was gruesome.

You shouldn't squish roaches as that spreads their egg-goo about the place

cptrelentless wrote: ↑Tue May 15, 2018 12:35 pm You shouldn't squish roaches as that spreads their egg-goo about the place

Stomp.

Bleach.

Sigourney Weaver, watch and learn.