This.
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This isn’t America… unless the landlord specifically says (or stipulates in the contract) that they will do regular pest control/sanitation (there are apartments in Taiwan that do this, they are however on the expensive side), the landlord does not and will not care about pests. That is your responsibility…
All you can really do is get a cat, they get rid of the big critters like roaches, big spiders, or rats. They can’t do much about small critters like fleas or mosquitoes… in fact you’ll get more flea.
I mean Taiwanese houses aren’t made out of Popsicle sticks like they are in the states where roaches/mold would mean lots of money to fix damage and fines/evictions… Even a fire wouldn’t normally cause any structural damage, just the smoke from furniture and stuff that kills.
I can’t get a cat but I Would like one. I don’t plan to be here long term. I’ll just have to keep my place clean as possible and I’ll put some of the traps around the first floor too
Newly long term white peoole that move here, orntropics in general, i like to sit down and watch Joe’s Apartment with.
A roach problem in a concrete box (like a taiwanese house) compared to a north american wood box are vastly different issues. Takes some time to get used to that fact. But in a concrete box life goes more like: easy come, easy go.
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things I don’t miss about TW
Roaches are like psycho ex-wives.
If there’s few enough to count, you’re still an amateur.
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Welcome to Taiwan.
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Sometimes they fumigate outside sewers and than roaches will be all over the street, running away, dying. The big ones are the least of your problems, it’s the small ‘German’ roaches that are probably hiding everywhere in the house, they need water, toe clippings anything to eat actually.
I wouldn’t recommend this. We used to have a cat that loved cockroaches. As in “I love McDonalds”. If one happened past, it’d jump on it and crunch it up with a dopey look on its face (the cat, not the cockroach), dropping legs and cockroach innards all over the floor.
Better to just let the cockroaches leave of their own accord, IMO. Which they probably will if they can’t find anything interesting in your apartment.
If you kill roaches you always need to see that you also crush the ‘egg sack’. Containing about 10-12 little ones.
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I’ll never forget my first little apartment in Hell’s Kitchen NYC. As I was moving in my mother said, “what’s that sound?” I looked to my left and saw a rat slither between two kitchen cabinets. It looked to be the length of my forearm. Never saw it again until about a year later it hopped onto my roommates bed. The cockroaches had been running the show until I moved in. I just cleaned the place and sealed up all the holes and cracks with Elmer’s wood glue. After about 5 months I rarely saw a roach even though I know there were thousands of them in the walls.
Follow the roach shit, find their nests and spray. Watch em wriggling. Or if you are lonely let them be.
I watch Joes Apartment drunk with every single friend or business acquantenc that has a fear/phobia of roaches. The only thing that came out of MTV worth watching as an adult 
I dissolved boric acid in coconut water for my traps. The mixture is dry now, but smells very tasty. I noticed there are a good amount of poo’s around one of the traps. I’m wondering, does this sound like a good trap option?
I haventnused coconut solution before, but if.it.works it works.
The annoying roaches sneak up on me when I’d drinking beer outside in the dark. Can’t stand more than a few minutes in one place. They smell the beer and will try to crawl up your leg or if you set it down, the next sip might be with a big roach in the can.
the worst is when they are fumigated and start flying all over the place. I had to dodge some big ones. Nasty
the ones on farms and even a lot of the ones that get into homes in cities are chinese field mice, not rats. Rats are mostly in big cities.
the rats look like the ones in NY while field mice have a rather long body like a rat but don’t look so nasty and fat with a ugly-ass tail
Haven’t seen any since that day lol. I guess they were just dying after being gassed