Ewww.

You’ve all seen them. Walking through the basement of Dunster on the way to your D-hall, in the entryways of freshman houses, and of course, in good old Winthrop. They are everywhere—those crumbled up, smooshed, brown spindly things that are clearly dead cockroaches.

Gross.

Noice is as freaked out by them as you are… so here are some helpful hints if you are disgusted enough to try a little at-home extermination.

First step: Find out if you have cockroaches in your room. Duh.

You may have seen some dead ones hanging around, but live ones are hard to come by as they usually stick to the dark. To uncover their tracks, either do some stalking with a flashlight or just look for tiny, slimey brown pellets. Yes, they even leave you presents.

After identifying the little buggers, there are a few ways to kill them off and keep them from bothering you and your barefoot treks. The most common DIY roach-killing technique would be making a concoction of ‘roach food.’ This easy-to-make bait consists of one part boric acid, one part flour, and one part sugar. Dust this powder wherever you think roaches might be lurking—just make sure your block mates don’t mistake it for another white powder.

If you would prefer keeping your surfaces sans boric acid (that’s understandable), try the water jar technique. Simply fill a jar with a small amount of water and then place the jar somewhere along a wall where roaches can get in, but not out. Add wet coffee grounds instead of just tap water to bait more of the pesky critters.

Finally, if you are lucky enough to spot them in daylight, simply mix up water and soap and douse the pests (particularly their upper torso) with the solution to kill them right away. Mwahaha!

These basic methods are effective and cost virtually pennies, but if you are not successful with Noice’s suggestions, most hardware stores carry pest preventing items  and killing sprays that are sure to fix the problem.

Meanwhile, as we battle the roaches along the river, Australian scientists just recently discovered that these exterminator favorites often hold their breath to stay alive (i.e., flushing them won’t work!). Their bodily systems often prefer preventing water loss instead of craving the intake of oxygen, which can lead to prolonged breath holding—and yet another reason why they may be inhabiting earth along with WALL-E long after humans have headed into space.

Happy exterminating!