• Che Banana@beehaw.org
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    2 months ago

    PSA for people with cockroach problems: Diatomaceous earth is a lifesaver! Non toxic, (also a good fertilizer for the garden) and keeps working until it gets wet.

    What is it? fossils of diatoms in a chalky-powder what do you do with it? Sprinkle (dusting) into hard to reach areas (think behind & under kitchen equipment, drawers, along baseboards)

    what it does is sticks to anything with an exoskeleton & dehydrates them…they die.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth

    we live in a humid, costal town where they are endemic and we have ZERO of these motherfuckers in our shop & home

    • BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

      Yes, I used to use this stuff all the time in my old roach infested apartment. And then I felt really bad for the cockroaches and had to stop though.

      • Che Banana@beehaw.org
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        2 months ago

        From Wikipedia

        “Inhalation of crystalline silica is harmful to the lungs, causing silicosis. Amorphous silica is considered to have low toxicity, but prolonged inhalation causes changes to the lungs.[44] Diatomaceous earth is mostly amorphous silica but contains some crystalline silica, especially in the saltwater forms.[45] In a 1978 study of workers, those exposed to natural diatomaceous earth for over five years had no significant lung changes while 40% of those exposed to the calcined form had developed pneumoconiosis.[46] Today’s common diatomaceous earth formulations are safer to use, as they are predominantly made up of amorphous silica and contain little or no crystalline silica.”

        Any type of dust isn’t good for you but this stuff is wayyyy better than some chemical companies toxic aerosol, drop poison, or bait

  • Remy Rose@lemmy.one
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    2 months ago

    Why are people afraid of house centipedes? They already ARE cute! It’d be one thing if they were at least somewhat willing to bite you, like some spiders, but they won’t. They’ve got the best eyesight of any centipede, which inadvertently gives them really cute little eyes too.

    • BigDaddySlim@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      They creep me the fuck out. I know they’re harmless and beneficial to have but when I turn on my bathroom light and see one on the wall above my toilet I have to get rid of it. They’re literally the only bug that freaks me out, even roaches aren’t that bad to me.

    • criticon@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      For me it’s the fact that I lived in a desertic place for most of my life and centipedes there have a very painful bite

      I know house centipedes are smaller and handles but it’s difficult to retrain the brain

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Though i agree they are harmless, they do not meet any classical, popular definition of cute

    • Dabundis@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The reasoned par of my brain wholeheartedly agrees with you, and when I can convince myself to do so, I let them vibe. Unfortunately the reasoned part of my brain is powerless to stop the fight or flight response that happens when [spindly-legged creature] crosses my field of view. It simply happens.

      If reasoning alone could overcome an otherwise unreasonable physiological response, then allergies wouldn’t exist.

    • _skj@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      For me, they manage to trigger the “SNAKE!” and “SPIDER!” panic responses simultaneously. The rational part of my brain likes them, the instinctual part tells me to smash it with a rock

  • WagnasT@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    they also eat bedbugs and other harmful pests, they’re awesome other than being fucking terrifying.

    • BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.net
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      2 months ago

      I have a super old house that has these in it, along with spiders and other various creepy crawlies (nothing dangerously venomous in the area, save one spider species I’ve never seen, which only produces mild tissue necrosis).

      I really don’t mind them -certainly not enough to do anything about them- and the cats like chasing them in the middle of the night, so whatever.

      But man, on the rare occurrence I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and see one in the red light of the nightlight, skittering across the wall with a quickness, scares the bejesus out of me. Every. Damn. Time.

      • WillFord27@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Do they ever crawl on you? I’ve found that if I ever spot a spider in my house, in the next week I’ll find it somewhere on me

        • hazardous_area@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Not crawling on me but I found one of these mother fuckers in my pants by putting on the pants. Was not excited to find out why my leg hair was moving

        • BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.net
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          2 months ago

          Literally never, no. Occasionally they hang from their silk and get close, but not super often.

          But my spiders know me. They see me every day and know I’m not gunna bother them even if I see them (I even talk to them sometimes) so they give me a wide berth as well. They mostly hang out where I can’t (or won’t) reach, which works for me. Only downside is cleaning up webs a few times a year.

          What kind of spiders are crawling on you? That’s pretty unusual from what I understand, unless they just blow down on their silk or whatever? Or maybe you have a lot more spiders than I do and they just hide better ;)

          • WillFord27@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Had a spider bro in my bathroom for a month, one day he disappeared. The very night I woke up to him crawling on my face. It was unfortunate for us both.

            I think the spiders here hide well, so the ones I spot are the risky ones that don’t mind scuttling over me.

            • BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.net
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              2 months ago

              Huh. Ngl, that’s super weird, but I’m sorry that’s your experience, because this harmony thing I’ve got going on is pretty sweet, and I wish it for everyone. Tho the random bumblebee that finds her way to my living room 2-3x/yr perplexes me…

  • rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 months ago

    Never had any cockroaches (do they even exist in Germany?) but I have those from time to time in my basement. Not sure what they eat there.

    • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      I’m pretty sure if these things were horse sized that the human race would never have made it out of caves.

      If these things eat cockroaches they are either 1) insanely fast or 2) ambush predators, and still probably very fast.

      I think I’d rather go toe to toe with a velociraptor.

    • Hootz@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Don’t joke about that shit bro, last time they got that big they killed my great grandfather.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      see, jumping spiders understand this. they recognize that we’re effectively gods and their lives are entirely in our hands, so they damn well stand still and try to look non-threatening.