I'd like to start a series in this blog called "Things that are Different" about our life here, compared to our life back in the states. Today I'll focus on cockroach prevention.
Our home had a lot of cockroaches when we moved in. After we had been here a week or so and plugged up their main entrance hole, their numbers decreased dramatically. However, quite a few of our kitchen drawers and bedroom cupboards were still inhabited. It was freaky and nauseating to open a drawer and see fast skittering of long wavy antennae and thorny legs. These guys are frequently 1 1/2 inches long.
One day I went to war and almost completely dismantled the dish cabinet, removing shelves, pulling out drawers and completely flipping the large piece of furniture upside down. I won't tell you what I found underneath, but it felt very satisfying to clean it. Everything was scrubbed with bleach and many roaches died under my broom that day. While waiting for the wood to dry I did some research on Wikipedia about cockroaches.
Here are some of the less than appetizing facts I learned:
1. A cockroach can survive submerged in water for 30 minutes.
2. He can also survive without food for 1 month.
3. He likes dark places only inhabited by many other cockroaches.
But there was a good thing too! I read that in Singapore, the taxi drivers use an herb in their car to keep the roaches away. You see, there are many roach sprays and poisons available here to keep the roaches at bay, but I don't want to have those in the same house with my infant. So sure enough I found out this herb, called pandan wangi, is available in our local market! It's used in curry dishes and only costs 50 cents a bundle!
So we've been using it for over a month now and so far no roaches in any of the places where we're using the herb! Amazing! And thank you Lord for creating a natural, non-poisonous solution to our roach problem!
Here is a picture of the fabulous herb, pandan wangi! Oh, and it smells wonderful too!
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