Cockroaches

[avatamsaka3]

How can I get rid of cockroaches in a room without spraying stuff? I don't want to harm them.

[Queequeg]

You have to find their nest(s) and clear it(them) out. Alternatively, remove all food; no food, no roaches. If you live in an urban place, very difficult to get rid of them. No matter how good of a job you do... they will find a way back in.

[avatamsaka3]

Nest? Where would that be?

[Grigoris]

Nest? Where would that be?

Normally in a damp, warm, dark space: under a kitchen sink, for example.

[javier.espinoza.t]

i would give them a ride through the toilet; they'll find their way in the sewers..

[avatamsaka3]

No no, I take them outside.

[pemachophel]

Back in NYC in 1970-74, my Teachers were in the habit of leaving out lots of food offerings. Needless to say, we developed a huge roach problem. However, They wouldn't even consider exterminating them. Since Their apartment was also our center, we all became very intimately connected with roaches. During the summer when it was very hot and muggy, we'd be sitting meditating dripping with sweat. The roaches would climb up on us and, I guess, drink the sweat or eat the salt. In any case, sometimes it actually hurt like a bite by a fly. Our Teacher was very, very strict and we were not allowed to move hair. So we'd have to sit there with roaches crawling on us and biting us. Those of us that lived in tenements also had roaches in our apartments no matter how hard we tried to keep them clean. They'd eat the glue from book bindings. All our Dharma texts were speckled with roach poop and the backs of our devotional pictures were all roach motels speckled with poop. I will never forget, at least not in this life, the smell of roach poop. I and my Dharma friends became very expert in sexing roaches and recognizing their stages of development. In any case, it was a NYC version of Patrul Rinpoche's feeding the blood-sucking insects with His own blood.

Eventually some of us moved upstate to our "retreat" property and were roach-free. So incredibly important to come to recognize all sentient beings as our old mothers.

[Johnny Dangerous]

Just try to kep your eyes closed until a few seconds after turning on the light;). This was our method in Albuquerque, NM, which is littered with them.

[Brahma]

Back in NYC in 1970-74, my Teachers were in the habit of leaving out lots of food offerings. Needless to say, we developed a huge roach problem. However, They wouldn't even consider exterminating them. Since Their apartment was also our center, we all became very intimately connected with roaches. During the summer when it was very hot and muggy, we'd be sitting meditating dripping with sweat. The roaches would climb up on us and, I guess, drink the sweat or eat the salt. In any case, sometimes it actually hurt like a bite by a fly. Our Teacher was very, very strict and we were not allowed to move hair. So we'd have to sit there with roaches crawling on us and biting us. Those of us that lived in tenements also had roaches in our apartments no matter how hard we tried to keep them clean. They'd eat the glue from book bindings. All our Dharma texts were speckled with roach poop and the backs of our devotional pictures were all roach motels speckled with poop. I will never forget, at least not in this life, the smell of roach poop. I and my Dharma friends became very expert in sexing roaches and recognizing their stages of development. In any case, it was a NYC version of Patrul Rinpoche's feeding the blood-sucking insects with His own blood.

Eventually some of us moved upstate to our "retreat" property and were roach-free. So incredibly important to come to recognize all sentient beings as our old mothers.

This is true Buddhist life!

Namo Buddhaya!

[avatamsaka3]

Back in NYC in 1970-74, my Teachers were in the habit of leaving out lots of food offerings. Needless to say, we developed a huge roach problem...

I am totally amazed by this story. Just wow.