Right, I'm armed and ready to go.

Here's what I've done:
First, I placed the baits at strategic places in my kitchen. In corners, under the fridge, in cupboards, where I think they run.
Next, I assembled the roach hotels 'traps'). Didn't realise you have to be a black belt in origami to get one of these things together. It takes a few minutes, jsut to assemble the damn thing. The bait is seperate, in a sealed plastic package. When you open it, you can smell that stuff! Boy, is it strong and pungent. I have about 9 of these traps, around my kitchen, mostly close to the sink.
I put one under the cooker, behind the cooker, under the fridge (I'm a little worried that mixing baits will render them innefective. Sometimes, bait contaminant is the main reason why the roach doesn't 'take the bait', as it were. Another chemical on a bait may make it it unattractive to the roach. Hope my combination of stuff remains effective.

Reading stuff about them on the internet. One site said something like, "let's take an average estimate that you have 1,000 roaches in your kitchen..." - Holy Shit! I hope thye all don't come out at the same time tonight, when I'm asleep!
This stuff is pretty pungent, even for a mere suprhuman like me! Imagine what it's doing to the roaches, who are so much more sensitive than I am to these smells (which were designed to get them to come running). No, I try not to imagine that.
I shall inspect my 'traps' tomorrow morning.

Not sure if I want to find anything alive, struggling inside.
A friend of mine said he'd laid down loads of traps in is apartment, but no roaches took the bait.
German cockroaches have been known to avoid some baits. There was a case in Florida where some roaches where actively avoiding the best bait in the business. The company investigated and discovered it was because of one simple type of sugar in the bait that the roaches avoided the bait. They changed this to another attractant and the problem was solved...for now.

Another story that scared the bejeezus outta me, by another friend. When she was young, she saw a huge balck roach walk into a trap. Then, the whole trap started to rattle and shake. Not long after, the roach walked out - minus a few legs!!!

Some pro estimates, from sites on the web, on how to extrapolate polulation numbers:

Let us assume that the first female lays 1 oothecae, this will give us 40 eggs for arguments sake.
Say that there is plenty of food about and nymphal development is completed in 8 weeks and that 50% of these nymphs turn out to be females, let's say 20 females.
These females then lay 1 oothecae (egg sack) each.
This will give us 20 times 40 eggs which is 800.
Again there is plenty of food about and nymphal development is 8 weeks and again 50% are females.
These females lay 1 oothecae each.
This gives us 400 times 40 which is 16000
So after 9 months we have got sixteen thousand cockroaches, this assumes that none would die in development (mortality rate) but it does not take into account the fact that the original cockroaches would still be laying further oothecae and that these would be hatching and maturing.

Holy moly.
I've been in this place for about 7 years. 16,000 after 6 months, would lead to...lt's see, 7 years...a lot of roaches. Luckily, they have a high mortality rate.

Right, back to the story of the toaster.
Checked my electric toaster and there are a lot of crumbs and bits of bread in the bottom. Also, there's a lot of suspicious grease on the inside. I picked it up to clean it and I found a pool or what looked to be a very viscous honey like liquid, under one corner of the toaster. I used some paper tissue to try to clean it up, careful not to get any of it on me. This stuff was really thick and sticky and yellowish in appearance. Urgh. I sprayed it with some kitchen cleaner about 5 times and still the stuff wasnt coming off very easily. It didn't help my imagination that I'd been watching Aiens the night before, with the acidic slime oozing from the insectoid creatures' mouths....urgh.
I eventually cleaned it off and then I noticed that it had actually burned through the paintwork on the counter top! Shit.
I looked inside the toaster and found more syrupy ooze around the inside. I thought about slinging it in the rubbish - no way I wanted to take that thing apart if some ooze making creature that was certainly bigger than 13mm was nesting inside, but I remembered that this toaster was a rental. I didn't want to have to pay twice for the bloody thing (although having previously set the whole thing on fire a few months back may make that matter academic), so I sealed the toaster in a big plastic rubbish bag.
And I also added a hotel trap inside it. I'll leave it like that and abstain from toast for a day or two and see what happens. Maybe I can eat lots of broccoli, then quickly open up the bag and fart inside, to gas the creatures. Will they respond to methane? Maybe that's not such a good idea. To be extra safe, I'd need to connect my arse to the bag via a long tube, with a one way valve half way along it, to stop anything nasty crawling back up the tube, into my ass.
Don't want that. But gas can be compressed, also if the tube is too long, I'd need much more presssure to get my fart to open the valve, push through the tube and fill the bag. It would require sustantial amounts of broccili and I'd just have to hope that no solids accidentaly shoot out and block the tube. Too much information.
Oooookay.....


One last picture that gets me thinking about washing dishes twice, just before I use them:

Makes you think twice before you put that fork in your mouth, eh?
What about cafes, restaurants, etc?

I hope this bait stuff won't act as a repellent, as opposed to an attractant. don't want 1,000 roaches moving out of the kitchen and headed to my futon.
I can imagine waking up in the middle of the night to find my matress moving...
"That's strange, I don't remember putting a blanket over me tonight... ...oh.
Good evening, ladies and gentleroaches.
For tonight's performance, I shall be screaming in the key of C sharp. Aaaaaaarrgghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Here's the villian:Swine. It was about 12mm long. You may think that's not so bad, but would you want one crawling up your nose, carrying it's egg sack of about 40 babies? Or crawling up your ar-well, I guess you wouldn't.

I came home from the gym and entered my room slowly and quickly turned on the light. Then I saw this baby, moving slowly above my sink, running under the shelf where I keep my plates and also onions and carrots (not any more).
Swiped him with a pan brush and he fell into the washbowl. Then scooped him out in a small glass and took him outside. Dead. Took this pic with my camera. Then went on my computer and searched for an ID for this nasty little critter.
Quickly discovered it was a German cockraoch. Apprently they are the worst and hardest to get rid of.
Bugger.

They reproduce really, really fast and are hard to kill, as they sometimes develop immunities to poisons.

Bugger. Bugger.

Last night, I didn't sleep. Kept a small light on in the kitchen (these babies love moist, humid places like kitchens and bathrooms).
They apparently spend aournd 75% of their time hidden, in cracks or behind cupboards, in electric motors (oh yes, more on that later - creepy mystery that's got me freaked to use my toaster), almost anywhere.
The babies (nymphs) can crawl into a space as thin as a playing card (a single card).
Shit.

Went to the supermarket and checked out my defense options.
Not much. Bought some roach motels (baited traps) and some poisoned bait. Set them up around teh kitchen (where all sightings have been - 3 in 7 years. 2 in the kitchen, near to the sink and one in my entrance way which is part of the kitchen, under the shoes.
AS far as I can recall, all roaches where yellowish - German cockraoch.
So I cand educe they've been herer for at least a few years, so the population may well be an infestation by now.

Bloody buggery hell shit shit bugger bugger.

Here's a photo each of my defenses:

Got me some poisoned bait.
Hope this stuff works.
Actually, the design is not so good.
I think it's a bit too big. I cant get it in the the places I want it.
It's circular, so it doenst fit snugly into corners or against flat edges.
Also, I accidentally dropped one down behind my drawers, under the sink. Maybe that's a good thing...


Got me some roach hotels. Cockroach traps.
The inside is covered with very sticky patches, so the roach can't get out. The bait is something which they can't resist, apparently, some mix of beef and shrimp odors. All i can sy is, these babies do stink. The small black round baits also smell pretty strong. Hope it doesn't bring more into my home. I'll be installing these traps strategically around my home and inspect them regularly, to try to get an idea of how thye ahve spread and what the dsitribution is like.

My final line of defence is perhaps the most sophisticated and definitely the most effective at stopping that one cockroach, dead in it's tracks.
The old fashioned big blunt instrument.
In this case, I grabbed a shoe as an example.
The more adventurous of you may even use your own hands or perhaps your nose to crush the offending insect, though you won't catch me doing that (not even for a hundred dollars).

Now, I'm getting tired. When I come to again, I'll try to tell you the story about what I found under my toaster - and why said toaster is now sealed inside a large transparent plastic bag.