Cockroaches? myth or reality

I live in Western Canada, in the suburbs of a big town with 2.5 million people and we have BEARS! a woman was badly hurt in her garden a few weeks back in a residential area with shopping malls etc. that isn't even close from the mountains! several people this summer found bears in their home making a mess of the kitchen. Once I walked in the woods 3 blocks from a main road with houses, stores etc. and nearly stumbled on a huge sleeping bear! I have never ran away that fast in my life! I was flying I think. compared to bears cockroaches and spiders are a joke!

roachers seem to be a human's best friends comparing to bears :)

Hello,

The posts on the forum make me scarry. I will move in a new apartment next month.
I have seen a nice place in a 20 yo concrete mansion on the 2nd floor. The apartment is renovated except the bathroom which is old. There is a restaurant on the 1st floor in the building. The building is not dirty but no very clean either. Does it mean the risk of being infested is high?

In the past 8 yrs that I've lived in Tokyo, I've only seen roaches occasionally. And this includes living in old guesthouses. Unless your living habits are filthy, or you live next to some particularly ornery location--maybe Kabukicho, you won't have a big problem with roaches.

AS for bears, you can find some in the rural parts of Tokyo, which reaches up to the mountains. One jogger was mauled near a lake by a bear last year.

My Apartment was built in 1985, in the time I have lived here, I have only seen roaches on 3 occasions, they seemed to have snuck in through the pipes, because all three times I saw them they were in the bathroom near the drains. Big ones too, scared me. But never saw them actually in the room, keep pipes plugged at night now. Otherwise never a big problem with bugs or roaches.

Kato, I disagree- I certainly don't live like a slob, and in fact I haven't seen them in the fairly new place I now live in, but it's quite common to see cockroaches around the places where people leave their garbage to be picked up for example. Two guesthouses I lived in had plenty of cockroaches even though they weren't particularly filthy- you only need to have food packaging sitting around for an hour or so to attract them if they are near the building.

Can you tell us why you think a red-light district in particular would attract cockroaches? I can't think of a reason why Kabukicho would have more than any other place with restaurants and bars.

The 2 guesthouses that I lived in were really old, with J-style toilets. But I never saw a roach in my room. I saw a few in the kitchen after everyone was asleep but a few roachtraps handled that. I'm sure there must have been more but they never bothered me. The J-girls living with us made sure we kept the kitchen clean.

As for Kabukicho, I've seen rats along the garbage kept outside. So I assume there are roaches, too. So maybe you shouldn't even eat in the restaurants at Kabukicho.

If roaches truly were a problem in Tokyo, you shouldn't eat at any restaurant in Tokyo.

my apartment is very new, around 4 or 5 years old, very clean and i have still seen roaches. i think it's mostly because my girlfriend doesn't clean up the kitchen properly when she cooks.

you can get roach bombs that will kill them all, you're supposed to do another blast a few weeks after the first one to kill any of the newly born roaches. after we did that in my apartment we stopped seeing them.

i think they're just an unfortunate part of living in a big asian city. you can find roaches anywhere.

Kato, I never saw a roach in my bedroom either- they turned up occasionally in the kitchen where I lived as well- that is pretty much always the case with roaches, they are after food. So you have seen a few in kitchens and around areas where garbage is out out- seems like we have actually had similar experiences!

Point is, they do exist, they are pretty big, and they do tend to hang around areas where food scraps are present.

Bloody heaps of them in Australia, either the larger more airborne ones in tropical or sub-tropical Australia, or the smaller but possibly more numerous ones in southern Australia which abound in back yards when you pick prone objects up, or in toolsheds.
The large tropical ones in particular come regardless of cleanliness.
The numbers around here have declined since I adopted a hen..chickens immediately dart and pounce on outdoor cockroaches, and pretty much inhale them gratefully. .Subsequently any delicious eggs you collect can be thought of as partially recycled roach.
I would say their incidence declined 90% in my backyard since she moved in...but it is still not difficult to find one if you go looking.I will call her over near me and pick up some fallen object a piece of timber or mat, and she will fall upon any rapid 6X6 movement as I lift it.

I think most of you are overreacting. I have been to japan 20 times for extended periods, lived in mansions and never seen one roach or any other insect. Of course cockroaches are everywhere but just keep your place clean and you will minimize any chance of them coming into your apartment. I have lived in Hong Kong for one year and only seen two roaches in the street. I don't particularly like insects but I'm not afraid of them and if I see spiders with webs on my window I leave them alone. they kill all the harmful insects like mosquitoes. One time I did see one of those giant hornets in Kyoto and it was the size of a hummingbird. needless to say I froze in fear and then took off like Carl lewis. I ran so fast the shinkansen couldn't catch me lol.

Not overreacting, Frank65, just telling you exactly what I have seen. Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they don't exist.

As I mentioned further back, I teach at a yoga studio in Tokyo that is on the 4th floor of an older building with a restaurant in the basement. There is a slight gap under the back door which leads onto a fire escape, at the bottom of which is the area where the restaurant puts out their garbage.

Every summer without fail I end up chasing cockroaches through the yoga studio on several occasions because they come up the stairs- I'm not scared of them because I have seen so damn many of them that I am very used to them, but the students tend to panic.

I am determined to block the gap under the door this year now that I know that is how they are getting in, but I swear to you, there are cockroaches in Tokyo, and plenty of them, even if you haven't seen them!

People visiting Japan may or may not see them, but they do most certainly exist, and come into buildings from time to time. If you haven't seen them, you are very lucky. To say that there are no roaches in Tokyo or that someone is not likely to see them is inaccurate- can we just leave it at that?

I live near tokyo and my building was built only 2 years ago. For the first time i saw a cockroach in my apartment. My apartment is really clean --- mostly because i never eat here. But today i had one in my bathroom for the first time. They are attracted to humidty and dark spaces, so i recommend that before u shower u put on the ventilation in the bathroom if u have any and the light. i also found out today that they can climb up walls very easily. I've been told by many people in japan not to squash them dead because it might cause an infestation. Almost every one i know who has been in japan for more than has had at least one cockroach in their apartment.

Giant Hornets- have only seen them in Kyoto and then only on the outer edges of the city.