We moved (again, within the country, no worries) a couple of weeks ago, and had many boxes sitting in our living room. Some of them were not unpacked from Panama, so they went from Panama to a Boca garage to a Boca apartment. And after almost six months of these unopened boxes sitting around, what, do you think, made an appearance in my living room on a bright and sunny Sunday morning? Yes, it was a gigantic roach. GIGANTIC, or as my kids will tell you, it was THIS BIG (feel free to move hands as far apart as you might think is possible - they’re still debating the size). And not only was it big…it was ruthless! It crawled away from the line of boxes we had so neatly set up to actually be removed that day, right into my kitchen.

Being as eco-friendly as possible with bug products and living in Florida seem to be polar opposites. The ants and water bugs, plus other unnamed creatures, pop up anywhere and everywhere, especially living by the beach. We even had blue crabs travel to our door one summer (I know that’s not technically a bug, but it is creature-like, and NO, we did not kill them)! The only product I could find on this morning was my Orange Guard. Now, I admit, I had never tested this on roaches. It’s been my ant spray for a while, and it works pretty well to keep them away. Plus it’s water based, and all ingredients are listed safe by the EPA. That being said, I checked the bottle, and Orange Guard clearly states you can spray “DIRECTLY on roaches - Kills on contact”. What it didn’t tell you was that, if this was a Panamanian cucaracha like I suspected, it actually had the opposite effect. This THING had the nerve to saunter into my pantry, surprise attack my foot, then attempt to leave the house - all while it was being doused, no, SOAKED with Orange Guard. Nothing. What finally did this beast in was my husband’s shoe (and a lot of yelling choice words at it).

So, aside from spraying my baseboards with Orange Guard for ants, I’m on the lookout for a new bugspray that will actually get rid of the bugs. Any suggestions? I’ll be heading to Whole Foods soon to see what’s out there. The saga continues…