Boric acid powder?
Ah, apartment life.
After over a week of staying with relatives, the mold seems to be gone (hooray!) but the bugs are back (boo!). Actually, they never left. The exterminator's work didn't even put a dent in the problem. I guess I have to resolve myself to living with these disgusting things for another six months until our lease is up, because it's obviously not our apartment that's causing the problem - but apparently they just aren't treating the rest of the building.
A friend recommended using boric acid powder, and I can't seem to find much information about how safe it is. I know it's dangerous for pets, so we'd have to block my dog from going in the kitchen (he doesn't go in there unless I'm cooking anyway, so I'm not terribly worried there). If anyone has any information about this stuff, I'd really appreciate it!
This would be a last-ditch attempt to have a kitchen that doesn't make me want to cry.
So ready to move.
Sorry this turned into a second vent...the past two weeks have just been a little rough on me.
Re: Boric acid powder?
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002485.htm
This site tells you what Boric Acid Poisoning looks like.
Based on what I've read, you need to use EXTREME caution when using this, it is bad inhaled, ingested or even coming in contact with your skin. It kills the pests on contact because it dehydrates their body from outside-inside. Ingested it acts like arsenic does. So it is effective but it is not advised to put on surfaces(like your counters or tables) because it can leach into the surface causing slow poisoning over time. (Ok, I had to much time on my hands to read all about that and type it to you, hope it was helpful!).
Funny- our vet had us use boric acid on our cats eyes (forever ago) when they had infections. The cats used to get crusty snot eyes so badly they would almost seal up. The boric acid worked really well to clear it up, and keep the kittys happy.
Never looked into it more at the time, just took the vet's word at it, but I just googled it though and there are conflicting opinions.
https://www.indoborax.com/images/MSDS%20Boric%20Acid.pdf
The above is an MSDS for boric acid. It is not harmless, but definitely not the worst chemical you could encounter. Be careful about breathing in the powder, but skin contact will not cause much more than irritation due to low pH.
The health rating of 2 is out of a maximum of 4, so it's not great for you, but not going to kill you if you look at it the wrong way. I would say your biggest concerns would be keeping the dog out and not kicking up a lot of dust.
Maybe make a paste?
I work with the stuff in liquid and solid form, FYI, using proper precautions. Boric acid poisoning as stated in the post above is a very real thing, but please keep in mind that poisoning will happen if you ingest a lot at once or smaller amounts of the stuff over a long time. An MSDS tells you what the or lethal dose is, in this case, 5 grams could do damage. 5 grams of boric acid is quite a bit as it is a relatively light powder.
As with anything just be careful!
Where I used to work we'd use Boric Acid powder to kill our gigantic roaches. It does work well.
However, I'd be on the owners case about the problem. It's not your job to deal with these bugs. If you didn't keep your place clean then yes you'd need to take some responsibility. But if you're not causing the problem than they have to deal with it.
HA. Love the idea of a pregnant lady takeover of their phone lines. May look into it.
We've seriously treated the apartment a good dozen times ourselves using different methods, had the maintenance guy come out four times, and had a professional exterminator visit twice. I am at the end of my rope! We've basically had to harass management since August about the bugs, then we just spent the last week harassing them about the mold (which, thankfully, was taken care of so we are - in theory - out of the woods there), and now we'll have to bother them all over again.
I just worry this will make us turn into tenants they hate and come back to bite us later somehow.
Meh, I'm sure we were the tenants our last landlord's hated, but they didn't treat us unfairly in the end. If you're bugging them about something they are responsible for anyway, I would think if you made enough of a fuss they will do it. I would present them with all the measures you've already taken that proves it's not a problem with how you take care of your apartment, and just keep requesting that they treat the building, in an aggressive but non-combative way. 6 months is a long time to live with gross bugs and/or poison in your home. GL!
They should worry it will come back to bite THEM later! A good landlord/management company wants to keep their good tenants happy. When you rent, you shouldn't have to take the measures you have on your own. That's a benefit of renting! Don't worry about later, do what you have to do now to make your place the best it can be for the baby. Good luck!