S’porean finds swarm of dead cockroaches in HDB rubbish chute handle, reminds others to double check their seals

Dead cockroaches found in Toa Payoh HDB rubbish chute handle

A Singaporean had the shock of his life when he found a swarm of over a dozen cockroaches lying dead in his rubbish chute handle.

Posting onto the Singapore subreddit, Mr Lok Weng showed the nasty photo he had taken of cockroach carcasses packing the handle of the rubbish chute.

The 18-year-old told MS News that he lived on the 10th floor of an HDB block at Toa Payoh North.

Unlike newer buildings with a rubbish chute in the common area, he instead had a chute for his rubbish directly inside his home.

On 4 Sep, at roughly 2pm to 3pm, fumigation works occurred at his HDB block to kill pests.

Mr Lok Weng had put some seals on the chute’s gaps, but according to him, cockroaches came through the chute’s handle to escape the fumes.

According to National Geographic, cockroaches can actually squeeze through gaps a quarter of their body height with ease, making proper sealing difficult. Furthermore, the cockroaches captured in the photo were of a smaller size.

He said that luckily, most of them had died from the fumigation, though some remained struggling for a while.

He shared the uncropped photo, showing several dead cockroaches fallen to the floor.

Blames his improper rubbish chute sealing

Mr Lok Weng told MS News that he would not be lodging a complaint to the town council as he considered the incident his fault for improperly sealing the chute.

He stated that this was the first time it had happened since previously, he had sealed up the chutes more thoroughly during fumigation.

“I will definitely triple quadruple [sic] check the seal next time when they fumigate,” he said, adding that he’s considering using a magnetic wire mesh for the chute.

Magnetic netting allows for a seal around the rubbish chute with no gaps.

As such, his Reddit post warned Singaporeans to “remember to double check your rubbish chute seal when they fumigate”.

He also wrote, “I hate [1960s] HDB.”

When queried, he told MS News that he found the individual chutes in old HDB units to be more convenient, but “a pain” due to the ease with which pests could enter your home.

“And I’m deathly terrified of cockroaches,” he added.

Singaporeans share similar issues during fumigation

Several commenters who also lived in older HDB blocks with unit-specific chutes talked about the issues they had faced.

One of them living on a lower floor said the cockroaches would still find their way in despite the rubbish chute being fully sealed with tape.

However, they said their “killer cat” handled the situation, wiping out the ‘invasion force’ of 15 cockroaches in the kitchen.

Another low-floor resident called Mr Lok Weng’s incident a “rookie mistake”.

Other than spraying insecticide on the inside of the chute before fumigation day, they claimed to use up a whole tape roll sealing off the rubbish chute twice over.

They would leave the tape there for two days afterwards, opring to go downstairs to throw their trash instead.

A netizen recalled seeing dead cockroaches all over the void deck after fumigation back in the late 2000s.

Some other Reddit users replied, saying that it remained a problem in older HDB flats due to a lack of centralised waste collection.

Also read: Roaches Spill Into Bukit Batok Flat After Fumigation, Town Council Says Resident Didn’t Seal Rubbish Chute

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Featured image adapted from image courtesy of Mr Lok Weng and Jurong-Clementi Town Council on Facebook, for illustration purposes only.