I grew up in the tropics, with plenty of lizards (which ate many of the spiders) and lots of cockroaches — the big ones, which sometimes fly.
None of them freak me out, but I don’t romanticize them, either. If you’ve ever seen spiders and their eggs, you know there are plenty wherever they came from, LOL.
If I see a spider, I don’t go out of my way to do anything about it. But if say it’s the shower, sorry, it’s a goner.
Yes I wish I didn’t have a phobia about insects and could relocate them and not kill them.unless you have a phobia about something it’s difficult to understand.my friend can’t look at pictures of snakes i don’t really have a problem about them.
I have encountered those on Long Island. No fun to sit on a veranda with those flying around in the evening.
Have any sitters left because of a dead mouse brought in by a cat???
(Joke)
Reaching out to Trustedhousesitter- essentially, any reason a sitter gives for leaving is valid. On one hand, I get it- they’re not employees. On the other, home owner’s need to be aware that this is a possibility and that the site will do nothing to help- including not suspending the sitter in question.
We’d see them flying around inside the house sometimes, LOL.
Many neighborhoods were built amid or next to the jungle. There was no point killing pests, because there were always more where they came from.
I hear things have gotten much worse with spiders, because the local bird population was killed by non-native snakes. The ecosystem has been disrupted.
We had bats as well, but they ate fruit.
The occasional ant, flea, cockroach, dead and gifted mouse/rat/lizzard/bird or alive and confisacted mouse/lizzard/bird (hopefully, not rat) are all part of what we do as house sitters. All these stories about sitters leaving house sits or holding grudges about these things happening kind of blows my mind. It’s all just part of life and even if we weren’t staying in someone else’s house we probably at some point would need to deal with it unless we are living in pretty boring santitised bubbles.
I honestly can’t believe a sitter would abandon a sit and a pet because of 1 cockroach, that is crazy. If you see one, you whack it, or spray some insect spray and evacuate the room for a bit, making sure the dog isn’t in that room. And then it’s dealt with!
Who hasn’t dealt with this over the course of their lives???
I can’t believe she actually wanted to leave just because of one roach. I would have just caught it (if able) and killed it and definitely not made a song and dance about it. I may also have bought a trap in case any more. I would not have even mentioned it to the owner until they were back. Would she have done the same if seeing a spider or a few ants?
One of the problems is THS is now actively targeting budget travellers, marketing it as a way to see the places you can’t afford to go to. Therefore these people may not have educated themselves about the reality of living in a huge city like NYC or some exotic beach resort. It’s like the old joke about the Yorkshire man never going back to Spain cause they eat all that spicy stuff and you can’t get decent English grub.
@ElsieDownie or the sand gets into everything when I am on the beach. Or going to a remote town in the middle of whoop whoop and nobody spoke English 
Haha, that’s a good one 
i am interested where you get the idea THS is targeing budget travellers. I have been feeling like some of the recent applicatants are more interested in finding a place to sleep and shower for a few days than in looking after your pet.
@Sas not just TH. I follow Nomadic Matt, a travel blogger, and 99% of his blogs are regarding budget travel and how to get the best deals. TH is a site he often refers to for a way of finding free accommodation in exchange for house and/or pet sitting. Not unusual to find TH recommended on various budget and backpacker sites.
Just FYI Always choose an Australian sitter. Nothing scares us 
. In all seriousness I find it hilarious how squeamish some people can be.
@Oztravels haha I agree! I’ve got spiders, snakes, blue tongue lizards, water dragons, ants, cockroaches, beetles, and more, you name it, I have it here 
Ants and cockies are the only thing I kill. Yep, they had to make us tough to live here in Oz 
Well let’s hope this sitter never does any sits in the tropics. Leaving because of one roach is ridiculous and irresponsible. Can’t believe THS think it’s ok.
Part of looking after a dog is its emotional needs and keeping it company, not just feeding. Anyone well travelled knows that cockroaches are often in apartments, whether you see them or not, a can of Baygon would have soon despatched it.
I find the actions of the sitter very odd and disappointing. There are places you go in the world where critters being in your home is part of that area or country. Spiders are common in British homes. Doesn’t mean the home is unclean.
I lived in Lanzarote for a few years in a first floor apartment but still got the odd roach in there as well as the local small lizards. My place was cleaned a number of times a week but unfortunately open doors and windows means creatures get in.
There’s a difference of course between the odd roach and an infestation.
IME budget travelers tend to be more tolerant of things like bugs, clutter, noise, less-than-comfortable accommodations than people used to staying in hotels.