Landlord wants to spray a bunch of bug poison in my apartment but I am skeptical

So I live in LA and our apartment is clean and also full of roach traps, but our neighbors are filthy creatures and roaches come from the other apartments to hang out with us. These are the little cute roaches, not the giant nauseating ones. But they are gross.

The landlord wants to have roach chemicals (three of them, i forget the names) sprayed in all the apartments. I'm nervous. We have to put away all the food and all the stuff in the bathrooms etc, and after they spray we are not supposed to clean the surfaces because it will get rid of the poison. Is this like, safe? To have poison on the counters and such when we cook?

I'm inclined to say no (preferring a couple of little buggies to a home full of weird poisons), but on the other hand, it was suggested that if every other unit is sprayed, the roaches may ALL come take up residence in my apartment. We have no kids or pets or anything, although we are both pretty sensitive to weird chemicals and everything in our place is "natural" or "fragrance-free" (everything gives my partner eczema, and everything gives me hives and headaches and whatnot). Can anybody offer any clever advice?

Fran said:

Alternatively, is there anywhere you could stay for a couple of days? If your landlord's hell-bent but it's going to cause you and your partner health difficulties it might be worth asking him to either knock some money off the rent or help with the cost of a hotel for a couple of days (I don't know how nice he is! ).

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The landlord isn't going to force us to get sprayed, I believe (they aren't totally evil). Even if we spent a few days away, I still feel weird about having the poison all over the place.

backslashbaby said:

Ooooh, I can't take those sprays and I'm not usually sensitive. There are awesome roach baits that work like a charm [I'm roach phobic, so I can't have them within 100 yards or so!].

I don't know what you do if the others are being sprayed. Use tons of the baits yourself and wait it out? It's quick. They carry it back to the nest. Nothing is sprayed around at all, although I'm sure the actual bait boxes are terribly ungreen!

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I dunno, I presume these poisons are "safe" for peoples' homes. But the tiny Rachel Carson in the back of my head is all like NO, KITTY, IT'S POIZIN!

We use the roach baits EXTENSIVELY, but the issue is still that when our roaches die, a new batch arrives from our filthy neighbors and then we have more roaches.