Most people picture cockroaches slipping in from under doors or through crumbling window frames, but many of them actually ride the hidden highways of your plumbing. Warmth, moisture, and the faint scent of soap and skin draw them upward, straight into the place you feel most exposed. That’s why the balloon trick feels almost unreal: one cheap, ordinary balloon, cut and stretched around the shower drain cover, forming a soft, tightening sleeve. Water still flows, but the path narrows just enough to deny their passage, silently guarding the circle beneath your feet.

Yet real peace comes from more than a single barrier. Wiping down the shower, clearing hair and soap scum from the drain, and sealing thin gaps around pipes and tiles slowly erase the reasons they come at all. Over days, the air feels drier, the corners cleaner, and the fear of what might crawl up next begins to loosen its hold.