Roaches and Rats and Bats, Oh My!

[billr]

From the title, I thought this was a thread on politicians.
But, we have wasp problems in the PNW every summer. However, if the inside of the boat has a bit of a diesel aroma then that keeps the wasps on the outside.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by sck5

bring some boric acid with you when you go. It really works but I found it hard to get in the islands.

Yes, great stuff and far less toxic than some other options.

I've found a very simple way to use boric acid. Take that last little bit of beer left in the bottle, pour onto a small plate, and dust around it with boric acid. I keep a small plastic bottle partially filled with boric acid powder (like the kind used to dispense ketchup, but well labelled as boric acid of course). This is handy for dispensing a nice even dusting of powder just by squeezing the bottle. Roaches like beer and when the stroll through the boric acid to get there they are preparing for their last meal.

[cruzer757]

I'd probably do more damage trying to get away from the bats then would actually come from the bat himself. Luckily up here on the east coast we don't get fruit bats.

[Hudson Force]

[QUOTE=DumnMad;1078344]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

We've had roaches, ants, dry wood termites, .....................

How did you deal with the insects? We have a few on our new to us boat.

Our best results in controlling the roaches is the dispersal if the black plastic discs that I believe are called "roach hotels". These are easily stored in a plastic bag until needed, but the boric acid that was suggested works well too. Our ant problems have only occured when we were within a slip and the ants came aboard on our dock lines. For these occasions we keep an insecticide to coat about a one foot section of our lines near the dock cleats or pilings. Our termite infestation was a single event. We sealed our boat with plastic film taped over our hatches, vents and around our companionway and then hired the services of a local extermintor to apply a chemical fog treatment. We planned for some time away from our boat to have this done. We keep a set of velcro lined screens for our hatches and companionways to control the flys and mosquitos, but do best by not anchoring too close to shore.

[DumnMad]

Thanks CaptForce. Useful info. Ours is a wood borer in behind cupboards. We are planning to be off the boat for a couple of nights and will do the fumigation thing. The product available here is BoraFume.