One cockroach?

[PortClydeMe]

Originally Posted by zeehag

daahhhlink... you really should watch more bugs. there are many species of cucarocha that fly in all areas of planet.. open eyes and see em.
i saw my first flying roach in st louis-- ugly damn thing. i was pulling an all nighter writing an A+quality last minuet paper for east asian civ i took in washington univ, st louis, and these 2 flying roaches flew in toward the light from the cornfield across street--i presume that is where they originated-- gag. was hard to stifle the squawk i needed to make-- but mom and dad were sleeping.. oopsy ssshhhhhhh.....
and then there is offloading groceries into my boat from dinghy in zihuat--- out from the bags of groceries flies a reddish brownish beetle-y--omg--cucarocha. yes they FLY. kinda took me aback a tad.. nasty things.

I guess I've just been lucky. The roaches in Boston, Austin, LA, and Japan just "run around". Never seen one fly. Mosquitos, yes. Roaches? No.

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by PortClydeMe

I guess I've just been lucky. The roaches in Boston, Austin, LA, and Japan just "run around". Never seen one fly. Mosquitos, yes. Roaches? No.

you are sooo lucky. yours are too cold to fly.

[Souzag818]

Originally Posted by PortClydeMe

I've seen roaches in Boston, Texas, and California. Seldom here in Japan, but they are here also. Never in my home. Sometimes can be seen at restaurants. However, there's no such thing as "one" roach. Could be, I suppose, yet it would be an oddity. When there's one, there's a "gang" hiding in the dark.

Anne said they can "fly", but I've never seen that. They can "glide" from a top cupboard door down to a countertop, but I've never seen one spread its wings and fly around. I highly doubt they can do that. However, they are super crafty, and they sure love to procreate. Like rabbits. Good luck.

Oh, yea they can fly. Distance. In Hawaii, when it's calm and humid,they come out and fly around. At bar-b-ques we'd have tennis rackets laying around just to swat em as they flew by. So yea, they can fly alright...

[Sea Dreaming]

Originally Posted by Diesel Bill

Back in the 1980s I lived in the Philippines. There was a roach riding on the electric fan as it was oscillating back and forth. I swear it was scoping out the room. It was at least 3 inches long. I threw something at it and it launched into the air and made a beeline for my throat. I was a lot faster then and ducked out of the way. I thought about trying to capture it and make it into an exotic pet. Anyway sanity quickly returned and I opened the door and let it fly out.

Funny! I said today "don't name them if you intend to kill them".

[travellerw]

I'm not usually the one to be all "preachy"... HOWEVER.. I really urge caution when using the powders from Mexico, DR, Cuba or China. When we had our roach problem I did a bunch of research as I could easily get those poweders. I found out many of those poisons are banned in a bunch of countries. In the end, we put in the effort to get a hold of Advion down in the islands (since we have kids aboard).

If its all you can get, then just be careful. Of course they can be used safely if you are cautious and careful. Be extra careful if you have dogs or cats aboard. However, if you have access to other poisens I would encourage you to go that route instead (Advion, Maxforce, Gentrol or even Combat GEL).

Now as to having a single roach on board. A few weeks ago we were in a VERY packed bay in the BVI (mooring balls where the boats almost touch). I woke up in the middle of the night to use the facilities and noticed a bug on the wall. Upon turning on the light I realized it was a small roach. I quickly killed it, then examined the body to identify the type. Turns out it was a male "Brown Banded Cockroach". The males of that species are known to be long distance flyers. The next day we renewed our "prevention" doses of Advion as a precaution. In the last few weeks we have not seen any other roaches, anywhere, dead or alive. I can only conclude the it flew aboard our boat from another boat in the bay.

That brings up something else I discovered during my research. If you really want to combat a roach problem you need to know which variety you have. The are numerious small varieties that all look similar but require slightly differen approaches to combat. Knowing the variety you have will help you target them (i.e. German like low fresh water moist spots (shower sumps), brown banded prefer drier spots up high(under headliners)).

[Sailor g]

I really hate cockroaches. Nightmares from a high school field trip to Chicago. Stayed in a YMCA hotel. Rooms were filled with them. We are now in Honolulu on a sailboat-our friend purchased his first boat and we will get it ready & bring it to California. The PO had the boat fumigated before the sale (he cleaned but he missed a couple dead ones). I'm waiting for the eggs to hatch so I can finish 'em off. They recommended these traps they sell here that kills the eggs too. Anyone believe that? So far no roaches though.

[Gerrycooper56]

Bomb and remove cardboard. We used to remove everything from cardboard in the dink and take the trash straight back ashore.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Gerrycooper56

Bomb and remove cardboard. We used to remove everything from cardboard in the dink and take the trash straight back ashore.

Yes, prevention is key.

Years ago, in Mexico, one of the accomplished seamstresses sewed a canvas 6-pack holder for their cerveza Pacifico. Eliminated clinking, too.

Ann

[fuentes]

Originally Posted by Sea Dreaming

OK adivon it is! I'll order some as well are going north in a couple of weeks. Still no sign of roaches inside. The one we did find was at twightlight. There is some Mexican roach poison on board but we have a dog. I won't use it if there is an alternative. The former owners had it.

Anne, yesterday we found an old log book. The boat was infested somewhere in the south pacific. They wrote that they used borax but did not record the results. Is that regular borax like you can buy in the market? That's an interesting idea too.

Mexican solution to Mexican cucarachas. Boil potatoes until you get them soft like for mashed potatoes. Mash them up and sprinkle Borax ( the type from the super market). Make little containers from tin foil. Put a small spoonful in each container. Place them in cabinets, bathrooms, cabin, etc. out of reach of kids and dogs. Don't worry, the cucarachas will find it. You will start seeing them dead around the place. Keep sweeping and cleaning the dead ones. When potato mix gets dry, add a little water or make new. Keep doing it until you do not see any. If you see one, do it again. We picked up some somewhere between BVI and San Felipe. It did the trick for us!
It is not as much fun as drinking bear and singing "La Cucaracha", but much more effective.
La cucaracha, la cucaracha, ya no puede caminar. Por que le falta, porque no tiene, mariguana que fumar. Sung by Pancho Villas troops during the revolution. take care Hector

[mr336]

Docked here in Riviera Beach Marina in West Palm Beach Florida at the moment. Unfortunately this thread has my interest.

My pest control guy gave me a bag of the boric acid to sprinkle around. Its been about 2 months but they are still showing up after dark. Someone on the dock said the bombs will slowly eat your electronics. Guess something in the product slowly attacks the wires and circuit boards. Not sure how true it is but I will avoid it.

I think other folks have nailed it in reference to the Boric acid. They end up just side stepping it unless its an ultra fine powder that's applied. Ordering some Advion right now off Amazon. It's 12:30 a.m. No wonder the big chain stores are closing their doors.

Gonna put Advion all around. Peace

[hellosailor]

There's only one way to "fix" a roach problem in one shot: Burn down the boat. Really.

What an entomologist (bug geek) explained to me a long time ago, is that roaches basically have a 30-day cycle. 30 days for the eggs to hatch, during which time you'll see nothing and you can't really kill them. 30 more days to maturity, in which you might see them and can kill them. And 30 more days before the next clutch of eggs is ready to hatch.

So you're kinda stuck. If you see one, there may be others, there may be eggs. You need to kill ones that may be there now--but also to repeat the kill in 30 days to catch any hatchlings, before they lay MORE eggs. And in 30 more days, to make sure you got all the cycles.

Boric acid works, although it clings (static) as a dry sharp crystal powder when dry and in moist air, that stops working. Roach traps and baits work. People don't think either work because they don't see dead roaches. Well sure, but if you DID find the nest, you'd see it does work, the dead ones are in the nest being eaten by the rest.

Personally I like the Raid smoke bombs. Not the aerosol cans so much, but they make a blue and yellow carton with 3 (hmm...three) cans in it. You invert the can in a little water and it makes a room full of white smoke, which is the insecticide. Which penetrates behind everything to reach and kill the bugs. And in theory, leaves no toxic residue.

Do it 3 months in a row, and if you've still got roaches, they are finding more new ways to come on the boat. Baits and traps can usually keep up with that.

[zeehag]

i have learned that lil mexicats hunt these things. last night there was oh such a clatter as terrorist lil chico was hunting a omygods huge roach. yes huge 2 whole inches of pest from hell.
just a suggestion.

ps raid smoke bombs do NOT work on mexiroaches.

[hellosailor]

A woman who calls two inches "huge".(G)

I'll just keep it PG-13 and say, y'all certainly don't come from Tejas.(G)

That's a convenient size to paint racing numbers on the back and start taking bets on 'em.

[zeehag]

it was a baby. is a large mexiroach. they fly around at night

[a64pilot]

The big ones like that, we call Palmetto bugs down South. They are a nuisance, but they won't cause an infestation like the little brown German Cockroach will.
When we were first Married my Wife had a big white Persian. I was going to mechanics school in Ft Rucker Alabama and we rented a cheap mobile home, that had roaches. In the middle of the night you would hear the cat jump, and then hear a crunch, crunch.
My Wife was pregnant at the time and hearing the crunch, crunch would turn her stomach. I didn't particularly like it myself.