One cockroach?

[Sea Dreaming]

Yesterday we found 1 cockroach in our cockpit. We haven't seen evidence on the inside but...

Is it likely we have a problem? What to do about it, besides singing "La cucaracha"?

[CSY Man]

Roach Motels to start with.
5 or 6 scattered around the boat.
After a few days you will probably see a few guests.

[a64pilot]

Where are you, and what did it look like? Color and size

Down South we have Palmetto bugs, which live outside and therefore your not getting rid of them
http://www.orkin.com/cockroaches/dif...-palmetto-bug/

[Sea Dreaming]

No, not palmetto bugs! Just ordinary brown cockroach. Worse in some ways, they are crafty!

[a64pilot]

If by regular you mean the German cockroach, I'd bomb the boat, then bomb it again in two weeks, and maybe again in four weeks.
One established, they can be difficult to eradicate.
Likely came in on a brown paper bag or piece of cardboard

[weavis]

Yes.
Regular bombing is your friend.

Florida resident for 10 years... I can bomb with the best..

[uncle stinkybob]

no such thing as one cockroach, unless that one came aboard stuck on the bottom of your shoe, you have more than one.

[a64pilot]

I think though since the ban on chlorofluorocarbons that some of the bug bombs may use propane as a propellant?
See if you can find one maybe that uses some other gas for use on a boat?
I may be wrong, truth is I have not looked myself, this may be Urban legend, would seem stupid

[zeehag]

realllly good poison is located in veterinarians stores. get some. get a manual 1 gallon or larger sprayer.
vacate boat--spray the HELL out of it from bilges into every nook and cranny and topsides..
make sure you have a gekko community to move into your boat so you have constant feeding thingies you can talk with on occasion. also-- more trampas for cucarocha.
this is mexico. the alternative national bird to eagle is the cucarocha. good luck. everyone gets em and if they say they donot they are mentirosos

[travellerw]

If it was a german roach, there are most likely more..

DO NOT BOMB.. Its a mess and requires more than 1 application to work.. Instead, get on Amazon and search "Advion". Its a simple gel you put in hidden places. No mess and complete eradication in 2 week or less. Personally I would never cruise without it now!

[zeehag]

mexico has much better poisons than usa has--those found in usa's politically correct thou shalt not kill repertoire donot cut it... the good poisons are found in a veterianrian store in mexico. no bombing. spray the crap out of everything.
btw--you willnot find bug bombs in mexico. you WILL find some ultra strong poisons that last over a year against these national birdees.
and LOVE thy GEKKO

[dennismckim]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I think though since the ban on chlorofluorocarbons that some of the bug bombs may use propane as a propellant?
See if you can find one maybe that uses some other gas for use on a boat?
I may be wrong, truth is I have not looked myself, this may be Urban legend, would seem stupid

Alas, it is true, at least with some. Run "MSDS Raid Fogger" through your favorite search engine.
Propane and butane.

[Typhoon]

Originally Posted by travellerw

If it was a german roach, there are most likely more..

DO NOT BOMB.. Its a mess and requires more than 1 application to work.. Instead, get on Amazon and search "Advion". Its a simple gel you put in hidden places. No mess and complete eradication in 2 week or less. Personally I would never cruise without it now!

This stuff looks interesting, I have never had a bug problem but Im sure it may happen when I get south.

I had a friend who bombed his boat all the time , and yes, it was a mess.

Regards John.

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by ColdEh Marine

This stuff looks interesting, I have never had a bug problem but Im sure it may happen when I get south.

I had a friend who bombed his boat all the time , and yes, it was a mess.

Regards John.

We have had 2 infestations since we started cruising. One VERY bad one we got off a dock. We tried everything we could find locally or make (boric acid stuff). After a month of nothing working, another cruiser gave us Advion. Within 2 hours of applying it, roaches were literally "comming out of the wordwork". They would come walking out looking drunk, walking in circles. Within 3 days we stopped seeing any live roaches. Within 2 weeks I had cleaned up all the dead roaches and haven't seen one since (6 months now)..

Our experience matches a ton of other infested cruisers we talked with. Its truly fantastic stuff. We loved how safe it was with out kids. We only put it in areas the kids wouldn't touch or find. No nasty chemicals sprayed in places, just a small pea sized blob in hidden locations.

[roverhi]

We started seeing some evidence of cockroaches soon after we landed in Hawaii from FP. Probably introduced in packaging/bags when we provisioned for the sail north. Moved the Boat to the AlaWai in HNL while we lived in KOA and didn't visit the boat for several months. When we went back to the boat, it was a roach motel. Tons of roaches all over. They'd eaten the glue from the backs of all our pocket books, the water proofing from foul wx gear and even some paint.

Some friends of friends planned to stay on the boat during a short layover in HNL to save hotel cost and discovered the infestation. They killed as many of the scurrying roaches as they could, got them somewhat under control in the daytime, and went to sleep. The guy slept in our settee berth which had a radio rack that overhung the head of the berth. Sometime during the night he was sleeping with his mouth open when a cockroach dropped in. Needlessly to say he was startled and sat up quickly forgetting about the radio rack. That necessitated a trip to the emergency room to sew up his forehead. Strangely, they decided to stay in a hotel after all.

We successfully got rid of the cockroaches but it took religious successive bombings over many months. If we missed our every two weeks or so bombing routine in the first couple of months, they'd come back.