Being very interested in sailing (long distance cruising), I can tell you that the cockroach problem also infests ships.
I have been told by reliable sources that no chemical will really help. The best way to get rid of cockroaches is - a cat.
Meow
Being very interested in sailing (long distance cruising), I can tell you that the cockroach problem also infests ships.
I have been told by reliable sources that no chemical will really help. The best way to get rid of cockroaches is - a cat.
Meow]]]]]]
Smaller boat and you can keep it clean. Can’t keep it clean? Too big of a boat…
I prefer the Tulare Grasshopper mouse, myself. The cat has to wait for the roaches to come out to play, the mouse can track them down where they live.
Tom~
From my 9 years experience onboard a submarine, I can tell you the best way to prevent roaches from getting on board is to never, ever, EVER take cardboard onto your boat. Roaches commonly lay eggs in the cardboard, voila! roach problem. Once they’re on board, I don’t know. I would think a cat would hate being on a boat. Their sense of equilibrium would be completely screwed up.
How many cockroaches does it take to change a lightbulb? No one knows cause they all scurry away when you turn on that light.
Actually the best most excellent way to get rid of them [do you really need to? they are actually very very clean] is feed them baking soda. They can’t burp so they explode.
Guys, guys… best way to get rid of the problem… sell your boat!!
True.
Hey, what are the two happiest days in a man’s life? the day he buys a boat and the day that the boat is sold.
I doubt it, unless you make them drink vinegar too.
Ordinary $3 per 5lb box Borax (find it in the laundry aisle at the supermarket) will do Roaches in very nicely. Pile it along baseboards, behind and under furniture, below the drawers in you cabinets, and any other places roaches may gather. Some people swear that adding in some dry cocoa powder to attract the critters will dramatically improves its lethal effect.
Borax is not poison, and it won’t hurt your pets (unless you keep crickets, or spiders). One theory is that its sharp crystals jam up the joints of insect exoskeletons.
Borax is also a good adjunct in combating a flea infestation. When my visiting sister’s little fleabag infested my house, I was able to exorcise the fleas by using Borax as if it were Carpet Fresh - spinkle it into the carpets and upholstery before vacuuming the surfaces.
Have you thanked a legitimate businessman lately?
They EXPLODE???
Notwithstanding the combustible cockroach theory, my successful anti-roach strategy was to take note of where the lil’ buggers were coming from and then tape up (with masking tape) those crevices and cracks. These were usually the tiny spaces where the wall meets the counter/the counter meets the floor, etc. Worked splendidly. I guess if you can’t kill them the next best thing is to physically prevent them from coming in.
Tim
“My hovercraft is full of eels.”
Corrugated cardboard is definitely trouble, as are second-hand appliances, especially microwave ovens and TV sets.
(In more ways than one.)
Borax is a wonderful insecticide, but insects avoid large piles of dust. It is best applied in a thin, almost invisible layer;
try using a plastic condiment dispenser. Apply in affected areas, like under appliances and furniture, squirt in cracks and
crevices, (particularly around cabinetry in the galley and head(s)), and dust the plumbing. Avoid moisture because it will
cause clumping and minimize the effectiveness of the borax. Some cats do react to borates, and about a spoonful is
enough to cause upset stomach in an adult.
Taping the place up afterward is a great idea, and if you want to make a food bait mix 1 egg white, 1 part liver pate, 2
parts honey, a spoonful of borax, and apply where you dare. One caveat; most species of pest roaches love the glue on
many brands of masking tape- I’m sure the more adventurous among you can find use for that tidbit of information.
Roach discs containing hydramethylnon can be broken into and made into lots of little pea sized baits and strategically
placed. This is an expensive, though extremely effective option if you don’t have access to other formulations of this
material. In some countries it is illegal to modify them however, so check the label before taking them apart. ;o)
When my sister had trouble with roaches she used borax and sugar. It worked. She had heard that the borax would dry the little buggers out.
An effective fly spray is a mixture of 409, water and rubbing alcohol. You can shoot them when they are on your windows and then clean the windows afterwards.
How the cat as cockroach controller theory came about is beyond me; even The Great One himself mentioned it in one of the SD books. I lived for many years in the South, and also had cats. I also, despite a clean house, had roaches. I can’t imagine cats eating roaches; I’ve had reptiles and amphibians for many years and find that even many species of lizard will spit out a roach and make motions exactly like someone who has eaten something vile. Or are people claiming that the cats stomp the little bastards to death?
>> How the cat as cockroach controller theory came about is beyond me; even The Great One himself mentioned it in one of the SD books. I lived for many years in the South, and also had cats. I also, despite a clean house, had roaches. I can’t imagine cats eating roaches; I’ve had reptiles and amphibians for many years and find that even many species of lizard will spit out a roach and make motions exactly like someone who has eaten something vile. Or are people claiming that the cats stomp the little bastards to death?
No, they kill them for sport. Or some cats will, anyway. Those felines with a particularly well-developed set of predator reflexes will often kill little moving things even if they’re not interested in eating them. My grandparents’ cat was hell on flies, for instance - she’d leave them neatly lined up on the floor by the radiator. They didn’t have roaches, but I bet if they did she’d have gone after them too. She tried for mosquitoes, but they were usually too small either to (a) kill, or (b) when she DID get them, they didn’t leave corpses 'cause they got waaaaay too squished.
Additionally on the borax front, my mom always said that they breathed the borax, it went in through their spiracles (breathing holes) and once inside, the crystals are so sharp that the cockroach’s own natural motions cut up their insides fatally. I don’t know if it’s true, but it sure sounds wondrously gory :->
If you wnat to get rid of cockroaches, stop feeding them.
Of course, that would mean you, your family, your pets, every living thing moving out of the house.
Roaches are there to clean up after you. If it weren’t for them, we’d all be eyeball deep in dead skin cells and hair balls.
If, however, you want to keep the little b------s out of your mallomars, you gotta convince your neighbors to play along. If you live in an apartment building, or even over a large city sewer system, killing the roaches in your crib will only make room for the teeming millions to swarm over from next door.
I got an even better idea; like they say “if you can’t lick 'em, join 'em”
Here’s my version: ‘cultivate’ as many cockroaches as you can, then catch them and export them off to some place like Bangkok or China… I’ve heard they eat cockroach soup there… haha.
Never bite the hand that… looks dirty!
Once, quite a few years ago, I read about an experiment done on mosquitoes with some radioactive isotope in a container with female (mosquito) pheromones. The male mosquitoes would fly into the contraption hoping to get laid, and instead get sterilized. When they finally did mate with a female, she laid only infertile eggs.
Couldn’t a similar program be instituted for cockroaches?
Attract all the males via pheromones to the sterilization chamber, and the females lay blanks after that. Eventually, there’d be a severe lack of insects.
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