Cockroaches !

nondikass

nondikass

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I've got a cockroach problem, but can't seem to exterminate the little blighters using the sprays that are on sale. I've read about the use of boric acid, but haven't been able to find it in my local chemists or hardware stores. Is there somewhere in the UK where I can get it without having to buy industrial quantities?
Can anyone recommend another solution?
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You didn't say, but I assume the cockroaches are on your boat. Boric acid might be a bit messy to use, but you should be able to order it through any chemist. A better solution might be fumigation - you can buy fumers like these which claim not to leave a smell or deposit. Obviously you'd need to seal up the vents and open up as much internal space as possible by opening lockers, removing flooring, etc, before fumigating.

I read many years ago of another way of killing cockroaches in boats. Seal all vents. Open up internal spaces. Put a big block of dry ice on the saloon table, shut the boat up and leave it. As the dry ice melts, the carbon dioxide fills the boat and kills the cockroaches. Sounds elegant, but don't know whether it works!
 
You cannot kill the eggs whatever you do to the insects.
They have to have food & water. deprive them of these and they will die otherwise you are stuck with them!
 
The key is to ''bomb'' the boat more than once.....because as you kill the mamas so they release their eggs and two weeks later these hatch..
By the way Palmetto bugs fly so if you are wondering just how cockroaches got aboard in the first place.
This is almost a universal problem on the western Atlantic seaboard and islands.
 
Deep sea we used to catch one for every engineer, paint them different colours let them go at midday, give them 24 hours, after that the first one to get his appointed colour received six beers, passed the time away, might help you during the summer days, Pampas.
 
I inherited a praying mantis on one trip. Our ship was infested in spite of regular fumigation with the bloody things running all over you while you slept. The captured cockies thought they'd landed in paradise when placed in the tank --- until the mantis pounced. It ate them like sweetcorn leaving just a pair of wings and the legs.
What the monkey used to get up to is another story, not to be repeated in polite company.
JJTOP
 
The problem you have is the gestation period for cockroaches is 6 weeks. so you have to use vast quantities of roach hotels - poison- what ever you can lay your hands on for at least a couple of weeks. Then start from the assumption the last one is only on its way out now and there are eggs waiting to hatch for the next six weeks - so just keep going on a weekly basis putting down new poison and hotels and what ever you can get.

You need to find their 'runs' the dark places behind - under the cooker = bilges = loo - you have to wage war. The stuff you buy in B&Q is fine but multiply the dosage by 10...

I know all this from a flat which I repossessed and found heaving with the blighter's. Paid a cockroach expert for 2 visits - picked his brains and went to war myself - really horrid!
Michael
 
A late Aussie mate of mine used to reccomend borax (boracic acid crystals)
but claimed you need to mix it in equal quantities with sugar. The theory being that cockroaches won't eat borax but they will eat sugar and in the mixture they should get the fatal dose.
 
"The problem you have is the gestation period for cockroaches is 6 weeks"

I think you will find that it is a little more complicated than that...
Of the 50 or so types of cockroach two ( German and Oriental) are generally found in temperate parts of the UK. with the American type in hot areas e.g glasshouses.
The hatching time for the eggs is temperature sensitive and can be as long as 60 days(Oriental) or as short as 14 (German)
It is because of this variable that very long lasting poisons are needed. These tend to be quite powerful and so are not generally available to the public and you have to buy them in larger quantities.
However they are worth it , B + Q stuff will need replacing more frequently and will cost more in the long run.
The link I gave above offers a pack with gloves, mask etc and a spray as well as traps and full instructions, yes it will cost £25 + but it really will work...

you pays your money........
 
You could try this, it may work.

Catch one cockroach, put it in to a jam jar contianing Boric Acid, shake liberally to coat it, then release (bear with me)

It will run back to the nest, where it will die, and cockroaches, being canniablistic, will eat it, as well as the boric acid it was coated in. In theory you could use one to kill many.

I never found out if it worked or not, but it sounds plausible?
 
You need to remove all foodstuffs from the boat then - take two cans of crawling insect killer (Shelltox is good) and place them on the floor with an upturned chair or similar object on top of the spray button. Seal the area, and allow both cans to fully discharge themselves. Leave for a couple of hours then ventilate. Repeat after two days to get rid of hatchlings.
I've had great success using this method with quite large vessels and tropical infestations.
 
agree with others having suggested boric acid

I got rid of the pests by leaving here and there a bit of condensed milk with boric acid dissolved into it, it gives a sort of paste which is not too liquid, put a bit on a few pieces of paper and leave it here and there

A chemist should have boric acid, it is often used for eye washing solutions

only problem the odd corpses I kept on finding from time to time
 
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