Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

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Tinkerer

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Hardly ever seen one in my life.<br /><br />We got flooded downstairs during huge rains a few weeks ago.<br /><br />Pulled up the carpets leaving the concrete slab but there's still a few spots under heavy things that are a bit damp plus water still seeping under the house.<br /><br />I'm guessing cockroaches like the damp or something, combined with our occasionally warmish weather (this is not a great summer).<br /><br />I've found a few cockroaches downstairs in the past week, but they all had accidents and unfortunately aren't with us any more. (I'm naturally assuming that they're a protected species like anything else that's a problem, except politicians.)<br /><br />I don't want any more.<br /><br />They had to come from somewhere.<br /><br />Maybe they're breeding. I hope not because they get to an inch or inch and a half real quick if they only started a couple of weeks ago.<br /><br />Anybody got any ideas on whether they'll disappear when it dries up. Or should I get napalm?
 

rodbolt

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

napalm:)<br /> pesky arsed buggers<br /> yes they like damp and wood. occasionally our woods gets full of them. during hard rains, sometimes they wish to change from their domicile to mine. its a 4 month battle with chemicals to convince them to move back.<br /> best method I know is call in the professional bug zappers.
 

Tinkerer

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

Originally posted by rodbolt:<br /> napalm<br />
Suits me.<br /><br />Any idea where I can get it in smallish capsules suitable for indoor use?
 

ED21

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

A house I was renting in college got infested when everyboby was away on break. They found & lived in a 10 lb bag of potatoes under the sink.<br />Anyway we found something called "Mr Cuckaracha" in the store which is borac acid & a bait & spread it around. While nontoxic to people, it got rid of the roaches & we never had a problem again. <br />The rented house was a single house, so they weren't coming through the walls. We assume they came in w/ groceries or w/ someone when they moved in.
 

jtexas

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

Cockroaches are likely about the most adaptable creatures on the planet. They pre-date dinosaurs & will probably outlast our own species. <br /><br />Their regular habitat probably flooded out - but don't count on 'em leaving once you dry out. We always get a professional exterminator whenever we see 'em around. That might even be a covered expense if you have flood insurance.<br /><br />good luck.
 

ehenry

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

Roach Proof powder is bout the best thing I've seen. Put some out and they track it back to their nest and it takes care of them all! ! !
 

wajajaja

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

hire a thin well dressed,non smokeing exterminator.
 

eeboater

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

Originally posted by Tinkerer:<br />(I'm naturally assuming that they're a protected species like anything else that's a problem, except politicians.)<br />
This may sound weird. But I am very comforted that Austrailia has oddities like that like us.<br /><br />Sean
 

12Footer

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

Boric acid ,as Ed sugjested werks best. "Roachproof" is Boric acid too. But a fertilizer supply house will sell a pound of boric acid much cheaper, if you can find one.<br /><br />Boric acid is caustic, and is moderately toxic to pets and people. It burns the skin until it is rinsed away. So spread the product (a dusting)under cabinets, refrigerator, dish washer (while she aint looking) :) <br />Cracks and crevasses pets cant reach are fine,and recommended.<br />It does not werk overnight, and depending upon infestation, can take as much as two months.<br />The way it werks (as explained to me by a trusted and proven expert), is the roaches walk thru the dust,and it sticks to them. It clogs thier vents underneath,so they have difficulty breathing. Enough of it will kill them. Freshly hatched roaches can't tolerate even a small amount. The adults cart it back to thier nest, where they remove as much as they can. As a result, the boric acid builds-up in the nest. As the babies hatch, they die.
 

Tinkerer

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

Thanks all.<br /><br />There's only a few so I'll try the boric acid powder if the insurer won't cover a pest exterminator's treatment.<br /><br />
Originally posted by eeboater:<br />
Originally posted by Tinkerer:<br />(I'm naturally assuming that they're a protected species like anything else that's a problem, except politicians.)<br />
This may sound weird. But I am very comforted that Austrailia has oddities like that like us.<br /><br />Sean
I'm in favour of sensible conservation of everything: animals, fish, trees, historic buildings, whatever.<br /><br />The trouble here is that the lunatics have got their hands on the controls.<br /><br />Until a boundary realignment I used to live under a council run by idiot greenies. Their crowning glory was to declare everything that wasn't an indigenous plant in the shire a weed and try to pass laws making the landowners remove them. Pine trees, native trees from the mountains 50 miles away, etc, were all weeds. Fortunately the law went nowhere.<br /><br />The same idiots stopped a development, and I'm no friend of developers, because a supposedly unique butterfly was found on the land. The land became a park dedicated to the poor little butterfly because it was the only place on the planet that you could find that butterfly. That was 20 years ago. Still signs up there about the unique little butterfly. They haven't put up any signs about its discovery in a number of other places scattered across the state in the intervening 20 years.<br /><br />In a lot of places you can't cut down even a dead tree without a permit. Permits are hard to get in a lot of cases. A whole row of trees down the side of my suburban block, which I'd planted 5 years earlier, suddenly disappeared one day. The nursery had labelled them wrongly and they were going to be way, way, way too big for a suburban block. Nobody ever found out who removed them or where they went. Naturally I know nothing about it. No permit, because one wouldn't have been granted because the authorities, sitting in their timber panelled offices behind their timber desks, think every tree someone else owns is so precious that the planet can't afford to lose it, no matter how dead or useless or dangerous it may be. <br /><br />Snakes are protected. Mate, if I see a snake around the house I ain't going to let it take up residence so it can kill me or my kids.<br /><br />And so on.
 

Twidget

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

The Dirt Doctor has some good ideas. <br /><br />The first house I bought ended up being infested, I dropped bug bombs in the house a couple of times.
 

lakelivin

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

Why not add some roach bait along with the boric acid treatment? Might help speed things up...Put in a place pets can't access it; a friend had some out in the open in his basement and I caught my dogs trying to chew through the plastic casing; fortunately caught em before they could get to the bait...
 

rolmops

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

Wear those long pointy shoes,it really helps getting at them when they are in the corner.<br />Napalm you said? You can fumigate your house with phosphor it works great.You don't know what phosphor is? It is that orange burning stuff that you find in mortar shells and hand grenades.It is forbidden by the Geneva convention, that's why we call it exploding smoke..
 

Sea Six

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

The bait/poison traps they sell in the food stores work fine, just change them out after a few months.
 

12Footer

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

That boric acid stuff only werks on cockroaches. It has little effect on greenies (or as we call them here, "environmentalist whackos")...Unfortunately.
 

toktok

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

There are over 3800 species of cockroaches worldwide and one of the oldest living creatures still walking on this planet. Roaches will live outside and almost anywhere, trees, woodpile, planter, under rocks, but they do prefer to breed in warm, damp locations. But given the chance they will gladly move their family inside where they have food and water, although they aren't fussy eaters. That's why one of the best forms of cockroach control and any kind of home pest control begins with keeping a clean kitchen.
 
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bruceb58

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Re: Cockroaches: Info on why they're here & how to get rid of them please

[size=+2]This thread is from 2005!!!![/size]
 
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