Nuisance roaches

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Yvonne G

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Yesterday I hi-jacked Tom's cricket thread to ask about the roaches that are taking over my property. He told me they are, "...Blatta lateralis. The lighter colored, smaller winged ones are males and the bigger, fatter looking dark ones, with no wings, are the females. They are detrivores (meaning they eat detritus), so removing their food source outside will be pretty difficult."

Here's what they look like on my sticky trap:

roaches.jpg


So I did a GOOGLE search for getting rid of nuisance blatta lateralis and their cousin blatta orientalis, and here's a bait I found in case anyone else would also like to try it:

Boric acid bait
Note: do not breathe the powder, use rubber gloves to prepare the bait.

• One half cup (350 grams) boric acid - looks like white powder and is available in pharmacies
• one cup flour
• two heaped spoonfuls of sugar
• water
Mix boric acid, flour and sugar.
Moisten with just enough water to make a paste that can be formed into small cylinders or balls.
Make as many of them as you can. Distribute them in critical concealed places.
Nowadays, with exactly the same rationale is the use of ground diatomaceous earth; not the powder for domestic pool filters, but the type sold by many garden centers to control insect pests. Broken diatoms have very sharp silica fragments.

I'm going to put it under my pig blankets where I find the most of the roaches, and every place else where the tortoises can't get to it. I'm on a mission!!
 

Tom

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Keep us posted on how well it works. Good to know for anyone reluctant to use poisons around their house or animals.
 

Stephanie Logan

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I love it! Years ago, when I lived in Austin, Texas, that is the exact same recipe we all used to get rid of roaches, and it did work pretty well as I recall...another reason I did not like the "climate" in Texas. I do not miss the cockroaches! I wonder if they're still a problem or if traps/baits/exterminators have improved to the point where they're not such a constant nuisance anymore. Of course, being roaches, and considering their hardiness and ability to adapt and survive all these millions of years, I guess it's likely they're still around annoying their human hosts. :rolleyes:
 
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Maggie Cummings

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Just looking at Tom's picture gives me the willys...back in the day I managed a motel that had so many roaches they weren't even afraid of people and you'd find them in your bed. They'd fall off of the ceiling in the middle of the night and land on me in bed. They gave me the creeps so bad if I hand't of gotten fired I would have quit because of them. Even the 'ho's didn't like having a 'date' in my motel...
 

Tom

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maggie3fan said:
Just looking at Tom's picture gives me the willys...back in the day I managed a motel that had so many roaches they weren't even afraid of people and you'd find them in your bed. They'd fall off of the ceiling in the middle of the night and land on me in bed. They gave me the creeps so bad if I hand't of gotten fired I would have quit because of them. Even the 'ho's didn't like having a 'date' in my motel...

You do realize that the roach room is part of the tour when you come to visit, right? If you wish to view the turtles and tortoises you will have to enter the reptile/roach room and be surrounded by about 30 bins of roaches.:) My little girl will demonstrate how to handle them properly for you and tell you their scientific names.:D
 

spikethebest

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Tom said:
My little girl will demonstrate how to handle them properly for you and tell you their scientific names.:D

Thats the best part of the tour. Absolutely amazing to see in person.
 

Stephanie Logan

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spikethebest said:
Thats the best part of the tour. Absolutely amazing to see in person.

I'm sure it is (shudder, shudder). :rolleyes:

Does this stop happen before or after we get to see Scooter and company?
 

Tom

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Stephanie Logan said:
spikethebest said:
Thats the best part of the tour. Absolutely amazing to see in person.

I'm sure it is (shudder, shudder). :rolleyes:

Does this stop happen before or after we get to see Scooter and company?

Well their pen surrounds the roach/reptile room, so they are all in the same corner of the ranch. You can view whichever you like first.
 
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