Forum Thermomix
Welcoming Center, Management and General Chat => Chit Chat => Topic started by: goldfish on April 12, 2014, 01:17:24 am
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I'm nearly at my wits end with the Northern Beaches Roach Brigade! They're totally ignoring - albeit "sniggering" - I can even hear them! at - my efforts to bar their unwelcome entry or to move them on to a more heavenly existence >:(
I've recently had fantastic results using a mixture of honey and boric acid (1:1) to rescue the house from a plague of tiny black ants (mixed a spoon each of boric acid an honey - or you could use jam, etc. Placed a smear on a small piece of paper and put it in their tracks. 2-3 days later there was not a trace of them.) so went searching the net to see if something similar would work for roaches.
This is what I'm trying today . . . . .
http://housekeepingexpert.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/eradicating-cockroaches-by-easy-and.html
(sugar powder = icing sugar)
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I have heard that 50 : 50 Borax / sugar is also effective. Borax is a poison, though, so make sure that pets or kids don't get any where near it. I also believe that clove essential oil deters them - NB deters, not kills, so this may not be a suitable solution.
There is also a commercially available product called, I think, Cockroach Hotel - apparently they check in but they never check out. I can't remember where I saw that product so don't know if this is available in Australia, though.
Good luck, 'roaches are a real pain and I don't envy you.
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goldfish - my sympathy to you. Roaches are my least favourite insect. I had a method of killing them on the yacht, will have to think about it and get back to you on it when I have a bit more time.
I do like the sound of the hotel though - check in - no check out!
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I don't like ants but I detest cockroaches. They make me feel yuk.
For the ants we use borax and icing sugar. We sprinkle it near the nests but need to do it each time it rains. Our brick paving always seems to have ant nests coming up everywhere.
For cockroaches I have only ever used a size 11 thong firmly applied. However this isn't the best for the smaller ones. I like the look of the eradication method you linked. Nikkit I will look forward to your method on the yachts.
When we lived in Broome the house issued to us was over 100 years old and quite unique. We used to resort to surface spray on a Friday afternoon after school and then leave town for the weekend. Come back on Sunday and clean up the bodies. We kept all food, crockery and cutlery in the fridge. Yuk!
Good luck in getting rid of the nasties Goldfish.
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Eeewww cockroaches-one of the few exceptions to the "live and let live" rule.
I like a scattergun approach. Wash the floors with mix of hot water vinegar and eucalyptus (they don't like eucalyptus apparently), get some old fashioned sticky traps (no chemicals just a sticky surface on the floor of the trap) and if you can cope with the thought of sharing some red wine and cake, grease the inside of a dish with oil or butter, put in some red wine and float a piece of cake on top, then put in a place where you know they are hanging out, e.g. under the fridge or stove. Our Hills District cockies took quite a shine to this but haven't needed to waste any red or cake for a long time ;D
I'm waiting to hear Nikkit's method too :D :D :D
Hope the dough works for you goldfish
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sounds like trifle :D
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Ok, so after a big weekend where my brother turned 40, a guy was bet 20 bucks he wouldn't ride a bike off the end of the pier - which he promptly did - and then didn't surface, so the bloke that made the bet had to jump in and rescue him and the bike (all ok...) my brother accidentally ran over another chap :o, (he's ok -ish too) a motorized lounge suite with disco lights and a massive sound system was the way to get around, plus a few other minor incidents and I may have one or 7 too many beers...I have finally remembered my cocky killer method! :-)) :P
Sorry ladies - another story with this one...
I worked with a bloke who also lived on a yacht, and he had an unfortunate cockroach infestation, which I did not realise until he made me a very bad cup of coffee one day - with a roach floating in it. :o unfortunately I did not see this roach until AFTER I had taken my first sip (and had then decided the coffee was bad and I was wondering if I could secretly pour it overboard) The cocky floated to the top, I saw it, did the old girly squeal thing, tossed the cup over board and promptly puked everywhere. :o
I'm not too sure if he was more peeved about losing the cup or me puking all over the deck!
Not really a good look! And I don't think I ever went back on his boat again - or let him make me another coffee!
Anyway - It was not long after that incident that I began to notice cockies on our yacht. I think one may have hitched a ride with me from his boat. Either that or they came on board when we had tied up to a friends Indonesian fishing boat.
It wasn't good, they bred like rabbits. They were everywhere. My hippy/holistic/don't hurt the environment method of mint and lavender and eucalyptus oil and all the other "feel good" ideas I was told about did diddly squat. I think the errr... dope smoke.... made them rather frisky and they were jumping each other like no tomorrow - and they were always eating! (gave them the munchies too! :-)) )
So I resorted to some good old chemical warfare. (Although I did call my Grandma and ask her and she said "DDT Nik, only way to go" Hmmmm....maybe not quite THAT much chemical warfare Grandma!)
I bought a couple of cans of the spray stuff where you shut everything up tight, turn it on and bolt out the door. And don't come back for a week. Bit hard when it was our only home and we had no-where else to go! I'd clear out the inside (plates etc) and put them all up on deck, close all the portholes, set off a bomb, climb the steps, shut the hatch, realise I hadn't checked to make sure the lights were off or the gas was turned off, open the hatch, hold my breath, check everything and leave. Gasp!
Go to work, come home, open everything up and sleep on deck that night as it was pretty gassy down stairs!
Dead cockies everywhere! It worked...sort of. I had to do this a lot as they just kept coming out of the wood work. It took a month or so of continual bombing before we saw a change. The cockies got lighter in colour and smaller and then began to breed new ones that were rather deformed. They were not pretty at all.
We did finally get rid of the cockies, but at a price. The paint peeled off the walls of the yacht where the bombs were put, the herbs I had forgotten to put up on deck all died, I used hundreds of litres of water washing everything from top to bottom - easy outside as it was a bucket in the ocean job, but inside I washed with fresh water, so I carted a lot of 20 litre containers. And we had headaches for a while! (I don't want to know what was in those bombs...)
In hindsight Grandma's DDT may have been a better option as I bet I would have only had to use it once!
So I really don't have a good method of killing cockies. I take a deep breath now and squash them thoroughly with whatever I have handy. I don't like the idea of lots of chemicals anymore, and I have used the borax/sugar bait here at home (which must work as I don't have a lot of roaches).
AND I might add I haven't used the dope smoke method in a long time either. Not that it worked :-))
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Oh Nikkit, ........what a life. ;) : :o
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Life has never been dull for you Nikkit :D :D
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It has settled somewhat Judy! I'm not too sure if I could keep up now :)
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Nikkits story reminds me of our local Asian restaurant that had a cockroach problem, after closing they set of 10 of those cockroach bombs, but forgot to turn off the gas pilot light on there stove, boom they blew the side wall out of there shop, no cockroaches in a ten k radius for years. Luckily no human as injured.
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OMG Jen! How funny! 10 of those bombs would have well and truly cleaned the place out even without blowing the joint half to bits!!
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That's one way to get rid of them :D Lucky no one was hurt though.
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Oh girls my iPad screen is all spittled on. Very funny stories. Thank you.
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I detest cockroaches as much as the rest of you; like your solution Coolie1, size 11 thong sounds good. We also had the Broome problem where they ate our potatoes and also our clothes. Yuk.
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More great stories to read over breakfast.Thanks Nikkit and Jen.My iPad screen needs wiping though :D :D :D
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Jen.. That's hilarious! Thinking... would love a wall or two removed in the kitchen-very creative approach to some DIY!!!! ;D
.. no roaches for 10 k you say?? Now that's what I call killing two birds with one stone!! ;D
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LOL - this has been hilarious reading.
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😝😜😄😃😆too funny😆😜😝😀😄
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Eew cocky coffee! Another great story.
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Great read girls. If I see one, I'll use DH's size 15 thongs.
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Oh my kimmy, that cocky will be spread from one end of the house to the other if you hit it with size 15's!
Dead set guarantee of instant extermination though ;D
Goldfish - that might come with the warning of "don't try this at home!" Wonder what the insurance company thought ???
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When we lived in Broome the single guys place left a lot to be desired in the tidiness stakes. Not only did they have the giant, flying cockroaches we all had, they had mice. They used to shoot them with sharpened pencils, using a cross bow. They were pretty good shots too.
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The things boys do to entertain themselves Cookie! :-))
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Nikkit, I am sure you could write a book with all your stories.
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Troupie - I am sure everyone has their fair share of funnies that have happened throughout their lives. I've had a fair few not so funnies too I might add.
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oh nikkit
l loooovvveee your storys , now l need to pick my self up of the ground from laughing so much
you could write a book your story are so funny, interesting , colourful .
it would be great to pass the book down to your kids , gran kids when there older maybe or you might give them ideas