Unfortunately, tropical sailing is often an opportunity to meet undesirable small-scale illegal immigrants. Cockroaches are feared on board ships, especially for their exceptional breeding capacity. A boat offers them a thousand opportunities to hide and build a nest.
Don't let him on board.
Prevention is the key word when it comes to these little critters. Most of the time, we bring them aboard without knowing it.
1- Race Inspection During bunkering, on the pontoon, you should carefully check all the provisions and in particular the beer packs, banana bunches, pineapple tails where cockroaches or their larvae are happy to stay.
2- No cardboard on board Packaging and especially honeycombed cardboard should be banned from the boat, as it is a very popular larvae nest. This "?déballage?" will be a good opportunity to limit the volume of garbage on board.
3- At the port Whenever possible, raise your gangway to prevent the boarding of pests. If the harbour appears to be infested with cockroaches, it may be useful to spray the harbour with a product suitable for these insects.
4- Rigorous domestic hygiene : carefully avoid leaving food lying around (in the bottoms, the teams...), clean the toilet area regularly and avoid unclosed bins.
But these little beasts, as disgusting as they are harmless, know how to walk, run, swim a little, but above all they know how to fly. And you may have taken every possible precaution, there may be a surprise guest boarding by air.
Regardless of the mode of transport, once on board, it will be necessary to launch an offensive to hunt down and flush out the enemy. Indeed, if a cockroach does not pose a real problem, it is its proliferation that can become problematic. If one individual lays its eggs, dozens of small beasts will complete the crew.
Ways to get rid of cockroaches:
For effective control, products such as Goliath Gel can be purchased. But you can also make your own traps.
Boric acid and condensed milk pellets are made, which can be scattered on board, but unfortunately the corpses are not easily found. In the West Indies, we can buy ravety Kaz. These are small cardboard houses that attract ravets, or cockroaches that get stuck. You can find them for a few euros in mini-markets and tits.
If cockroaches have proliferated too much, then specialists will be needed. They will come on board to gas the cockroaches and put an end to the miserable life of these insects tempted by the maritime adventure. The operation consists of making the boat completely airtight and injecting a deadly gas into it. A few hours after the massacre and lots of ventilation, you can leave in search of the corpses.
