All climates that are hot & tropical will have there fair share of bugs such as cockroaches,and its fair to say Tenerife suffered with a lot in the past, but as someone whose family visit Tenerife about 5 times a year I can honestly say there has been a great improvement in the last 10 years or so,not come across any in rooms or apts. in recent times indeed dont see many at all anywhere

Hi fitzmum,

Don't think Tenerife is particularly abound with cockroaches. In my experience you can encounter them anywhere if the weather dictates. EG I was at the Arona Gran in 2005 4* a cockroach flew into the bar (it was Aug and the doors were open) Point being you get them in all places and though they are'nt particulatly nice they are NOT harmful. I have been to my appt
several different times of the year andf I reckon Feb - jun is ok.

We were staying in the Parque Santiago/Mare Nostrum area in late August/early September two years ago and there were a fair few of them around in the evenings, the streets were more or less running alive with them in some places - along the pavements, up the walls etc. One night we were sitting outside our hotel bar and I felt a "tickle" on my arm and there was a cockroach the size of a small mouse sat there just as well I'd had a few drinks... it did kind of de-sensitise me after that, if you know what I mean.
According to the locals, the late summer is the peak time for them. There's not much you can do about them in the Canaries, we get spiders in our bath at home and we "deal with it", you have to use the same attitude over there with cockroaches. Most good hotels will use pesticides to try to prevent them being in your room, but outside the hotel you just have to look straight ahead when you're walking around in the evening and try not to look at the floor.

been going every march and november for a few years, and never seen that many. Just the odd 1 in the street.

hi,
we were in tenerife last september, staying at the columbus, and only saw 2 cockroaches in the whole 2 weeks we were there!
off to tenerife next week, so hopefully won't come across too many this time!
regards
tracey

I think it depends. We have been going for years. Some holidays we tend to see more than others. But as someone commented above, they are not really harmful.

Also, if you are bothered about them in the room/apartment etc. you can buy some good killer spray...;.

just stand on the little buggers, they make a good crunching noise.

just stand on the little buggers

Dont do that. Their eggs spread and they will multiply

I have seen less than 50 in 14 visits. Most of them are in the same places if you know where to look. One of which is in an alleyway beside one of my favourite bars (Oreillys) which leads down to Harleys. Another is near to the dried up river. They are quite harmless and i would rather see 20 cockroaches than 1 timeshare tout. Unfortunately the ratio is the other way round
If you get a high room in your hotel you will almost eliminate the chance of seeing any there. They are not very good climbers

I've been 4 times at various times of the year and have only ever seen 1 cockroach.

I've stayed at the Mare Verde apartments and the Parque De La Paz apartments and have never seen a cockroach in the apartments, the only one I've seen was outside in the street.

Las Americas has improved so much over the past few years (not in a Benidorm kind of way where they say its improved and it still looks crap) the streets of Playa de las Americas are very clean and the resort is of a very high standard (Veronicas is still a dive but this is being improved as I write)

I don't think you'll have any problems at all.

Cheers
Mark

They are not very good climbers

Roaches are very good climbers, they have suckers under their legs and can climb a shiny smooth surfaced vertical wall, they can even walk upside down on a ceiling, but this takes greater effort for the suckers to stick.
They can run, hop, jump and fly and the male develops wings.
Being on a high floor makes no difference, I do accept that you may have a bigger chance of seeing them on the ground floor where they crawl/fly in from the gardens, but once they are in a building like a hotel, then they take some getting rid of.

Dont do that. Their eggs spread and they will multiply

A number nine boot will kill them and any eggs that the female is carrying, (depending on the species), the female only carries the egg sack around from 1 day to 3 weeks and then she deposits it somewhere safe for the eggs to develop and hatch into nymph roaches.
I doubt any eggs will survive a good squash, it is an urban myth, the eggs are very fragile, but best to check the bottom of your trainers and remove the gunk.
Roaches are all over Tenerife, I have walked on Geranium walk and seen mum, dad and their entire family scuttling across for a night out from the stone wall, I've sat in a bar near the Tenerife Princess and had them crawling all over the floor and the stone wall and I've had them in my bedroom on the eight floor of a 4* hotel.

With regards to rubbish, the last time I was in Tenerife approx 3 years ago, there was rubbish piled up for days, now you might not like me saying that, but it is the truth and I did comment to my hubby that it encourages roaches, it was spotted on my walk from the hotel Bouganville to the Hotel Vulcano.
Benidorm on the otherhand, has the bins emptied every night and I've never seen rubbish piled up whatever is placed out at night, is removed by the bin men in the early hours.

Roaches are there, they have not been eradicated just because you don't see one they are also in Benidorm, but I've never seen families of them apart from when they were excavating out the old rain drains and they are a different species to the ones that inhabit the Canary Isles,
So, can we please cut the comparisons between the 2 resorts.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiii

Don't know what happened to the bin men when you were here Sanji but they collect refuse every morning in my village at 3.30a.m. How do I know what time they come. Because we are 2 days into a Calima and when the temeratures are 37 degrees indoors it's very hard to sleep. Hence why I sit up most of the evening because there is just no cooling down period

Afraid I must agree with Jackie here! Although my holiday appt is not in Pdla(Callao Salvaje) we have NEVER NOT had our rubbish collected every day! The bin men come every vmorning about 2.30am As Jackie says you hear them cos it is so hot at times it's impossible to sleep!

Sanji,

I can assure you that that rubbish is not left piled up for days. I know you see Benidorm through rose tinted glasses but Las Americas is now maintained to a higher standard than Benidorm. I was in Benidorm last year and had heard so much about how it had improved and how clean it was.

I found it to be dirtier than the other resorts I'd visited and obviously uglier!. Playa de Las Americas is not my favourite resort but it certainly cannot be critisised for its cleanliness standards which are higher than anywhere else I've been.

No I don't see Benidorm through rose tinted glasses, same as I don't see Tenerife through rose tinted glassses, they both have their faults.

I merely responded to your post about Benidorm, each and everyone of us will see resorts differently, you say Benidorm is dirty, I say differently.
I only stated what was the truth at the time I was there, the rubbish was piled up for days in an area walking down from the Hotel Bouganville and the only reason I noticed it, was because my son and his wife were staying in the Hotel Vulcano at the same time we were staying in the Hotel Dalias and we walked down to see them most days, rather than them walking uphill to see us.
The rubbish was still there, that's how I come to notice it and I don't come in here to cause trouble, I just state the facts, the bin men might come every day now, but they def missed that pile of rubbish I saw.
I'm very glad to hear PDLA is getting cleaned up, it certainly needs it in certain areas.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiii

Used to see roaches quite a lot back in the nineties when I first visited the island but hardly ever see them now. Have owned an apartment in Chayofa since April 06 and have never seen one in the village in 6 visits.

Our rubbish is collected most, if not every day from the complex.

In 6 visits in 4 years i cans honestly say i have never seen a cockroach in Tenerife. I must be going to the best places, but no......no cockroaches!!

Sanji

I know you never come on here and cause trouble, you are a wealth of knowledge. Perhaps the bin men were on strike when you visited
Anyway BACK ON TOPIC

Regarding roaches. We have visited Tenerife for over twenty five years two or three times a year and have lived here for a little over three months [yipee]. I can honestly say that our first few visits back in the year dot we did used to see them quite regularly everywhere [yes even the best places] but I honestly can't tell you the last time we saw one out here, it was that long ago.

Thanks all for your replies. I'd feel happier now about booking a trip to Tenerife.

Its true that they are eveywhere though.. We just travelled to the Flamingo Oasis in Benidorm and its the cleanest hotel ever with an army of cleaners night & day.

I was astounded to see small cockroaches climbing the over walls in the darkened areas of the main restaurant in the evenings when the snack sections were open.
(When the snacks were served only a small section of the restaurant was open & the lights were off in the other areas)

If they can be there - they can be anywhere!!

As you now have had several replies to this topic fitzmum I'm going to lock it otherwise it will just go round in circles.

Thanks to all for the input
allmen.