Living with cockroaches, an occasional lizard or two on the wall has been very normal in India until they started invading our kitchen in hundreds. Two rounds of exterminations, one round of completely changing the kitchen cabinets with anti-termite material and re-painting the walls would not stop this army of cockroaches coming back at nights to check out if there was some left over curry in the kitchen. It is quite clear that food particles, cooked or uncooked, are inviting them since you don't see much of them in other areas of the apartment. Also the temperature seems to be another point as pointed out by someone earlier as they seem to come when the lights go out. I wish there was some kind of long standing solution to get rid of them - but I am afraid future generations would sadly say: Once they walked on this planet"¦

Now even the glass smell of cockroach, or is it kingfisher"¦

Janefulton: Where can I buy RAID spray"¦I want to carry dozens of them back home this October when I go to Goa.

I buy Raid spray from Luma supermarket near St. Anthonys Chapel along with the sticks for marking the floors with and you can buy a cockroach "food" which comes in small trays to put under sinks etc which get rid of them but it sounds like you may need more than a few trays.
We had friends who had a pub in the UK and when it was empty the coachroaches came out in their 100's - they had it fumigated numerous times but nothing stopped them and we were sworn to secrecy about them.

thanks everyone i feel better now we've discussed this topic , if its the norm for most places to get the odd roach thats fine ,( i cant believe i just said that ) when we return in oct we will spray and continue to spray every six weeks also use the chalk and mossie nets over the windows .
thanks again anita

Check out this website:

http://www.getridofthings.com/getridofcockroaches.htm

Isn't the biggest problem that you don't see them until they've really taken hold.

Anyway as someone else said, they are quite harmless but can carry disease, much like most other living things.

Also, I believe they are,...errrm.....can't think of the word........you only need two no matter what sex and one will change sex and they'll eventually breed.

PLEASE don't let Sanji see this thread!! She has a real horror story of cockroaches!!!!! She sometimes wanders into here from the Costa Forum

I`ve wandered in.

Also, I believe they are,...errrm.....can't think of the word........you only need two no matter what sex and one will change sex and they'll eventually breed.

I think the word you are looking for is hermaphrodite meaning they have both sex organs in their body and can switch sex when nature calls...as far as I know, roaches are not hermaphrodites.
The male gives the female his little "present" and she stores this in a sac in her body, and she releases small quantities to fertilize her eggs when they are ripe.

Anyway as someone else said, they are quite harmless but can carry disease, much like most other living things

They will have a nibble at you and carry disease by leaving a trail of excretement ...yuk! Nice! the antigens from roaches can cause Asthma.

Don't kid yourself they only come out in the dark

Normally, they are active for 4 hours, usually from 10 pm until 2 am, they have an internal clock that changes as the seasons daylight hours change. but I saw one as big as a rat, sat sunning itself in the middle of my apartment floor in Tenerife....they come looking for food, but particularly water.

I was told by the ex pats never to stand on them as they carry their eggs underneath their canopy and when squashed the eggs are carried into houses and apartments on the soles of shoes etc. thus infesting the place

An urban myth....no eggs would withstand a crushing of a shoe.
Get them on their backs and they become dis-orientated, but sometimes they play dead and can eventually right themselves up, so I have been told.
They can also reduced their body size down as much as 2/3rds. The "rat" ran into a hole hardly visible to the human eye and got in....quicker than Lynford Christie.

When you have had one on your face, (again as big as a rat,) that wakes you up and makes your heart go into another rhythm, then you kindda get a phobia about them.even 2 1/2 years later
I have read loads of info on them to try and overcome the fear, but I still HATE the .

CLICK HERE....HERE and HERE

sanji x

OH NO!!! She found it!!! Sanji is a professor on cockroaches - and can 'home' in on a cockroach thread from 90.6 miles! Mwah Hun!

Roaches are wonderful survivors and are everywhere. I recently surveyed an exclusive sports and leisure club in Scotland, were talking £2,000/year memebership and the boiler rooms for the pool was running with them. I had some fun last week after a few beers whilst at a good class hotel in Turkey chasing one around the urinal. I used to be squeamish but exposure soon cures you of any fears. The two creatures you need to look out for are mossies and even more deadly the homo sapien.

When I went to the Andaman Islands I saw one that had actually been COOKED into my curry!!!!!

when i put my jacket on for the 1st time in monthes to come home from Goa one ran out of my sleeve right down my legs! it was huge!! I hate them they terrify me
chilly

chilly I hate them too, they scare the ****** out of me, I feel like being sick if I see one and if someone says the word co*****ch when I am eating, it puts me off my food.....ewwwwww

yeah and its given me the eejy beejies now just reading this thread, and i am just going to bed!! I dont think we have got any here (thank Godness) but it still makes me shudder and feel all goose pimply!!!
chilly

who started this anyway!!!
chilly

I hate them too!!! Trouble is being in Goa you have to live with them you will never beat them they can get everywhere and anywhere! I would rather see a rat than a roach anytime!

Me too!!!! urgh

hi cilly sorry i started it
but only because there was a huge one in our bed last season and i really needed advice on how to get rid of them i can cope with them at a distance but not in my bed and the advice as allways was brilliant when we return this year we will spray straight away and continue every 6 wks do you go for the whole season if so do you not see them where you live ? anita

Hi Anita
Yes we go for 8.5 months!! and unfortunately we did see one or two (or 3 or 4!!) in our house!! a few times in the (guest, thank God!!) wet room but i think they came down from the loft and once or twice in the guest bedroom (again phew!!) and some in the lounge at night once in a while, but they really give me the eegie beegies!! just to think of and i suppose i spray and then bury my head in the sand cos if i think about them i would never sleep at night, but i agree a good lot of advice really and just me being squeemish!! A funny story though talking of finding horrible surprises i was tidying my wardrobe and was only dressed in a pair of knickers and suddenly something landed on my belly with a thud!! I nearly jumped out of my skin, thought what the hell is that and scared it might be a snake as we had just had a few of them (not scared but can be dangerous!!) anyway it turned out to be a massive toad!!! you know thise whitish colooured ones you get there11 also another time there was one (a toad) climbing up the wall on my porch and I poked it with a piece of paper whilst drinking my tea and watching it... well the thing jumped and landed on my cheek!!! I dropped the mug, tea all over me and screamed my head off... then prpoceeded to have a massive row with my husband cos he didnt come running ... i told him I could have been dead for all you knew with all that screaming and not a husband in sight!! to rescue me!!
chilly

ohh and not to forget the spider!! you know those little jumping spiders, the ones that are all over the place well they are always above my bed on the wall and when i got back to the UK i still had this earache which i had been getting since xmas (!!!) and dizzy spells and guess what! the GP spotted this leg in my ear!! I had to go to a specialist as i had a spider in my ear!! dead of course by then! i am so very glad i had overcome my deadful fear of spiders!! I used to be terrified (like with cockroaches) but i desensitised myself to them over a few years and guess what...it worked, unbelievable, i really was arachnophobic before and would hahve probably gone crazy knowing there was a spider in my ear!! ....
chilly

I hate them they look evil and some of them in Goa are the size of horses (ok mice) Worst experience was down south in a little roadside bar and they were flying everywhere, we walked in and I could feel one on the inside of my dress, wouldn't shake out, Im screaming blue murder so hubby twisted my dress until the little blighter was squashed to death --- all over a dress I was wearing out for the night!
You can buy a spray in this country that leaves a laquer like line all around any entrances a cockroach may try and walk in its called Dethane i think, if anyone wants to know I'll check it up.