Cockroaches!

[Reducto]

I thought the only bug issues I'd have to deal with in the van were the little flying ones that come in when I open the doors but alas, I managed to pick up a family of cockroaches in Florida. At first I hoped they were just lone stowaways but after two batches of babies appeared I had to accept reality.

I had been careless in letting food scraps accumulate around the driver seat and in cracks in the back and that was all it took. I cleaned it all as best I could and put out a bunch of little bait things. I don't know if roaches have nests, I haven't found anything like that or any patterns to where they seem to congregate other than under things I'm about to pick up.

There's never more than one adult visible at any given time but I know that doesn't mean much.

Ugh.

 

[GotSmart]

Find a roach powder with Diatomaceous earth and boric acid.  I have seen it at Walgreens, WM, and many other places for about $5 for a large container.

 

[rgs80074]

the product below i ordered from amazon. Roaches just can't get enough of the bait. never seen it with anything else. you can put the bait next to food and they'll go for the bait even fight each other over it. then they take it back to the hiding places and die and other roaches eat them and get poisoned as well.

i used that with a combination of some spray to get rid of my roach problem, a problem truly nolan the expert pest control people couldn't solve in a year of treatments. don't usually spray anymore just put out bait every so often to keep them under control, spray about once every 3-5 months.

worked great in my jeep to get rid of the roaches, with a spray and fogger they just hid under the vehicle and return when its safe but the bait worked wonders.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Y2GNVM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[BigT]

Get yourself some food-grade Diatomaceous Earth.  Amazon has it.  Good stuff.  You and your pets (if you have any) can eat the stuff it won't hurt you.  
What it will do is kill the roaches the most disgusting and hideous way without having to spread toxic poison all over your van.  

1) It dehydrates them by soaking up the moisture on the outside of their bodies.
2) The super-sharp (tiny) bone fragments get into their leg joints and hack their legs off when they walk.

I used it when I moved into my last apartment and found it crawling (pun intended) with the little bastards.  I sprinkled it everywhere..
Behind the drawers in the kitchen, along/under the baseboards, in any opening in the walls (cable TV, etc), under the fridge, under the stove, anywhere I could get it.  

It doesn't work right away; it takes some time, but it does work, and it won't hurt you to be near it.

 

[Reducto]

Thanks guys! I'll pick up some of those if the cleaning and little plastic things don't work. I really don't want to resort to toxic sprays or bombs especially with Winter coming, meaning I'll be spending lots of time in the back with the vent closed.

 

[BradKW]

 with a spray and fogger they just hid under the vehicle and return when its safe but the bait worked wonders.

Next time, consider wearing a respirator and moving the vehicle a little bit...last I heard, roaches don't have a homing instinct  

 

[GotSmart]

Get yourself some food-grade Diatomaceous Earth.  Amazon has it.  Good stuff.  You and your pets (if you have any) can eat the stuff it won't hurt you.  
What it will do is kill the roaches the most disgusting and hideous way without having to spread toxic poison all over your van.  

1) It dehydrates them by soaking up the moisture on the outside of their bodies.
2) The super-sharp (tiny) bone fragments get into their leg joints and hack their legs off when they walk.

I used it when I moved into my last apartment and found it crawling (pun intended) with the little bastards.  I sprinkled it everywhere..
Behind the drawers in the kitchen, along/under the baseboards, in any opening in the walls (cable TV, etc), under the fridge, under the stove, anywhere I could get it.  

It doesn't work right away; it takes some time, but it does work, and it won't hurt you to be near it.

I have been using DE for 40 years.  I first read about it in National Geographic.  I moved into a infested 4 plex in a bad part of town, and bought a 25 lb bag of swimming pool filter DE. I gave it away to all the neighborhood.  In less than a month, nobody had any roaches.   

Roaches crawl through it, and two things happen.  It sticks to their bodies, and abrades their varnish like shell.  They die in the nest.  The new generation hatches, crawls  over the powder dragged in, and they die.  

It wipes out the complete colony. 

Now you can find food grade DE, and put it in the pet food, or even your own food.

http://diatomaceous.org/

 

[ArtW]

I had a roach problem in my Apartment
despite my best efforts they followed me to my old travel trailer
despite my best efforts I have seen a few in my BRAND NEW TRAVEL TRAILER! 
I am getting some of that stuff

 

[DannyB1954]

Eliminate as much moisture as possible. They need water more than they do food. Condensation from windows etc. Where I live people call them water bugs.

 

[ccbreder]

A German Cockroach, they should be called New York Cockroach, is not the same as a waterbug. They are much tougher and drought tolerant. Mice eat them.

 

[KASibson]

My only tip about cockroaches is don't step on them to kill them.
If you step on them, you'll kill the cockroach but if it's a lady cockroach you could end up with eggs on your shoes that will then hatch and you'll have more cockroaches. The eggs are too small to squish with your shoes.

 

[GotSmart]

Roach eggs are from 5 to 10 mm in length.  That is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch.  They hatch between 8 to 50 depending on the species. 

If I can stomp a roach, I stomp.

 

[anewbiewannabe]

Food grade DE is safe for humans and pets and works well.  Learning to identify what a roach egg sac looks like can speed the process of getting rid of roaches as sometimes the sac might be found separate from the roach. Yes, I learned this back in my days living in a roach motel apartment.

After my experience with the "Jaws" of the roach world back then (Yes, I heard the theme music and that sucker was ginormous!!!!) I discovered that they aren't always dead after being stomped unless, well it's too graphic...  It was a major campaign to get rid of that roach!!!!  I was young and dumb and hairspray and a lighter were involved at one point.  Luckily the fire department wasn't needed but I might have burnt the house down if I hadn't been successful in it's extermination!!!!!

ETA: DE in the crevasses and such can prevent a future colony from getting firmly established. We have wood roaches around here and it has been most successful for me.

 

[arctic cat]

Boric acid powder.  Fairly cheap less than $5.00  

Roaches love dark spaces so they hide in crevices or under things such as cabinets and other things.  They also are constantly grooming themselves and put their legs in their mouth.   So if you spread a very very thing coat of boric acid where they hide or live they will walk over that and put their legs over the mouth and that do the job.     If they are on your vehicle once they feel heat they will come out.

Boric acid is a slow killer and you know is working once you start seen roaches upside down dying slowly.    once new roaches ares born they meet the same fate until they are all death.

 

[anewbiewannabe]

Arctic cat, just a heads up about the boric acid. I used it for years but switched to the food grade DE when I got my last cat. It's been a few years so I don't remember the safety concerns. Please check to be sure it's safe for your working canine (proper term is escaping my mind right now.) You probably already have, but I'd rather mention it and you have already checked it out than not mention it and you not check it out.

Take care.

 

[gcal]

Don't beat yourself up over a few crumbs. A roach will live for weeks on the grease in a fingerprint and considers lots of things to be food that we don't. If you really, really can't get rid of them, winterize your unit, head up north this winter, get a motel room or stay with friends, and leave your unit sit for a few days at well below freezing temps, below zero is great. Park in the shade if you can so temps don't rise in the sun. That kills them all - adults, nymphs, and eggs. Do NOT bring any cloths into your S&B room without washing and drying them on high. Do not bring any clothes back into your van without washing them and drying them on high. Then, run back south and thaw out.

 

[ArtW]

Now that's a good natural way to de roachify a vehicle / RV, I wasn't aware sub freezing temps would kill them, I always hear the suckers could live antwhere

 

[GotSmart]

Don't beat yourself up over a few crumbs. A roach will live for weeks on the grease in a fingerprint and considers lots of things to be food that we don't. If you really, really can't get rid of them, winterize your unit, head up north this winter, get a motel room or stay with friends, and leave your unit sit for a few days at well below freezing temps, below zero is great. Park in the shade if you can so temps don't rise in the sun. That kills them all - adults, nymphs, and eggs. Do NOT bring any cloths into your S&B room without washing and drying them on high. Do not bring any clothes back into your van without washing them and drying them on high. Then, run back south and thaw out.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/arti...ockroaches-bed-bugs-tolerate-cold-weather.htm

A minimum of 4 days at temps around 0f will  do the trick.  That is what all the "roach experts" are saying.

 

[gcal]

http://www.natureworldnews.com/arti...ockroaches-bed-bugs-tolerate-cold-weather.htm

A minimum of 4 days at temps around 0f will  do the trick.  That is what all the "roach experts" are saying.

Gets rid of bed bugs and other pests, too.

 

[GypsyDogs]

Gets rid of bed bugs and other pests, too.

Mother-in-laws?
 

But seriously.  Yes, freezing kills roaches.  That was how I 'sanitized' the roach-tank sweepings on tank cleaning day.  Swept it all into a container and stuck it in the freezer for a week.  Adults, Juvies, eggs.  Done.

and, yes, I had   Dubia Roaches roaches as pets..