Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

sciencemag.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 154 posts

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#71

Post by asdkfjasl »

Spooky23 wrote: post #11
otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #5

Haven't seen a cockroach in a decade. Not so hot as they were hyped up to be during the 70's and 80's.

#suburblife Cockroaches infest all urban areas. If you’re around a dense population of humans, you got them. If you’re in the US south, you got them. If you’re in the hood, you got lots of them. If you’re in an area with lots of transient people, you’re near them. My dad was a fireman. I recall him describing an apartment fire where they encountered a “moving wall” in a stairwell, a 5ft square cluster of roaches tryi…

Eh, we live in the center of NYC, and we have gotten like three or four in the last year. A well-sealed apartment (copper wool + silicone caulk in all gaps) will keep out cockroaches and rats pretty well.

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#72

Post by pknopf »

jcadam wrote: post #21
pknopf wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello from Florida!

Yea, in my part of Florida we get the huge palmetto bugs (polite term for American cockroaches) coming inside during the summer. Fortunately, they don't usually infest homes like the German cockroaches. My cats take care of the few that wander inside (and also, the lizards).

My house was roach free.

Then my mother moved in and I had to put her stuff in the garage.

Now I have roaches and I can't seem to get rid of them myself. I need to contact a bug guy. I hope I can be rid of this infestation.

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#74

Post by stirfrykitty »

elorant wrote: post #63
stirfrykitty wrote: post #42

Mix baking soda and sugar together and put them in a bowl. Will kill them dead without toxicity to humans. Boric acid has no resistance. Bay leaves repel about every insect known to man. Roaches hate bay leaves and will not be in the same area with them. Editing to say that bay leaves can be crushed in a coffee grinder, put in a plastic ketchup/mustard bottle as a powder, and the resulting powder "puffed" into areas…

Powdered or crystallized sugar?

Crystalline (table sugar). Powered would likely work as well. The baking soda destroys them from the inside out, basically blowing them up. Roaches have strong stomach acid, but they cannot "burp" so the baking soda creates a mini explosion inside them. Fitting end.

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#75

Post by TheHegemon »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #35
pard68 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would know much less if I didn't raise roaches as a food source for my reptiles. They have won me over, in part, and I consider them to be pets, though only me and my two year old appreciate them...

I used to have crickets for my bearded dragons and after a while I also took a liking to them. I feel that if you watch almost any animal closely for a while you see interesting traits and behaviors that make them likeable.

Honestly cockroaches are way better feeders than crickets. Crickets are so annoying, smelly, and if you don't take the uneaten ones out of your dragon's cage they can blind them!

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#76

Post by hombre_fatal »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #35
pard68 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would know much less if I didn't raise roaches as a food source for my reptiles. They have won me over, in part, and I consider them to be pets, though only me and my two year old appreciate them...

I used to have crickets for my bearded dragons and after a while I also took a liking to them. I feel that if you watch almost any animal closely for a while you see interesting traits and behaviors that make them likeable.

> if you watch almost any animal closely for a while you see interesting traits and behaviors that make them likeable.

I used to burn leaves with a magnifying glass in the sun as a kid. Once, I hovered the infernal dot over an ant and watched his abdomen pop. I then observed, in zoomed-in horror, as the poor thing kept trying to feel its missing abdomen and then clean its own juices off its antennae. Other ants would come and inspect the dying ant and their antennae would tap each other's. The fallen ant was then carried back to the hive, and I felt so bad that I spent the afternoon clearing a path for the highway of ants.

To this day, I feel bad killing ants and will try to avoid it, like blowing them off my patio table before scrubbing it. It gets a brow-crinkle from my friends, though.

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#77

Post by gingerlime »

stirfrykitty wrote: post #54
rpoconn1 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cool. Now how do I get rid of the ants that are eating the sugar?

The baking soda will kill them, too. Orange oil, bay leaves, and baking soda/sugar mix are all non-toxic to humans and animals, and all cheap. And they all work very well. Where I live, the only insects I will not kill are the spiders. They hang out under my roof line and eat all the bad flying insects like mosquitoes.

Your comments are what makes HN super-awesome! Thank you.

Any tips for mosquitoes when you can’t rely on spiders (or geckos) alone?

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#78

Post by jcadam »

pknopf wrote: post #72
jcadam wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, in my part of Florida we get the huge palmetto bugs (polite term for American cockroaches) coming inside during the summer. Fortunately, they don't usually infest homes like the German cockroaches. My cats take care of the few that wander inside (and also, the lizards).

My house was roach free. Then my mother moved in and I had to put her stuff in the garage. Now I have roaches and I can't seem to get rid of them myself. I need to contact a bug guy. I hope I can be rid of this infestation.

I pay a bug guy to come out and spray around my house quarterly. It helps, especially with the ants. Pretty much a required service in Florida.

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#80

Post by vectorEQ »

stirfrykitty wrote: post #42

Mix baking soda and sugar together and put them in a bowl. Will kill them dead without toxicity to humans. Boric acid has no resistance. Bay leaves repel about every insect known to man. Roaches hate bay leaves and will not be in the same area with them. Editing to say that bay leaves can be crushed in a coffee grinder, put in a plastic ketchup/mustard bottle as a powder, and the resulting powder "puffed" into areas…

cleaning also helps
Post reply on HN