Cockroaches - is this true?

Is this a wind up.........

I am off to Sth India in 1.5 weeks time .... a collegaue of mine has claimed that now is the breeding season for coakroaches in India and that the females swell up cause of all the eggs in them and they need to lay them as quickly as they can.

Is this true?

He works in environmental health so I figured he should know what he is talking about - at the same time he has a cheeky streak but he swears he isn't pulling my leg.

IM'ers I can rely on you to give me a straight answer.

Cockroaches don't need wind ups! Indian cockroaches are truly awesome things!

But, like the frogs, they are most likely to running away from you when you see them.

They can move quite fast, but are not that difficult to sweep into a dustpan and chuck out.

If you stay in half-decent places you arte unlikely to meet many, unless you go poking around looking for them!

Now, did your friend mention the rats?

I was inundated with coachroaches last time I was here (April-June).

This time I have only seen the one so far, although I have only been here for 2 weeks.

I seem to remember last year that it was around October that was the worst time.

As long as you have some good coachroach spray (organic of course, haha) then you are okay.

So now IS the worst time! Is it breeding season?

Yuk..........

I really can't stand them...... nor rats for that matter. I remember once sharing a room with a big black rat in Vietnam. The hotel staff found my anxieties about the whole issue to be amusing and refused to allow me to swap rooms. I didn't get much sleep that night.

...Next day, this large rat was seen at reception, demanding a change of room due to the sleepless Western woman who had kept him awake all night

It could be worse.

When my wife and I were in Malaysia, we stay on Perhentian Island. One night it was raining heavily. My wife woke me up screaming, she had gone to the bathroom and there was a snake on the bathroom floor. Luckily she had switched the light on. I just caught a glimpse of it when it snuck into a hole in the corner.

Next day, we mentioned to the owners of the resort, and they said "was it green?, it would have been a harmless tree snake", we said "no it was brown" and then they shut up quickly and went about there business implying that it wasn't harmless.

Nick-H very honestly stated that you were unlikely to meet 'many' (unless he was being dishonest and meant to type "any"

Speaking of rats..........there's a tribe here that eats them!!!

Fair point Nick .....

But....
Mr Rat was very lucky to share with me though and not a Vietnamese national as the the hotel staff pointed out that rat is nothing to be scared of as it can be killed with a broom and eaten!!

Pass me the bucket ..............

According to the "Cockroach Weekly" egg laying season in South India starts
roughly on or around October 17th depending on the lunar brilliancy factor of the full moon. "Female cockroaches generally lay 6 - 14 pods that may contain upto 40 eggs each. Their most likely hatching depot is tourist's shoes left near foot of hotel beds furthemore ..."




Just kidding ! have a great trip but don't be too visually observant if you have to get up in middle of the night !

Borax is a natural mineral that cockroaches don't like!

Sprinkle borax powder around the infested areas and see for yourself!

(Borax powder is available from some chemists and most agricultural suppliers @ Rs.100/- a Kg)

Oh loopylou, poor rats! That rat must have been praying you were vegetarian!

PeakXV: Isn't only muslim cockroaches that time their egg-laying season accoring to the visibility of the moon? And I have to disagree about the tourists' shoes: that's Scorpions!

Priya, yes, I was being honest: I see one or two a month in my house. I see a lot more outside.

Have no fear the giant rat eating spiders consider cockroaches to be something of a delicacy but they tend to spit out the shells!!!! kk

Nick-H, you were absolutely right, I just rechecked the reference and it is only the South Indian Scorpion Cockroach that has this nasty habit!

You very nearly had me there..........




Thanks. No heavy drinking before bed time for me!

I get the picture .........