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Keeping Cockroaches Off the Boat
by Tom Neale
The best way of dealing with cockroaches is to try to keep cockroaches
ashore in the first place. Unfortunately, they may come aboard no matter
how clean your habits and boat. They often board from docks when you are
tied alongside. They can also come aboard from other boats when you raft
up to them. There is at least one city in Florida which rents moorings
(they won’t let you anchor there) and which insists that if you rent a
mooring you must let any boat that they assign raft with you. This isn’t
a good idea unless you know the boats. But remember, that the cleanest,
most well maintained boats can have cockroaches.
You may bring them aboard in cardboard boxes; particularly the corrugated
ones. They love the glue and are exceptionally good at shrinking and
hiding out. They also come aboard in groceries. Wash what you can on
the dock or in the sea, and leave boxes and bags ashore. If you think
you’re in an infested area, consider spraying your dock lines with roach
spray, at least near the dock end. (If you spray the dock area around
the cleat, you need to be sure that nobody’s pet or baby is going to be
hanging out there, and that the product is safe for that.) If possible,
tie the boat so that it’s not touching the pier or pilings.
We’ve seen them literally swarming on the ground and walls of buildings
in the tropics at night. All you have to do is brush against a wall and
you end up with one in your clothes. Anytime you go to a beach cookout,
shake and check your bags and blankets before putting them into the
dinghy. This is a great incentive to go naked to tropical bars. They
also come aboard in books, snuggled up (when little) in the binding where
all that tasty glue is found.
We once saw a "Palmetto Bug" munching the label on a rum bottle. "They
like the glue," we were told, by a man drinking his bottle of rum on the
dock—his entire bottle. "They leave tiny eggs under the labels." This
whole thing was obviously becoming insidious. It’s a good idea,
especially in the tropics, to unload even your bottles from their boxes
or bags onto the dock, peel the labels, and wash the bottles. True, you
can’t impress your friends with the expensive booze labels, but
cockroaches aren’t very impressive at cocktail hour either.
For more tips about what to do when you find cockroaches aboard, go to
www.boatus.com, and follow the prompts to the “Tom Neale’s Cruising for
You” section.
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