Re: what's the best cockroach killer for palmetto bugs

Is a palmetto bug a cockroach?

Google:
"palmetto bug" cockroach 373 hits

OK - what will we do about it? Cockroaches are legendary for survivability, reproductive power, and (rapidly evolving) resistance to chemical extermination. Why kill them when you can gently tell them to "GO AWAY!"

US patent #5,859,057
http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/srchnum.htm and enter the patent number (without commas).

A crushed cockroach leaks micrograms of linoleic acid. Linoleic acid is an essential nutrient in humans (you need to eat about 3 grams/day) and is essentially odorless. If you are a cockroach it is an overwhelmingly powerful chemical signal - a pheromone - to RUN AWAY! It makes evolutionary sense, doesn't it? Anything that stomps on cockroaches should be avoided if you are a cockroach.

Linoleic acid decomposes in air in a couple or three days. The patent shows how linoleic acid can be preserved with antioxidants and added to a dispensor to provide 6 months of extraodinary cockroach repulsion. Field tests miraculously de-roached Hispanic carnecerias (butchershops) in Los Angeles, CA and Tokyo, Japan apartments.

The EPA says that micrograms of essential human nutrient linoleic acid in air may have "unknown hazards" and therefore cannot be registered as a legal roach-repelling entity without about $20 million in safety testing performed by favored vendors. Enjoy your palmetto bugs.

Cockroach phyla
http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/cockroach.html

Cockroach identification
http://ianrwww.unl.edu/ianr/pat/appenxd.htm

Cockroach management
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/scripts/htmlgen.exe?DOCUMENT_IG082

Groups of insecticides
http://www.hclrss.demon.co.uk/summ_insecticides.html

Don't bother with pyrethroids - they only make cockroaches sleepy. Not much of anything else usefully kills them. Even if you fumigated your house, you would be colonized from outside the next day. Products containing hydramethylnon will give you some minor measure of control... if you put the baits everywhere. 50:50 boric acid and flour ground together is as good as anything at killing roaches, but also toxic to pets and children if they eat it.

Uncle Al says, "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed."

--
Uncle Al Schwartz
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Unsafe for children and most mammals)