They don’t attract kitchen-type cockroaches- the small German ones that flee from light. They attract wood roaches aka palmetto bugs- which light doesn’t bother at all. These are huge, and fly [there’s always one that gets in the house when you have guests coming through the door and flies in a circle through the living room just to humiliate you before it dies] but thy are nowhere near as prolific or as disgusting as kitchen roaches. Palmetto bugs are very slow, and eat dead leaves and fallen fruit, and given a choice they would rather be outside in the boots of a palm than in the shoes in your closet. When you squish orfrighten them they smell like almond extract which is intended to deter predators but actually smells good. They make great fish bait.
Get guinea hens or chickens. Problem solved... though chickens are a little leery of the big mature ones because the big ones are able to use the hooks on their feet to grasp and hang on to the nostrils of the chickens and put up a quite a fight before going down the hatch. Gives new meaning to the term “roach clip.” Guineas are not intimidated and will often kill them for the hens.
Having one buzz your guests keeps them from lingering too long...
When they get in the house, they die pretty quick. We find them expired in the middle of a room in the morning. Maybe a fridge too far....I don’t know.
Even the bug guy told us they wouldn’t last long.
But the havoc they cause with the wife screaming, climbing up on furniture, throwing things when they’re airborne...that’s the frightening part for me.
Someone on youtube should have matches between them and guineas and chickens. They probably already do. I'll have to check.
I checked. No good videos. There's money to be made!
Interesting reading. We call them tree roaches here in the Houston-Galveston area. There’s a certain season (now) when they find their way into the house. I’m pretty sure they’re coming in somewhere at the top of the fireplace because it’s usually the first place I see them. They look like a 747 up there on my white ceiling. Then there are those times when you can hear them rustling in papers or whatever as they navigate here and there. THAT’s really creepy because you can’t keep an eye on them.
When there’s one in the house, I have to find a way to kill it before I go to bed. I had one fall on me from a ceiling many years ago, and I can still remember what a creepy experience that was. That said, I’m pretty sure I’m not ready for chickens or guineas.