First Roach Experience

[Landasaw]

Long before I ever got into the hobby I used to be in the Navy stationed on a ship. In the galley and other places there was a real infestation of roaches (no doubt german). It was always warm and moist in there, and they would hide in vast numbers behind the deepsink. I worked for a time in the galley and killed countless numbers of them with oven degreaser. Finally the galley was fumigated by the HMs, and I was sent to clean it up. After I had killed tons with degreaser, there were still over four hundred in the dustpan from the gas. I hated them and shirked other duties just to kill them.

Later, the ship went to Mazatlan, Mexico and I was drinking on the beach and went to urinate in a little shack and there were tons of larger roaches in there, so I peed on them and enjoyed watching them run. They may have been discoids, but I would not have known at the time...does anyone know what species would be found in coastal tropical mexico?

Funny I keep them now. If I were still in the navy, it would be extremely easy to capture wild roaches and keep them on ship until I got into port. Wish I would have known.

[darla]

I don't know the answer to your question but wanted to add a story to yours. My dad was in the Navy and when I was 8 years old we moved from California to Washington state on the USS Kittyhawk. I think we were on the Kittyhawk for 4 days but not sure. After the first day I became extremely seasick. I remember my dad doing drills and how important everyone looked. That evening my dad got me out to go eat. I was so sick! And on top of that seeing so many roaches crawling all over everywhere kinda made the nausea worse. I don't remember a whole lot about the trip but I sure remember those roaches! I also remember having to drive our van down 2 skinny planks over the water to get it off the ship. Thats the kinda stuff nightmares are made of.

[Matt K]

Roaches in costal Mexico..... You have maybe 100 to choose from, so no telling which it was.

Too bad.