[brumnurse]

Have been in NZ for 6 days and have just had 2 horrible days in Tauranga

we fled a bach after finding a cockroach in our daughters bed yesterday :wah

This evening we have found 2 cockroaches in the very nice clean motel that we escaped to. :wah

We heard yesterday that cockroaches are quite bad in Tauranga.

Is the south island any better (christchurch), my wife is all set to go home if she sees another one, as such I am wondering whether to head south before I start work and before we sign a contract on a rental house here.

will have to try and find out what this would mean for my residents Visa, whether another nurse job would allow us to stay, when the visa was gained through having a job here

Many thanks

Laurie

[DizzyF]

We get a few cockroaches in our house in Auckland...absolutely hate them but they are a part of NZ. Have heard they are bad around Tauranga as they arrived into NZ through the port years ago and have spread across NZ (they are not NZ natives).
Someone may correct me on this as only saying what my NZ MIL advised!
Wait til you find a Weta! All part of the joy of leaving blighty I guess....worth it for the nice sunny summers.

[victoria24]

you can buy a spray at bunnings etc that you put around the outside of your entrances to prevent them entering the house. you can also spray indoors and use a robocan for each zone. they cant hurt you but i know they can freak you out!

[IanW99]

...
(they are not NZ natives).
...


There are two types of native cockroaches in NZ, the Black cockroach and Native bush cockroaches (15 species).

see Cockroaches (http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biosystematics/invertebrates/invertid/listpage.asp?Ca_ID=47).

Ian

[Georgebulldog]

Robocan should sort them as we had a few but touch wood nothing since, we get Weta outside hiding in the BBQ cover, not nice but better than white tailed which I found 1 of the other day, think our architect or builder bought it in, will be having words beforte he sets foot in our place again
Get to Bunnings or Woolworths for a robocan hopefully it will sort you out

[IanW99]

...
Is the south island any better (christchurch), my wife is all set to go home if she sees another one, as such I am wondering whether to head south before I start work and before we sign a contract on a rental house here.

will have to try and find out what this would mean for my residents Visa, whether another nurse job would allow us to stay, when the visa was gained through having a job here

Many thanks

Laurie

From the link I posted it would appear that cockroaches can be found throughout NZ but more predominant in the warmer parts.

If it makes you feel any better, I've never seen any around Wellington.

Ian

[James 1077]

Just get a Robocan (Raid Automatic) they keep almost all insects away. We turned ours off over winter but it has come back on now after the first insects started to appear in the house again!

[newarrival]

The problem with cockroaches is definitely bigger the warmer it gets- we lived in Dunedin for 4 years and haven't seen one..., here in Blenheim there are roaches around, but they usually stay outside, apparently they live in the wood (like the woodshed). Unfortunately our cat thinks it is great to catch them and bring them inside...:o

[Sam B]

They are not the same as the nasty type that can breed and fill your house in Britain or Europe. They are outdoor bush roaches that have strayed in by accident. It is not the sign of a dirty house. They are not like the German or American cockroaches that are so hated and reviled. They are harmless and probably want to get out of the house as much as you want them to. It's not worth leaving over.

[janrzm]

If it's any consolation , we've been in Tauranga for 8 months and haven't seen a single one.

Where abouts were you staying & where are you looking to rent ?

[ColeyNZ]

I've seen some in Devonport but only outside. They are nothing like the ones I would see here in the US where 1 = 1000. Here the roaches that I see are kind of like crickets.

Now a weta... we saw one up outside Okura that must have been 15 cm that made even the dog stop and made a wide arc.

[batgirl1001]

I'm generally grateful that in NZ, the cockroaches are quite small and easier to kill because they are generally slower and a good swat with a rolled up newspaper will do.

I'd do the same thing with mosquitoes too. Surprised me how slow their reaction times:nice1

Back where I come from, they are the garden variety American kind, usually huge...and often can fly. Had the experience of one flying into my hair once many, many years ago and would never forget it. Had a morbid fear of roaches since but in NZ that fear is fast disappearing....

[IanW99]

They are not the same as the nasty type that can breed and fill your house in Britain or Europe. They are outdoor bush roaches that have strayed in by accident. It is not the sign of a dirty house. They are not like the German or American cockroaches that are so hated and reviled. They are harmless and probably want to get out of the house as much as you want them to. It's not worth leaving over.

Just to be clear, whilst I would agree that you are most likely to come into contact with bush roaches than the other types, you can see from the link that I posted earlier that the German and American cockroaches are also found in NZ especially in warmer areas.

Ian

[Fern01]

The warmer, more moist the climate is, the more cockroaches. They can carry 30 plus diseases.

[thewoodies]

The Red can ( Raid ) spray it on doors windows and outside areas - it lasts for 6 months. and the robocans that spray every few minutes are excellent i have one on each floor of my house - I am on the hibiscus coast - they are here as well. One of my friends freaked out so much she sold her house and went back home she is now in NZ again but has bought a house not near trees etc in the hope she will be OK .

[nifta]

when i lived in wellington we had occasional cockroaches (i.e. i'd see one a year or something) in the house, but i certainly don't recall it being bad.

at least there aren't snakes :exit

:)

[brumnurse]

Thanks very much for everyones help

I think we must just attract them, after 2 nights and 2 locations in Tauranga with them in our bedrooms we drove to Napier yesterday to spend a few days in a fabulous looking bach.

We opened the front door walked in and spotted a cockroach running under a chair.....so with my wife in tears we left immediately found a comfort inn in Hastings, checked in, dismantled the room entirely and have spent our first night in the past nightts without them :clap

The Robocan / raid automatic product looks great, we will stock up heavily on them when we get into our rental

Cheers all

Laurie

[Cardy]

we had our rental spider proofed for $120 i thnk it cost and didnt see a spider or cockroach for about 10 months even in the garage.:nice1just look up a pest control man in the yellow pages. mind you we were driving through cambridge the other night and a cockroach came out of the airvent and jumped on my son. Good job there was no traffic cos i dont know who panicked most me or him i did a bloody big swerve:uhoh needless to say the car has been well and truly sprayed:laugh

[grady bunch]

Alternatively you could try Cockroach friendship classes?? They generally run away from you and my kids have now grown to like them enough to ask if they can keep one as a pet, I declined!!

[James 1077]

Alternatively you could try Cockroach friendship classes?? They generally run away from you and my kids have now grown to like them enough to ask if they can keep one as a pet, I declined!!

I like cockies too! Prefer the NZ bush ones as they are quite cute but am quite impressed with the big ones as well!

[Helsandfamily]

Alternatively you could try Cockroach friendship classes?? They generally run away from you and my kids have now grown to like them enough to ask if they can keep one as a pet, I declined!!

ugh :exit

[GreenMeansGo]

LOL! My daughter did an intensive about bugs in her school and asked if she could keep one of the madagascar hissing cockroaches (those things are HUGE!) for a pet-- no way!

I grew up in Hawaii and cockroaches (and Raid) are par for the course...

[Sam B]

I'll join the cockroach friendship club. We catch them and release them in the bush with a kind word. They are harmless. But then, we release white tips too, so we're probably just crazy.

[Ally Bally Bee]

Sam - my husband is just like you, I can't stand them so get him to do the relocating!

I found a dead cockroach in my cutlery draw this morning. It was flat on its back and had a few ants crawling over it. I also found a dead one in my sports clothes draw.

I get less worked up about them now than when I first moved here six years ago and I've found that I like sharing my bathroom with a cave weta (was most sad when it accidentally got trodden on one night and ended up crippled - not by me!).

But there are lots of products you can get to bug proof your home. We use a robocan in the summer for mosquitoes and sandflies (the little buggers love my blood but leave my kiwi hubby alone).

[Sam B]

A cave weta in your bathroom - how cool?! (And how dark and wet is your bathroom?)

[Ally Bally Bee]

Not dark or cold at all, it just happened to be only 20m from the boundary with DOC and the Coromandel Forest Park!
It was pretty cool, they're so long and not frightening looking at all.

We would get all kind of weta inside but that was by far the coolest. Got the chance to have a giant weta walk up my arm at Fieldays once, was a bit freaky!

[grady bunch]

Now that sounds like a suitable pet!! Would be a good replacement or the mice, that smell...

[RJLink]

Happy to report not even a single ant in my apartment in Mt. Victoria Wellington. I've lived with gigantic centipedes crawling up out of the toilet bowl (Key West Florida) and scorpions skittering across the floors (Phoenix Arizona).

[KelvinAng]

Is the south island any better (christchurch), my wife is all set to go home if she sees another [cockroach], as such I am wondering whether to head south before I start work and before we sign a contract on a rental house here.

I don't think cockroaches exist in Christchurch... maybe they do and stay only outside, certainly I haven't seen them running around in the places I've lived in. Spiders and flies, on the other hand, seem to be common once winter passes.

[Gran]

Most of the cockroaches seem to come home amongst the potatoes or other vegs, unless you are in rented accom. and the previous tennants were not too carefull, in 30 odd years of living in Auckland we have not had a problem, except for those bush ones about 1.5 inches long who sometimes move into the letter box, and they are fairly slow movers. I like to buy washed potatoes and use fly screens, keeps out the mozzies as well, and you dont have to use robocan etc.
Gran

[Richard7666]

Never seen a cockroach in the lower South Island, but I believe the further north you get they begin to appear. Same with spiders and things, the ones down here don't grow bigger than the nail on your pinky and most are the size of crumbs.

[grady bunch]

Is that because you eat them all down South??