bugs

Hi Seymour,

I can't answer about scorpions, but my fiance and I were down in STT last month for our pre-move visit and stayed in a beautiful villa in Peterborg. We kept screened doors shut, food put away and had a housekeeper come once or twice - and even this "nice" home had a cockroach or two. I know I'm going to have to get used to the nasty little things!

Janelle

Hello L. Seymour,

Scorpions are not a common thing to see here. If you encounter them it will likely be in the garden, under rocks and even then its not a frequent occurance. In the last say 5 years I think I have seen 3... all around the same time and in the same area and they were all small.

Roaches on the other hand.... I have seen them in large houses and in small houses, in restaurants, hotels, outside... you are going to see roaches if you live here and you may see them while visiting.

--Islander

**** roaches

Are you all talking about real cockroaches or palmetto bugs. I know here in Georgia we've got both. I've noticed alot of palmetto bugs in STX. They live outside but can easily come in through open doors and windows etc. Here they will even run in when you walk in and out of a door. They are HUGE and look like big roaches. They are probably in the same family. It is something you just have to get used to when you live in the tropics or even the hot and humid south.

Bubba,
Actually most of them are palmetto bugs - when we get a little too much rain they like to come inside and lurk about. My cats, however, love them. Amuses them to no end.
Pamela

Isn't Palmetto Bug just another name for American Cockroach?

And you haven't lived until you've seen an albino palmetto bug. I think I've seen 3 in my lifetime.

Richard

In my experience, American cockroaches, at least in NY and Atlanta, are much smaller and reddish in color. They can hide and bred much easier than the big Palmetto bugs. They're probably in the same family though.

See my post under the "Bees" thread. Used the same stuff as a preventative in the lower kitchen cabinets (didn't use these lower cabinets for food, dishes, pots, etc) and under the frig, under the stove, etc. Used it about every 6 weeks. Never saw one roach the whole time we lived there.

Hello,

I have seen both the large and the small variety on St. Thomas.

Maybe I should have pictures taken and added to our fauna section under bugs... of all the creepy crawlies that exist here! 🙂 bees, roaches and termites OH MY! 🙂

As STT commented if you get some good bug spray or powder you can control them or keep them away.

--Islander

Islander: And how about those teeny ants...and the gongolos? Oh my, oh my!

Having lived in both Georgia and USVI, I can tell you that the roaches are equally evil in both places. I had TONS in my apartment in STX until the nice woman at Gallows Bay Hardware/Garden Center told me about a spray called Bengal Gold. Being an environmentalist, I was concerned, so I asked my "hazardous waste-chemist" boyfriend about the ingredients in it. He said that they were based on a Chrysanthemum extract and "relatively" inert to the environment. While I'm not so naive as to think they aren't harmful, I did notice that a) spiders, ants, roaches, centipedes were gone and b) lizard, frogs and bats were not. (Again, as an environmentalist, having lizards, frogs and bats is a good thing...I suppose having spiders would be a good thing, too, but hey...we all have our phobias!)

At any rate, I highly recommend it. About $10.00/bottle.

Enjoy bug free living.

-EJB