sniffydog

Just posted this on the NZ forum - any comments from the Ozzie side?

"Hi all - we'd been really set on emigrating (east coast north island) until watching "filth files" on sky which follows environmental health officers in NZ.

Shows pictures of entire foodcourts shut down beacuse of the cockroaches etc...

Is the whole country covered in cockroaches?

Is the whole country as ramshackle as it appears?

Seriously putting us off!

Maybe Aus (Victoria) is a better bet....?"

CHeers!

yafm

[QUOTE=sniffydog]Just posted this on the NZ forum - any comments from the Ozzie side?

"Hi all - we'd been really set on emigrating (east coast north island) until watching "filth files" on sky which follows environmental health officers in NZ.

Shows pictures of entire foodcourts shut down beacuse of the cockroaches etc...

Is the whole country covered in cockroaches?

Is the whole country as ramshackle as it appears?

Seriously putting us off!

Maybe Aus (Victoria) is a better bet....?"

Have lived in NSW 3 plus years and seen ONE (yes ) one cockroach in all that time at home. HOWEVER that is in nsw if you live in Queensland or the northern states it is sensible to have the place sprayed every 6 months and wipe out the food cupboards with the relevant spray stuff purchased in any supermarket.

If you had visited ANY London hotel kitchen at night you woujld find cockroaches the steam and heat encourages them that is why NSW is rather better this way than Queensland. Victoria is also quite a 'clean' city as it gets cold :scared:

sniffydog

[QUOTE=yafm] Agree about the bit about UK restaurants - just never seen so many as there were everywhere on the prog!

Australia_bound?

Filth files don't show the good only the bad. Have lots of cockroaches everywhere in the world, NZ, Aus and UK are not exempt from them and in many a poor eating establishment you'll find them crawling all over the place.

Nice to see you've done lots of research and bothered to watch one programme :scared: hate to think you'll watch a programme on Victoria before you go there or you may get put off as it has cockroaches and it rains there and gets cold in the winter :scared:

Pollyana

Aus cockroaches are the spawn of the devil. They are large, and they fly. The one that freaked me out this week was a good 4 inches long Must be the time of year as we have had several lurking round the house in the last couple of weeks. Need to keep the spray can handy to zap them

hoots nan

Aren't they huge Pollyana, we've had huge ones on the entertainment area, need to keep the screens shut and the Mortein on hand!

Pollyana

Go back and do a search and you'll find the story of our old rental where they were coming up through the shower outlet! Never left the bathroom so fast in my life :scared:

Poppett44

I had a nasty experience with a giant cockroach in the shower yesterday morning :scared: couldn't sleep last night for worrying the little buggers were crawling all over me
I just cant work out how they get in,,, up the plug holes I suppose

Jimmy Cliff

Its not the big ones you should worry about but the small ones, the big ones fly in the smaller ones are liable to be part of an infestation.

Just suck em up the hoover!!!!

Seriously, not seen that many, I came here armed with a ton of tupperware excpecting loads but ants are more of a problem really, the little buggers can get eveywhere if unchecked.

I leave all the plugs in anyway and toilet lids down.

Vics x

Nikki

Have yet to do my settling in report - mainly due to not settling owing to cockroach and ant problems!!!!! Saw this thread and thought I would jump on it! My fear of coming over here was spiders (have a terrible fear). Was not prepared for what happened. Hope you have a spare hour...................

We moved into my Dad's rental (NSW), had a few issues with ants, my dad said we were leaving food out and it was obviously attracting them - one night admittedly I left out an apple which my little one had not eaten - the next morning the kitchen was covered - in drawer units, worktop covered, everywhere!! Even when cleaning the surfaces after every mealtime we still had problems. We got spray from the store and did a diy job around the house. The worst problem was that you would go to bed at night and they would be coming out of electrical sockets behind where I slept, I would spot them crawling on our bedroom ceiling whilst just getting into bed, I used to virtually 'sleep' under the quilt, then I would break out in sweats with the heat!!!! They were in the kids rooms, whilst watching tv my kids would find them crawling on them, we would find them in the bathroom and even crawling out of the laundry sink!!!! My Dad acknowledged after some weeks this wasn't quite right and perhaps not our fault regarding leaving stuff out etc.......So he called in the pest control......my saviour!!

In the meantime I had a run in with a cockroach, whilst opening the patio door, something flew (didn't know they could fly) from above missed my head by an inch and landed at my feet, as it began its approach, I ran backwards not wanting to take my eye off it, I had intended to back into the kitchen and grab a can of bug spray but the thing was so fast it had me backed into the lounge against the front door before it ducked under the tv cabinet, i ran back to the kitchen, grabbed a can and hunted it out, it took an eternity to die and I eventually finished it off with the hoover!! My Dad said it had probably come in with the bed I had delivered earlier that day - clearly I disturbed the sleep it must have been having!!

The day came for the pest man to come - 9.30am appt, I waited....and waited....finally at 12.30 I called to be told he was running a bit late - he arrived at 3.30pm - I left him looking around chatting with my husband. When I took him out a drink, he told me not to worry he would be back tomorrow to sort things out and that would be end to my problem! I said we have an ants nest then', he replied 'It's not the ants you need to worry about, it's the cockroaches you have nesting in the roof space, but don't worry they only come out at night so you will be asleep when they are running around tonight'!!!! I FREAKED, my son was sleeping on a blow up mattress at this stage, I had visions of them crawling all over him as he was so low on the floor, visions of them partying when the lights went out - I covered my ears as he laughed at me and said I don't want to know anymore. That night was spent at my Dad's, I got up for a drink at 11.30pm and one scuttled past me, I got the kids up and made my husband take us out of the house.

The house was cleared, the ants had eaten away at the electrical wires behind our bed, it was caught just in time - it did take three attempts to rid the ants as they kept appearing at a later date in different places moving the nest.

I can laugh about it now, but at them time having been in a new country for only a week, living in those conditions for 3 weeks, lack of sleep, feeling unsettled in the house - it really did put a strain on this experience for me. Even when the house was sprayed it took me weeks to establish a sleeping routine, any noise would freak me out. I have found a couple of roaches in the house since, although dead from the chemicals we have had sprayed, the thought of them getting into the house and being live for a while disturbs me for a few days again - I have since been told that palm trees which we have round the property attract them, also the storage boxes we have in the garage from our shipment will be a breeding ground. Over the coming weeks, I intend to slowly empty the boxes and store our stuff in other types storage containers.

So after this epic, my advice to newcomers is to check if the rental has been sprayed - especially if it has been empty. Don't ignore your instinct - I knew we had a problem but let others tell me I was over-reacting this is the way life is here, get used to it!!! I am currently having a house built - I know the pest control guy will be in it before me even if it is a new house!!!!

As they say on crime watch..........don't have nightmares :scared:

Nikki

webgum

We had horrendous ants in our rental, similar to the poster above. It culminated in going to wake my daughter from her afternoon sleep in her cot and finding her and the cot covered in ants. I've never felt so sick. Poor child, I threw her into the shower - it took her a good two hours to calm down from the shock of the shower (she was none the wiser re: the ants!!). This event at last got the rental agent moving, and he had the house treated. Prior to that, he just initimated that I was a pathetic pom. I knew our volumes of ants weren't normal!! Now we just have a few trotting around, which is quite acceptable.

Only a few cockroaches........although have had a few drown in the pool.

whisky

Cockroaches - If you have one, there are thousands more just hidden away and breeding.
My experience of Cockroaches here, UK and in Spain.

When we lived in Spain, we bought an old building we were going to alter into a shop. There was an old shower and pit in the floor. When the builders took the lid off to fill this pit and shower hole, millions of roaches came running out. The builders ran up the road. It was really funny!
Hole was filled eventually :scared:

Whisky

scallyuk

We found that they were breeding in the grease trap for our Septic tank.
Had that cleared and sprayed and we've been fine - mostly.

Larissa

You get used to them, running around outside.
Seriously.
They are part of the environment, but make sure your house is well fire-wired, you have flywire on any air-inlets etc. and make sure door frames are tight / draught proofed.
If you get them in the house, the best thing are mortein nest kill baits. They are very effective and mean you aren't spraying the house with organophosphates, which are far worse than a few bugs.
Don't bring stuff inside from outside without shaking it out, don't bring in cardboard boxes, they love 'em.
If you must store stuff in the garage, use airtight boxes and zip up bags.
Store pantry food in clear plastic boxes too, which reduces the risk of pantry moths too.
Clear off bench tops at night, don't leave out dirty dishes, load the dishwasher each night.
We were infested in our rental - just following the steps above, I have seen one roach in the house this year, which incidentally hitched a lift in a child's car seat which I had mistakenly left out one night after cleaning it. On the other hand, we had dozens in the old place, since we bombed the place (although I hate chemicals, there were so many I thought $0d it) and discovered all these dead roaches which crept out of the woodwork (literally). I still saw roaches some nights after this, they must have been getting in somewhere, I suspect the drains?

But what Whiskey said is just :scared:
BTW A cat is also good for hunting down the blighters.

jayjd12

You don't pen under a different name do you, Perhaps 'Steven King'

Excellent story really enjoyed it, not showing it to my wife though


Jay