[Woodcarver] Re:cockroaches

[Joyce Hanna]

>Hi, Maricha:


Where exactly do you live?  I have experience with New York City 
roaches, but I didn't know roaches lived in trees....I guess they 
survive just about anywhere.  Anyway, Dick was right about boric 
acid.  Mix a little of the powder with sugar, and the roaches go 
after the sugar and the boric acid kills the roach.  All my neighbors 
were infested with roaches and I never had one.  I put little open 
containers of sugar and boric acid behind my dishes and the food in 
my kitchen cabinets. So it never touched the dishes or food.  I don't 
know where the roaches went because I never saw a dead roach either, 
but it does work.  Pharmacies usually sell the boric acid; you'd have 
to ask about the toxicity to humans or children or pets.  It isn't 
very expensive. I would think you could set the mixture near the 
timber in small containers and not put it inside the tree.- thus, no 
problems with toxic timber.  Hopefully your variety of roaches eats 
the mixture and disappears also.   Joyce


>From: "maricha" <maricha at ozemail.com.au>

>Subject: Re: [Woodcarver] mildew

>To: "[Woodcarver]" <woodcarver at six.pairlist.net>

>Message-ID: <011501c5fbc4$8e24def0$c62654d2 at oxleyiw5uhr2s4>

>Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";

>	reply-type=response

>

>hi peter thank you for your great answer.

>

>this wonderful tree was cut down only three weeks ago.

>the day after it was cut, with the chainsaw, i cut the figure i am

>sculpting, using the chainsaw, like a bandsaw to remove as much material as

>possible, yet retain the main part of the figure form. then i sealed all cut

>areas with pva, as i did not want too much moisture ozzing out too soon.

>then i covered it with insulating material used for the roof , which has

>worked for me in the past, hardly cracking the timber, but unfortunately we

>had a trades man, cleaning our patio where the sculpture to be stands, and

>the rain or water from the cleaning got into it, i presume.

>

>i have worked on it a few times, but for the last two weeks have not been

>able to touch it, and the rain has poured, then extreme heat.... when i went

>to work on it yesterday, wow, my heart fell down to the rocks, when i saw

>these polka dots of mildew, but an expert told me the mildew is only on the

>pva... and i should not worry...

>

>now the second problem i have is big black giant cocockroaches..  i do not

>want to use chemicals because it will make the timber toxic, which is really

>great timber for plates, as well as spoons etc. but most of all i do not

>want to make it toxic for myself when i am working. the second problem is

>....how to get rid of the black cockroaches....HA HAHA  one of my wonderful

>students, suggested that i ask my husband to get a mallet or be the official

>foot killer, non-toxic insecticide.

>

>immediately it brought a wonderful caricature of a non-toxic matador.

>

>thanks for your email, will give your method a go.

>

>cheers

>maricha

>--