Rats! ... And Other Shipboard Plagues

Rat guard on a dock line in Lucaya

It's not something we generally bring up over gin and tonics with the cruising crowd, but we have had our share of infestations aboard. We probably should be quarantined.

The latest (possible) vermin to attack is the Big One -- it starts with an r. On our last day at West End, I noticed some telltale black traces on the navigation table indicating that we'd had a nocturnal visitor of the mammalian order rodentia.

I had read on an online cruising guide (Active Captain) of another cruiser who had picked up rats at Old Bahamia Bay Marina, where we were staying (a very nice and well-kept facility, btw). At the time, I didn't think much of it. Now I was worried. If the intruder (or intruders) had simply come aboard and left before daybreak, that was one thing; if he or she (or they) are now permanent residents aboard, that is quite another matter.

So far, there's no indication that we have rats aboard. However, I did notice at our latest marina (Grand Bahama Yacht Club in Lucaya) that at least one of the boats has rat guards on the dock lines. Hmmm.

In any case, rats are not our first infestation, nor anything close to the most persistent (as yet, anyway -- and let's hope!). We've been battling ants since the Chesapeake. Traps, tumeric (an old trick I learned in India), etc., nothing seems to work against them. Also, fruit flies on occasion. And since Florida, the noseeums (midges) are a nightly problem, not to mention mosquitoes. The latter two we are getting better at fighting. We have a special screen to keep out the noseeums (or "museums" as Noi calls them). The conventional mosquito repellents do nothing against them, though. The only thing that seems to sort-of work is Avon's Skin So Soft. My hypothesis is that the critters can't get their biting proboscis through the thick oil, but others say there's a chemical in it that is the real active ingredient. Skin So Soft for mosquitoes is something that I first learned from my Vietnam-veteran platoon sargent Gary Horseman back when I was a very green lieutenant in the National Guard. How do you get Avon products in the Bahamas? I don't have a clue. Some of the tiki bars have a bottle for patron use, but nobody seems to know where it comes from. Odd, that. And, regular baby oil (at $8 for a tiny bottle!) just doesn't cut it. 

For the flying insects I've contemplated catching a few geckos and putting them aboard. The geckos always did a great job catching the mosquitoes when I lived in India.

Any ideas would be most welcome.