Roach wars are as strange and unpredictable as to which side to bet on as ones between humans. While living aboard in the tropics I brought many cardboard boxes aboard before I knew that was a mortal sin assuring the importation of roach eggs. I only briefly saw a few roaches onboard over seven years and was able to quickly poison them and never saw any more. Some friends boat had an infestation that they fought for a long time using all the common strategies. Finally, when leaving for the States for a couple months, they had their boat put on the hard, shrouded with plastic, and fumigated twice with some serious stuff. You have guessed by now, soon after returning they had roaches again.
 I don’t know about yankee roaches, Caribbean roaches are small, but when I was a little kid living in Houston the roaches were almost as big as a refrigerator. Good luck in your war but avoid hand-to-hand, those guys are tough.

Here along the SW Coast of Florida, we have a little critter called an anole.  It is a Florida chameleon.  There are brown ones from Cuba and native green ones that have a pretty red neck dewlap.  They moved in last fall after they found a way in through the floor.  When the trailer was built they used particle board for the floor.  We put a piece of plywood down but they still was able to come in.  As the floor was crumbling under the refrigerator, roaches made their way into the walls and hung out in the kitchen and bathrooms.  Of coarse they prospered in the new their new home, despite all the effort to get rid of them.  So for a couple of years it was hand to hand combat with the little roaches.  The anoles eat their weight in bugs and discovered a feast in my kitchen and in the walls.  You could hear them running around inside the walls.  Now just imagine having one of those little critters that is about 5 inches long jumping out of your cupboards when you open the door.  I had all the family trained to wash their dishes before they eat. I kept antibacterial dish soap in water at all times in my sink, so they could just wash rinse and dry.  Roaches and anoles carry salmonella.  To add to the fun was our two tom cats, who wanted to catch the anoles.  Spending my adult life in a middle class suburban neighborhood did not prepare me for this.  I had a roach one day jump out of my purse when I went to pay for some fabric in front of people I knew.  I thought I would die of embarrassment and shame.  I was with some friends from the quilt guild who live in nice retirement condos.  The anoles ran out of food and moved on.  The cats settled down and stayed down off of things.  I have enjoyed the last 6 months without roaches.