Hi all,
This is my 1st post. Maybe I should've posted this on the travel forum, not sure, but here goes. My husband and I are planning a trip in October, our 1st time there. We have both been completely obsessed with reading everything we could find in the last several weeks and have begun to think we may want to move to Belize in the next few years, if it's as fabulous as it appears.
My biggest concern is the roaches. I have a completely unnatural fear of cockroaches. Some have said i should try for hypnosis but alas, I am quite comfortable with my irrational responses when a roach comes a callin (have been known to strip completely in a group of people while thrashing and beating myself violently)!
So...what's the deal? Are they everywhere, en masse, flying and/or crawling aroud like mad?
I had thought that I would like to stay at a smaller, out of the way type lodging but now feel I may have to go with the noisiest, most crowded and probably most expensive resort on the island just to lessen my odds.
Please, someone, tell me the truth. Is my dream dead??

Yer gonna fit right in here!!!

No worries, I have lived here many years and can count the number of cockroaches I have seen on one hand. If you are going to sleep above a not-so-clean restaurant, that might be a different story. You have nothing to fear!

The dream never dies. The sand fleas and mosquitos loved nakedness.

Mind you, they WERE all on one hand!

UGH! And I was beginning to breathe again!!
Ok, so seriously, good to know. I was ready to go into mourning and cancel my flight. Thanks ya'll.

I haven't seen one roach, and never had a problem with mosquitoes. The only bug problem I've experienced is the no-see-ums. Get bit on every trip, though some trips worse than others.

JZB must stay in cleaner places than I do. I was in Belize for only the month of June and saw a bunch of cockroaches, the big ones people in Florida politely call "waterbugs" or "palmetto bugs."

In fact at dinner one night on a remote caye one about the size of a small mouse strolled across the restaurant floor and the co-owner jumped up, said "I hope no one objects to killing roaches" and squashed it with his bare foot.

But I agree that they aren't as bad in Belize as in, say, Florida or Louisiana, where they have those big flying ones that get in your hair.

Those are palmetto bugs, not cockroaches.

Ok, let me clarify. I live in Southeast Texas where we call them roaches. When I lived near Corpus, they called them Palmetto bugs, in Fl they call them...what? Waterbugs? To me, they are 1 in the same, large, brown, flying roaches..ack, I'm getting chills just talking about them.
So, if I stay in an (over)populated area and don't venture into any remote areas (geez, there goes my vacay) then I might not see any...or many? I mean, is it just known that whatever hotel you stay at, you probably will have them crawling around at night or not? Only ones near food joints?
I had planned to do the cave tubing thing (thinking now that may be roach central), check out the ruins, visit some sanctuaries, and drink ALOT while socializing with othes in the evenings. Pretty standard, I would imagine. Please, if someone could recomend a mostly roach free hotel and excursion, I'd appreciate it.