No More Roaches

I have wanted to write this Instructable for a long time but could not bear the thought of a photo of a roach. I found a plastic one; problem solved. I think you get the idea from that sentence that I am just a little bit, somewhat, sort of, come to think of it, mildly, TERRIFIED of roaches. This is the story of how I got rid of the roaches in my home and they have stayed gone for 10 months now after just the initial treatment.

Step 1 What you will need

Boric acid powder*
Karo syrup - you may substitute honey or maple syrup or pancake syrup
Rice flour - you may substitute any flour you have on hand
1 Popsicle stick
1 Mixing bowl

Amounts as follows:
2 parts Boric acid
1 part rice flour
enough Karo syrup to make a peanut butter like consistency mixture

Important note: Boric acid powder is not something you want to inhale (get into your eyes or swallow) so mix this up outside. Wear a dust mask too until it is mixed up. It has no oder.

For a 2800 square foot home with 4 bathrooms, I mixed 2 cups of boric acid with 1 cup rice powder and about 3/4 cup of Karo syrup. I used a plastic bowl to mix in and stuck the bowl and left over bait up into the attic/crawl space when I was done baiting.

*(available in hardware stores in the US as "Roach Prufe" (this was the only way I was able to buy it, the canister is 98% boric acid and 2% blue coloring).

Comments

[kill-a-watt]

Well my Dad had an infestation, so I was able to try this recipe out.

I mixed it in a old plastic takeout tub. We wrote "poison" on the sides and top.

He only let me do the kitchen, and the first few weeks we had no progress. A week later I did the entire basement, reaching up  to smear some goop on each of the overhead beams. That (and perhaps waiting) made a huge difference.

Now, he only sees a very tiny roach like every three days. Amazing.

The only change I did was to add a bit of water to make it more spreadable.

I'd recommend going to the dollar store to get a paint scraper. It will come in handy to stir the recipe and to put a little dab of everything everywhere.

I still haven't done behind the switchplates yet. Maybe he'll let me now.


I'm going to do this for myself, in my own home as a prophylactic measure. ;-)

[Ninzerbean]

Great feedback, thank you, if only he would let you do the whole house...

[kill-a-watt]

I'll do a follow-up here and say that he hasn't seen a roach in over a year. I think we got them all. Since for the first 30 years of my life I can safely say there were zero roaches in that house, I don't expect a re-infestation unless my Dad gets real unlucky again (we think they came in on a bag of onions). The onions were in the basement, so maybe that's where the reserve roaches were coming from. Hitting all the overhead beams perhaps killed the basement ones too.

I did go and put a little dab on all the U-traps on all the upstairs sinks. All that poison is still there, so we should be still protected.

Just think if you could smear a bit of this stuff on every 2x4 while your house was being built.

[kill-a-watt]

also, I found 5 oz bottles of boric acid powder at Dollar Tree, for a dollar. The powder is 99% and dyed blue. One bottle was enough to do the job. I bought extra because it makes good brazing flux too. (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij_z-JY0nU4 )

I want to emphasize to slowly and carefully mix the boric acid up, as it's easy to kick it up and breath some of it in. I had a bit of a cough for a few days afterwards that I still recall even though it's been over a year. Once it is all mixed, it will be a like putty and the inhalation issue will be gone.

[Ninzerbean]

Thanks Kiil-a-watt,
I will add that part to the instructions. I'm happy for your dad finally too, I was worried when he wouldn't let you do the whole house at first. I wish it was not blue because my house is for sale now and I have to go around and wipe up all the blue that dripped because the last time I did a retouch I forgot to add flour and it never hardened up.

I totally agree that a house should be treated while it is being built. Why don't you start a little business when the housing market turns around?

[mmarie_84]

I wish we would have known this sooner! this has been such an up hill battle!!! It seemed to never end. I can now see a difference. It has been 2 days and the amount has been decreased significantly! Thank you!

[Ninzerbean]

You are so welcome, sometimes I think because we live in such a 'new and improved' age that we forget about the things that worked perfectly well without being improved, and it makes us feel powerless because we don't think we can improve things ourselves without the help of a professional. Then to find out that the professionals are only working to keep themselves in a job by using a poison that will make the roaches only go away for a month so you think you are dependent on the 'professionals'.

[mdolcezza]

I just wanted to tell you you are the best person in the world 4 posting this!!!!!!!!!!! I can never thank u enough looool ok i'm getting a bit creepy! but yeah omg no moooooore roaches in my apartment!!! I live right on the beach in miami's heat!!! my house is attacked by them!!!! ughhhh i tried this no roaches no more!! thank uuuu!!!!! ha and thanks 4 putting a fake roach picture they r so disgusting

[Ninzerbean]

You are soooo welcome, I obviously know how you feel, thankfully for all of us, there is a solution. How I love the internet!

[Art-tart]

This method of using Boric acid and a sweet substance has been around forever. I remember my great grandmother using it when I was a child. The reason it works? The Boric acid when ingested will bubble up and and whatever digestive system the roach and or ant has explodes internally. She mixed Boric acid with just enough honey to make a think paste.  She saved soda bottle caps to use as containers which she placed in cupboards ect. Also next to ant trails.  Sometimes the old fashion way is the best way !

[Ninzerbean]

How true! Most people have been brainwashed into thinking they have to rely on a pest-control company - for pest-control that just makes the roaches and the pest control company come back every month. I like your Great Greandmother's idea of the bottle caps for certain places where little curious hands and little dogs can not get to them, but it's pretty easy just to smear it behind switch plates and on top of pipes. Roaches like to be up high and some places it's just not possible to balance a bottle cap. Thanks for commenting.

['wilkinson]

I have moved into my mom and dads house, i'm a full time caregiver for them now. they have a very bad problem with roaches I'm gonna try your recipe will let you know how it turns out, thank you for posting this

[csprinkle]

I live in Mazatlan, Mexico, where we have what are called "American cockroaches".
They are about 2 inches long and about 3/4" wide at their widest. No exaggeration. We also have tiny ones, about a half inch long. They are ALL disgusting, but those big ones scare the hell out of me. I woke to one crawling on the back of my leg and thought I was gonna lose it!
Thanks for posting this instructable...I'll be buying boric acid -- and by the way, you can get boric acid in most pharmacies in the US. No prescription required, but it's usually kept behind the counter and you'll have to ask for it.

[Semper Fi Barbie]

This is awesome! I just moved into a new house last month. Unfortunately, my roomate brought roaches with her. Its not that I can't stand roaches, I can't stand them in my kitchen. And it grossed me out that they started living inside the microwave. I am from Southern California and now live in Florida so I've never seen this before. I think I am gonna give this a try since my furbabies can't keep up with the roach population.

[tmorris13]

Unfortunately, they are in Southern California, as well. I know, as we now have roaches. We think they traveled down from the upstairs unit, since they showed up shortly after our neighbors moved out :( I'm hoping this instructable will help us.

[Edwin Da Freak]

Thanks for info. My question is can we expect on 'ible on the giant bugs !!! They are AWSOME !! I'll post my results on bug killing as I remodel a friends garage into an apartment for myself.

[Ninzerbean]

The artist died shortly after he delivered the bugs to my house. So sad. His wife asked me to give them a wiggle (they are kinetic) everyday for Paul.

[PikminRed]

D:
:(

[hug me and die]

<_<

[GENERALCHAOS]

0.o so meny of them

[esanche2]

Thank you so much for this. I'm going to apply this as soon as I get home. I have not seen any palmetto bugs since I but Boric acid by itself around the garage, but I am having trouble with German Roaches. They are everywhere. I bought some boric acid from a Family Dollar store here n Houston. They sell it for $3 in case somebody is looking for it. It's 100% boric acid and it's a pretty good size bottle. It's in the poison section.
Gonna try this out. Thank you so much!!!!

[Ninzerbean]

You are most welcome!

[PikminRed]

Any substitute for the syrup?

[Ninzerbean]

Karo syrup is cheapest I think, you can use anything you think the buggies will be attracted to; peanut butter, honey, simple syrup (2 parts sugar to 1 part water, boiled), maybe soft drinks? How about glue, they sure like that, but you will have to work fast.

[milesfromneihu]

Excellent 'ible! And those sculptures are a riot.
I caught on to Roach-Pruf back in the States, some time in the '70s or '80s. Loved it, but I always just used the straight dust. I even treated the Chinese restaurant I was working at at the time--one afternoon I pried the wainscotting off the walls and dusted behind. The owner never knew why the roach population dropped so dramatically. My inspiration came the day I placed water glasses for a four-top and one of the ladies pointed out that one of the glasses had a swimmer. Embarrassing, to say the least. But the restaurant got a free treatment that the owner never knew about.
I've moved on since then, and now live in Taiwan, where I can buy boric acid (way cheap!) at the local chem shops.
I think I'll try your sweet bait system; it sounds better than what I've been doing all this time.
Thank you!

[Ninzerbean]

Thank you for writing, cool story!

[Furballs]

Veery interesting. My 11 floor apt. building is infested with German roaches, by far the most common ones here in Canada. Luckily they don't lay eggs around the place, but they do drop those cases full of tiny new roaches everywhere. UGH ! It's not possible to completely eliminate sources of food and water in a place like this, and besides, I read an article that claimed one roach lived over a month sealed in a glass jar with one human hair and no water. No info on how long the hair was but even if your home was close to sterile, they'd still find food, I think. I hate 'em, but I've had to get over the creepies, or never sleep, cause I've lived here over 20 years. The current landlord is a jerk who won't do pest control. I've been using diatomaceous earth, which really does work. But it is kind of slow, does not stick well on vertical surfaces, and it's really dirty looking. My floors and cupboards always look kind of dirty and dusty because of the D. E, and it's always getting stirred up into the air, and it's not good to breathe it, I know. I had heard of boric acid but did not know it was so effective. The newest gel paste that the pest control companies use works but costs a fortune. I think I paid over $60. for one tube of that stuff. No way I could afford that. Because I'm constantly getting new roaches from all the other apartments, I've been very discouraged, but your paste sounds very doable and far less messy. Soon as I find some boric acid, I'll let you know what results I get. Funny, I remember my grandmother used to use boric acid wash for the eyes if you got dust or something in them when I was a kid and even though it's no longer sold for this purpose, clearly there is little to worry about in terms of toxicity, even for my cats, should they manage to catch and eat a sick roach. Something I hope I never actually see happen :-).

[Ninzerbean]

I agree with you about removing food and water - that is impossible. This will work, do it right away for right-away relief. The roaches will send signals to the other roaches in your building not to go to your place, they are very smart. You may even want to post a link to this 'ible where all the tenants can see it. Then the whole building could become roach-free. Just read all the comments, you will understand how important it is to be thorough.

[Weissensteinburg]

Great instructable! If we didn't have an appointment with Lewis Cobb about the roaches we've been seeing, I'd try it.

[Ninzerbean]

Thank you ever so! Who is Lewis Cobb? Should I know that name?

[Weissensteinburg]

They're one of the big pest control companies. No clue if they're national, but I do know that they stretch from at least FL-NC

[Ninzerbean]

Well be sure to ask if they do any baiting. If you don't have bugs you aren't gong to call them - they know this so it's not in their best interest to get rid of the bugs for very long.

[Weissensteinburg]

Not in our case, we've had an annual contract with them, and they have to come out as often as we call them. They do our termites checks and all the regular things, too.

[Ninzerbean]

That's what I used to have too, I think this old house was just too much for them because I was calling John every week and after a few months of that they started putting me off about his coming out, making excuses, not calling me back, etc. I was not used to living in a house where I was seeing roaches and I wasn't going to put up with it.

[jack8559]

It sounds to me that you should have ended your contract with them immediately and asked for a partial refund for the rest of the year - If you aren't going to do the job, I want my money back NOW!!! Great instructable BTW!

[Ninzerbean]

Yep, I should have done that but there was more to the story that revolves around termites,and them drilling holes in my patio and ruining the look, it took a year to resolve, I die prevail but it was tons of writing letters and getting second opinions. Thank you!

[platinumluv]

oh, one more thing! when i moved here, i forgot my can of Roach Prufe, so i got another brand of boric acid. The granules of this one are really more big, kind of like salt instead of the fine ground powder of the Roach Prufe. Do you think the finer one is better? Thanks!
Btw..whenever i see a picture of a roach on a website, i have to cover it with my hand -i can't bear the sight of them in pix too, lol!

[Ninzerbean]

Hmmmm, I don't know, it doesn't sound to me like you are using it to make the bait. Get the real stuff and make some bait. We sound a lot a like in our fear.

[platinumluv]

Hi..i really want to thank you for this article. I was looking up ways to control a roach problem that sems to come and go in my apartment, and i stumbled upon this site and your instructable.
I learned of boric acid a number of years ago, and everytime i moved into a new apartment, i was armed with a caulking gun & duct tape (to seal off every possible crack or crevice i could find, sealed off the areas around the pipes) and my can of Roach Prufe. I would sprinkle the boric acid into the cracks, baseboards and such, then seal it up with caulk. it literally would take me an entire day to do that, but it always paid off. Until i moved into this apartment....
I keep my apartment spotless all the time. i didnt even see one for a year and a half- i was so happy. Until recently. I heard someone new moved in on my floor and now i see at least one a day. mainly in the kitchen or bathroom. this morning i opened my linen closet and was greeted by one on the door. I'm terrified and soooo not looking to coming home at night :( when my boyfriend is here, it doesn't scare me as much, but when he's gone, and i know that it's me alone against them...i freak out. I even sleep with my bedroom light on now! And this morn i woke up, crept into the kitchen, and saw a tiny baby one on the counter, then, killed it, flushed it, then like 5 mins later, i saw another baby one! I was like huh? So i looked under my toaster, and ewwww...a dead roach with 2 more lil babies alive and well around it! I killed the babies and flushed the dead one, then later when i came in from work, i battled about 8 more lil babies! So i took the toaster into the bathroom and shook it out into the toilet, and i saw....a roach egg casing. threw away the toaster immediately!!

My question is: Particularly in regards to this baiting system, If you see one running, is it better to let it get away or kill it? I allllways kill them first by spraying it with Shout - yes, the stain fighter, it works, lol! and then i pick up the dead roach with a huge wad of paper towel (i dont want to feel it..ewww). I ccan't fathom the idea that one will get away and breed an then will come many more.
Sorry this is such a long post, but i had to vent. And it's great to know that i'm nt the only one with a SERIOUS FEAR of these disgusting creatures! I just want to be comfy in my lil one bedroom apt because i don't have the option of packing up and leaving :-(

[Ninzerbean]

Well I don't have experience in apartments but there is something about not seeing any roaches in my house until about two years after the treatment that makes me think they put out some signal or sign that says to other roaches "don't go there", they really are big colony bugs. So to answer you question about killing them... I don't know, mainly I don't know because like you, killing them is so creepy, in my whole life I have only killed two and both were to protect my son (in my mind, not like he was going to get eaten or anything) and the bravest thing I have ever done except have eye surgery so as not to have to wear glasses (stupidest thing I ever did). I guess in the end it is important to kill them, but once you bait your apartment you won't have them to even kill. That was sad about your toaster, try not to think about it. Yes boric acid powder will kill them if they run across it but more importantly make up the bait so they will eat it and bring it back to their colony. This is just foolproof. It really works. Thanks for writing, you are going to be OK.