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.
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Signing UpStep 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).
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).
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There are hundreds of comments here - maybe you can glean some insight from reading them. Maybe a new colony moved into the neighborhood and they don't know about your house yet, but they will.
It never hurts to mix up another batch and put in places you might have missed the first time around. I know how scary that must have been to see that roach, I hope it won't happen again.
Thank you for your reply. We bombed and fogged Friday night, the bombs we sat off were Bengal bombs enough for almost triple the amount of sq footage of the home. We left the attic way open and all the cabinets/fridge too. We also went a head and took off the covers and light switches to help it get in there good too.
Saturday we went and made the goo. We put it everywhere really thick... behind drawers, on door frames, in closets, behind light switches and covers, in cabinets and on the outside door frames too... with what was left he put it in the attic and left the container up there. Then we put the expandable foam around all the gaps that we could find... we moved the dish washer and put it there too.
Since then there have been a few big live ones in the kitchen and in one bedroom (which there never was one in the bedroom before).. However, there have been a lot of baby ones (smaller than ants) in the window sill in the living room. When our tenant went to kill them, some went outside through a tiny crack in the windowsill.. On closer inspection she says the babies are on the siding on the house.
Is this a good thing? How do we treat the outside of the home? My husband is going over later to caulk up the crack. I think we are all so stressed out about these things.
But with not seeing many big ones in the house that is a good sign right? How long til we should not see babies anymore? How do we treat the outside of the house?
Thank you for all your help :)
I feel like the roach lady, I wish I knew more to be able to answer your questions with definitive answers, but all I know is from my own research and experience and other folks's comments. I think you have done everything there is to do. I'm proud and impressed. Anytime I hear about roaches after a treatment is because the people didn't do the whole house, like they didn't do a basement or a bedroom. But everyone who has been as thorough as you have has had success. I don't see why you won't. But since you are worried I am worried. I am the designated worrier in my family. So don't you worry, I'll worry for you.
As far as babies go, the egg cases you may have missed will still be able to hatch, but those babies won't be around more than a day before they eat some bait. Really, I actually don't think I even need to worry for you, you are going to be fine - and roach free. Really.
Write to me in a week and tell me you are not stressed any longer. This kind of thing sort of just sours everything in your life until you have it fixed, I understand.
I went to the local hardware store today and bought Bengal bombs (I heard their the best), Bengal Gold Spray and the Roach Prufe that you had bought. The man there told me to bomb the place this weekend and then do it again next weekend. I told him that we were making this paste that you had talked about on here and he said yes that will bait them... but he said the bombs will not hurt the bait. But I am really afraid that they will, and if we do all this work I would hate to have to do it again next weekend.
So I am so confused!
She has removed all the cardboard from the house, and is keeping food in sealed containers. There are pretty close neighbors, but their not attached to the house. The house has a crawl space/attic that I think we should treat also.
I have never dealt with roaches before and after we get these taken care of, I hope I never have to again!
Anyway, the german ones will die, don't worry, there are just more of them so it takes longer. You are going to be fine, your hard work will pay off, you will forget this whole experience one day, you are getting really sleepy. *snaps fingers* OK, wake up and go bomb and bait. Get the bait up in that attic/crawl space. Keep me posted. I care, we all learn from each other here.
My question is, do we put out your mixture first and then wait to see if it takes care of the problem or do we also bomb/spray.. or do we bomb/spray first then put out the paste.
The live ones that we see (if there are any after this) do we kill or let them take this bait back to their "friends"?
I am REALLY hoping that this works, I will update after this weekend.Sorry to ask so m any questions, I just don't want the paste and bombs/spray to cancel each other out.
My question is, do we put out your mixture first and then wait to see if it takes care of the problem or do we also bomb/spray.. or do we bomb/spray first then put out the paste.
The live ones that we see (if there are any after this) do we kill or let them take this bait back to their "friends"?
I am REALLY hoping that this works, I will update after this weekend.Sorry to ask so m any questions, I just don't want the paste and bombs/spray to cancel each other out.
Sealing up acces with the foam is really good. Getting rid of all cardboard is really really good. taking the time to get the bait into the walls using any access you have is really important. The dishwasher is something that if at all possible should be pulled out and the hoses that attach to the water checked to see if large gaps were left after the plumber set up that area for the dishwasher to be installed. Use the foam to seal those gaps.
As I know you have read, it takes a great deal of time to do this correctly - but you only have to spend that time once in 2 years or so. It's hard work, have your vacuum running near you incase you see egg cases, roach poop, dead roaches etc, then dispose of the bag or whatever your vac uses.
There are over 300 comments on here, there is some very helpful advice - and it's pretty entertaining reading, I would sit down and read and takes notes as you do so.
You won't see any live roaches after you bait. On the off chance you do kill them of course. I would bomb first for sure, I don't want to take a chance that you actually poison the bait so that they won't eat it.
Keep me posted on your progress, it will work, you just need to be super thorough. I say this because you have already done quite a lot and it has not worked - oh, don't use mothballs, those are toxic for you to breath and they won't bother roaches.
Remember to pull out your drawers to put the bait behind them - think to yourself that dark, damp, and up high places are where they like to go - so that is where you bait. And I can't say this enough - get rid of any cardboard. Put your pasta in freezer gallon bags, your flour in the freezer, your cracker boxes in the garbage and put everything that comes in cardboard in big ziplocks. The freezer kind I like the best because the plastic is thicker.
after a week went by husband found one upstairs in the sink on his toothbrush yuck! and then following day found a HUGE one by the refrigerator that got stuck on one of the traps. it looked like it had a egg sack stuck to it's butt. my husband walked 2 blocks away from our home and killed it! didn't know what to do with it?
anyways we are done with these roaches and want them to go away completely.
how do we ask our neighbors, hey do you have roaches?
what else can we do besides what is already being done? an suggestions would be appreciated, please help us!
Now on the other hand your neighbors are easy - you haver roaches so they have roaches, maybe from your place - but together you sit down and read the 'ible and follow it. Anything more I would write here is just repetition, read the comments too there is a ton to learn there aslo.
People who are not even slobs or even dirty pigs have roaches, it seems like an insult but it's not about you, it's about the colony, how it works, what was in your place before, neighbors yes, but it's more about controlling them before they control you. The roaches, not the neighbors.
Don't worry (I always say this but it is true), you are going to be alright, you will not have roaches, it takes time to do a good baiting, you can do it, you will get rid of them, be vigilant with that vacuum. NO NO NO cardboard in the house.
(And for some reason I couldn't reply to your comment to me..so had to leave a comment this way)
I made up some of your "goo of doom", but since I didn't need as much as you made, I mixed 5-6 HEAPING tablespoons of boric acid, 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour, 2-3 tablespoons pancake syrup and some water.. Do you think this should this have enough boric acid in it to kill roaches?
Also, once I mixed everything together I did get a consistency of creamy peanut butter, but once I placed the bait out and went back to check a few hours later, it was like putty. Not rock HARD, but not peanut butter either. Is this the way it's supposed to do?
Thank you very much! I really hope this concoction kills these nasty little pests. I love my new home and really don't want a reason to despise it!
I have no idea if the roaches will still be attracted to the bait when it is that hard, I don't see why not but then again I really don't know. I personally would not take any chances and would do it again without water. It's your call though, keep me posted.
Ha ha! Would you not know this 100 year old cottage near the beach has roaches and dry wood termites? Just saw a rat crawl across the yard under the shed last week (but we have big dogs so those will definitely leave.....vermin and dogs/cats just do not mix thankfully)....... Well, we cannot rip out the cabinets and deal with tenting for termites in a rental soooo. Found out boric acid just kills all kinds of insects including drywood termites. I mixed the boric acid powder with baby oil so the baby oil would soak into the wood. I started in the areas where I could see kick out holes that drywood termites make and you see the pile of crap on the floor, window sill etc. That is where they are "active" and visible. I took a hammer and nail and made holes into all of the wood a few inches apart (and some more - might was well be thorough). Then I took a syringe (yip....needle and all - but a rubber medicine dropper that one never uses again will work) and filled it with the baby oil and boric acid and put it inside all of the holes where the kick outs were and where I saw rotten wood. The baby oil is so that the mixture will soak into the wood. NO more kickouts within an hour. (I was getting massive activity) Now drywood termites do move but I know one thing - tent this house all you want - all you are going to do is kill the ones that are there and you are right back to where one started in a month because termites are everywhere here. I did discover that if you soak/treat your wood used to construct anything in the house in a boric acid solution (so that your wood is basically also boric acid) you will never have a termite problem ever. Some guy from New Zealand says that is the only kind of wood they use there to build. Treated wood with boric acid.....sounds smart. Makes sense because on an Island - you just cannot get rid of termites. No way it is going to happen.
A side note for everyone. I did not have the attic sprayed with residual spray so will be baiting the attic; all outbuildings; and the cars. In fact, I might continue to just bait "surrounding my house" entirely also. I am on my very first week of no dead german roaches at all and it has been exactly 2 and one half months so I am pretty sure the bait is what did the trick (as well as my new love of caulk). We did not spray until a couple of weeks after we baited with the magic goo of doom. I forgot to mention that part. Now to bait the air conditioner and furnace etc.
1. Clean the house decently including vacuuming and locating all of those nice egg casings ( wiped walls and base boards decently)
2. Two days of cleaning furniture (found dead giant roach inside the wicker) outside and decontaminating it with anti-bacterial
3. Vacuuming every single day
4. No food in house for one and 1/2 weeks. Any take-out food was in plastic bags at all times sealed.
5. Made your magic paste and put it everywhere just like you said. Wish I had left the container left over in the attic but I had not found the attic opening on the first run through. Put container outside behind the house where pets cannot access near water pipe into back apt.
6. Sadly, because it was so bad, we had to also spray Spectricide with residual. Sprayed the base of the house and all windows and sills; sprayed out buildings; sprayed base boards inside house (did not do cabinets in kitchen etc. because exterminator already did that). We also had to bait the kitchen with Tat and Combat but those went on the floor. The magic paste went everywhere else.
7. Sealed up between floor and wall where there were gaps; caulked the windows as best as possible (rotten wood old house nothing we can do - we do not own)
8. Two weeks after all of that - major change: Saw dead roaches but no alive ones.
9. It is now two and half months after that and we are still seeing dead german roaches.
10. Never saw them in the coffee maker or stove and we do not have a dishwasher. Have not seen them in the microwave. We live in a place where electricity is high so might I suggest what we do. We leave all electronics unplugged when not in use. I have to figure out how to check computers, t.v., cable box, phone etc.
11. In two and a half months, still seeing one/two dead roaches every few days.
12. Have not put clothes in drawers or shoes in closet yet because want to be able to check drawers and floors etc.
13. We cook in the house but we seal the garbage bag inside the trash can before going to bed.
14. There are tons of old cars in the yard right behind our house - would that be a roach place too? We can't do anything about those cars but maybe we could spray or bait the cars?
Some questions for the Board.
When can I feel comfortable about putting our clothes away without living in fear of a roach dead/alive in the drawers? I am going to keep the shoes in baskets for now so I can "see" the floors quickly. I am really freaked about the clothes in drawers.
Also, when can I ascertain that the problem is resolved? (I know this probably does not have a real answer). We do no see anything dead or alive for a week or so, and then a dead one.
We are also going to spray the house once per month since the directions stated the bait lasts two years. I am baiting the apt. next door since it is now empty and will then put the container in the attic as I can now access it. It is not that clean but I am too disgusted cleaning this house to do that one.
Note: I mixed boric acid with baby oil and killed a small drywood termite nest so this stuff is the real deal.
The Instructable was great and after arguing with my husband about the power of bait, I truly think that the spray helped the initial barrage but that the bait helped weed out the massive problem. I sure hope it lasts two years because baiting does take forever.
Tell me more about how you used the baby oil and boric acid to kill the termites, that sounds pretty dang interesting.
You could bait the cars too you know...
My kitchen is all ripped out and a new kitchen is going in, while the insulation and drywall are gone I am going to do a bang up job of putting bait on all the wood walls and studs. You would not believe how many dead roaches I found when we ripped the drywall off. The people before me (I'm in a new house from the one I did the 'ible in) had used a system where there were small tubes that ran all around the house put in when when it was built, periodically the exterminators would spray some poison into the terminals on the outside of the house. The result was that the house was infested when I moved in. But 10 months later, the contractor and I did not find one live roach in all the de-construction we did.
OK... we are on day 7. I'm freaked out. The German roaches must be a whole other problem than what most experience on this tutorial. We are seeing many of them come out of the wood works- ones we have never seen in places we have never seen them. I'm getting so disgusted and don't know what to do!
While I think that it must be killing some, it seems to be just agitating the others and they search for moisture and food... and travel to uncommon areas. It's not like we see ten all in one place but more like one big one at a time in places we have not ever seen them. Any ideas how to battle that? All areas are fully baited and we are vacuuming and cleaning and continually killing ones that come out looking for food.
I keep seeing the babies in the kitchen area more than anything and know there must be a "nest" as you call it somewhere but can not find it. I wasn't able to get the dishwasher door off because it requires a special type of tool that I am not familiar with.
I did read that comment on the pasta water, I think I will go back and read it again... if memory serves me correctly, she "boiled pasta" more for making the mixture and as it was boiling, set out bait for the roaches to go to... since they were already out looking for food? May be worth a shot at this point.
Sealing everywhere a pipe goes in a wall is helpful. You can also dust some boric acid in the wall before sealing for good measure. That you have seen them in your appliances is not good, but that they seem to have limited themselves primarily to your kitchen is good. With a bigger infestation they spread out farther. Because they are around pipes, I set out most of the bait close to them but all the lower cupboards usually get explored by them. They travel along crevices so the bait needs to be placed there for them to find it. Bait along the back of the cabinets every 2 feet or so. Also put bait along the crevice in the toe space where the cabinets meet the floor. Because it is possible they do learn to avoid it, so use multiple bait recipes.
You want to contain them while you are killing them so they don't spread out looking for healthier surroundings. Bay leaves repel them, so, after you put the bait out, put bay leaves where you really don't want them, like on your stove, in your upper cabinets, in and under your fridge, under your microwave, etc. You may want to put them in your bathroom where ever you think they might be entering. They are not dangerous except perhaps as a choking hazard if your children are very young.
I'll post a couple of other recipes in another post.
I find using my liquid potion the best remedy but it's a pain because it keeps evaporating.
Cockroach Potion
24 ounces of very hot water
4 tablespoons of boric acid
1 cup of sugar
The boric acid tends to settle at the bottom so you have to shake the bottle. Even though it also separates a bit after pouring it is still very effective.
Cockroach Balls
1 part icing sugar
2 parts flour
2 parts boric acid
Add enough vegetable oil, butter or bacon grease to form a dough. It will no longer be effective when it dries out so you have to replace it but it keeps well in a jar.
Another recipe is:
8 ounces of boric acid
1/2 cup of flour
1/8th cup of sugar
shortening or bacon grease to form balls
optional - half a small onion chopped
Although I haven't tried it they are also attracted to flat beer so that could be used instead of water in the potion.
Only tenacity can win the war against cockroaches.
Also thank you for the other recipes too. I will for sure be keeping those at hand because I don't want roaches- and I don't want them trying to trick me either. Ack...
Day 1- lots of them seemed to come out to get the bait in the kitchen
Day 2- We still some but not as many... and we have seen a few dead
Day 3- Saw them really dying. We keep seeing babies so you are right, there are those stupid sacks somewhere. I have been able to find some of them and get rid of them but not all.
Day 4- Saw some in the bathroom which we normally don't. (I also had sick kids so no energy for blasting bugs)
Day 5- Today, finished baiting all outlets, door ways, and drawers, even into the ceiling where the fire alarm is located. Anywhere in the walls I could think of. In the bathroom where we never see them, the one plug outlet there is actually had some IN THE PLUG AREA(not just after taking the face plate off- SO NASTY) that apparently went in there to die. That freaked me out tons so I was given an extra push to get it all done. That was the worst looking outlet of the whole house which seems odd because we rarely ever saw them in there. I have vacuumed lots and will continue to do so.
None the less, I think the last place I have to conquer is the dishwasher door... like inside of it. I *think* this may be where these babies keep coming from.
I'm definitely finding dead ones and live babies. My husband said he killed two big ones in the kitchen this morning though. He says they acted weird though, going in circles. One he thought was a moth at first because the outside looked flaky- it just fell and he finished it off while I kept my distance. I think that means the boric acid did it's job on that one.
Staying hopeful that this will end. Still having the jitters when I go to the kitchen though.
AND THEN... I was so desperate I began begging for a reference for a bug man that could rid the place of them For good. Got a food reference accept they came to do a free estimate, said it would cost $200 and they could get rid of them but more than likely they will come back because we are connected to other units who must have them too. I've talked to 2 of the 3 neighbors and they say they do not have roaches... The others speak Spanish and I don't know Spanish well enough to find out if they do.
Anyway, $200 bucks and them directly saying they will come back though unless all units do it, just wasn't going to happen. I did feel slightly comforted when he said it was not what he would call an infestation and that it probably was before we took over... So we did manage to at least kill tons of them just not all. (Also, one person said they found the roaches were living in the roach bait centers... We had that happen too... So dang nasty)
I was so glad to finally run across your 'ible as I have not found anything else out there saying they can get rid of these blasted things.
So yesterday we spent a good 2 1/2 hours for our tiny condo, mainly in the kitchen area... Baiting with your goo of doom. After reading all the comments right before bed last night, btw...never do that- you'll have night mares about roaches, I need to do a bunch more in depth work through out the entire house even though we have really only seen them in the kitchen and super rare even in the bathroom area.
I can't tell if it is working though because I have seen a bunch of babies out during the day light today... I will have my husband check tonight when they are usually scurrying across the floor, and countertops.
Is it normal to see them come out more after baiting? I keep reading comments that kind of suggest no, it's not. Even during the day yesterday I saw quite a few after baiting... One was dead in the boric acid powder though. Maybe they just don't like that we found their hiding spots?
Also, we did dust some areas with the powder, places kids can not get to and places we didn't necessarily want them to be attracted to since we didn't normal see them there. We still have trimming to put up on our cabinets(I know... 15 months later and we still haven't finished) so I also filled in the cracks above the cabinets with the stuff.
As another one posted, I am also pregnant and I freak out majorly when I see the blasted things... Talk about heart burn and anxiety at it's worst. My kids have probably thought that their mom was taken over by some monster because I keep telling the roaches, "prepare to die!!!!!" I want them to die a fast and horrible death! We don't usually talk about death in our house so much- my kids are still quite young- but when it comes to these pesky things... I am very open about wanting them to die!
Anyway, I will for sure update with joy if they are gone!!!!
P.S. I found your 'ible on Pinterest... Thank you to whoever it was that pinned its!!
So anyway you are on a mission, and I know it will work. But I disagree with the tech who told you that you don't have an infestation. Granted, I was dealing with what is also know as 'palmetto bugs', which are not the German ones, but believe that if you see them in the daytime you have such an infestation that they are being crowded out.
So please keep me posted, I really care, and being that you are dealing with German ones, everyone else will be able to benefit from what you find out. Just remember to always follow the money when something does not make sense. Pest-control companies would not be in business if they were successful. That sounds strange but I think that people have been lulled into thinking that having roaches is normal.
As far as Spanish speaking neighbors go, just write what you want to ask them and do a google translate. Maybe you can translate this 'ible and hand it out to them. Something here is not making sense though, no one wants roaches and you have done so much to correct the problem... there is no cardboard in the house is there? I understand the German one's just love cardboard.
Anyway, seal everything in your pantry in ziplock bags, find out where they are coming from and half your battle will be done. And thank you for writing.
About how long before you don't see them any more? a week?
**Side note, I was once told that not just the paper grocery bags bring in roaches but the plastic ones do too and contain roach larva... i used to save them for trash can liners... to say the least, I never keep them anymore.
The 3 you found on the floor sound like good news, they seemed sick to me. Reading through the hundreds of comments really helps too. You are going to be fine, and your boyfriend deserves something special for being such a brave guy. I do not think you have a serious problem. Really.
Should i do new baits ? or moist them with water? will that make them ineffective tough?
thanks!
Thank you for your info and all your work
You need to be vacuuming your place every day for awhile too. You have a colony living there, that is harder than just a few coming in from outside. This is major. I think that the roaches may already be inside your electronics.
Remember, they like heat, water, height. But you may have to start with a bug bomb. Then move to the goo of death. I'm really sorry for you, this will be a big job, but I am sure in about 10 days you will be roach free. But don't stop the constant vacuuming, you want to get those egg cases. Throw out the vacuum cleaner bags after ever major vacuuming if you are not sure that the vacuum kills them. Or store the vacuum outside. Keep me posted, I really care. I know how it is.
I want to take more steps on my own. I am planning to order more Maxforce bait stations that has fipronil, do you think that will work or should i make the bait at home ? How long do you think it will take me to fix this problem ? will this problem ever get fixed ??
Please reply. I am in desperate need of advice as I want to control this before it becomes a bigger problem.
Thanks.
Anytime you use water in this bait, it will harden very fast. But of course this pasta water is what is attracting your bunch. They will learn from this though and I don't know how long it will work to draw them out.
I am still concerned that you have too many to deal with on your own. But keep me posted.
What a difference 6 days has made! I am still finding 4-5 dead bugs every morning. I ran out of boric acid about 5 days ago so and will be buying more tomorrow so I can thoroughly take care of the bathroom. I am finding dead adults and live babies in the bathroom.
I am hoping we do not have a nest in here. We live in a six-plex (like a duplex but 6 houses connected together). Our problem started when some unruly characters moved out of the first unit (we are in the 2nd unit). The landlord sprayed their place and I think it made them all come over here. I have heard of other neighbors having problems through the years off and on. The people who live in the first unit now have not seen any. I'll keep you posted on further results.
Dave
I have been using one and now switching to a new one,, you add a 1 oz bottle or measured amount to any other product/ sprays/ (your bait) and wala not only do they die but their eggs and and their carcass become a sterilizer against any other roaches making more babies !!
Roaches i have come to find out, eat their fallen comrades bodies so the more you taint them the better !!
which is another reason you don't see as many dead ones as you should.
--------------------
im not shure why but i spoke with a pest control service/ products sales shop owner and he stated that once you get the boric acid wet its rendered useless ,
However he also stated that diatamasous earth was useless agaist roaches as well and great as a cleaner..
i say the more the merrier as every colony probably has an ingrained "watch list " of sorts of what to stay away from.
For example, many will climb the walls to avoid a foggers fumes and stay at shoulder height just below the heat and above the cold narrowly escaping the cloud, ( i have only seen older large ones do this.)
(of course once found being intelligent i make sure they never share this information with the others.)
The dog's food is another story and one I will have to think about. Well there are some obvious ideas but I am sure you will think of them too.
I think the cardboard is what brought them to your basement, not the spilled milk, or even if there was a bit of food, it would not matter, but the point is that they won't come back - you must do a really thorough job though, it takes time and effort, but it should last for a few years.
My house up in the woods in SC is finally safe from roaches, I only ever see an occasional dead one. It's spiders I am contending with now.
He said Crushed Bay leaves = keyptonite for roaches and
SALT your carpet.
Your problem sounds a bit more intense though and may require a professional....
I used the basic formula you suggested, but I decreased the amount of flour and added alittle water so I could use a caulk gun to apply this roach terminator to pipes, nooks, crannies, and other various roach homes. and just to make the smell more roach freindly, and cheaper, I used molasses.
This stuff was thick, smelled great(hard not to taste it... :) ) and kills roaches and wards off ants. I had all the ingredientsand this was too easy not to try.
Thanks for the help!
As far as mice and rats go I have been so impressed with a $30 device I bought from Home Depot that plugs into an outlet, you can use an extension cord to place it anywhere if the outlet is not close enough for you. I had rats and mice in my old house when I first moved in. They ran around in the ceiling at night and it was terrible. I bought one of these things and the problem was solved immediately. I know it works because I had them in the garage loft - I found the droppings - and I put one up there too, the reason I know it works so well is that about 3 years later I found droppings and checked the "ratinator" and it had burned out, the little red light was off. I really like this little device because the dogs can't hear it, I can't hear it - even when I put it up to my ear, and it really works. You don't want dead mice or rats in your walls stinking up the place, this thing just makes them go away because it makes a hight pitched frequency they don't like. I hope that helps - and I wish I knew what it was called, I just call it the "ratinator".
Here's my background before asking my question:
Just recently moved from the Pacific NW (which has no cockroaches, not where I'm from) to Georgia. The hubs and I have moved into an apartment and, you guessed it, we are experiencing cockroaches. Most of which I have seen either on the kitchen floor or the bathroom. Our apartment gets sprayed inside every other month. They sprayed last week, and already just this morning I saw one sprint across the kitchen floor. I'm beginning to wonder if the spray they use really works, so I'm going to give your method a try.
I'm going to take your advice and take off the switchboards, put it behind the drawers, and around the pipes. I'm trying to think of any other places in the kitchen to put it, but running out of ideas. If you have any other ideas, please let me know. We don't have kids or pets, so we are not too concerned about the toxic part of it.
Here's my question: once I apply this "goo of doom", should I be prepared to see more cockroaches due to the attraction of the paste? As ridiculous as this sounds, I'm almost more comfortable killing a few cockroaches individually throughout the week rather than seeing big groups of them. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm getting real nervous just thinking of the new group hang-outs I'll be making for the roaches. Or do they eat and run?
If my memory keeps up with me, I plan to post a follow-up. Thanks again for all of your help.
Another good place to put the bait in your kitchen is anywhere up high - on top of your cabinets if that is possible. Just think about hight places and wet places and food and cardboard places.
This is going to work. Think about it - your exterminator comes every month, if you didn't have roaches why would he come? You would let him go. That is why what they use is made to not work very well, and certainly made to not last a whole month. When in doubt about anything that is a puzzle follow the money.
Thanks for writing and I hope you will follow up.
It's kinda funny, when we put this all together, it smelled like a maple bar donut lol. No wonder the bugs would go for this stuff! Thank you very much for all of your help and for this recipe. I am spreading word around about this stuff, because being in the South, we definitely aren't the only ones with a cockroach problem.
Thanks again!
So, this time, I went all the way and bought myself a bottle of industrial (used in restaurants), permanent, non-staining bait. All I have to do is mix a cap full of the stuff with two litres of water and spray it everywhere. Every time we see roaches, they're dead. And so are flies and ants. Have I mentioned there are no spider webs anymore?
Looking at the sort of trouble you had baiting your home, I'm glad mine is made of stone and doesn't really have hollow walls and crawlspaces.
Hope you get rid of those pests permanently. Your house is lovely.
Again, I don't know what you will be allowed to buy, as these products are very poisonous to fish but any permethrin based product will do a good job as it is both poisonous and repellent to insects. Toxicity to humans is also low and I know it is common practice in the US to soak military uniforms in the stuff.
If you do want sprays to kill airborne insects, there are machines that take special cans of spray insecticide and release a puff every few minutes. Those sprays have higher concentrations and will kill flies instantly.
Do a thorough cleaning of your home, especially your kitchen. Rip the baseboards under the cabinets, wash that hidden area thoroughly and apply permanent insecticide, plus rat bait and ant bait to create a denial zone. If you force them to seek alternative routes, they will show up where you can see them.
If your home is made of wood, you'll have to have additional precautions that I am not qualified or experienced enough to give, as homes in my area are exclusively built out of masonry and thus have no crawlspaces or access to insulation areas.
Go to a farmer's supply warehouse and I'm sure they'll have the stuff I'm talking about in powder or oil emulsion form. They usually spray cattle pens with it.
I can't stress this enough: follow the manufacturer's instructions, watch out for contamination of food preparation surfaces, fish tanks, etc. Be responsible and in doubt, ask and use common sense.
I dumpster dive and there are funny little roaches on everything, I have never seen this before. I am so deep in the woods I can only talk on the phone outside on the porch. I hate bugs. I feel like a prisoner in my house now, I have been so attached by chiggers I think I will have scars for life. My dogs are fine, I am not. What did you use, how can I get some? The spiders here are out of a nature channel show. The mud wasps even build their nests on door handles.
I can't tell if the exact product I used is available on your area. I used a Bayer product but, since I'm away from home the whole week, I can't tell you the name right now.
Any decent farmers supplier should have a permethrin-based insecticide for wall applications. Cattle farmers usually spray any fly resting place with the stuff. They touch it, they die. That's the sort of product I'm using. I mix a sprayer full of it and coat every surface with it. Walls, under cabinets, on top of cabinets, around baseboards, under stairs ledges, around windows, doors, drain holes, ceilings, you name it.
Pay attention that the stuff you buy is non-staining. I will give you that bayer product name when I get back home. :)
I moved to North Carolina and had never even seen a cockroach before in my life until we realized our kitchen was infested (mildly, but still). We followed your instructions and baited the whole house. We never saw an adult alive after that (I once opened an unused drawer and found three huge dead ones—ugh), though we continually saw young ones that had presumably not yet gotten to the bait. The house was old, and the landlord wouldn't do his part in maintaining it so it wasn't a prime roach habitat, so we ended up moving. Our new house is newer and easier to keep clean, but there are tons of cockroaches outside at night. I don't know if it's common to see them on the outsides of houses here or not. They look like woods cockroaches based on Google searches (they don't breed indoors), but I've seen one or two that looked like German or American, and some huge black ones on the shed at night (Oriental?). We were very careful when we moved to clean and inspect everything, and we left any suspect appliances, so hopefully we didn't bring any inside from the old house. We didn't have time to bait until this week, so in the meantime I set Combat bait out, out of my dog's reach. We're going to do the big baiting job in the next couple days.
My question is, does it make sense to bait outside as well? Would it work to put some bait above our exterior front door, which is covered by a porch? What about our shed? My only worry is that having it outside would mean critters like birds could eat it, and I definitely don't want to hurt them. I just like to spend time on the porch, and I don't want cockroaches joining me—and I'd really like to prevent them from taking much of an interest in entering the house if they can get to some outdoor bait, take it to their nest and never return.
Remember to be vigilant about cardboard coming into your house - get it out as fast as possible. Use any opportunity that a hole is cut into a wall for what ever reasons, to bait that area. I am having a mess of work done on my house and am jamming bait everywhere. In this heat it tends to melt so try to think of gravity and melting temperatures when applying.
I just moved into a new apartment and the place is crawling with roaches! YUK!
I have a feeling that the whole building might be infested, do u think this is still a good idea because i don't want to attract them all to my unit, i"m grossed out enough as it is but desparate to be rid of them for good!
Please please help!
I'm at my mom's house now (in Florida), she is a bit of a pack rat and there are a lot of cardboard boxes and old books and what not - BUT in two weeks here I have not seen one single roach. She used my formula about two years ago.
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. ;-)
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.
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.
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?
I've used similar type bottles for various things. Just make sure to label them appropriately to avoid cross contamination. Even cleaned out, it would suck to use a borax paste applicator for a mustard bottle. I can't see that going to well. :)
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.
Gonna try this out. Thank you so much!!!!
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!
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!
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 :-(
thanks for everything. this stuffs works i just think i might not have done it right
I promise you, if you do this right you will not have roaches, promise. Please get back to me and let me know if you have followed the directions really well or just sort of, and also where do you live, state or country.
Just as an antidote, a friend of mine here in South Florida who left his sliding glass doors open to the outside all the time had an exterminator every month but still had roaches, it took him two weeks to finish his whole house with my recipe, he only did half his house the first time and was still seeing roaches, I told him he had to do the WHOLE house and then, after he did - no more roaches! He let his exterminator go.
thanks for everything. this stuffs works i just think i might not have done it right
Has the author of this instructable gone back to see if bait is diminishing?
Perhaps this will just take more time, or perhaps I need to put out more bait. Or maybe I need a stronger mixture?
By "get rid of the live ones" do you mean spray them? I have spray but I hate it because it's so toxic.
(well except for the ones my parents leave in the ashtrays, damn hippies!)
Jonathan
. . . I'm sorry, just call me a p*ssy and be done with it, but if I saw anything like that in MY house I'm pretty sure II'd have to move. (FWIW, I used to live in Tucson 'back in the day,' and I never saw anything like that. 'Bout the only creature of note were hovalinas, and the only thing I remember about them was that they were fast. They looked like little jets moving across the mesa.)
http://www.pesticide.org/boricacid.pdf
We're growing organic vegetables (just for ourselves), so we don't want to use toxic things.
Thanks,
Liat.
I read another article that suggested a mixture of Boric acid & propylene glycol. The probylene glycol should help the boric acid penetrate the wood and will also provide some protection from future termites invading.
Good Luck Creativeman.
Hope that helps.
It works best when kept absolutely dry, and if you can get it powdered as finely as possible, so it statically clings to their shells. Then, these social insects can pass the fun amongst the clan efficiently :-)
Boric acid can be bought in the drug store as a powder, but sometimes it is not a very fine powder.
Based on mammal median lethal dose (LD50) rating of 2,660 mg/kg body mass, boric acid is poisonous if taken internally or inhaled. However, it is generally considered to be not much more toxic than table salt, so can be safely used as a fire retardant. F. Jay Murray (2004). "Don’t Lose Sleep Over Borates and Mattresses". Murray and Associates. http://web.archive.org/web/20070819100438/ http://www.natbat.com/docs/boron.htm. Retrieved on 2008-04-21.
Stop feeding and watering them!
Roaches do not magically enlarge and duplicate themselves. They are living creatures that need water and food. If you leave a bowls water and food outside, you are going to end up with a visiting cat, dog, raccoon, or possum. If you leave a bowl of water and food inside the house, you will end up with roaches or ants.
Granted, roaches may take weeks to dehydrate in a sufficiently humid environment. (Food-grade diatomaceous earth can speed this up greatly.) But they cannot survive and reproduce indefinitely when your house is bone dry.
Insecticide does have its place. Ocassionally you might accidentally leave dishes in the sink overnight, or overlook a puddle of water on the floor. Now and then, roaches will enter the house through cracks or on your shoes. But insecticide should only be used as a back-up method.
Interesting dialogue you've got going here and thanks for reading. It's important to note that amount of product my dog ate was very small. When the poison control hotline responder looked up the details on Mother Earth Scatter Bait, they found it wasn't likely to harm her, particularly because the amount of the boric acid active ingredient (5%) was so small.
Their determination squares with information about boric acid on the National Pesticide Information's Web site.
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/boricgen.pdf
Obviously eating any isn't ideal, but in comparison to other products not as harmful.
Good luck with the roach control.
Thanks for the idea. I have been going nuts trying to find a cheap alternative to getting an expensive exterminator.
(_)b