Comments on: How To Kill Roaches And Get Rid Of A Home Cockroach Infestation

By: BG

BG — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:53:52 +0000

Aubrey Anna

Keep a clean house & your roaches will be clean, too. Cleaning isn’t enough. You’re right about the food though. Wash all bottles, cans, food packaging before discarding & wash dishes right away as they can sense microscopic bits of food from yards away. Get boric acid & dust it into the baseboards, cabinets especially around sources of water. (if you put it by dishes, make sure you rinse the dishes off before using). Dust boric acid in every crack you can find & every time a wall is repaired, throw some into the wall for good measure. Repeat every time you clean the area. Silicone & polyurethane caulks are good for filling in gaps to prevent them from making a nesting area, too. There is other stuff as many other posters here will attest to, that also works. Formula 409, the cleaner, is a good spot roach killer (I’m allergic to the roach sprays so I use it on the occasional errant water bug that gets in.)

Good luck.

By: Aubrey Anna

Aubrey Anna — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:01:19 +0000

so I moved to this new place in SLC with my dad and our neighborhood near West Jordan, a lower income area. When we were moving in, although I didn’t see any roaches my dad told me he found a dead roach in his bathroom and a dead one in mine. Since then I have been paranoid about a possible infestation. I honestly have never seen a roach other than t.v (the terminators) and the freeze dried ones on display at the hogle zoo. So how do I know if I do have a problem with these little pests? I noticed the wall boarding behind my counter is a little lifted, not noticeable when you look at it but as I was wiping it down I could hear “crunch” is this just the 1940’s glue I am hearing? I feel like I am going crazy. My dad was fixing a leak under the kitchen sink and found 2 bottles of like pest control spray with roach and ant cartoons displayed on the front.

SO MY QUESTION IS:
How do I know if I have a problem? I’ve been told they are nocturnal so its hard to know if you have them

WHAT CAN I DO TO PREVENT THEM?
I put all food away, my house is clean. What more can I do?

***Any input would be greatly appreciated, for both my sanity/paranoia? ha ha thanks.

Peace

By: BG

BG — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:36:55 +0000

NYgal
Excellent advice for the occasional spot kill. (Does it work on errant water-bugs? I usually wind-up chasing them with a spray bottle of Formula 409 which you have to get on their bellies or get them to walk through it. Allergic to Raid anyway).

By: Nygal

Nygal — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:23:39 +0000

I also know of a way to get rid of those yucky bug. Aersol hair spray. It works much better that Raid does. It works actually on all crawling bugs. Aersol not the pump

By: deathtotheroach

deathtotheroach — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:52:21 +0000

I’ve lived in apartment for the past 6 months now, the landloard is a slumloard. I have never seen a roach in anything I have ever lived in till now. He has been told of the problem number of times but does nothing about it, is there any legal rights I have and what are they? plus I’m getting ready to move what can I do to keep from taking these things with me?

By: Mobley

Mobley — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:29:04 +0000

I truely believe that roaches will be the last thing standing on the planet earth.I never had a problem with them until I bought a slightly used repo’d refrigator from a Good Cents Store. I was told it had been used two months but the people could’nt pay so it was repo’d. I got it for 800.00 bucks. I thought boy ,what a good deal..I been paying ever since. About two weeks after I bought it all hell broke loose. Friggin roaches every where. It’s been six months now. An exterminator has been here twice in the six months(waste of money) and I tried every kind of spray you can name almost. I just found out about the boric acid and jars about a week ago. So far, this seems to be helping . Now I will add the apple cider vinegar and a few other things I’ve read on here. If that don’t work then maybe the gasoline and matches.lol .. A lesson for me I will never forget…..NEVER BUY ANY KIND OF USED APPLIANCE!!!EVER!! Thanks everyone for all the helpful info…

By: CDB

CDB — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:53:10 +0000

I moved into this studio apartment a month ago. A day after moving in, they showed up. It’s unrealistic to think that I’ll get rid of them. A. This is a large apartment complex. B. There is a “shared” common kitchen area. I at least want to keep them out of my apartment.

I’m not sleeping at night. (It’s 1:51 A.M.) When I do sleep, I sleep with all of the lights on. I have a small dog and I’m worried about an exterminator spraying or her coming into contact with a lot of the products mentioned, but I’m seriously ready for war. Seriously. Death to the roaches!!

By: Veegee

Veegee — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:44:53 +0000

has anyone tried using a mixture of sugar and baking power/soda? roaches eat ti and get their stomachs bloated until they die. and being carnivorous/cannibalistic the live ones eat the dead ones which kill more roaches.

BTW, what is roach chalk made of that makes it illegal? the guy in the chinese store that sells them where i live say they are non toxic to humans. i use it to kill large red ants around our house that tend to get into our laundry area.

am from the philipines and believe you me, the roaches in the US are small compared to the ones here.

By: Jennifer Dobson

Jennifer Dobson — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:45:50 +0000

I live in a trailor with a massive roach problem. I thought I should share my knowledge.

Fist, roaches hate the smell of spearmint. Keeping a pack of gum in my purse has kept it nicely roach free so it’s good to use like bayleaves.

Second, you can buy ladybugs for a relativly decent price, about $7 for 1500 of them. Ladybug are the most voracious insect preditors and will eat every insect they can get at. Someone I know was doing work on an old house and found ladybugs under the floorboards, there was evidence of termites but none to be found and no other insects as well. I personaly am considering ladybugs when I get my own home because they are pritty, cute, ad my cats are expert gecko hunters.

I will be using information from here in my new home as well.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:42:25 +0000

How I eliminated a mass infestation of roaches.

1. No garbage remains in the house overnight. All trash cans are the type that have a seal to keep them out.

2. Clean and mop with vinegar based solutions. Kitchen, Bathrooms, Tile, Hardwood floors etc.

3. Boric acid on all roach hi ways and under appliances and near water sources. Under sinks, Around Toilets etc.

4. “Hoy Hoy Trap-A-Roach” The Hoy Hoy Trap is ideal for monitoring levels of cockroach infestation. It has a sticky floor, approximately 15cm x 10cm with a food attractant sachet to entice cockroaches to enter the trap. Place these in areas with a lot of traffic. They catch large and small ones and the babies when the eggs hatch in them!!

5. Remove all food sources from the roach and the survivors will leave. They will eat food particles that remain on your toothbrush and tooth paste. Food removal is the hardest thing because they find everything you miss in the micro size.

By: leti

leti — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:00:14 +0000

I had never seen a roach until I moved to Texas. I grew up thinking that only dirty people had roaches. Oh how wrong I was. I moved to Texas, into an apartment and seen my first roach. If I had only known I would have run for my life!!!!! Now I moved out of the apartments and into a house. The damned things moved with us. They are in all electical appliances, and really everything including the furniture. I thought I had them under control for a while and then 2 things happened. We got flooded and I had a baby and ended up with post partum depression. let me put it this way, there are more roaches in this house than people in the US. So I was visiting my mom over the holidays and my aunt told me this. She bought a house that was infested and she used the boric acid the roach hotels and catnip. She does not have a roach anywhere. So I am now doing my research to see if there is anything else I can add to her words of wisdom. I am also going to be trying bay leaves in areas such as my dressers and china cabinets. And while reading thru this someone had mentioned using vinager. Now that I am thinking about it I was using a vinegar based cleaner for a while and I noticed that they abandoned the areas where I used that cleaner, so I will be using it again. I am not counting on the jar with water but what the h*^l I will throw that in with the other stuff I will be trying out. I think I will also be trying the mixture of baking soda and sugar. Hopefully some or all of this will help as I will not be able to move until the end of the year and I am terrified of the damned things following me again.

By: BG

BG — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:41:03 +0000

To Ed; Thanks for the heads up on Bengal Gold. It’s not nearly as labor intensive as the powders and would be good for people with toddlers & small children. It’s always good to know of alternative solutions. I would think that it would be especially good with boric acid for heavy infestations.

By: ed

ed — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:59:55 +0000

I have used Bengal Gold.Its in a spray can like raid and has a chemical to drive them out to kill them and also sterilizes so they dont reproduce. It cost 14.00 a can but it works really well.I use boric acid also.

By: sherri

sherri — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:32:08 +0000

Hey! Roaches aren’t just for the poor. If you live in the city, in multi-family dwellings or old buildings, you are susceptible to roaches. I had a roach problem living in Phoenix. Periodic exterminations by our property owner worked pretty well. Then I moved to L.A. My first apartment here was a lovely 1920’s building that was tented just before my moving in. I never saw a single bug there for all the years I lived there (3) after the tenting. Since then, I’ve moved into a ’70s building (a complex), and there is a definite roach problem. I usually see them more in the summer months. Well, it’s January, and this time they haven’t gone away. Finding roach legs and body parts really freaks me out. My mild bronchitis is making a comeback as well. I hate these buggers! I hate killing them: I spray with a roach spray to dehabilitate them, then crunch them in many layers of paper towels. I want to move, but who knows how what will happen in this economy? ANd if we did, how could we ensure that we brought no “friends” with us? Ugh. They are confined to the kitchen now, but our place is small, and they freak me out.

By: BG

BG — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 04:50:14 +0000

veryafraid -

Boric acid is an old topical skin antiseptic & eyewash which has been replaced by more effective topical antiseptics but you may be able to find it at medical supply outlets, especially online. Another powder that works similar to boric acid (it’s a desiccant, it drys them out & they die & since they eat each other, all that partake of the meal suffer a similar fate) is diatomaceous earth which comes in 3 grades, pool grade, plant grade & food grade. You’d probably want to get food grade since you’re pregnant. It can be gotten at wholesale baking ingredient suppliers. Plant nurseries often sell “food grade” too (its used as an insecticide around plants) & it’s also used on animals. There is also crystal cat litter which also works the same way but you have to grind it into a powder first.

Good luck.