OK I'm thoroughly sick of cockroaches. Even though I've been pretty good lately about not leaving any food lying around, there seems to be no letup in the number of these little nasties running around. Worse is that they're coming into my study a lot more, perhaps because I have baits in the kitchen. The aquarium provides them with a source of water, so they've taken up residence in here >:(
So I'm now on a quest to find fish-friendly, chemical free methods of cockroach extermination. I've yet to try any of the following methods, so any comments on their successfulness would be appreciated!
Some methods I've found on the web include:
- A bowl of cheap wine placed under the sink will kill roaches; they drink, fall in and die
- Set out water and dry cement where roaches visit; they will ingest both and die
- Cedar, Japanese mint, scotch spearmint, and bay leaves are good natural repellents and make good barrier treatments
- Woodstream Corporation’s Victor Poison-Free Ant & Roach Killer� uses a 4% Japanese mint essential oil blend as an effective knockdown treatment for American and German roaches
- Ordinary soap sprays or solutions that use common dishwashing liquids can also be used against roaches for similar knockdown effects
- Dorsey Inc. (Shellshock�) is a desiccant made up of 85% diatomaceous earth and comes in a squeeze dust applicator. It is slower acting (six weeks or more), but roaches will stay away longer
- Desiccants such as silica gels and diatomaceous earth products stimulate roaches and other insects that come into contact with them to immediately seek out a moisture source. Without a water source, they will quickly dehydrate and die
- Dorsey Inc. (Repeel�) is a desiccant made up of diatomaceous earth and citrus oil from orange peel and is useful as a barrier treatment
- Silica gel and diatomaceous earth can both be used inside houses to treat cracks, wall crevices and voids, and attics to repel roaches and deny harborage in these areas
- Organic Plus Inc. (Organic Plus�) is a desiccant registered for home and garden use for roach control
- BioLogic produces a gel formulation (BioRoach™ and Roach Stopper™) which contains live nematodes in bait stations which can be used in areas where roaches frequent. Roaches are attracted to the water in these baits, and are then infected and killed by the nematodes. Nematodes are microscopic parasitic worms that are harmless to humans and animals, but are able to infect and kill insects
- Garlic oil is highly repellent to German roaches
- The use of talc with citrus oil soap sprays will facilitate cuticular penetration and control roaches more effectively
- Insects can be trapped and killed without resorting to dangerous chemicals: generally a poison nontoxic to humans is mixed with a food that insects find attractive, and spread in the infested area. Examples are oatmeal (attractive) and plaster-of-Paris (poisonous), and cocoa powder and flour (attractive) and borax (poisonous)
- Apparently if you mix a dish of plaster of paris with sugar the cockroaches head for it like bees to honey. You place next to it a small amount of water which the cockroaches drink (I didn't know that cockroaches drank personally), and then the water hardens the plaster of paris and they simply harden from the inside out
- Sanitation is the key to keeping cockroaches from taking over. Don't leave food uncovered. This includes pet dog food. Pour a little bleach down drains. Cockroaches keep away from the smell of chlorine. Keep drains covered--roaches love to use drains as watering holes.
- Diatomaceous earth is mined from the fossilized silica shell remains of diatoms, microscopic sea animals. The advantage to this substance is that it is virtually non-toxic to humans. Because it has an abrasive quality, diatomaceous earth degrades the waxy layer causing the insect to dry out and die. It is important that only natural diatomaceous earth be used for insect control not DE treated for swimming pool filter use, as this contains crystalline silica, a dangerous respiratory hazard. One source of DE may be found at feed stores for horses and cattle. A member of the staff here at EAD uses this and says that it is easy to use with good results.
- Silica aerogel is a non-abrasive, chemically inert substance that is used as a dehydrating agent because the small particles absorb moisture and oils. Sometimes small bags of silica aerogel are inserted in electrical equipment packages to prevent the accumulation of moisture during shipping or storage. Silica aerogel is also used in the florist trade and often can be purchased from a florist. The silica aerogel particle has a static charge that enables it to stick tightly to the cockroach body. Once on the body, the aerogel absorbs the waxy protective coating which desiccates and kills the cockroach.
- Prevention is the best protection - see the section on Prevention. Additionally, you can try mixing 1 part borax, 2 parts flour and 1 part icing sugar, add enough water to mix to a thick dough and then knead well. This can be used on cracks behind skirting boards and cupboards, but remember borax is poisonous. Clean thoroughly behind cupboards and stoves - cockroaches also love electrical equipment.
- An open bottle of eucalyptus oil or tea-tree oil can be very effective in cupboards or near susceptible areas. Non-Chemical Sticky traps are available commercially (try a health food shop first). A heat gun which emits very hot air can be used to flush out and kill cockroaches or alternatively close windows and doors, turn on lots of heaters to get the temperature of the house to 50�C for three hours - obviously the middle of summer is an ideal time to try this. Try a bait of icing sugar and borax in a jar placed near cockroach run. Fill a margarine container three quarters full of water: add a dessertspoon of cooking oil which will float on top of the water: the cockroach climbs into the container, but the floating oil makes it very difficult for it to escape. Place near cockroach sites.
- Make a non-toxic roach bait and set it out in roach infested areas:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening or bacon drippings
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup flour
8 ounces baking sodaCombine sugar and shortening. Add onion, flour, and baking soda. Mix in just enough water to make a dough-like consistency. Put small balls in plastic sandwich bags (other alternatives: spread some on margarine tub lids, or put in a lidded plastic container with small roach-sized holes cut in the bottom of the sides for the roaches to use to get in and out but that will keep pets out) and place in roach-infested areas. The bait creates gas in the roach when eaten. Because roaches can't belch, their digestive tracts explode.
Sites referenced:
http://www.symbios-witticism-page.com/bug.htm#6
http://www.darlingsindiapers.com/Mothers2Mothers/dangeroushomes02_iaw.htm
http://www.web-therapy.com/cockroach.htm
http://www.co.forsyth.nc.us/EnvAffairs/wqts/pest.htm#COCKROACHES
http://www.ecwa.asn.au/info/altpest.html#cockroaches
http://www.anapsid.org/pestcontrol.html#roaches
If anyone has any more creative solutions for killing cockroaches, and that's safe to use around tropical fish, post a comment! :)
JC
I'm no expert when it comes to pest control, but I live in an apartment house, and I can tell when a trashy tenant is in the building, the critter population goes up. If you see one, there are at least a thousand hiding is what I've always heard.
Here are two other options:
1. Move the fish to a safe place, and have an exterminator visit. For what it's worth, the company that the property management people use here say that there is no harm to any pets, fish included.
2. Move.
CC
Wow, you've found so many methods here! Some of them sound truly bizarre, but they certainly sound "creative" and some sound like they might work...
From past experience, we've just cleared out all pets and just bombed the place. The last time we did it, we just covered the fish tank with about 3 layers of newspaper, and they were fine. Just remember to turn the powerpoints off or the place will blow up like some other poor guy's place on the news a few months ago!
kazza
moving the fish would be all too difficult :)
moving myself is also hard at this point, considering I'm mortgaging rather than renting. Although I would like to live in a high rise, they get a lot less bugs in general.
I want to try the baking soda recipe, and I have some of those dessication sachets floating around so could try those also.
CC
Personally, I like the plaster of paris and the dry cement ideas! I don't know how or why they would be attracted to either cement or plaster, but if it worked, you'd have some VERY constipated cockroaches! Ooh, and I like the wine one so they all get drunk and die of alcoholism! But would one REALLY want to waste wine on one of the most annoying and disgusting things on the planet?! I still can't work out why God created them!
Well, you'll have to let me know how you go with it all! Good luck!
JC
Yeah, ok, I was just teasing. I hope you git rid of the nasty buggers, they give me the creeps like you wouldn't believe. I'm normally a very gentle person, I try never to harm an innocent creature that I don't intend on eating, but I draw the line at insects in my home. I'll give them ample warning, tell 'em to go hide, or go away, if they don't respond, (and they never do) WHACK! Dead Bug.
CC
Ewww! I SO cannot whack bugs! the crunching noise while they're getting squashed gives me the biggest shivers down my spine! *shudder*
kazza
No what's worse is having to then clean up the mashed up insect - GROSS!! :)
JC
Simple Green and a paper towel works wonders when cleaning, and the masculine "kill and destroy" instinct that I suppress rather well rears up and roars when I smash an nasty, ugly, creepy crawley. Run of the mill spiders, the occasional ant, etc, benign like insects go by freely, but a cockroach? Gimme a hammer, it's smashing time!
CC
Awww, JC, that's just gross!
Kazza, I agree that cleaning it up os probably worse than the actual squishing, but you have to be able to bring yourself to the squishing stage BEFORE you get to the cleaning it up stage! =)
kazza
Yeah that too!
I once poked a stick into a spitfire egg and the yellow and white entrails that came out grossed me out of ever killing little squishy things ever again!
CC
Ewww! *Squirming!!* On that note, I think I'll go to bed soon, but maybe finish watching Angel first! :)
jellybean
Well can any one tell me why I have baby cockroaches and no mummy ones, I boiled the kettle last night and all these babys came crawling out, AWWWWWW..Needless to say I binned the kettle..But really I haven't any Adult cockroaches only baby one's. The thing I really can't understand is that the very first time I saw a cockroach was After we had the Place Sprayed for White Ants, go figure hey!!!!!!!!
john
I have made a misture of cocoa, boric acid, and powdered sugar (and sometimes some baking soda) ... i am trying this in my nyc loft... i've put it in disposable cups load down for easy access with the message "roach food yumm" written on the side... sometimes i will mixed with a bit of whatever food and leave it out on a lid
so far still got roaches... but it's only been a week or so
LS
I own a Pest Control Company in North Carolina and I also graduated from NCSU where I studied entomology. We use all environmentally friendly products. Any pest control company up there should be able to help you out....just request that they use pheromone traps made by "Victor" combined with a good amount of Maxfore Roach Gel Bait in the kitchen and bathrooms around water sources. These pheromone traps consist of a bit of sticky material inside of the unit (very small, about 2 inches square)..in addition they contain a sex attractant...thus the pheromone. Both the traps and the bait are extremely safe, more so than wine, boric acid, or cement dust! And, no drift will occur from either....saving your precious little fishies!!
john
Hi, I'm the guy who posted on Dec. 17 in New York City, roach capital... we were extremely infested in my loft's kitchen area... I kept putting out my little cups with cocoa/powdered sugar/boric acid/baking soda... sometimes i improvised and mixed boric acid with a bit of leftover food and left that out for a day or so... I even made them boric acid hot chocolate last week for a tasty treat... a week or two ago I also did a more major cleaning and thew out or cleaned out some hiding places (note: they like boxes that hold plastic garbage bags for hanging out in) I kept meaning to add some plaster of famous but never got around to buying that... i am happy to report that our roach situation is largely reversed, we were extremely infested... but now I am barely seeing any... and I am definitely smashing any stray I do see because definitely it is one of the "last" ones... so basically this is working quite well... i don't think this can be my imagination
Sandy
Please help! Our dorm's fish tank has roaches in the motor (shudder) any ideas on what's the best method from above or elsewhere of getting rid of them and not the fish?
really appreciate any advise,
Sandy
sunny
I am petrafied of waterbugs cockroaches whatever you call them. Any method of killing them where I have to see them is not going to work for me. I need to know how I might be able to kill them in there nest you know outside in. I'm really afraid of them so any info would help
lw
I live in Sydney Australia and i wanted to no how muc it would cost to bomb my 2 bedroom apartment and how do i get this done?
karen
I too live in sydney Australia. In response to lw, you just buy the roach bombs at the supermarket for about $25 bucks(pack of 4) I dont know how effective they are though.
karen
The 'Germans" in my place live in my microwave! they run around in the display and make me sick every time i look at it. if i get a new microwave, they'll only move into that one too.So im stumped!!
jane
I HAT ROACHES!!!! I live in a duplex and the people behind me have a roach problem that they do nothing about, and so...........yes now i have them everywhere, weve bombed the place, put baits and spayed but they always come back from behind us. Its costing us a **** fortune to say the least. So i need to find another way to kill em????? Please help, its the invasion of the roaches.
jamie
Ok so I got a microwave off of craigslist and there were roaches in it. Now Ive seen them a few times around my kitchen and its really creeping me out. Now I see little babies. Ive heard boric acid works but I dont know where to get any. If I get rid of the microwave, does anyone think that will help? Im getting rid of it tonight non the less.... and Im extremly clean.
kazza
Can't help with the boric acid.. (are you in the us, maybe home depot would know?).. but unless you can get rid of them quickly, chances are you'll have them forevermore.. if a few of them get out and decide to make a new home somewhere then they'll become permanent residents :(
karen
I think whatever method you try, the secret is to keep it going, possibly for months.
An electrician told me (while he was repairing the electrical board on my dishwasher that the cockroaches had shorted out) that because cockies love warmth and food they will nest in any place there is a motor or LED, as in instrument panels on microwaves, dishwashers in toasters etc. He said if you turn appliances off at the powerpoint, they will be less attractive and i think it has worked for me. I have also heard that cucumber scattered around helps too, but hanen't tried it yet
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
jeez i hate cockroach their all aroud my house my mum gose crazy when she sese one
Jennifer
You can get Boric Acid at the Home Depot and most hardware stores (atleast you can in NYC). I got a bottle for one dollar at one of those discount stores. Apply it lightly, and not in piles.
Ads
Cockroaches in microwave ovens are extremely common. I repair appliances for a living, and the first thing I do when faced with a faulty oven is put it in a garbage bag out in the midday sun for a few hours. This usually kills them.
On my own oven, I have glue-gunned fly screen bits over all the openings, I actually do this on all my heat-generating appliances inc. TV, water heater, etc.
They can't survive without water, and this is a commonly overlooked, but most effective means of control. I regularly go overseas for months at a time. Before doing this, I screen/seal EVERY source of water (don't forget the refrigerator drip tray). The ones that do come in from nasty neighbours find a very dry apartment, and voila!
Remember, even if they are surviving on book bindings, if there is no water (and I mean NO), then there will be NO cockroaches. Forget poisons, they are only marketed to people who cant be bothered to know their enemy....
kazza
cool :)
well after battling for months with keeping a clean kitchen I finally
got some hydramethylnon. Just two applications a week apart of the
tiniest amount of it, and cockroaches have been gone ever since (over a
year now!). Way cool :)
Bazza
I recently had a cocky plague. Some were too fast for my thong so I mixed some borax and sugar dry and left it around. A week later I can only find dead ones. This mix also works on ants and silverfish.
Bazza
I recently had a cocky plague. Some were too fast for my thong so I mixed some borax and sugar dry and left it around. A week later I can only find dead ones. This mix also works on ants and silverfish.
tina
if u want to kill them on contact fill a spray bottle with the purple fabulous and spray them with it not only will the house smell nice but the bugs any of them will flip over on their back and die with in seconds....i love the stuff.
cheesekransky
fabulous?
Leigh
I have a massive roach problem in my house I would prefer a plague of mice (not that I want that either) than see my floor and walls cover in these horrible things. where do I get some hydramethylnon in Australia
kazza
Oh, in case anyone is interested, the stuff I used was called "Barmac Scuttle Cockroach Gel".
http://barmac.com.au/scuttle.html
I used it just that once a year and a half ago and have not had cockroaches since.
Andrew J
If you have a big enough freezer (or if you can remove the freezer shelving), you can freeze electrical appliances to kill all roaches inside. I'm doing this as we speak with my rice cooker - though I'm not sure how that would effect an LCD or LED display that you commonly get on microwave ovens.
Our microwave just shorted out due to Germans in the transformer. I got a new one yesterday, and am planning to stand all four legs in 10cm jam jar lids full of an oil (olive?) mixed with borax to isolate it from the rest of the kitchen.
I did think about the hot melt glue and fly screen option as mentioned above, but I realised that there are plenty of places that roaches can enter white goods aside from holes in their bases and air vents - door hinges and panel seams being a good example. It's very hard to seal those...
Maybe an option for the mechanically adept would be to pull apart yr microwave and seal of the screen and transformer with plastic insect screen?
More to the point, if cockroaches are a problem in Europe, Japan, America, and Australia, why do manufacturers still make them so open to attack? Could it be because they increase sales...?
Lilly
Cockroaches I have been in my apartment for 5 years and until 6 months ago have not seen even one cockroach! Now Im infested!
I've tried baites and cockroach bombs and am anal about cleaning!!!
Although will also now cover drainage holes.
but this is what I have discovered is working....
A friend of mine put me onto a product you buy at the healthfood store. Its a flat piece of cardboard and you then peel off the paper to reveal a very sticky substance and place a tablet in the centre.(everything comes with the pack) The roaches are attracted to it and then they get stuck and they lay their eggs and the babies die too. You start off with loads of roaches ...Im now starting to slowly see less and less. My friend says to persevere and eventually the cycle will be broken. At first leave out about 3 or 4 cardboard pieces.
joshua
how can we make a cockroach killer w/o using any chemicals?
fREIDA
Flourescent lighting. Even if you leave a little one on, they scamper/never show up. They are cheap to run too apparently. So if your kitchen/hallway/bathroom doesn't have one, get one of those desk lamp ones I guess. They can't stand the buzzing. And spray that orange oil cleaner everywhere in all the cracks. The traps don't work for me.
Linnibelle
Thanks for all this info Kazza. I particularly like the recipe with cocoa, flour and borax. Do I mix them in equal quantities, and how long does the mixture last for when put in the cupboards? I've also noticed that they don't like flourescent lighting and leave my buzzing kitchen light on all night ...
Chris
Hi I saw some borax powder just last week in the cleaning isle in the local Coles supermarket. Aussies try coles.
Dude
Boric Acid has been given a bad name by the pesticide and chemical industry. Boric Acid is found in sea salt naturally. Its just highly concentrated.
Obviously you dont want to eat it or put it near plates or food but its 100% safe in small quantites. It used to be used as an eyewash for petes sake how toxic could it be? And women still douche with it for yeast infections. Like I said its a component of sea salt, natural.
The main mistake people make when putting down boric acid is to put it too thick. Its like if you were faced with a snow drift you'd just circle around it. Thats why the stuff is in puffer bottles. You just want to puff amount wherever you can. Works great at say the door to your garage, on your porch, behind appliances, anywhere really dont be scared of this stuff.
Boric acid gel wherever you cant use the powder. Nature knows best.
boronia
I had a problem with roaches in the microwave, too, Running around inside the display and in the cooking cavity. My pest controller friend told me they were attracted to the heat. Running the MW didn't deter them!!
So when I bought a new MW, i put sticky baits under the legs so they coulodn't climb up there. Soon caught hundreds of them. But they were still getting inside. Came out into the kitchen one morning and saw one jumping up from the bench into the vent holes under the motor in the base.
So put a sticky bait under here, Caught quite a few trying to get in, but even more coming out!! Even after a couple of months still coming out. I can't work out how there are getting in though.
OMFG
KILL THEM! ****ING KILL THEM!!! BLOW THEM UP! NUKE THEM! BURN UR F***ING HOUSE DOWN IF U HAVE TO!!!
Oc
Kill them all!! I hate this insect and also afraid to them.
Paul B.
Common enough cause of house fires. One managed to lodge itself on the contacts of the soap dispenser solenoid of our ASKO ASEA dishwasher some years ago, causing it to incinerate and ignite the tar-based vibration proofing inside the door. Fortunately the bench above did not "take" flame and was only charred so the house as such did not catch on fire, but the burning tar stench permeated the whole house (and my wife left for nearly two years even though the bench and flooring were replaced and the whole house repainted - she is very sensitive to smells).
Just outside of two year warranty, in the replacement dishwasher, a rather smaller roach shorted itself across - believe it or not - the soap dispenser control Triac causing a minor flash-over which was not in particular danger of causing a fire, but rendered the soap dispenser inoperable (opened as soon as machine switched on and continuous operation risked burning out the solenoid) until that was repaired, fortunately without replacing the PCB.
On repair therefore, I covered all ports on the controller casing with fly-screen material, then a "bib" of fly-screen over the opening of the lower edge of the washer door, and also over the inside of the latch assembly where of course they automatically head for as soon as you open the door and a few might be congregating along the edge of the door.
Because of this treatment, I have not inspected the innards of the door for some years since - but it has operated reliably.
Paul B.
Because appliances - especially stoves and ovens - get hot, I do not use hot melt glue, but rather contact cement. I had to treat our microwave over 20 years ago with mesh over the control section. I recently had to repair the door latch and replace the oven light (had been dead for years) but the oven still works. In times past I have had to replace the fuse - and the diode once - after small "explosions" where a roach shorted itself across the High Voltage wiring though this has not happened recently.
When the kitchen bench was replaced, I made a point of replacing the (gas) cook-top and gluing mesh over all the vent holes and other gaps. It is necessary to mesh over all the openings for control knobs and carefully poke just enough opening in the mesh for each control shaft to pass through as you lower the glass top on. This applies also to the control knobs on the microwave and of course, any other appliance.
After trashing more than one radio/ player, the radio is now located well away from the kitchen bench and seems to be safer as such.
I have necessarily applied the same treatment to my children's microwave in order to evict the spurious moving characters on the display and stop the infrequent - fortunately in that instance not damaging - explosions. I have another microwave to work on soon.
A local electronic service fellow - also some 20 years ago - pointed out that he refused to accept service jobs when it was obviously futile due to the evident bad smell of the appliance.
Ami
I was doing some research on orange oil and somehow ended up on this page and like all of you I once had gotten cockroaches in our home from a used refrigerator. I didn't know the appliance was infested until I had roaches crawling all over the house. I tried everything from chemical treatments/sprays to the Borax trick. I simply used 50% Borax 50% powdered sugar mix and placed a tablespoon full on empty margarine lids or small paper plates and placed them under furniture. I can say it helped some but still no matter what did not get rid of them. A friend of mine confessed that at one time they had roaches too and told me his method for getting rid of them and I recommend this to anyone who has a roach problem. First keep kitchen clean, trash taken out daily,vacuum, wipe all kitchen surfaces. Second purchase Combat brand gel ( http://www.combatbugs.com/product/source-kill-max-roach-killing-gels ) It looks similar to peanut butter when squeezed from tube. Make small cardboard 2inch by 2 inch squares , I used empty soda case boxes an cut my squares from that. What you will do then is squeeze a pea sized drop on each square. In the kitchen place one square in each cabinet an under each appliance also under sink. In the bathroom one behind the toilet, under sinks by tub. In the rest of the house one in all 4 corners of the room and can also be put under dressers and furniture. I swore when he told me this it sounded insane that such a small effort could get rid of them but IT WORKED!!!! Be sure to check on your squares because if the insects eat all of the bait of course more will need to be re-applied to each square. I noticed it dried out some and I reapplied new squares every 2-3wks until they were gone. I found that even after the roaches were gone doing this was an effective way to make sure I didn't get them back from neighbors!!!!!!!! I don't think I will NOT have my house baited anymore. I did some more research and found that roaches are nocturnal insects and spend most of their time in hiding. They also generally travel 10-15ft from where they nest or hide in search of food water. I placed a square on the ledge behind my fish tank and away they went. You can place a square anywhere they seem to be hanging out. I have kids and pets which is why I like to keep the squares hidden. The key to effective roach control from my experience is to cut off ALL food sources because all they have left to eat is the bait. Bombing the house, contrary to popular belief only drives them deeper into your walls when they run from the smoke. I Hope this helps I know how horrible they are........
Rio Baree
great insight. the war against these roaches continue,
BliTzer
Eucalyptus works great! I mix it strong & haven't seen any at all.
van
Table salt works because it is dehydrating. They have to stay hydrated to live.
Water, moisture is what they're looking for.Food products only attract
More of them. Use table salt to repel and dehydrat them then use
Borax, Boris acid to kill nest.
Nasty neighborhoods, restaurants, water sources and the booming pest control business are not helping.
Keep your house clean. Many rental property owners don't care if they don't have to live there. I once lived in place that had no roaches until the owner moved some people upstairs who brought roaches with them. I called the owner who said he knew they had roaches. He moved them in any way. He called the exterminator who sprayed the place and then put a disk behind the fridge that he said whatever it was would keep them from wanting to mate. We never had roaches again. By the way, the people upstairs moved.We lived there nine years. Not a coach anywhere after that.