You are welcome.

You can get Plastic Squeeze Bottles at Amazon.com. You could also check your local craft store.

I re-used a bottle from some Boric Acid I had bought and used up.

Please come back and leave a comment when you get your problem under control and let everyone know what worked for you.

The Go-To Guy!

Sounds like you are probably dealing with an American Cockroach.

The good news is that they don’t reproduce and mature as quickly as other roaches, so you are less likely to get over-run with them.

The first step is to try and discover where they are coming into the building and seal off the entrance. Cracks along baseboards and holes around plumbing pipes are good places to start.

Check for water leaks as well. Access to water is one of the main things that attracts roaches. Then, dust diatomaceous earth along baseboards, under appliances, and anywhere else where you think they might be traveling.

Even if you stop new roaches from getting in, you will need to make sure and get rid of any that are already inside. To catch them, place glue traps along the wall edges that they are most likely to be traveling along. When the traps fill up, toss them and replace. Keep this up until you stop catching any.

Let me know how it goes for you,

The Go-To Guy!

I’m very happy to hear that my ordeal has given you hope. It’s not 100 percent over (we probably won’t have any hope of that as long as the ‘cat lady’ lives above us) but we’re no longer spooked by every movement we see out of the corners of our eyes.

I encourage you to do 3 things, clean your stove like you’ve never cleaned it before (if it is free standing, pull it out and degrease the back and underneath), get some roach gel (if you can find a place that will sell you professional grade gel - get it) and place a bead of gel along all of the hidden edges of the stove where the roaches might walk (along the bottom edges, corners in the back, door hinges, etc.), and then seal every crack and crevice you find (around water and drain pipes, along trim and mouldings, cracks in the floor, switch plates and electrical covers too.)

Sealing up the pathways where they move is extremely important. I saw the biggest change the day after I caulked all of the walls and cabinets. If you don’t know where they are coming from, place glue traps along the walls in the places you suspect and see where you catch the most.

Another thing we started doing was spraying the counter tops at night with a mixture of 1 tablespoon of Tobasco sauce in 1 quart of water. Apparently the roaches don’t like the pepper and will avoid surface where it is present. We spray it around pretty generously in the kitchen at night to make the place as unpleasant for the roaches as possible. The spraying can give you a little sneezing fit while the mist is in the air, but the mixture is diluted enough to be unnoticeable once it settles and dries.

Please leave a comment again when you’ve had a chance to test out some of these methods. Field reports are the best information.

The Go-To Guy!