Put plenty of the glue traps along the edges of the walls (roaches mostly travel along the walls.) This will catch them and also help you find out where they are coming from. Then you can focus on finding the cracks and gaps.

Sounds like you put down a LOT of DE. I just use it under cabinets/stoves/refrigerators and other out-of-the-way places where the roaches might walk through. Since you are seeing a change in the pattern of where the roaches are moving, you are disrupting their ability to survive in your home – that’s good news.

Spend more time filling cracks and holes. Tiny cracks are enough for them to get through, so caulk everything. Focus first on filling the gaps around water and drain pipes under your sinks and then fill gaps along the baseboards. This can be tough to do if you have carpet, so start with rooms that have tile or wood floors. Then, go to the hardware store and ask for switch plate and wall outlet insulation pads. These go under the covers of your wall outlets and switches to seal up cracks.

Before you fill in any large gaps or cracks, you can dust a little DE into the wall cavity. This will help to kill the roaches in the wall before the find a way inside.

Good luck,

Andrew

I just bought this product today and used it, Diatomaceous Earth, I layered my entire kitchen floor and under my refrigerator. But before I did that, I cault the open holes ( I thought), I was surprised to see one stumbling out. I cant figure out where they are coming from. I also layered my entire bathroom. Was that too much? I did my kitchen floor the same way…I layered the entire floor? Now I see them running out intomy livingroom. I will take your advice and go by some of those sticky padds to catch them. Do you know how long it will take for the Diatomaceous to start working? I really want toget rid of them permanently. I just moved here four weeks ago (condo apt) and never had any roach issues but my new neighbors are college boys and DJ’s and are filthy. Please answer my questions or tell me if I did anythiing wrong. Thanks

There are a few things that I have not seen on your terrific blog: heat and cold, and some other tricks also. You do not need to throw out small affected appliances… put them in a completely sealed plastic bag and place them in the freezer. It is my understanding that about 5 days will do it. Based upon my microbiological experience, my guess is that temperature cycling, while kept sealed in the bag (most of the day in, a few hours out, continued for a few days, or even two hours in two hours out, cycled a number of times over a period of days) may even be more effective. The freeze-thaw cycle is more effective at rupturing cell walls than is freezing alone. On the other side of the temperature coin, I know heat is effective with bed bugs. At some high temperature (exactly what temp I do not know) it must also kill off the roaches. Sealing in an oven bag with a hair dryer as a source of heat, or sealing in a black plastic bag and placing in direct sunlight for a few days should be effective (it is with bed bugs). For pet food, I place my cat’s food in the freezer every night. I place her water in tall a tall glass vase, not a shallow bowl, on the counter top. The critters cannot get a grip on the glass, and thus cannot get a drink. For a reverse of this, place stale beer in a very clean tall glass container (a jar) with a couple of strips of masking tape up the outside (not the inside). Roaches check-in via the tape but cannot crawl out via the smooth inner surface and thus drown. Some people have placed a thin layer of Vaseline on the inside to make escape even harder. I place 20-Mule Team Borax in the evaporator tray under my refrigerator (about ¼ to ½ cup), spread around evenly. It is sodium borate and is very inhospitable to cockroaches. As an alternative to bleach, for each sink drain in the house, mix about ¼ cup of 20-Mule Team Borax in a cup of hot water, mix it for about a minute (it will not all dissolve) and pour it down each and every drain in the house every night. Pour more in your toilet and mix. I also surround the toilet with a boric acid barrier of dust to prevent access to the toilet water. Also note that, even though you should treat it with respect, as for all chemicals, and minimize exposure, borates (boric acid, sodium borate, etc.) have a toxicity approximating table salt. Best of luck… Dr. Lou

Help! I have a major infestation of german roaches. My landlord had a fumigator spray twice and ive bug bomed twice but all it did was move them out of the kitchen into my stuff. I am now moving and am scared to dealth of stowaways. I have read quite a bit about preventing this but I am still unclear and any extra advice would be immensely appreciated!!!

I am already getting rid of my cats since the roaches seem to love their food. I am going to throw away as much as possible including my microwave, toster, couch (they are living inside) extra pillows anything I can spare.

Dear Amazing one do I need to trash my bed, tv (some web sites say it must go some dont) dvd player, lamps, and how serious is throwing away my books because I have a very large and expensive book collection could I just check them verry carefully? Or do I need to put them in closed plastic bags for 3 months?

I know to check everything and wash all clothes (is dry cleaning the same?) My other big question is I read something that german roaches are so hard to get rid of because the eggs stay inside the female does this mean I dont have to worry about eggs too?

I also read that you can get a storage unit or a moving truck put all your stuff inside and bomb the hell out of it. Have you heard anything about this? I just bought boric acid today. Should I also get tape strips and the thing to plug into the wall.

ps
if u can answer these questions I will consider you a god! please help.
also do we think I should send some roaches to my mean lanlord who
is trying to blame me for the problem so much I already had to retain council.

THANK YOU TIMES A BILLION!!!

Brittany

I just bought what I could find on Amazon, because I couldn’t find it locally. The brand shouldn’t make much difference (unless they mix in some other ingredients.)

Carole,

An RV is tricky because it’s hard to seal up all the cracks and crevices to keep them from moving around. There is also a chance they could be inside the insulation in the walls which makes it even trickier.

My first recommendation is to do your absolute best to go through the entire RV and seal every crack and gap you find with silicone caulk. Start with the kitchen and bathroom and then work your way around. Seal the insides of the cabinets and along the ceiling and floor edges.

Next, make a mixture of 2 tablespoons tobasco sauce and 1 quart of water. Put it in a spray bottle and mist it over the counter top an cook surfaces every night. The roaches don’t like the pepper in the spray and avoid the surfaces. This just reduces the chance of seeing them in the kitchen and gives a little peace of mind.

Finally, place glue traps all around the RV along the walls. This will help you discover where they are coming in and how they are moving around.

I really hope this helps you in your situation. Please let me know if you make any progress.

The Go-To Guy!

Thank you so much for leaving a comment. It’s always encouraging to get feedback and questions. And, it’s really nice to know that what I’ve written is helpful.

I’m currently in the process of writing an ebook that collects together everything I learned and organizes it into a systematic approach to dealing with roaches that doesn’t involve filling your home with poisons.

The website is http://www.CockroachAssassin.com and there are a couple SPECIAL REPORTS there that I’m giving away to people who sign up for the announcement list.

The bug bombs you mentioned are generally counter productive because the roaches just retreat from the area until the dust settles and then move right back in. Over time they will actually develop immunity to the poison as they reproduce.

The most effective thing you can do is seal off their travel paths so they can’t move through the walls, cut off their food and water sources (water being the most important), and then capture the rest with glue traps and get them out of the house ASAP.

The problem with my ‘cat lady’ is that she has dementia. She doesn’t have any family to care for her, so it is hard to get any social services intervention. It’s a tough situation, but we are working with the city and the building management to help her get the care she needs (which at this stage is probably a nursing home.) If she were my mother, I wouldn’t let her live the way she is.

I wish you the best of luck with your own bug control efforts. Please come back and leave a comment to let me know how things worked out for you.

The Go-To Guy!

My suggestion to you about dealing with the cat lady is to print copies of this blog series and send them to everyone else in the building (maybe making judicious deletions of the parts regarding your neighbor) with a note that, “If you, too, are struggling to get rid of the bugs, here’s what worked for us”. My guess is that your upstairs neighbor is embarrassed by the untidy state of her apartment and/or afraid that someone will force her to get rid of her cats. I’m glad you’re making progress in your own apartment.