Killing Cockroaches Part 4 - My Ultimate Strategy For Killing Roaches
The roach killing tactics that worked best for me…
When you first see the roaches, your instincts say, “kill, kill, kill!!!” But, the best and least toxic solution comes about after the initial panic ebbs and you can think about the situation a bit more clearly. After I calmed down and stopped spraying RAID everywhere, I did a bunch of research and devised a plan of attack. My goals were to limit the amount of poisons used, make quick improvement in the living conditions in my home, and implement a long-term roach management solution that uses natural, non-toxic materials to keep roaches out of our home for good!
To achieve these goals, here is what needs to be done:
1 - Locate where the roaches are entering your home and cut off their access
2 - Cut off their food supply with a thorough de-greasing and cleaning
3 - Use baits, traps, and other products to kill the roaches back inside the walls as well as remaining roaches already inside the living spaces
4 - Create barriers to roaches coming inside in the future and repel roaches from entering closets and cabinets
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How Would You Like To FIRE YOUR BUG MAN…
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I tried so many different tactics and products that it is hard to say if any one is ultimately responsible for ending the infestation. But, I know that I saw dramatic results after thoroughly caulking and sealing every crack and crevice in my kitchen and bath (I had also been using baits, poisons, and traps for several weeks, so they contributed as well - just not as dramatically.)
On the same day I caulked and sealed, I also aggressively cleaned the kitchen with a de-greaser. The amount of cooking grease that coats the cabinets, walls, and vent hoods in a kitchen is remarkable. Scrubbing with ordinary cleaners isn’t enough, you have to pull out the heavy guns. Don’t forget to clean out the oven, under the stove top, the back and sides of your stove and the walls and cabinets surrounding the stove. If you have a self-cleaning oven, run it through a cleaning cycle according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The high heat will kill off any eggs or live bugs inside the stove (but you still need to de-grease everything afterward.)
Glue traps were effective in both capturing the roaches that were running around the house and also in helping to identify how and where they were entering the rooms. These clues made it easier to find the spots requiring further treatment.
To keep the bugs out in the long-term, I used several tactics. I placed cedar products in the closets, cabinets and drawers. The natural oils in the wood repel roaches. I’m planning to line all of the closets in cedar eventually, but placed blocks of cedar on hangers there for the time being.
Moth balls are also a good deterrent to keep the roaches out, but they are toxic and smell pretty bad. Your application options are limited. One folk remedy is to drop a couple behind the stove every few months to ward of roaches.
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How Would You Like To FIRE YOUR BUG MAN…
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My most aggressive long term tactic was to drill holes in the wall cavities around the kitchen (the source of our worst infestation) and blow a combination of Diatomaceous Earth and Boric Acid into the walls. Both of these products work to kill the roaches through mechanical means rather than poison. Neither product loses potency over time and the roaches cannot become immune to it the way they can with many poisons. In my view, the walls are now a highway of roach death which will stop future roaches before the ever manage to get inside. Small amounts of both products were dusted under the stove and refrigerator.
The Diatomaceous Earth is non-toxic and has a very mild ‘earthy’ odor. This is good with a baby around the house (Boric Acid is toxic, but not nearly as bad as the poisons in most roach sprays.) I also added a few cans of a mint oil based bug spray into our cupboard to handle future sitings. Unlike poison based sprays, I’m not scared to use this around the kitchen. It works a little slower than poison sprays, but smells better and won’t hurt you if a little overspray gets on your dinner plate.
I never had to resort to bug bombing. I think I could have handled the situation effectively if I had used nothing more than the Diatomaceous Earth, mint oil bug spray, glue traps, silicon caulk, expanding foam, and boric acid coupled with a thorough cleaning and degreasing of the entire kitchen.
The roach sightings have dropped dramatically in the past couple days and I’m looking forward to many roach-free days in the near future.
The Go-To Guy!
P.S. Do you have any tips or techniques for effectively killing roaches and treating an infestation? Leave a comment and let us all know!
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Tags: boric acid, diatomaceous earth, how to kill cockroaches, killing roaches
February 11th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Oh nasty. Cockroaches. I had a situation with them years ago. Unlike youm, I didn’t face it head on. I called my Bug Man and let him do the dirty work!
February 11th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
June,
Thanks for the comment. The roaches were very nasty indeed, but I think I may have solved our problem without resorting to lots of chemicals. My wife said she today was a 100% roach free day!
With a 12 month old daughter in the house, I’ve been very concerned about what products I used to deal with the problem. Over the counter bug sprays and professional chemicals have some pretty nasty ingredients and my daughter gets into everything.
I now know way more than I ever hoped to know about roaches, but at least have turned that into some useful info for the blog!
The Go-To Guy!
P.S. I checked out your blog - very nice! You’ve got some great content and a nice writing style.
March 10th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Yep…Dealing with the nasty buggers as well.
Also called in the pro. I have been keeping it super clean all year but in an apartment building one can only do so much as you never know how dirty your next door person is
Ended up calling the health department to inspect the place and it forced the landlord to spray and bait the whole building…again.
Hope I find a better place next year…
Heres a drain tip though:
-pour lysol or bleach in the drains and toilet overnight to keep them being able to swim up the drain or drink from the toilet.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Bleach in the drains is a very good way to keep the roaches from entering through the pipes. I also got in the habit of plugging the kitchen drain at night. (You can’t do the same with the bathroom drains because tubs and sinks there have overflow drains an the roaches will just bypass the plug and come out through the hole for the overflow.)
I’m glad we didn’t have to do anything as drastic as call the health department. The co-op does have regular pest control service in the building, but residents have to sign up for the bug guy to come into their apartment. Our upstairs neighbor won’t let him in!!!
I hope you get a handle on your infestation.
The Go-To Guy!
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:59 am
Hi, you’re advice sounds very helpful but I was wondering if you could help me alittle more with my dilemma. I have been living in military housing for almost a year now and still have a roach problem. I don’t exactly live in apartment style housing but it is like one building, two houses side by side. They have sent people to come and spray but it doesn’t work. I have a cat that seems to think every powder substance or herb put on the floor is something to play in as if it were catnip, so I’m skeptical about putting the boric acid down in fear it might hurt him. I have three rambunctious children (5,3, and 2yrs) and newborn preemie. I have tried almost everything you can buy at walmart and it doesnt seem to help, and with my children I don’t want to keep spraying poison around them. They are everywhere! They crawl out of my sink, electric sockets, and I even find them in my freezer (husband thinks they could be coming in through pipe for icemaker), and this morning found one crawling in my newborn’s bassinet when I went to get her to feed her. This is driving me absolutely mad, and because of my husbands low rank and our large family I don’t have the money to move off base. I keep my house clean, it’s not perfect (but whose is with small children?) but I don’t understand why it’s still this bad. After the roach in the bassinet this morning I got on here looking for every possible way to get rid of them and stumbled upon this page. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!
April 6th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Samantha,
I’m very sorry to hear about your situation. Dealing with a roach infestation along with small children and pets is extremely challenging (I know first hand about the small child part, anyway.)
There is hope!
First, the cleanliness of your home has little to do with the problem. Roaches can go 6 months without food. They eat paper and glue (like the kind used to bind books) and many other things besides crumbs in the kitchen, so it’s hard to starve them out.
Living in a duplex house means that part of the problem can be your neighbors too.
The first thing you need to do is close up the holes they use to move in and out of your house. This is a tedious job, but you will see dramatic results from doing it. Buy several tubes of clear silicon caulk and a caulk gun from your local home center or hardware store (Walmart should have this too.) You also need to get some plain steel wool and some expanding foam spray (it is commonly used for insulating your home.) Also, look for outlet insulation pads for your electrical outlets and switches. (These are foam pads that go underneath the switch and outlet covers to seal off drafts.)
Go to the pest control area and load up on glue traps. I cleaned out the local drug store twice when I first began dealing with my problem.
When you get all of these supplies, here is what you do. Starting with the kitchen and bathrooms, you need to seal every crack and crevice in the walls and cabinets. Roaches only need a tiny opening to get in and out of your home. If you fill them all in, the roaches can’t get into your house to begin with. So, use the caulk to fill cracks and gaps in all of the moldings around the floor. Use the spray foam to fill in gaps around electrical boxes (remove the covers, seal any cracks around the outside of the boxes and place the insulation pads over the outlet before replacing the covers.)
Spend plenty of time on the spaces under sinks. There are usually large openings around water and drain pipes. Pack large openings with steel wool and then spray in the foam. If your cabinets have backs on them, there is probable a hole cut to allow the pipes to come through. Use the spray foam to fill in the gaps between the backing and the wall.
Caulk and seal every seam on the insides of your cabinets next.
Once the kitchen and baths are done, move on to the other rooms and focus on the floor boards and around windows, air conditioners, etc.
Roaches need water much more than food, so look for leaks when you are under the cabinets and fix any you find.
This is going to be time consuming and tedious, but the results will be dramatic. We notice a dramatic drop in roach activity overnight and this step was the beginning of the end of our problem.
Once you are finished sealing up the cracks, place the glue traps along the walls in the kitchen and bath. Put them against the back splash on the counter top at night until you get the infestation under control. This will help you catch the roaches that are still inside after you cut off their travel paths.
Roaches breed fast, so they can develop immunity to poisons - that’s why the stuff you get at the store loses effectiveness over time. Poisoning alone will not work. The roaches will simple avoid the poisoned areas and return when you stop.
If you and the kids can get out of the house for a few days, you can also set off a couple of bug bombs before you start with the sealing project. If you choose to do this, follow the instructions on the bombs very carefully to protect the kids.
After you finish this first step, put boric acid under the fridge and stove for long term control - only in places the kids and pets can’t reach. Boric acid works slowly, but it very effective and has very low toxicity to humans.
Roaches don’t like moth balls, so you can place one or two behind the stove and in the cabinets under the sinks to deter them from entering. These are toxic, so read the directions and use sparingly.
One last tip. Roaches in the kitchen drove me and my wife nuts. We discovered a home made spray you can make that deters roaches. You mix 2 tablespoons of Tobasco sauce with 1 quart of water and put it into a spray bottle. At night, we mist down the counter tops, the stove, and the area on the floor around the baby’s high chair. This is pepper spray, so it’ll irritate your nose and throat until the mist completely settles out of the air - that’s why we only do it just before we go to sleep (and why I always end up doing the job!)
I hope this helps you deal with your problem. Please write back and let me know how things worked for you.
The Go-To Guy!
July 5th, 2008 at 9:30 am
I need some advice. I am currently living in public housing, but am moving to a house in about a month. There has been a roach problem in my building for over a year. The exterminator came out twice a month, but it only seems to control the population rather than get rid of the problem. I need to know what I can do to not take any with me to the new place….any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks…
July 7th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Katie,
Unless you are planning to get rid of everything you own, there is a good chance that you will end up bringing a few with you. It’s very important that you make your new home as unfriendly to roaches as possible before you move in.
Clean the new house thoroughly before moving anything in. Focus on kitchen, bathrooms, and any places where food is stored or where the air will be humid (laundry rooms, basements, etc.)
Next seal every crack and crevice with silicone caulk. Focus on the insides of cabinets around water pipes and drains, and all of the baseboards and moldings in your house. Use steel wool and expanding foam insulation for filling in larger gaps. This will make it hard for roaches to find places to live and move around the new house.
For the first few weeks in the new place, place glue traps along the baseboards in every room. Any roaches that come in with your belongings will quickly look for a new place to settle in and the traps will catch them before the find a home.
Now, there are a few things you can do to keep roaches in your existing place from hitching a ride.
- Wash and dry all of your clothes and immediately place them into sealed plastic bags before packing in boxes. Run heavy coats and blankets through a hot cycle in the dryer to kill roaches that might be living in them (check the labels to see if they can stand the heat.)
- Roaches don’t like Bay Leaves or Cedar. Get some dried bay leaves from the grocery store or some cedar balls or block from the hardware store. Place them in every box before you seal it up.
- Get rid of old magazines and books. Roaches love the paper and glue.
- Inspect your kitchen appliances before packing. Roaches can live in the motor housings. Replace any that you suspect of infestation.
- Don’t pack the boxes too early. Roaches like boxes and if you leave them laying around they’ll try to get in. Once you get to the new place, unpack boxes quickly and remove the cardboard from the house immediately.
Good luck with your move and I wish you a roach-free transition.
The Go-To Guy!
July 29th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Help! I live in Hawaii where roaches abound (hey they like paradise too). There’s no way to “seal” the house as our construction is way more open. What to do…
July 30th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Judith,
Roaches love warmth and moisture - so your paradise is theirs as well.
While you probably can’t seal off your home in the same way I did, it is still important to seal the cracks between walls and cabinets, walls and floors, and round plumbing pipes wherever possible. You want the roaches to have to travel along the outsides of the walls where you can strategically place traps to catch them.
Another thing you can do is dust Diatomaceous earth along the ground on the outside perimeter of your home and underneath it if you have a crawlspace under the house. This will help to kill roaches (and most anything else) trying to get in. Diatomaceous earth clumps together when when wet, which reduces it effectiveness, so you will need to reapply it from time to time.
Finally, make your house inhospitable to roaches. A solution of 1 tablespoon of Tobasco sauce and 1 quart of water sprayed on kitchen surfaces at night will deter the roaches from crawling on them. Cedar in drawers and closets will also repel them. Bay leaves have a similar effect so you can spread them around in likely roach hiding spots.
TimeMist makes a product that mists a bug repellant/killer in short bursts at regular intervals like an air freshener. The mist is made from Pyrethrum which is a harmless (to humans) plant derivative that rapidly breaks down in the air but drives bugs away like crazy. It can be place in kitchens or baths or around any places where you are having significant problems. This is a solution used by many commercial food services and restaurants. The specific product I am referring to is available through the Cockroach Eradication Center Store.
I hope these ideas are helpful as you develop a specific pest management strategy for your home.
The Go-To Guy!
July 31st, 2008 at 3:45 am
Andrew, thank you so much for your blogging! I, too, have been freaked out by seeing roaches in our kitchen lately, and occasionally in the living room (where my 8-y-o son likes to take food) and the bathroom. We also have spiders and hornets sometimes in these areas (oops, forgot the laundry!) and I’m bug-phobic, so this is a BIG HAIRY DEAL! I am printing this off to show my husband, and hopefully we can get started with some of your tips tomorrow (or today, I guess). He is also struggling to get roaches out of his dad’s rent house/duplex. They’ve bug bombed the place at least twice (most recently was at dinner time, and they didn’t think to warn/notify the occupants of the other side of the duplex. OOPS!) and they’re still having problems. I also greatly appreciate your focus on non-toxic methods. My 10-y-o & 8-y-o sons both have autism, and I had Terminix coming monthly when they were little. Coincidence? Hmmm… Worth avoiding the toxins anyway.
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.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:51 am
Christina,
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!