Roaches are one of the most despised pests on the planet. They are associated with a dirty environment and people don’t want to think they live in a dirty home.
If you live in an area where cockroaches are prevalent, or in an older home or apartment building where they never seem to go away, don’t give up hope. While it’s almost impossible to kill them completely throughout a structure with a do-it-yourself treatment, you can reduce their population.
Get rid of clutter.
Roaches love the smell of paper, which does a great job of holding on to a pheromone they put out to tell their friends when they’ve found a feast. Your first step in reducing roaches is to eliminate these potential attractions:
- Stacks of newspapers and magazines
- Paper bags from the grocery store
- Unused cardboard boxes
- Other forms of clutter, especially on the floor or bottom of cupboards, where roaches like to live.
Starve them.
Roaches love to eat. Treat them like the unwelcome house guests that they are: to get rid of them, stop feeding them!
- Don’t leave food sitting on your counters, including fruit bowls.
- Store dry goods in tightly-sealed containers.
- Varnish or paint wood shelves to seal them, then wipe them clean regularly.
- Rinse your cans, bottles, and plastics before putting them in your recycling bins.
- Empty trash cans, diaper pails, and litter boxes daily.
Clean properly.
A pile of crumbs or splatter of grease is an buffet for these bugs.
- Use a 50-50 solution of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle to clean under sinks, around water heaters, and inside appliances.
- Vacuum behind your fridge and behind your washer and dryer. Mop the floors too.
- Clean your refrigerator regularly. (Yes, they can get in there.)
- Clean spills in your oven.
- Keep your cook top clean.
- Never leave dishes in the sink.
- Wipe your counters after food preparation, and sweep the floor after meals.
- Mop your hard floors regularly.
- Vacuum each room well at least once a week, more often if you have small children or pets.
- Keep drains free of grease.
- Scrub the cat litter box weekly with a 50-50 mixture of water and white vinegar.
- Wash pet bowls daily.
Use DIY Roach Killer
Once you’ve eliminated the clutter, food sources and breeding areas through the above steps, you’ll want to repel roaches, so they don’t return.
1/8 cup Crisco or bacon drippings
1/8 cup powdered sugar
1 cup Borax
1/2 cup flour
Water
1. Combine the first four ingredients, then add water slowly just until it forms a soft dough.
2. Roll into balls about the size of an olive.
3. Stash two or three balls where roaches are likely to hang out — under sinks, behind appliances, in food cupboards, etc. (It’s a good idea to put the roach repellent balls in a plastic berry container that have vent holes that let cockroaches get in and tape them shut before stashing them where kids or pets can get to them. Or put them down when the kids are asleep at night — which is when cockroaches usually come out — and pick them up in the morning.)
4. Lightly mist the balls with water daily to keep their scent fresh.
5. Replace with new balls as needed.
The Crisco or bacon grease and powdered sugar in these balls attract the roaches and give them something to eat. But Borax has very sharp edges, so it tears up their insides and kills them.