May not sound like a dumb question, but this isn’t my first rodeo, but it’s the first time I’ve lost.
In my 20s, myself, gf and bf moved into a house crawling with roaches. She and I spent the first night smashing as fast as we could go. The wall behind the fridge was “black” with roach shit. Easy money. We cleaned like hell and laid boric acid powder everywhere. A new generation of tiny ones came along, died quickly, that was that.
Had roaches in this house for years now. I’ve tried the above trick, no love. Got some poison a friend recommended, works OK, but they’ll be back. Had an exterminator in. He gave me some great tricks and his treatment worked great, but I can’t afford $40 a month until this is finally resolved.
And the kitchen isn’t filthy! My wife cleans and wipes it down every day. Not a deep clean of course, but again, it’s not filthy. There are a few around my desk because I often eat here, I get that bit.
They seem to be in the appliances and wall sockets. Pulled a smart socket today, filthy with roach shit, front and back. They’re coming out of the walls! I could probably figure a trick to bag and nuke the appliances, but the walls?!
HUGE bonus would be some advice on trapping them to feed our chameleon! When my wife sees one she’ll trap it in a little tupperware container and toss them in the lion’s den. I’ve tried some methods I found online, not a single catch. Which is embarrassing because I’m pretty handy, understand basic biology, should be a no-brainer.
If I don’t figure this soon, I’m importing some Huntsmen spiders from you Aussie cunts. No wonder my wife thinks lizards are good luck in the house. (Philippines, Florida, same difference.)
H E L P
You bought a house but can’t afford $40 a month? That’s so reasonable.
Well, no? That’s an extra cost I can’t handle for a handful of roaches. Do you think owning a home makes someone rich?
Our house is a Habitat for Humanity mortgage. If you think owning a home is out of reach, I’d suggest you make the phone call to your local Habitat group. What do you have to lose? An hour going to a meeting? My ex-wife picking up the phone, just that one time, changed my life. BTW, our mortgage is $600/mo., 3br./2ba., 16K sq./ft. yard. CALL.
I professionally managed many buildings… A big part of that was pest control.
Let me just cut through all the things that we try that don’t work and just tell you what works :
Impressive reply. Thanks on behalf of Roach killers everywhere.
As the other comment said you need to find their source of food and clean that, this is something that worked for me without using any chemicals. Btw they eat paper too.
There are a few around my desk because I often eat here, I get that bit.
Stop that. If you’re feeding them then you undermine the entire effort. Stop it.
No offense, but if I had a roach problem this bad I would find a way to afford $40 a month for an exterminator even if I had to cut back to bare utilities only. Maybe even no electricity and cold showers until they were gone.
We live in a rural area near woods. Big thing for our area is that you have to treat the outside too. You bomb for roaches, they leave for a week, then come right back in when it rains. Boric acid all over the inside where you can, especially behind appliances, and the diatomaceous earth around the house. It doesn’t have to be food grade unless you have chickens or something outside that will get into it, and the non food grade is much cheaper.
My dad swore by borax and I can attest to it this summer.
You can find it with the laundry detergents.
We sprinkle it on the ground and it covers everything like a scene from Scarface lol.
But what I’ve heard happens is that the roaches get it on their legs and it begins killing them as they have further contact with the powder.
I’ve heard this isn’t toxic to humans or pets, and I’ve not had issues myself or my cat or any of the other animals we’ve had over the years doing this.
I have had really bad roaches and earwigs at my house. I got fed up with it this year and threw down some of this all over the ground outside and inside. I did this at the beginning of summer when they start getting crazy.
I won’t say I’ve not seen any at all, but the numbers have gone down by 98%, easily, on both of these nasty insects.
There’s a place under a berry bush I have that seemed to harbor them and I made sure to sprinkle down a lot around the edges of that plant. About 5 inches away from the base, but still close enough and in a circle around it. I have seen some but much much less than in previous years there and my berry bush is doing fine and not reacting badly to the borax.
Did you mean Borax or Boric acid? I know borax and sugar paste works for ants, but Boric acid works great on roaches and silverfish.
I get them confused sometimes too, but no I can confirm I used borax this year. Here’s a picture of the box I have been using
Same brand we’ve been using for years. Unless Borax is the name of the brand lol but the side of the box says “ingredients: sodium borate”
But that’s good to know on boric acid! I heard that for ants too, mixing borax with sugar and a little water and put it somewhere and let them take it back to their colony where it wipes them out but I’ve actually never tried it that way. We only ever sprinkled this down on the floors inside and outside and then vacuumed it up when the summer season is over.
Speaking of ants, I haven’t had an ant problem like I have in previous years too. But that may also be because I’ve been pouring boiling hot water down anthills in my yard as soon as I saw them appearing in the beginning of summer too. It could be due to this, I’m unsure. I had a really bad ant problem in the house last year too that I forgot about until you mentioned that, but I’ve had none this year, and not sure if this could be related now that we’re talking about it.
Gentrol point source. It mutates the males so that they’re sterile. It take one generation and then you’ll see them born with crinkled wings. Don’t kill the gross mutated ones. 8 weeks and you’ll notice significantly less. Its also pet safe and okay to be in areas near food. Restaurants use this as their go to. Its just a puck you stick in areas that are the worst.
This. Got a place just before the pandemic that wasn’t well taken-care-of and had German roaches, assuming that’s what you’re seeing (tinier, and fast as hell) got this kit (granted it was $20 cheaper a few years ago) and rotated out with a couple of the other kits that come after A’s formulation every 6 months. Gone after 2 years. Now I just see the regular ones sometimes- because FL. Saved my sanity.
Also, I wouldn’t advise feeing the critters to your chameleon since you don’t know what the critters have been exposed to or got into, pesticide wise.
Releasing the genophage on the krogan, are we?
Had to be me. Anyone else might have gotten it wrong.
First, as an Aussie while I would welcome you to our hairy friends they are actually not doing too great at the moment, so hands off, mine!
That said, cockroach population is almost entirely a matter of the neighbourhood you are in, not the house you are in. If you have a neighbour who’s house is suitable for roaches they will live and breed there and then reinfest your home.
That leads to two main options. Move somewhere without the issue or make your house the most hostile possible place for them.
I don’t know what options you could try that have not already been tried, but I will list a few I have seen work. Roach motels work well. Flypaper under the fridge works well. Some chemical treatments work well.
That said, being diligent and keeping the food for them to a minimum may be the best adjunct. By this I mean making sure food is eaten, dishes are done, surfaces are wiped, and nothing left behind as soon as possible after making meals. Emptying the rubbish bin daily, maybe even switching to a much smaller bench top one so you can have smaller bags. Adding a seal to your rubbish bins in the form of some rubber or silicone around where the lid fits, though this differs depending on your local waste management systems.
First guy from the pest control place said they were from the outside. I let them nuke the yard for several months with no results except for killing off the local ecosystem. (I’ve brought it back five fold!)
It’s nothing obvious like food on the counter. As I said, my wife wipes down every night and I’ve never seen one in or near the trash can.
I used to live in a house hopelessly infested. My family is clean. We nuked, to no avail. Even if you don’t leave food behind, the fuckers will find things to eat. Examples of things the roaches ate in that house:
- my favorite boot soles (leather)
- cold porcelain souvenirs
- wax used to lubricate drawers
- rotting wood from the actual wall panels
- debris stuck in brushes (hair and tooth brushes)
- paper
You can’t win. They probably have plenty of food in the form of decomposing organic matter inside the walls. For example dead animals, mold, rotting wood or else. I’ve had some success sealing with OCD levels of precision every single possible gap in the floor, wardrobes, walls, you name it. But there is always this or that thing you can’t seal such as power point sockets or else.
Have you tried diatomaceous earth (wp:Diatomaceous earth#Pest control) and sealing everything?
Not in this case! I’ll get some.
You can get a duster/blower applicator and blow it into the walls. Talking about removing wall plate for plugs and light switches to blast it in there.
You can also blow it into any crack you see. Baseboards, trim under stuff.
Diatomaceous Earth Powder Duster Applicator
An exterminator probably, but you can thin the herd by sitting up a trap.
A large preferably glass or metal bowl, and a small ramp up to said bowl. Put some sugar in the bowl and the next day there’ll be some roaches trapped in the bowl. Empty and repeat…
Also those glue traps work well…
I had a minor but very noticeable infestation a few years ago, I’m guessing from a used blender I bought (picked up from someone at a not very nice looking apartment). Tried all kinds of things, and what finally made it go away was Advion bait gel and a general understanding of where they like to be. Just a tiny dab in lots of places. Obviously start in the areas you see them most, but my understanding is that they don’t really like open areas. So put a tiny bit in every little corner, crack, and hole you can find. From what I remember, roaches will eat their own after they die, which means they’ll ingest that bait gel and one “dose” will cause a nice chain reaction.
Roach motels when the situation becomes unmanageable.
From what you’re describing, the roaches are probably laying eggs and living inside rotted wood or old furniture.
I’m not a fan of fumigation since it is expensive, rarely works anywhere near 100%, and uses toxic chemicals, so it makes your house dirty and then the roaches are back in a couple weeks.
Buy a large pack of these glue traps with packaged bait, bait the traps as you need them, and put one trap in the area of each room you see the most roaches, somewhere dark, under furniture or out of sight.
You don’t need more than one trap per room, roaches are plenty mobile. Check them daily in the beginning, replace them when they are one layer full of roaches trapped in the adhesive.
You will have a whole bunch of live roaches you can feed to your chameleon and you will notice the roach infestation going down rather drastically. They catch young and old roaches with equal effect.
Very simple traps, and I’ve always found them to work very well.
I recommend buying the highest rated variety of the trap below with the highest amount of people who have bought it before.
Get that bait gel. They eat it then die back in the walls where others eat it and die.
Glue traps.
Seal up everything. Foam for the larger gaps, caulk for everything else. All baseboards.
There’s a food source somewhere. Assuming they’re not getting food from your kitchen (you’re not finding them in the pantry), there must be something else nearby. What’s around? Anything you can get rid of? Old cardboard boxes? Dead plants/yard waste? Pet food?
How old is the house? Does it have wallpaper? If you are unlucky they might be eating wallpaper glue or something like that. Also have you made sure there isn’t a sewage leak under the house?
House is only 8 years old. But yeah, they’re getting food somewhere, and it doesn’t take much.
Depends. If you’re in a tropical area they could just be part of the local wildlife.
