

Interestingly, although we associate cockroaches with filth and disease, these insects groom themselves constantly-and that behavior is the ticket to their extermination. One way that these chemicals work is by exploiting roaches’ natural habits. Once you’ve determined where your waterbugs are, it’s time to pull out the pesticide. Watch where they go, and concentrate your eradication efforts there. If cockroaches are there, you’ll probably see them scatter. Enter every room where you suspect they’re living, and turn on the light. If you’re having trouble finding a nest, search at night in rooms that have been dark for a few hours, giving the bugs time to become active. Check for cracks in concrete floors and walls. Look for gaps around windows, doors, and pipes that penetrate the home’s exterior. This means you’ll have to poke around in those dark corners of the house that you rarely clean (and perhaps used only for long-term storage). Step 2Īs your waterbugs probably came in from the outdoors, search for nests and likely entry points into the house. Conduct a quick search online and in your state university’s insect database for “cockroach” and “palmetto bug” to be certain you’re not dealing with a case of mistaken identity. Keep in mind that it can take weeks or months to get rid of all the roaches in your home, so you may want to hire an exterminator if you can’t wait that long.Before you begin launching weapons of mass insect destruction, be sure your adversary is actually a member of the roach family.

If you encounter a roach while you’re cleaning or putting out bait, spray it with soapy water to kill it. Make sure to keep children and pets away from your cockroach bait. The sugar will attract roaches, and when they eat it, the boric acid will kill them. Sprinkle the bait in your kitchen cabinets, behind appliances, and in your pantry. Additionally, make your own cockroach bait by mixing 3 parts boric acid with 1 part powdered sugar. Keep your trash in a sealed bin so roaches can’t get into it. Wash dirty dishes right after using them, wipe the floors and countertops regularly to get rid of crumbs, and clean up spilled food in your kitchen cabinets. To get rid of roaches, keep your kitchen as clean as possible to cut off their food source. Once the first generation of cockroaches is killed, their eggs will hatch, and more cockroaches will have to be poisoned before the nest is gone for good. Killing roaches using this method can take several weeks.Roaches will eat the poison, then excrete it back at the nest, where other roaches will come into contact with it and die. 05% or Hydramethylnon 2% as the active ingredient. Most cockroach baits contain Fipronil.Pest Control Specialist Expert Interview. It should be as close to the nest as possible, so that as many roaches as possible will eat it and take it back to the nest. Place the bait in an area where you know cockroaches will encounter it, such as along baseboards, under the sink, and in corners.X Research source The roaches eat the poison and bring it back to the nest, where it eventually kills all the other roaches. Cockroach bait is either housed in a childproof-case or applied as a gel and contains a slow-working poison mixed in with an attractive food (for cockroaches).
