Breadcrumbs or baby food can be effective lures to draw cockroaches out of their nests and into your traps. You can also use peanut butter – and dipping pieces of bread in beer has also been shown to be an especially enticing lure for cockroaches.
The short answer is yes. Cockroaches can lay eggs in clothes. Cockroaches prefer nesting in areas that are more likely to absorb their strong odor — places where you store paper, cardboard or wood. Thus, if you store your clothes in a wooden dresser, cockroaches will be more likely to lay eggs in your clothes.
Home remedies like diatomaceous earth, baking soda, boric acid, citrus, essential oils, and borax can be effective ways to get rid of roaches. If you want to take a more aggressive approach to eliminate roaches, glue traps, bait stations, and liquid roach deterrent concentrates are all excellent options.
Peppermint oil, cedarwood oil, and cypress oil are essential oils that effectively keep cockroaches at bay. Additionally, these insects hate the smell of crushed bay leaves and steer clear of coffee grounds. If you want to try a natural way to kill them, combine powdered sugar and boric acid.
Citrus. You may love the smell of fresh citrus, but cockroaches hate the scent. That means you can use citrus scented cleaners in your kitchen and bathroom to chase any lingering roaches away. You can also keep a few citrus peels around your home in strategic places.
It's been said by some that a clean house is a roach-resistant house. There's some truth to that. By keeping a clean dwelling, you'll give roaches less of a reason to intrude upon your happy home. There is more to keeping roaches at bay than just having spotless floors, however.
Cayenne, Garlic, and Onion Powder
Walk around your home and sprinkle all cockroach-prone areas with this spice mixture. Cockroaches can't stand the smell of these spices and will avoid all areas sprinkled with them.
While your bedroom door probably just opens up to the rest of the inside of the home, roaches that get in through other doors of the home can make their way to your bedroom and even your bed.
Roaches lay their eggs in any safe place that is damp or hidden. They like to be close to food while still being far enough away from human reach. American roach eggs: Female American cockroaches glue their oothecae to hard surfaces, like your cupboards, or cardboard near a food source.
Inside furniture – When the infestation is big enough, some cockroaches will eventually infiltrate furniture, sliding in-between cushions and under pillows.
Boric acid is a powerful natural home remedy for getting rid of roaches overnight. Mix equal amounts of boric acid, flour, and sugar until it becomes a dough-like consistency. Place small pieces where the roaches can feed on them.
Sprinkle the diatomaceous earth around areas where roaches travel and frequent. The sharp particles of diatomaceous earth damage the waxy, protective exoskeleton of the roach, causing it to dehydrate and die, typically within 48 hours of contact.
Boric acid can quickly kick a roach infestation to the curb. It's extremely toxic and can kill multiple generations of roaches. Mix a combination of equal parts of boric acid, sugar and water to make a dough. Roll that dough into balls or cylinders and place them where roaches will find them.
White vinegar is often recommended as a natural way to get rid of roaches. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually kill these problem insects. It's more of a cleaning tool than anything else, and it won't actually help eliminate your roach problem.
Cockroaches have an incredible sense of smell that they use to find food. You can take advantage of this fact by using scents they dislike such as thyme, citrus, basil, mint, and citronella to repel them from your home.
You don't have to call an exterminator immediately, but take proactive steps to diagnose the scale of the issue: search for possible hiding areas and look for any signs of infestation (roach droppings, eggs, skin casks). Once you see 2 roaches, you have an infestation—contact an exterminator as soon as possible.
Food & Grime. The dirtier your home, the more likely you are to have a roach infestation. Crumbs, spills, and food that has been left out are a great way to end up with a roach infestation quickly. The key to keeping roaches out is to keep your home, but most importantly your kitchen, as spotless as possible.
Some factors that can attract cockroaches to clean houses include: Moisture. Leaking sinks and appliances create conditions in which roaches thrive, since they offer a readily available source of water as well as the warm, sheltered spaces that provide the ideal harborage for cockroach nests. Untidy landscaping.
Mix baking soda with sugar to make a killer combination
A concoction of baking soda and sugar is an effective cockroach killer and controls the multiplication of these pests.
Because of this, cockroaches will not bite active humans, but sleeping humans is another matter. Cockroaches emerge from their indoor hiding spots at night to seek out food, and while doing so, they sometimes crawl over sleeping humans.
Cockroaches are attracted to food and water sources. Dirty dishes, crumbs, food spills, leftovers, garbage, and pet food will all draw cockroaches in. Roaches are excellent at scuttling into and over tiny spaces, especially holes in pipes, cracks and crevices in your home, and tears in screens.
Roaches are most active at night, during which time they forage for food and mate. Outdoor cockroaches in the northern United States enter a period of hibernation in winter, experiencing a suspended state of development in autumn. When spring arrives, they resume their activity.
Pine-Sol and Fabuloso are strong, all-purpose household cleaners. Similar to bleach, these products kill roaches on contact. Some homeowners suggest spraying Pine-Sol around the outside of your house to keep cockroaches away.