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.
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.
The best way to keep cockroaches away permanently is to make the home less inviting. Make sure to keep the home clean, clean up food messes, take out trash at the end of the day, seal any cracks or gaps around windows, doors and the foundation, and fix any issue that might lead to high moisture content within the home.
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.
For cockroaches, window cleaner can make them temporarily unconscious so that you can squash them. This works on initial contact, but Windex will not continue to kill bugs after it has dried. Laundry Detergent – Dilute a few drops of laundry detergent or dish soap in water and use the mixture as a spray.
Good old-fashioned soap and water is a safe, reliable, and inexpensive method. Create a soapy water solution that you can spray with a bottle. It will only take about 2 – 3 sprays to kill any roaches, as the soapy solution will cover their breathing pores and suffocate them.
It's a fact that cockroaches are afraid of humans and other mammals or animals that are bigger than them. They see us as predators and that fear triggers their instinct to scatter away. However, they dislike strong and distinctive scents such as citrus, peppermint, lavender and vinegar.
Distilled vinegar does not kill or repel roaches, making it completely ineffective. Distilled vinegar will help keep your kitchen clean, giving cockroaches less to snack on. However, roaches can live for months at a time without any food at all, and they will eat almost anything to survive.
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.
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.
Studies have found a boric acid and sugar combination to be a very effective killer of roaches, but more readily available is Borax mixed with sugar, which also gets the job done. Simply mix three parts Borax to one part sugar for bait, and be sure to keep your pets out of the vicinity.
Then, spray generously on walls, counters and other surfaces where you've seen cockroach activity. This should be enough to deter roaches, at least for a time. As an alternative to peppermint oil spray, you can also wet cotton balls with peppermint oil and water and place them in cupboards, along walls or in closets.
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.
Eucalyptus oil has a strong scent that seems to have some success in repelling roaches. You can dilute it with water and spray areas you think cockroaches might have nested.
Diatomaceous earth is a natural way to deal with cockroach. It is available in fine powder form that sticks to roaches body and kill them by dehydration process. Diatomaceous eath is also very effective in killing the roach eggs. It is best method to use in fine areas, as DE fine powder can reach inside the cracks.
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.
Method: Take equal parts of baking soda and a pinch of sugar in a shallow bowl, then place it near to the cockroach-infested areas or in where roaches are usually roaming at your house. The sugar attracts the cockroaches while baking soda will kill them.
Lemons. Many bugs hate citrus smells and cockroaches are no different. You can use lemon juice and put it in dishes to ward off those pests. You can also take lemon peels and place them around your home where you might think the cockroaches are hiding.
The World Health Organization also advises against crushing them, for reasons of hygiene. According to the body, which classes cockroaches as “unhygienic scavengers in human settlements”, squashing them can spread bacteria into the environment that can lead to asthma, allergies and illnesses.
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. Let's look at potential trouble spots that you may have overlooked during your most recent cleaning spree or inspection.
Can Pouring Bleach Down Your Drain Kill Roaches? An old wive's tale is that bleach can be used to clean out your drain system and to kill roaches that may be living in your drains. Bleach does indeed kill roaches, but it isn't recommended as a drain system cleaner.
Yes, Lysol does kill roaches! It does this by suffocating them. Roaches breathe through openings on their back called spiracles. The Lysol penetrates the spiracles, causing them to choke and die.