the invasion. . . . of the cockroaches

[*RaiN*]

so my house is now infested with cockroaches. they are everywhere, and i need to get rid of them. i don't want to use chemicals but as hypocritical as this sounds is there any kind of an "eco-friendly" way to get rid of them?
suggestions neeeded
thanks and peace,
rain

[toman]

uhhhg. Kill them by whatever means neccessary, even if it takes napalm!

[oldkzildjians]

my friends are planning on "bombing" their house with some shit that's so strong you have to leave the house for hours and open windows, etc. They were planning on taking the dogs to the lake and drinking beer while doing it but like the lazy bastards they are, they still haven't gotten around to it. I'm not sure how strong that stuff is but it sounds gross. They have really bad tiny roaches so they need to do something drastic.

[ladywithafan]

When I went to college we had them. Yuck! I remember in the middle of the night I would turn on the lights and they would go a scurrying. My landlord put this white powder everywhere and I never saw another one. An interesting thing I learned is that if you live in the forest there are "forest cockroaches". They don't multiply like the regular ones, but they look exactly like them. Oh and by the way, don't smoosh them! When you do they lay eggs in the floor.

[treehugger]

I had always heard of Borax (I think you mix powdered sugar and borax, can't really remember) as a somewhat eco-friendly way to get rid of them. But I moved into a trailer once that had them and tried that.

Eventually I was sitting at my table and slopped a little soda on the table. I got up to get a towel to wipe it up and when I got back to the table (about thirty seconds later) there was FOUR cockroaches at that puddle! Gross.

I ended up calling Orkin. Those things are pretty resistant to eco-friendly means.

Kath

[morningsunshine]

I ended up calling Orkin. Those things are pretty resistant to eco-friendly means.
Kath
Aren't cockroaches rumored to be the only creatures that would survive the massive doses of radiation from an atomic blast? I've heard that in a couple places.

[unclejoe]

"bombing" can be dangerous. it is poison in aerosol form and gets into everything. it kills any thing that moves and remains afterwards, requiring a lot of washing of everything you use.
also, it is usually made with a flammable solvent that can ignite (water heater or stove pilot light) making your house a major renovation/rebuild project. not eco-friendly.

boric acid is a white powder available at most hardware stores and is cheap. it works but takes time. it is fairly eco-friendly.

cockroaches (like humans) are omnivores, cannibalism included. also, they clean themselves the way a cat does, by licking and preening, and are gregarious creatures. the roaches ingest the powder, the powder activates when wet and the acidic solution dissolves their internal organs. they head back to the nest and die. the other roaches, being the marvelous scavengers they are, have lunch, ingest the boric acid, and they too shed this mortal coil.

be patient as this process takes some time, but it does work.

[morningsunshine]

also, it is usually made with a flammable solvent that can ignite (water heater or stove pilot light) making your house a major renovation/rebuild project. not eco-friendly.
Does anyone watch Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel? They actually tested this and blew the windows and doors off of a house.

[shellbug]

Found this on another forum i frequent - i trust the source


Make a non-toxic roach bait and set it out in roach infested areas:

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening or bacon drippings
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup flour
8 ounces baking soda

Combine sugar and shortening. Add onion, flour, and baking soda. Mix in just enough water to make a dough-like consistency. Put small balls in plastic sandwich bags (other alternatives: spread some on margarine tub lids, or put in a lidded plastic container with small roach-sized holes cut in the bottom of the sides for the roaches to use to get in and out but that will keep pets out) and place in roach-infested areas. The bait creates gas in the roach when eaten. Because roaches can't belch, their digestive tracts explode. You get pest control and quaity redneck entertainment to boot


would have posted it sooner had i been around
:hippie:

[unclejoe]

neat! :cheers:
what is the forum?
sounds like a good one.
share, please?
thank you.

[FreedomEagle]

You really should clean your house more often. Might keep the roach number down. ;)

Seriously though as much as we'd all like to do this in an eco friendly way it's not easy to kill a cockroach (they survive nuclear fallout). My suggestion is to rid them by any means.

[lishca]

i've read that putting bay leaves in drawers and cupboards works to repel roaches, but the ones we had when we lived in D.C. would probably have seen the leaves and gone "SALAD!"

boric acid (powder works great, and you can get borax (actually a detergent) and just put it along base boards, in holes. make sure it's not where kids or pets can get into it though.

roaches breathe through their bodies, so if you seen them you can put rubbing alcohol on them and they suffocate, really quickly. and defiantly try to keep the place free of obvious roach food and homes like regular food, pet food, newspapers, cardboard, scrap wood....some roaches will eat wiring, and there isn't a whole lot you can do about that.

good luck!

[Monkey]

so my house is now infested with cockroaches. they are everywhere, and i need to get rid of them. i don't want to use chemicals but as hypocritical as this sounds is there any kind of an "eco-friendly" way to get rid of them?
suggestions neeeded
thanks and peace,
rain


Clean your house, Any monkey would know that. No REALLY CLEAN YOUR HOUSE! with soap and bleach and all that good stuff!

THEN.....

get a cat??? ;)

[treehugger]

I just read this at another site and it's pretty creative. Get a gecko (it's a type of lizard) and let it run loose in the apartment. They eat roaches and a LOT of them. Don't feed the gecko. It will start hanging out in the open more as the roach population dwindles.

The downfall to this one is that once the roaches are gone you have to start feeding it crickets...and they must eat every day, unlike snakes that can go hungry for a while.

So, I don't know if you're squeamish or not or if you want a long-term lizard pet, but I thought it sounded like a cool idea.