chemical-free ways to repel/kill roaches?

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    • Gold Top Dog

    chemical-free ways to repel/kill roaches?

    We have lived in our current house for 14 years with no roach problems until now.  In the past my husband has periodically sprayed an insect (roach) poison on the foundation all around our house and in front of the doors in the summer.  No problems...until now, and they are BIG. The past 3 weeks we have found a roach in the kitchen (usually the trash can) 2 or 3 times a week.  So far my son or husband has killed it each time.  I know I will need to get the trash out, have no food sitting on the counters, put foods in containers, and keep the floors clean.  I do not leave dog food sitting out in the food bowl.  How are they getting into the house????   I am paranoid about them and do not want to go into the kitchen at night.  I do not want poison in the house.  I plan to get diamatceous (spelling?) earth to put all around our house on the outside.  I heard that catnip repels them.  Should I put some under the kitchen sink where the trash can is?  However I plan to remove it.  So far they seem to be contained in that area or on the counters. When I remove the trash can and put everything away, where will roaches show up next?  They are not in the food pantry so far, THANKFULLY, but I sure do not want them going there when I start "roach-proofing".  Can they smell food?  They have not showed up in any other part of the house.  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. 

    • Gold Top Dog

     Easily the best natural roach repeller I've ever found is a good cat.  Not only did our cat clean out the house, he also deroached the garage.

    • Gold Top Dog

    I recently moved into a new home, and got the lovely surprise of roaches (mostly outside, but they started coming in, too). I tried lots of things, but nothing really worked that well. I tried vinegar, borox, etc. I finally called orkin and they assured me that after the spray dried that it isn't harmful for pets. I saw a few roaches for about a week after they sprayed, and then never saw anymore. They came out again the other day and sprayed, and i saw a few that night, but they're gone again. It's expensive, but well worth it IMO

    • Gold Top Dog

    I don't know of any. I do know that roaches will survive a nuke so I am not sure there IS anything in "nature" that would kill them en masse. My cats for ex will not touch roaches with a ten foot pole, tho they love flies. We use bait traps in areas our pets don't frequent and that has solved our problem.

    • Gold Top Dog

    rwbeagles

    I don't know of any. I do know that roaches will survive a nuke so I am not sure there IS anything in "nature" that would kill them en masse. My cats for ex will not touch roaches with a ten foot pole, tho they love flies. We use bait traps in areas our pets don't frequent and that has solved our problem.

    Yah it seems some cats will go after them and some won't.  Our cat used to obsess about them.  Our property was once on what could be considered out in the sticks, as in the everglades were practically right up to our backyard.  Because of that roaches were a common visitor though I wouldn't' say the house was really ever infested.

    Well when we got are cat Picasso, he figured out where some were getting through/hiding behind the sink.  He would sit for hours upon hours motionless in the dark of night and wait for those unfortunate suckers to come out and then he would spend the next hour or two playing with them till they were dead.  Would never eat them, but leave them as presents in our slippers or the worse on our bed.  One night he jumped up on my bed and was playing around with what I thought was a piece of rolled up paper.  Come morning I discover the dismembered body of a roach and had the joy of seeing pieces of roach legs covering my covers.... -___-

    I will say though I haven't seen any roach in this house for a good 12 years now.  I'm really going to miss his bug hunting skills when Picasso is gone. T__T
    • Gold Top Dog

    Unfortunately, I don't know of any natural way to get rid of them.  When DH and I lived in an apartment, they started coming through the wall that we shared with our neighbor.  ICK!  They LOVE food, so keep the kitchen really really clean.  The only thing that stopped them was the apartment complex hired Orkin to come spray.  Like others have said, the Orkin man assured me it wouldn't hurt Honor or the rabbits, and they were gone after two applications. 

    Very important though, the Orkin man told me that if you squash them to kill them, their remains emit a scent that attracts other roaches.  So don't smush them, trap and flush down the toilet.

    Good luck!

    • Gold Top Dog

    I detest roaches. Thank goodness we have seen 4 singles in 7 years.

    They need a water source and a food source. Make sure all water pipes are drip free, sink area cleaned. I put bay leaves in all my cabinets and pantry and behind all the appliances, I change them every 60 days or so.

    Here is a good site for some baits and idea's..if I didn't have cats I would go with the lizard one!

     

    • Gold Top Dog

     We have to have pest control come in also...for my sanity!  I think I read that for every one you see, there are a hundred more you don't see.  Ughh!

    I was told they nest in the pecan trees around our house, and come in from there.

    Another thing you can do is get a can of spray foam insulation and use it to close all the openings around water pipes coming into your home.

    • Gold Top Dog

    I love DE.  It was the only thing that cleared out the infestation of humpback crickets I had under my house and in my shed.  Good luck! 

    • Gold Top Dog
    I'm in property management and have always been told by pest control that Borax powder is one of the best roach repellents. You can get it at Walmart or Home Depot, Target, places like that and it's inexpensive. You just sprinkle it anywhere you want to repel them, under sinks, in cabinets, you can dust the carpet, let it sit for a while and vacuum it up and as far as I know, it's safe for animals. I have always used Raid Foggers and they work great!!
    • Gold Top Dog

    My cousin was moving into a place and once we turned on the lights you seen all these roaches running.  We didn't have nothing to kill the roaches and I took a look into her bathroom stuff she had alcohol and I put it in a spray bottle and started to spray them, it killed them. I guess it's not chemical free but it worked

    • Gold Top Dog

    BCMixs
    It was the only thing that cleared out the infestation of humpback crickets I had under my house and in my shed

    (((shudder))) Those and roaches are the only two insects that I absolutely cannot deal with.  My BF's old rental house when we were first dating had a camelback cricket infestation.  I refused to hang out there...ever.  Ick!!!

    Ya, I dunno any chem-free way to get rid of roaches.  My best friend's mom is an exterminator-she gave me all kinds of info when we bought our house 5 years ago and I saw some roaches.  She basically said get an exterminator out on a regular basis.  The chemicals they use are not supposedly dangerous to pets or kids, especially once they're dry. 

    There are 2 common types of roaches in the US.  The big brown ones (American roaches, aka water bugs & palmetto bugs) are outdoor dwellers that come indoors.  Typically you'll see one or two, but then if they come inside and lay eggs, well, you get the idea.  The teeny black ones are German cockroaches.  They're the really nasty ones.  They infest really badly and I'm pretty sure carry more diseases than American cockroaches.  If you have the little black ones, get an exterminator out asap.  Those suckers can take over your house in a heartbeat.  The bigger brown ones...not as bad a risk of infestation, but definitely still nasty.

    • Gold Top Dog

     I've had good success using DE around and in our crawlspace and Nature's Guardian Spray around the house.  I just feel so much safer with these methods vs. the chemicals.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Thanks for the responses.  I kind of already figured this was not going to be easy.  I bought some roach bait stations and have two under the kitchen sink.  I bought diamaceous earth to put outside, but it's been rainy so I haven't used it yet.  Haven't seen any for a couple of days, and then a few minutes ago my son tried to kill one, but it ran under the dishwasher.  If there are any other ideas let me know.

    • Gold Top Dog

    stardog85, what is DE? 

    I am also going to try bay leaves and borax powder.  A spray bottle with alcohol or soapy water is another thing I'm going to try.  I just need to get to the store.