Cockroaches. These insects are among the most adaptable creatures on the planet. They survive everywhere, even radiation does not stop them. Therefore, if you have mustachioed “roommates” at home, you need to take urgent measures to destroy them, and in some cases, folk remedies for cockroaches in the apartment can help. We will tell you how to choose the most effective remedy for baleen insects throughout the article.
After all, they are not only disgusting in appearance, although some people think the opposite, they spoil food. In addition, they are carriers of quite serious diseases:
- helminthiasis,
- hepatitis,
- tuberculosis and dysentery. And this is not a complete list.
As for the methods of struggle, the modern person immediately comes to mind with chemical preparations advertised on TV and the Internet. There is no doubt that they are good, but the whole point is that cockroaches are highly adaptable to insecticides. And literally after a couple of weeks, the store-bought product ceases to have an effect on the population of mustachioed pests in your home. We'll have to start all over again.
Retreat. We are talking about household insecticides of wide use. This does not apply to professional “chemistry” because for example, our company uses combinations of active ingredients to treat premises against cockroaches and disinfestation. This eliminates the emergence of rapid resistance.
But many folk remedies for cockroaches in an apartment get rid of all this, for example, insects have not developed immunity to kerosene or vinegar. That is why these substances are always so effective. Next, we’ll look at all sorts of folk methods for getting rid of cockroaches in an apartment and determine the most effective one.
Preliminary preparation
Without it, the effectiveness of the effect on insects will be lower. Experts recommend starting the fight against parasites in winter; in this case, many things can be further frozen - books, soft toys, carpets, rugs, etc. In rural areas there is no problem with this; in the city they can be taken out onto the balcony for a couple of days.
There is a substance without which cockroaches cannot survive - water. It can save an insect even from poisoning with strong poisons, just give it a drink. Therefore, it is necessary to completely block the access of pests to life-giving moisture. To do this, wipe the sinks dry, turn off the taps, and make sure that there is no liquid left in the cups on the table. We inspect all pipes for leaks and repair them if found. Such simple preparation will enhance the effectiveness of folk remedies for cockroaches in the apartment.
Cockroach clutches and prolonged action of insecticides
Insects begin to die from the first minutes of treatment, as soon as the insecticides get on their body. The action continues throughout the treatment and the time the cloud settles. But even after the fog cloud has settled, insecticides continue to kill cockroaches. All adults and their larvae will be destroyed.
Special mention should be made about the clutches of cockroaches. Insect eggs have very strong chitinous protection, which is difficult to destroy even with professional means, not to mention household or folk ones. Simply put, it is impossible to kill cockroach eggs; it is easier to wait until the first larvae hatch from them and then poison them. Thanks to the prolonged action of insecticides, the process occurs exactly like this: as soon as the larvae hatch from the eggs, they immediately die. Professional insecticides can reliably get rid of Prussians and eradicate up to three generations of cockroaches. The entire population will be guaranteed to be destroyed.
Start with cleaning!
Before you start chasing pests in your apartment, you should put things in order. During general cleaning, pay special attention to the following points:
- Cut off access to food and drink: carefully remove crumbs, turn off the water and wipe dry.
- Do not leave mugs with unfinished drinks on the table.
- Wrap food in cling film or hide it in containers.
- Wash the tiles and wallpaper in the kitchen from congealed grease.
- Remove leftover food from the oven and microwave.
Remember: the main ally of getting rid of cockroaches is cleanliness. If there is no garbage in the room, insects will not stay there for long.
During general cleaning, you will probably find places where mustachioed neighbors gather; from that moment, start taking action. Choose one of the methods convenient for you.
How can you fight cockroaches?
It is imperative to fight cockroaches; never leave things to chance. Parasites multiply quickly. Each female lays up to 1.5 thousand eggs per year. Just imagine what your home could turn into in a few months. There are quite a few ways to exterminate the Prussians, ranging from home remedies to professional ones. Let's list the most popular:
- Balls with boric acid;
- Deterrence using strong odors;
- Homemade and store-bought traps;
- Special crayons;
- Gels and sprays;
- Household insecticides;
- Freezing;
- Professional treatment of apartments with cold fog.
Each method is unique in its own way. It’s impossible to say unequivocally that this is the best method and that one is bad. Everyone chooses what they consider more effective. The reliability of a method can only be determined by trial and error.
All anti-insect drugs are divided into three large groups:
Contact
— cockroaches die from contact with a toxic substance. It penetrates the body through the paws and causes damage to the nervous system, paralysis and suffocation. For example - crayons.
Intestinal
- the product penetrates the digestive tract after the insect has tried a “treat”, for example, boric acid beads or gels. Once inside, the product corrodes the food tract and causes death.
Contact-intestinal action
— the drugs have a complex effect on the insect body: they destroy the chitinous cover and poison cockroaches through the food tract when they try the product. Such drugs include suspensions.
TOP - 15 folk methods for getting rid of cockroaches in an apartment
Now we move on to the direct destruction of mustachioed parasites. We will look at folk remedies for cockroaches in the apartment!
Freezing or low temperatures
The simplest to implement, it is based on the natural feature of cockroaches. Their historical homeland is the tropics, and when the temperature drops to minus 10, cockroaches and their larvae are guaranteed to die.
Many home owners started freezing when it was minus five outside. It was enough to open the doors in the house and the windows wide open. Inside the home, open all the cabinets, pull out all the drawers and try to empty the shelves as much as possible. All this is necessary so that the cold can easily penetrate into all corners of the house. It is enough to spend 3-4 hours in this position, during which time the temperature outside and at home will become equal, and the insects will begin to die.
Attention! Before carrying out the procedure, it is necessary to carefully cover the heating radiators and pipes with any heat-insulating material to avoid rupture of the radiators.
The disadvantage of this method is that you will need to take care of the heating, water supply and sewerage pipes. It is recommended to take care of their thermal insulation for the required time. In addition, really cold weather outside is required, otherwise the effectiveness of the method is extremely low.
It would be most optimal to use this method in rural areas, in houses with stove heating.
2 – Sticky Traps
Many will say that similar tapes are also available for sale, what do people have to do with it? The whole point is that you can save money and make a similar trap yourself; all you need to do is stick double-sided tape on the cardboard. And to make insects more willing to go into the trap, just drop a couple of drops of jam or honey in the middle of it.
We place it in places where cockroaches are most common:
- Under the sinks;
- In the bathroom;
- At the grocery cabinet, etc.
Remember to check the trap often and replace it when it becomes full.
3 – Can and bottle trap
Another folk remedy for cockroaches in the apartment. In addition to the one described above, you can make other traps. As practice shows, they are not inferior in efficiency to store-bought ones, but the latter are often disposable. Whereas homemade ones are used repeatedly. Making them is not difficult.
We take an ordinary glass half-liter jar and add a couple of drops of honey or beer to the bottom for bait. The inside edge of the jar needs to be lubricated with Vaseline; you can replace it with regular vegetable oil - the oil strip will prevent insects from getting back out. We place the trap in places where pests accumulate; in the morning, the collected insects should be shaken into the toilet and flushed.
You can do this as follows: take a regular plastic bottle and cut it in half. Pour some beer or sweetened water into the lower part, turn the upper part over and insert it with the socket down into the lower part of the bottle - do not forget to twist the cap. Cockroaches, attracted by the smell of the bait, will climb into the lower part through the hole in the upper part, but will not be able to get back out. We also flush caught insects down the toilet. We change the bait and set the trap again. It is enough to check once every 3-4 days.
4 – Essential oils
Important! The use of strong-smelling solutions does not kill pests, but only has a deterrent effect. Essential oils against cockroaches are good to use in conjunction with poisonous baits
In this case, we will use the sensitivity of insects to odors. The thing is that these insects mark their paths with their pheromones, which help them find their way everywhere. And essential oils interrupt the smell of pheromones, thereby leading insects off their usual path.
As experience shows, cockroaches do not like the smells of geranium, lemon balm, eucalyptus, lemon tree, and lemongrass oils.
- It is enough to apply a couple of drops of oil along the edges of the trash can, under the sink, in areas of accumulation.
- It is also recommended to mix the oils with warm water and use a spray bottle to apply the mixture to all surfaces where parasites may live.
- Also place the cotton wool with oil in the ventilation grille, in the wall cracks, between the baseboards. This will help prevent the appearance of new “guests”.
The only disadvantage of this method is that some people or pets may be allergic to the oils used.
5 – Ammonia
It also uses the ability of insects to smell. Ammonia does not kill cockroaches. He simply scares them away with his smells. It is enough to add a spoonful of ammonia to a bucket for washing floors and wash the floor with this mixture. After some time, the cockroaches will leave. The method can be used every time you wash the floors, so it is an excellent prevention of pests in the house.
6 – Using indoor plants
Another method that will not require any special expenses from you, and you can also get aesthetic pleasure from it. The sensitive “nose” of the parasites is also used here. This method is effective for small numbers of cockroaches.
According to practice, cockroaches do not like the smell of geranium and mint. Therefore, pots with these plants can be placed on the floor, near the walls, or in the bathroom at night.
7 – Pyrethrum (powder)
This is a powder from chamomile inflorescences, you can buy it at any pharmacy. It is absolutely safe for humans and pets. But for mustachioed “roommates” this is poison. You need to use it as follows - mix a tablespoon of powder with the yolk of a boiled chicken egg. We make small balls from this mixture and place them in the habitats of the parasites.
Despite the safety of the mixture, it is best to lay out the balls at night and remove them in the morning.
8 – Boric acid
More precisely, its sodium salt, we know it under the name borax. Mix a spoonful of powder with the yolk of a boiled egg, boiled potatoes and roll the mixture into balls. We place them in places where parasites accumulate. After a couple of days, you can start cleaning up the dead pests.
Borax has a specific smell, and the yolk and potatoes are designed to fight it off. For a better effect, you can add vanillin, starch or rusk powder to the mixture. They will not only mask the smell of borax, but also make the bait sweet. And not a single cockroach will refuse this.
By the way, boric acid itself can also be used against cockroaches. We also make balls and place them in places. You can also dilute the acid with water and place it as a “drink” in small containers, and exclude access to other moisture. The cockroaches will be forced to drink the poison.
Also, for safety reasons, we lay out the balls at night and remove them in the morning.
9 – Vinegar
It is enough to treat the surfaces where insects appear and after some time they will disappear. You can also mix vinegar with water and spray with a spray bottle.
The only negative point may be that your house will become saturated with the smell of vinegar; it is quite persistent and will dissipate over a long period of time. Therefore, it is not recommended to use this method if there are small children, elderly people and pets in the house who may react poorly to the smell of vinegar.
10 – kerosene and turpentine
Many who used this folk remedy for cockroaches called it the method of despair . The thing is that these liquids have a specific smell. Therefore, it is recommended to leave your home for several days after treating it. Then you will have to ventilate the room and things and wash the treated surfaces with soap.
.
Liquids are used in the following way: they coat all the cracks and places where parasites live. After a few days, it is advisable to repeat the treatment to consolidate the effect.
11 – Plaster or alabaster
Separately, it is worth mentioning such a folk method of fighting cockroaches as plaster or alabaster. You can find both in hardware stores. Gypsum is a mineral from the class of sulfates, a powdery material, but its granular variety is found - alabaster.
12 – Borax
Borax or sodium salt is harmless to people, but dangerous to mustachioed neighbors. Use proven recipes:
- Take 60 g of starch, 60 g of powdered sugar, a pinch of vanillin and 1 tbsp. l. Boers.
- Add water to the dry ingredients and mix until a sticky consistency is obtained.
- Place the resulting mass in hard-to-reach places where insects live.
14 – Arsenic
IMPORTANT! Arsenic should be used to poison insects if there are no small children or pets in the room.
Treat baseboards and hard-to-reach places where pests live with the substance, and after 3-4 days, flush them down the toilet. Large specimens may fall asleep or become unconscious, so do not throw them in the trash.
15 – Denatured alcohol
Denatured alcohol is a caustic toxic substance. Not only the cockroach, but also the person himself can suffer from it. During work, you need to protect your respiratory tract with a respirator or gauze mask. You should wear rubber gloves on your hands. Long sleeved jacket and trousers. Clothes should be work clothes that you don’t mind throwing away if something happens. Treat as with kerosene.
Cooking recipes
Getting rid of cockroaches once and for all using folk remedies is difficult, but possible. One of the most effective methods is making baits with boric acid. This substance has a detrimental effect on pests and can quickly destroy even large numbers of them.
Here are some proven recipes:
- Boil the egg hard . Separate the yolk, grind it with a small amount of warm mashed potatoes, add 40 g of boric acid . Mix everything well, roll into small balls, dry a little on the radiator, and spread throughout the apartment . This method is absolutely safe for people or animals.
- Mix boric acid, flour, sugar in equal proportions, add a little water and knead into a thick dough. Balls are rolled out of it in the same way and laid out indoors, preferably overnight.
- You can simply dissolve the acid in water and leave it near the sink. The main thing is to completely prevent insects from having access to any liquid, then they will be forced to drink from a poisoned drinking bowl.
- Some experienced experts advise simply sprinkling dry boric acid on areas where parasites accumulate: baseboards, bathroom and kitchen sinks, ventilation holes, trash cans.
We bring to your attention a video about preparing a cockroach repellent based on boric acid:
It is often recommended to use sodium salt or borax as a poison. It is also harmless to humans, but very destructive to pests.
What are cockroaches afraid of? Folk remedies:
- For 1 tbsp. Borax powder, take a little vanillin, 60 grams of starch and powdered sugar, add water and mix thoroughly. The resulting adhesive mass is placed throughout the house.
- Mix mashed potatoes with a whole boiled egg, add tbsp. l borax. Then place the bait in hard-to-reach places.
Such recipes are effective if the population has not reached critical sizes. Otherwise, it is better to use strong chemicals in different forms, for example, Get or Karbofos.
Tips for folk remedies for cockroaches
Experts recommend using an integrated approach to the destruction of mustachioed pests. For example, combine treatment with aromatic oils with the installation of traps.
In apartment buildings, it is best to first agree with neighbors about joint processing. Otherwise, cockroaches may go to them. And after a while they will return to you, after the neighbors have carried out their processing. Thus, they will “roam” from apartment to apartment and it will be almost impossible to remove them.
Instead of vinegar, you can use wormwood, although its smell is weaker than that of vinegar. Therefore, the effectiveness will be lower, but you will be able to get rid of headaches and normalize blood pressure.
Cockroaches are creatures that are predominantly nocturnal and they don’t really “like” light. Therefore, leaving the lights on in the kitchen and bathroom at night will force them to eventually leave the “inhospitable” apartment. True, the method is effective only with a small number of “guests”.
Tips from housewives
Before you poison cockroaches yourself with chemicals and toxic substances, you should acquire at least basic theoretical knowledge on the topic and ensure that you have the necessary protective equipment. Experienced housewives claim that mustachioed parasites cannot stand the smell of fresh lemon. By placing slices of this citrus in the kitchen, you can significantly reduce the number of Prussians.
Cockroaches are incredibly tenacious insects, which is reflected in their ability to quickly adapt to changing environmental conditions, including toxic substances. Therefore, it is not advisable to immediately use the entire arsenal of stored poisons. Control agents for mustachioed pests are introduced gradually as needed. The favorite refuge of parasites is the refrigerator. It is first subjected to disinfestation.
Prevention
These measures can also help prevent cockroaches from getting into your home:
- Do not leave dirty dishes with food residues on the table or in the sink;
- Throw out trash in a timely manner;
- Fix leaking pipes, this way you can deprive insects of water. And she is very important for their lives;
- Arrange constant ventilation of the home;
- Seal all the cracks, cover the ventilation holes with a special mesh. This will block access for insects from neighbors;
- During wet cleaning, it is recommended to use deterrents - vinegar, wormwood, etc.
We hope that our article will help you get rid of these insects.
Substances and methods
How to get rid of cockroaches in an apartment?
While manufacturing companies are coming up with more and more new remedies for cockroaches, they produce all kinds of repellers and aquafumigators, and many successfully use proven folk remedies:
- boric acid;
- borax;
- vinegar;
- essential oils;
- ammonia;
- freezing the premises;
- pyrethrum;
- traps and baits;
- kerosene or turpentine.
Prices for cockroach treatment by our professionals
| Scope of work | Gel treatment* (cockroaches only) | Cold fog | Cold Fog + Barrier | Hot fog | Hot Fog + Barrier | Complex (cold fog+horizontal fog+barrier) |
| 1 room apartment | 3600 rub. | from 2100 rub. | from 2300 rub. | from 2600 rub. | from 3600 rub. | from 4100 rub. |
| 2 room apartment | 4200 rub. | from 2300 rub. | from 2800 rub. | from 3300 rub. | from 4300 rub. | from 5100 rub. |
| 3 room apartment | 5100 rub. | from 2500 rub. | from 3300 rub. | from 3700 rub. | from 4200 rub. | from 5600 rub. |
| 4 room apartment | 5700 rub. | from 2700 rub. | from 3700 rub. | from 4000 rub. | from 4500 rub. | from 6100 rub. |
| 5 room apartment | Negotiable | from 3100 rub. | from 4000 rub. | from 4900 rub. | from 5000 rub. | from 6600 rub. |
| MOP (kitchen, bath, corridor) | 2400 rub. | from 1800 rub. | from 2300 rub. | from 2800 rub. | from 3200 rub. | from 4500 rub. |
| Add. Barrier | from 400 rub. | from 400 rub. | from 400 rub. | from 400 rub. | from 400 rub. | |
| Add. sleeping area | 400 rub. | |||||
| Move the furniture | from 500 rub. | from 500 rub. | from 500 rub. | from 500 rub. | from 500 rub. |
Modern chemicals against cockroaches
If cockroaches have occupied your home in large numbers, you cannot do without chemical insecticides. Fortunately, there is such a wide selection on the market that everyone will find something to their liking and within their budget. The main thing is to observe safety precautions when using them, strictly follow the instructions, use protective equipment (mask and gloves), and protect children and animals from their influence.
- Insecticides in aerosols and smoke bombs. The most famous brands: Raptor, Raid, Dichlorvos, Kombat, Get. They act quickly, are easy to use, the product is sprayed into the air, especially near the habitats of cockroaches, the room is closed and left for a couple of hours. After which the room can be ventilated and wet cleaning done. It’s better to start from the kitchen, since there is always the largest concentration of mustachioed roommates.
- Gels, suspensions, toxic pastes. Brands: Global, Combat, Delta Zone, Brownie, Fas, Assault. This class of insecticides is cheaper than aerosols, but the effect can only be expected after a couple of days. At the same time, the risk of poisoning someone in the household is less; the drops are applied pointwise, to secluded places where cockroaches like to appear.
- Chalk Mashenka, powders, dusts Clean House. The most available insecticides are good for prevention, or as additional means after extensive baiting with aerosols. Traces of substances near large cracks, along baseboards, and in the kitchen near garbage will help kill single cockroaches.
DIY cockroach traps
Cockroaches love honey and beer, so homemade traps based on these products give excellent results. Pour one of the treats into the bottom of a half-liter jar, grease the neck with vegetable oil or Vaseline. The trap is ready, you can place it in plain sight
(for cockroaches) place. A piece of cardboard or something similar is placed against the jar so that insects can easily get inside. Prussians who fall into a trap will not be able to get out of it.
In the fight against cockroaches using folk remedies, double-sided tape is used. Glue a small piece onto a horizontal surface, and drop a little liquid honey or jam in the center. Insects who want to try the treat will stick to the tape.
Causes and signs of insects
Insects do not always choose old, littered rooms to live in. Of course, food remains on the floor, lack of wet cleaning, and clutter create favorable conditions for their existence, but there are other, not so obvious factors.
For example, few people know that mustachioed invaders need water more than food: a cockroach can live for about a month without food, while without water it can live no more than a week. Therefore, to live, insects choose places where there is constant unhindered access to moisture. In the kitchen, this could be leaking pipes or faucets.
Insects cannot live long without water, so they try to settle closer to sources of moisture
You can bring uninvited guests into the house with your own hands, for example, along with groceries from the store or when moving from another apartment inside packed things. If the situation is favorable, the insects will settle in a new place and it will not be easy to remove them. When returning from travel, you also need to carefully unpack your luggage and, if pests are found, destroy them immediately.
The occurrence of cockroach nests is not always the fault of the apartment owners. The presence of unclean neighbors, a clogged garbage chute, the proximity of a basement or grocery store warehouse are objective reasons for the proliferation of pests.
Another common reason for cockroach infestations is baiting in neighboring apartments. Unfortunately, not everyone understands that such targeted attacks on insects will force them to migrate temporarily, but will not solve the problem at the root. Sanitation must be carried out comprehensively, simultaneously in all rooms of an apartment building.
Insects try to avoid people, so their presence in the house cannot always be noticed immediately. However, the following signs are distinguished:
- waste products in the form of small black dots. They can be anywhere - on the floor, kitchen surfaces and even on the walls;
- an unpleasant odor, the source of which is dead individuals and chitinous cover shed by insects;
- nests with clutches of eggs located in secluded places - behind furniture, in cracks and corners.
The presence of nests and an unpleasant odor indicates that the invaders have firmly established themselves in your home and their population is quite large. In any case, you need to start fighting insects immediately.
Why are cockroaches harmful to humans?
People often react to the appearance of cockroaches in the house without due concern. These insects, although not parasites, create the illusion of safety. And sometimes good signs or omens are even associated with their invasion.
Cockroaches are a sign of social ill-being, poverty and hopelessness
Many people try to get rid of uninvited guests, mainly due to disgust. But these insects are more dangerous than they might seem at first glance. Cockroaches living in an apartment are not limited to its boundaries: they travel throughout the entire house, including basements, garbage chutes and sewers. Sewage and excrement reliably cling to the chitinous shell. And when the cockroach returns to its native kitchen, it brings there everything that it managed to collect, including helminth eggs and pathogenic microbes.
A cockroach crawling on food leaves pathogenic microorganisms on it that can cause serious harm to human health.
Products on which a cockroach has crawled should not be eaten. This is dangerous to your health.
Diseases carried by cockroaches:
- dysentery;
- bacteriosis;
- salmonellosis;
- meningitis;
- pneumonia;
- genital infections.
Sometimes a person does not even suspect that the cause of his sudden illness is his proximity to cockroaches.
Video: cockroaches are carriers of disease
The waste products of cockroaches themselves are no less dangerous to human health than bacteria brought from outside. The chitinous coverings remaining after molting, the remains of dead insects and dry excrement, combining with house dust and entering the respiratory system, mucous membranes or skin of a person, provoke such serious diseases as allergic conjunctivitis, rhinitis, dermatitis and bronchial asthma.
But that's not all. Did you know that cockroaches can bite humans? No, they do not attack like mosquitoes or bedbugs and do not feed on blood, but they like to gnaw off pieces of skin from sleeping people. They especially like the epithelium of the nasolabial zone, eyelids and earlobes. They will not disdain the skin on their fingers. Against this background, the news that red cockroaches, or cockroaches, as they are sometimes called, feel good inside the human ear, is no longer so impressive. But getting a cockroach into your ear is not at all easy. And often this requires medical assistance.
Cockroaches are very reluctant to leave the human ear
In scientific circles, there is a special term - “blattopterosis”, which covers the entire range of troubles that cockroaches can cause to human health.
