How To Get Rid of Cockroaches

Video Summary

Hi,

I am often asked how to get rid of roaches. Well, I am going to answer that question in just a few moments. I'm Michael Piachenza with Advantage Pest Control. Well, there are literally dozens and dozens of kinds of roaches around the world and around this country, but there are really only a handful of them that are a problem. The notorious German roaches, those little small ones that seem to duplicate themselves like wildfire and then you have the big scary ones, the American cockroaches, which are often incorrectly called palmetto bugs by a lot of people. You have a couple of other ones the smoky brown and the Asian. So anyways they all fit into the same category and can be taken care of in the same way.

The best thing to do with any type of roach problem is to get rid of the food source. CLEAN UP. They'll eat just about anything. They'll live under the mulch and just eat decaying wood.

The next thing is to do a perimeter spray with a safe pesticide and dust. Dust is the absolute best thing for roaches. Get in there with some really good dust. What happens is they get the dust on them. Roaches, the dirty critters that they are, clean
themselves and ingest the pesticide. When they digest the borate it screws up their digestive system and their digestive enzymes don't work and they starve to death. It effects their neurotransmitters and some essential oils plug up their breathing tubs. So, if you approach it from that type of attack, by using multiple pesticides and cleaning up the food source, you'll get it under control.

Commentary: Thanks Mike for such an informative video. We do agree that cleaning up is essential to roach elimination and sometimes a good perimeter treatment is necessary. However, we do recommend a good roach bait over dust as there are many problems with dust. You can put it on too thick or too thin and it can even get into the air and be dangerous.

Clean Up
Mike makes the point to clean up.  This is important, but is mostly overstated.  If cockroaches come to your place of residence, they are going to find it hospitable.  At the very least, they can get water out of the toilet bowl, from the sewer, from sinks, and from pet food and water dishes.  It makes perfect sense that people blame their cockroach problems on a  home being a mess, but it really has nothing to do with it.  Maybe there is a correlation between clean people and people that eliminate cockroaches quickly, but cleanliness really doesn't make much of an effect for most people.  For one thing, most homes aren't that messy and, the second thing, roaches can eat just about anything and live with almost nothing.  They can squeeze into your toaster, your refrigerator, your microwave oven, and your pantry.  It's not realistic that cleaning up is going to solve the problem.  Now, if you are leaving rotting food lying about and only do the dishes once a week, you can be part of the problem.  So, it's definitely a good idea to clean up, but don't indulge the fantasy that it is going to make your home become roach free. 

Types of Cockroaches
Like Mike said, there are literally thousands of kinds of cockroaches.  In fact, some are actually quite pretty and live in the forest eating decaying tree matter.  There are primarily three kinds of roaches that cause problems for people: 1- The German Cockroach, 2- The American Cockroach, 3- The Oriental or Asian Cockroach.  It is true that the treatment is the same for each type of cockroach.  The most common infestation seems to be that of the German cockroach. 

Perimeter Treatment
The perimeter treatment is a good idea.  It does however depend a great deal on the area you are dealing with.  For example, hot humid areas have a lot of outdoor roaches that come indoors.  These critters need to be dealt with a perimeter treatment.  However, in some other more dry areas it is pretty rare to find a roach living outdoors; due to the cold winters.  So, in these cases a perimeter treatment won't hurt, but probably won't help all that much.

Mike talks about using a spray and boric acid dust for the perimeter treatment.  Sure, this will help a lot in the short-term, but a spray will only last for a short while and that means spraying the perimeter an awful lot.  Imagine living in a rainy area, the spray will wash off in like one or two days; a week at most.  So, this is sometimes not the best treatment. 

The dust also works, but can be a bit dangerous to inhale if it somehow gets into the air.  This makes a dust product just not that great to deal with.  If an animal eats the boric acid, it can cause real harm or death.  Is there a better way?

DE - Diatomaceous Earth
One of the best things for a perimeter treatment is diatomaceous earth.  It looks a lot like boric acid.  It's a naturally occurring white powder like boric acid, but there is one important difference.  Diatomaceous earth is a lot safer to use.  In fact, some health food companies buy diatomaceous earth and sell it for human consumption as a food additive or supplement.  It is reported by these companies to help eliminate parasites in the digestive tract.  So, how does it work?

Diatomaceous earth is actually really old fossils from an old sea bed that was created thousands of years ago.  What was once covered in water is now totally dried up in some areas.  What you end up with is a huge pile of fossils that looks like a pile of flour.  These aren't the huge fossils like dinosaurs or even small animals.  They are the fossils at the diatom level (basically microscopic).  Like boric acid, it looks like a fine white powder. 

The unique structure of the diatom is that it has ragged and pointy edges.  When an insect gets the dust on them it is irritating.  As the insect moves around, the little pointy edges scrape the outside exoskeleton.  There is a waxy layer on insects that is there for the purpose of helping the insect to retain water.  Once that waxy coating is gone, the insect will dehydrate and die.  So, diatomaceous earth will totally eliminate insects through dehydration. 

The main point of diatomaceous earth is that you can purchase a huge bag of it for a very reasonable price and it is safe enough that some people actually eat it (not recommended by us).  In fact some DE sold is actually labeled as food grade.  Now, that sounds a whole lot better for perimeter control than a poison or boric acid dust. 

Roach Bait
Mike says that how we get rid of our cockroaches is to use a combination of cleaning up, sprays, and boric acid dust.  And, we have agreed that cleaning up is an important aspect you need to know to get rid of cockroaches, but we also point out that diatomaceous earth is a better choice for perimeter control.  The sprays, we have pointed out work short-term and are often poisonous and so we like to avoid that. 

The one, and most important, thing that was totally overlooked are baits.  Most exterminators start with baits first because they are the most effective and often the only thing that is needed.  To get rid of cockroaches, a good bait is your best friend.  There are many benefits to a good bait. 

1- The roaches come to your bait instead of you having to find all of them.
2- A boric acid roach bait is one of the least toxic ways to kill cockroaches.
3- You only need one application to eliminate all those roaches.
4-  Roach bait is super easy to apply.   

People would rather not spray poison all over their house or guess where the roaches walk and have to put down the dust perfectly and keep people and pets out of it.  Instead, a good boric acid bait does the trick.  You don't have the danger of inhalation like the dust poses.  You can apply it easily under appliances and sinks and wherever you think the roaches are.  And, if you are off a bit, it's ok because the roaches can smell if from a mile away and will come and eat it.  Does the bait stink?  No, you won't even know it is there once you apply it.  That is because it has a proprietary formula formulated for cockroaches; not humans.  So, if you want to know how to get rid of cockroaches, you really only need to know a couple things:  1- Use a good roach bait and 2- Use diatomaceous earth as a perimeter around your home. 

Icing on the Cake
The good news is that a good bait and some diatomaceous earth is the most cost-effective way to deal with a cockroach problem.  The most expensive solution is to continue to use something that doesn't work very well and have to keep applying product into eternity.  In the short-term sprays and boric acid dust are good choices, but the few dollars in savings will are not worth the long term headache of having to apply product so frequently.  In addition, there are many other baits that are more expensive, more toxic, and not more effective.  Click here to purchase boric acid roach bait.