If you do not want these unwanted guests to stay at your house, you need to cut off their supply. Cockroaches also have basic needs such as food, water, and shelter.
Make sure they do not find food by avoiding leftovers and storing food correctly.
Prevent pipes from leaking and clean drains. Keep your house clean without clutter or damp dirty places that will become a refuge for cockroaches.
How to avoid cockroaches at home
We will see some tips to prevent cockroaches from entering your home. If they have already invaded your home, you will also find some tips for them to go away.
- Avoid clutter in your house.
- Swipe the vacuum cleaner often to keep your home clean. Cleans floors daily. Pay special attention to furniture, walls, cabinets, moldings, baseboards, etc., during cleaning.
- Vacuum or sweep. Then, mop the floor of the kitchen daily. Be careful to eliminate all water.
- Wash all washable surfaces with cleaning products and not only with water. Ammonia and water can be used as mentioned in the previous remedies.
- For hard-to-reach places that are not visible, use boric acid powder.
- Seal cracks and holes with putty. You can find cracks and openings in the wall and ceiling. Also, around baseboards and pipes, doors and windows, moldings, in the lower part of the sink and inside cabinets.
Keep food stored away from cockroaches
- Keep food stored in closed containers or in the refrigerator. It is better to keep them closed even in the fridge.
- Try to paint the shelves and drawers with enamel. Keep them always clean.
- Do not leave the garbage open. Use closed garbage cans in the kitchen.
- Clean the entire kitchen. Wash dishes, tables, and counters every day.
- Store anything edible, including dry goods such as flour, sugar, cereals, pasta, and cookies in covered containers. Remember that these foods attract cockroaches.
Avoid providing water for cockroaches
- Fix water leaks in your home. Ensure that pipes, faucets and appliances do not leak water.
- Keep all parts of the house clean and dry. The kitchen and the bathroom must also be clean and dry. Throw away the water from the mop as soon as you finish using it.
Can cockroaches get out of the toilet?
Of course, they can. Usually the cockroaches come out from the toilet due to some problem in the drain (some leak or lack of cleaning).
How to prevent cockroaches from entering the drains
- Make sure all pipes are properly tightened and leak-free.
- Using an absorbent towel, clean the entire bathroom regularly with water, dish soap or a disinfectant, including sinks and drains. With this you will kill the eggs and eliminate the possible feces of the cockroaches.
- Ensures ventilation of the bathroom, opens the window regularly. With a protective mask, remove the possible drainage covers. Every once in a while, pour some chlorine into the toilet and into the drain of the sink, and shower.
- Try to place or change ordinary drain covers with drainage liners, if possible use those with smaller holes, in that way you will prevent them from entering easily.
- Place traps in the areas near the drains and, if possible, inside the bath tubs or bathtubs. To prevent them from sneaking in other places, place more traps in the areas where you think they could enter.
Tips to eliminate cockroach hiding places
- Avoid clutter in all storage spaces, including shelves, drawers, cabinets etc. Throw away everything you do not need.
- Do not throw papers because cockroaches love to hide under them.
- Keep the clothes organized. Throw or give away the ones you do not need.
- Repairs are essential. Seals cracks and openings. Remove peeling paint.
- The wallpapers must be deleted or repaired. The plaster as well.
- Check your books on the shelves or drawers (where you store them).
- Look behind the drawers and under the sink. Clean them regularly.
How to get rid of cockroaches?
To get rid of cockroaches, the houses must be treated as soon as the first specimens appear. The presence of a cockroach does not mean that the place is dirty, but it is true that the dirt promotes its breeding. The first remedy against cockroaches is cleanliness. You must have a clean floor (furniture and floors) to avoid them. You should carefully close food packages, especially pasta, flour, rice, and potatoes. To fight against cockroaches there are “natural” methods such as traps and other chemical means.
The “physical” methods
These traps must be placed in strategic locations. They are sold commercially but are easy to make.
There are other natural remedies to scare or kill cockroaches. Here are some:
Cucumber is a good insect repellent.
- Pouring red wine in small glasses attracts nocturnal insects that drink to death. You can place a cloth moistened with beer on your way.
- Drowning is possible, for example, with a deep dish filled with water and a banana.
- Chemical control becomes essential when other methods have failed.
Chemical methods
Insecticides in powder or spray are highly toxic, so precautions must be taken to protect children and pets.
There are sprays to eliminate cockroaches, bed bugs, ants and spiders in specialized shops and departments.
As they are very resistant, it is advisable to use several combined methods to kill cockroaches.
It is important to keep in mind that cockroaches do not resist temperatures below -4 °C, they die.
Advice and home remedies to eliminate different types of cockroaches
To eliminate these unwanted guests in the kitchen, and before using chemical products or sprays, grandma’s remedies are effective in killing them.
Try this:
Leave baking soda in a corner of the kitchen or where you think cockroaches have their nest. They will become dehydrated and die when they eat it.
Sodium bicarbonate is also effective in preventing access to the ant house. After cleaning the floor, sprinkle a thin line with this product on the paths of the ants along the baseboards. Remember to throw it, too, on the threshold of the front door so that it works as a limit for cockroaches.
Baking soda has the enormous advantage of being safe and cheap.
Other grandmother’s tricks to eliminate cockroaches
- 7 envelopes of boric acid are needed for this recipe. They can be obtained in pharmacies and sold without a prescription.
- Boil 7 potatoes.
- Take the yolk of 7 eggs.
- Peel the potatoes and add the egg yolks.
- Add boric acid to this mixture and mix it with the fingertips.
- Once mixed, make small balls and rolling them to form a mass. You can roll them between the hollow of the palm of the hand.
- Once you have obtained small balls, place them behind the cabinets, dishwasher, washing machine, refrigerator, and other corners of the home.
- The balls can last up to two months.
Note: Be sure to be cautious if you have pets or little children (boric acid is toxic).
Grandma’s simplest trick: boric acid
A simple preparation with boric acid to get rid of cockroaches:
Take a tablespoon of boric acid and an equivalent amount of sweetened condensed milk.
Mix everything and make a paste
Place it in the places where you have seen cockroaches.
Repeat the operation three weeks later to destroy the second and third generation of larvae.
Note: Do not forget that boric acid is toxic. Do not leave it within the reach of children and pets.
