Stopping a cockroach infestation means you will need to find ways how to kill roaches.
Roaches are visitors you never want to entertain. However, they won‘t stop by if your space and its environs are all tidied up.
These pests generally would prefer to live and dine in dark and enclosed corners, which means if you see them during the day, then there is a possibility you have a roach infestation.
A roach infestation is an invasion or overrun by this six-legged bug within a space like your homes, workshops, offices, and even the stores.
An infestation, it means these roaches are laying eggs and reproducing rapidly. So you have to stop the infestation by looking for ways how to kill roaches.
Roaches are of numerous types, and their smell can be very horrible and irritating due to the pheromones they release anywhere they perch.
Nonetheless, irrespective of their types, our major goal is to find ways how to kill these roaches.
These creepy brown bugs thrive in warm and humid environments such as the bathroom and kitchen, specifically beneath the refrigerator, sinks, kitchen cabinets, near pipes, under-forgotten electrical gadgets, and even in the library of old bookcases.
Roaches can sometimes trigger allergies and spread diseases. Hence, creating an unhealthy environment.
If you want to stop a roach infestation within your space, then come on board; let’s give you tips on how to kill roaches.
How To Kill Roaches and Stop an Infestation
1. Keep a Tidied and Neat Environment
Roaches need food and dirt to survive, and they can get them from our garbage dung, leftover food in the sink, and unclean places within the house.
Fortunately, you can stop them by eliminating their shelter. How?
Do the dishes immediately after a meal, tidy the kitchen immediately after cooking, dispose of the garbage bin daily, or get a garbage bin with a lid and take care of the house and its environs by sweeping and tidying up daily.
A proper decluttering routine within your space will surely keep you safe from roaches.
2. Use a Glass Jar Trap
You can entrap and kill roaches by using a glass jar, water, and things that will attract them, such as sugar, biscuits, bread scraps, etc.
- Get a jar half-filled with water
- Grease the glass jar with an oily substance to create a slippery environment
- Drop around this jar attractants like sugar, peanut, or any other food scraps
Place the glass trap in different corners where their shelter is traced. Once attracted and entrapped, get rid of the trapped roaches and refresh again.
3. Using a Sticky Trap
You can use a sticky trap to keep roaches out of reach, but it must be kept safe for your children’s sake.
Place your sticky traps in entrances within your homes like doors, and windows. It can also be kept beneath the refrigerator and generally around suspected hideouts.
These traps are effective and can even be used outdoors. Check them out daily to dispose of the entrapped insects.
4. Use of Bay leaves
Get bay leaves either fresh or dried, crush them, and sprinkle them within the suspected nesting areas.
Bay leaves smell quite awful to roaches, so they tend to evacuate that premises for another when the smell is perceived.
5. Cleaning with Ammonia
Ammonia has a pungent smell, and it’s a sure go-to when all trials prove abortive.
- Mix two cups of ammonia in a bucket of water
- Use this mixture as a cleaning agent on tubs and in every suspected area.
This solution will help deter them from breeding in every area used.
6. Use of Boric Acid
Boric acid can help kill these roaches when mixed with sugar and flour. How?
- Get two cups of boric acid
- One cup of flour
- One cup of sugar
Mix and make dough out of it and drop it around the suspected shelter as bait. While sugar and flour attract the roaches, when eaten, the boric acid kills them.
7. Use of Baking soda
Baking soda is every home’s leverage. Here, it is used to keep roaches off.
Get baking soda mixed with slices of onions, and put this mixture into several shallow bowls within the house where their activities are suspected.
The onions serve as bait to attract them, while the baking soda, when ingested, causes them to swell and burst.
Want to know more ways to keep your home free from roaches? Check out these posts on home cleaning
- 7 Homemade Cleaner That Works
- 6 Cleaning Products You Should Never Mix
- 10 Cleaning Tips and Tricks – Easy Home Cleaning Tips
8. Use of Citrus Fruit
Citrus is a delicacy to man, but the reverse is the case for roaches. The smell of lemon, in particular, can be used to send roaches on their heels. How?
- A drop of lemon oil
- A bucket of water
- Mix both and use them as a cleaning agent to mop the house.
This smell is very silent to man, but it is loud to roaches and can readily send them off.
Alternatively, if you cannot get lemon oil, you can use lemon peel, leave it in water for three hours, and then use the water to mop the house.
9. Use of Pesticides Spray
Another way to kill roaches is by using a pesticide spray. It will cost you some money.
Spraying pesticides within and around their suspected hideouts can kill them immediately and effectively and are long-lasting.
10. Use of Natural means
Before using all these tips on how to kill roaches, there has been a long-lasting means of killing roaches, which is the use of shoes and brooms within the house.
Though this method might seem messy, tiring, and remote, it is active and sure to get rid of them.
When you spot this perky creature anywhere in your home, pick up your shoe or broom, get close, gain your balance, and hit on the spot.
You sure wouldn’t want to start searching for them in the nooks. Once done, dispose immediately and clean up the spot with an antibacterial cleaner to avoid germ spread.
11. Call a Professional Pest Control Company
When the infestation is out of control, you definitely cannot utilize the means above.
Call a professional company. This mode may cause you a fortune, but it is safer than exposing you and your family to harmful diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and others.
This company can help eradicate roaches infestation by using effective bug-killing treatments.
This means can be dangerous if you have little children and pets. So request a milder and less dangerous treatment.
Verdict,
Roaches are destructive and can cause diseases, so by all means, we need to find ways how to kill these roaches.
However, in following these tips as to how to get rid of them and halt their infestation, we should particularly note the safety of our kids and pets within.
If we missed out on any other tips on how to kill roaches, kindly let us know in the comment section below.