May not sound like a dumb question, but this isn’t my first rodeo, but it’s the first time I’ve lost.
In my 20s, myself, gf and bf moved into a house crawling with roaches. She and I spent the first night smashing as fast as we could go. The wall behind the fridge was “black” with roach shit. Easy money. We cleaned like hell and laid boric acid powder everywhere. A new generation of tiny ones came along, died quickly, that was that.
Had roaches in this house for years now. I’ve tried the above trick, no love. Got some poison a friend recommended, works OK, but they’ll be back. Had an exterminator in. He gave me some great tricks and his treatment worked great, but I can’t afford $40 a month until this is finally resolved.
And the kitchen isn’t filthy! My wife cleans and wipes it down every day. Not a deep clean of course, but again, it’s not filthy. There are a few around my desk because I often eat here, I get that bit.
They seem to be in the appliances and wall sockets. Pulled a smart socket today, filthy with roach shit, front and back. They’re coming out of the walls! I could probably figure a trick to bag and nuke the appliances, but the walls?!
HUGE bonus would be some advice on trapping them to feed our chameleon! When my wife sees one she’ll trap it in a little tupperware container and toss them in the lion’s den. I’ve tried some methods I found online, not a single catch. Which is embarrassing because I’m pretty handy, understand basic biology, should be a no-brainer.
If I don’t figure this soon, I’m importing some Huntsmen spiders from you Aussie cunts. No wonder my wife thinks lizards are good luck in the house. (Philippines, Florida, same difference.)
H E L P
My dad swore by borax and I can attest to it this summer.
You can find it with the laundry detergents.
We sprinkle it on the ground and it covers everything like a scene from Scarface lol.
But what I’ve heard happens is that the roaches get it on their legs and it begins killing them as they have further contact with the powder.
I’ve heard this isn’t toxic to humans or pets, and I’ve not had issues myself or my cat or any of the other animals we’ve had over the years doing this.
I have had really bad roaches and earwigs at my house. I got fed up with it this year and threw down some of this all over the ground outside and inside. I did this at the beginning of summer when they start getting crazy.
I won’t say I’ve not seen any at all, but the numbers have gone down by 98%, easily, on both of these nasty insects.
There’s a place under a berry bush I have that seemed to harbor them and I made sure to sprinkle down a lot around the edges of that plant. About 5 inches away from the base, but still close enough and in a circle around it. I have seen some but much much less than in previous years there and my berry bush is doing fine and not reacting badly to the borax.
Did you mean Borax or Boric acid? I know borax and sugar paste works for ants, but Boric acid works great on roaches and silverfish.
I get them confused sometimes too, but no I can confirm I used borax this year. Here’s a picture of the box I have been using
Same brand we’ve been using for years. Unless Borax is the name of the brand lol but the side of the box says “ingredients: sodium borate”
But that’s good to know on boric acid! I heard that for ants too, mixing borax with sugar and a little water and put it somewhere and let them take it back to their colony where it wipes them out but I’ve actually never tried it that way. We only ever sprinkled this down on the floors inside and outside and then vacuumed it up when the summer season is over.
Speaking of ants, I haven’t had an ant problem like I have in previous years too. But that may also be because I’ve been pouring boiling hot water down anthills in my yard as soon as I saw them appearing in the beginning of summer too. It could be due to this, I’m unsure. I had a really bad ant problem in the house last year too that I forgot about until you mentioned that, but I’ve had none this year, and not sure if this could be related now that we’re talking about it.