February 8, 2010

Home Remedies to Get Rid of Cockroaches

Posted in Category : Natural Cures

One pest found all over the world and considered to be a sign of unhygienic conditions is the cockroach, and it is a vile critter. Although a cockroach is able to live anywhere on the planet, the most comfortable and most likely place that it marks as its residence is your own house. This is because in your house it has easy access to scraps of food and other knick knacks that it needs to eat, breed, and survive. In the process, it also spreads germs in your house, making it a breeding ground for illnesses. This is why it is important to get rid of cockroaches. There are several home remedies as well as market-ready remedies for killing roaches. Given below are a few steps that you can follow in order to achieve complete cockroach eradication. But first, here’s a look at how much damage a cockroach infestation can really do.

Cockroaches and your Health

As mentioned earlier, cockroaches are extremely unhygienic and can spread many diseases in your house. Some of the common diseases that cockroaches carry are typhoid, dysentery, gastroenteritis, and polio. Apart from spreading illnesses, some people are allergic to cockroaches as well, in particular roach droppings. Inhaling the dust laden with droppings or exposing yourself to this unintentionally in your cabinets, cupboards, and even food can lead to allergic reactions.

Where do the Roaches Live?

Cockroaches can survive anywhere. They are regarded as one of the oldest and hardiest of crawlers, and can even go some days without their head. If you’ve kept your house unclean, you can be assured that cockroaches live with you. Cockroaches live in rotting foods, garbage cans, peeling and musty wallpaper, hair, old leather couches, etc. Moving from one location to another, the roaches spread the germs practically all over your house.

Getting Rid of Roaches

1. The first step includes the detection of the presence of cockroaches in your home. These are dark brown colored medium to large size insects that have spiny legs and antennae. If you spot even a single one of them in your house somewhere, you should know that the odds are there are a lot more of these creepers crawling behind the walls or cupboards. The problem with spotting these insects is that they are nocturnal, so they keep hidden all through the day. However, you can always check for their droppings. Take a look inside your cupboards and book shelves. Inspect them regularly and look out for a brown slime stain or pellets.

2. The next step is to follow the cockroaches in order to find out where these insects come from and where they go during the night. This is crucial to prevent cockroaches from infecting your house. However, this step is far more difficult to actually do. You will have to do some snooping around to figure out the exact location. Inspect the whole house and search for holes and cracks that can serve as entry and exit for these insects. Seal all these possible points to avoid roach infestation. Cockroaches often enter through drains and vents, so you may not always be able to seal all points.

3. Home remedies are the best when it comes to killing roaches. Some of the best known methods are listed below.

  • Boric acid in powdered form, mixed with sugar and flour, to kill, bait and hold the mixture, respectively, is one stop solution for all your problems. Although not extremely poisonous, boric acid is only for external use and should be kept away from kids and pets.
  • Dusting cocoa, boric acid and flour in the cracks and hidden areas can also help to get rid of cockroaches.
  • Using roach tablets is also a good option.
  • Using cockroach traps is another alternative. These traps use a sticky material to trap the cockroaches, and you can then easily kill them or dispose of them far from the house.
  • The simplest method is to place water jars near walls with bait inside that will lure the roaches inside the jar, but they will not be able to get out of the jar.

4. Once you’ve rid your house of roaches, to ensure that you continue living in a healthy environment, you need to prevent re-infestation. This can be achieved solely by maintaining cleanliness throughout, especially the kitchen. Crumbs, spills, and garbage lure these insects, so cleaning them is the best method. Cover all food and use sealed jars to store food at all times to prevent cockroaches form spreading in your house.

5. Last, but not the least, seek the help of a professional. If everything else fails, it is the best time to call a pest control expert. Exterminators can help you free you house from roach infestation better that home remedies or using natural roach control methods.

Cockroaches are very hard to eradicate and even harder to kill. Stronger measures have to be taken once you spot them in your house. Therefore, if the situation is not under control using home remedies professional help is the last resort. Keep in mind that living with cockroaches is asking for danger from a health point of view.

References

  1. https://utextension.tennessee.edu/publications/Documents/pb1024.pdf