How to Get Rid of Roaches Naturally
If you have a problem with them, it’s important to know how to get rid of roaches successfully. The easy way is to just call in an exterminator, but the chemicals they use aren’t environmentally friendly and also very expensive. If you’re a person who’s concerned about being green and using natural products, eliminating pests like roaches can be a significant problem.
However, there are several completely natural ways to eliminate cockroaches in your house without putting your family or pets in any danger from harmful substances.
#1-Keep Your House Clean
The cleaner your house, the less chance there is of having cockroaches. Make sure you clean off all plates and pans and don’t leave open food around. Wash all pet dishes every day. Keep kitchen counters spotless as well. This way, there’ll be nothing for the cockroaches to eat.
#2-Geckos
You might not like the idea of geckos running free in your house. But if you do, they’re a very good, and quite unobtrusive, way of cutting down on roaches. You’ll need to put down plenty of water for them. They hunt at night and eat roaches, and then sleep all day, so you’ll rarely see them. You’ll find it’s not a method for completely eradicating the bugs, but geckos will keep the population under control.
Cats, too, like to eat roaches but won’t eat enough to make any real difference to the numbers, as roaches breed too fast.
#3-Fruit and Earth
Diatomaceous earth is a good method for keeping roaches at bay and can be sprinkled wherever you’ve seen them. Be aware, though, that the fumes can be harmful to parrots as it’s being put down.
Hedge apple, the fruit of Osage Orange, is a roach killer. They love the fruit but it’s absolutely deadly for them, although perfectly safe for humans and animals. To use, cut each apple in half and distribute around the house, especially in kitchen cabinets and around the basement.
#4-Cockroach Trap
Although cockroach traps alone won’t get rid of all your roaches, they’re very effective at lowering the numbers. They’re simple and can be made in two ways. Put some potato or apple peelings in the bottom of a jar. Smear Vaseline or something similar inside the neck, going down around two inches. The roaches will tumble into the jar to seek the sugar water, then can’t climb back out.
Alternatively, you can use talcum powder instead of the grease and the effect is the same. You can kill the roaches by tipping them into hot water with some soap in it. You will need to change the peelings regularly to keep attracting the roaches.
#5-Roach Bait
You can sprinkle borax around appliances and cupboards, even baseboards. This dehydrates roaches and they’ll track the powder back to their nest on their legs, killing others. You can also make a paste of equal parts borax, sugar, and water. Roaches eat this and it has the same effect.
If you don’t want to use borax, which is classed as an insecticide, you can substitute baking soda in the paste.