How to Make a Homemade Roach Killer

A good roach killer can be particularly hard to find. Anyone who’s ever had a problems with cockroaches will know that it’s difficult, sometimes almost impossible, to get rid of them completely. You can hire an exterminator, but they tend to be incredibly expensive, and it's hard to determine exactly what's in the sprays that they use. They also need to return for repeated treatments to be truly effective, which can lead to further expense. However, there is a cheaper way to rid yourself of these awful pests with your own roach killer. There are several different recipes and they are all safe for humans and animals, work very effectively and are cheap to make using readily obtainable ingredients. 

The Problem with Roaches

They say cockroaches could survive a nuclear holocaust. They certainly breed rapidly and a female roach hatches up to 40 eggs at a time, meaning you can soon be overrun by roaches. The only effective way to eliminate them is by killing the eggs before they hatch. Thi9s usually requires something that the roaches take back to their nests.

Boric Acid Paste

Although boric acid has been classed as an insecticide since 1948, the government says it’s no more dangerous to humans than table salt. To make a roach killing paste, take three teaspoons of boric acid and mix it with three teaspoons of sugar and three teaspoons of water. Mix together to form a paste then put it in areas where you’ve spotted roaches in your home as well as areas where roaches live. 

When the roaches eat the paste, it leaves them dehydrated which will eventually cause them to die. They carry the paste back to the nest on their bodies and legs. The young eat it and also die. The paste should eliminate your roaches within two weeks. If it doesn’t, make more and re-apply.

Baking Soda Paste

Most people have baking soda in their kitchens. It has many different uses and one of them is to kill cockroaches. You can make a paste just as you would with boric acid, mixing the baking soda, sugar and water in equal parts. Next, put it down in cabinets, under the sink and around the stove areas that cockroaches love.

The baking soda poisons the roaches but not immediately. They will take it back to the nest on their feet and that will kill the other roaches. Again, it takes a little while to be fully effective and you might need to re-apply the paste once or twice to get rid of all the roaches. 

Soap and Water

Something as simple as soap and water can be a very effective killer of cockroaches, although it won’t eliminate the nest. This just kills the roaches it reaches. Pour a cup of water into a spray bottle then add one teaspoon of liquid soap. When you see a roach, spray the mixture on it. It clogs the roach’s pores so it can't breathe and eventually dies. 

Water can work for killing roaches, too. Simply put a jar of it in corners where you often spot roaches. They’ll climb in but can’t get out again, and will eventually drown in the jar. Again, this doesn’t kill the nest but it’s an easy way to eliminate some of your roaches.