When Rebekah emailed us with a doozie of a question we were pretty much left scratching our heads. Here’s it is:
Q: I’ve become an addict of your blog – just ask my husband! I can’t help but check it multiple times a day. Your posts are always so informative and they keep me motivated to keep working on our 1960’s home. Anyway, my husband and I purchased the brick ranch with a lovely yard about four months ago. My only problem is that we’re starting to see more pests (i.e. roaches… ewww!) due to the weather getting colder here in Georgia. I can’t live in a house and accept that the pests will always be there. We woke up at 4am last night because one crawled up my husband’s arm. Help! I was hoping you or your readers had some recommendations for in-house pest control. I know that pests might come with the territory of living in an older home, but I have to believe there’s a cure out there. I’m an uber-clean person (vacuuming & dusting once a week) plus we don’t leave food out and we keep everything off of the floor as much as possible. I hope my only option is NOT to hire a pest control company but if it is then so be it. Any advice? – Rebekah
A: Yup, we were stumped. Luckily (knock on wood, oops that spooked the dog and now he’s barking) we’ve never had to deal with roaches or other pests like (shiver) mice as of yet. But we did suggest that Rebekah try google-ing around for “natural pest remedies” or “getting rid of roaches” or even hanging out in the pest control aisle at her local home improvement store to see what she can find (maybe even asking an expert there what they recommend). We’re thinking there are little things like roach motels that can poison them or trap those creepy little buggers, so they might be nice to hide behind things and in corners- but Rebekah would definitely have to be careful that pets and kids don’t get into them!
In short, we tossed out a few paltry common sense ideas but wondered if any of our lovely readers had more tried and true advice to share. After all you guys were so helpful when it came to our annoying bathroom drain debacle (which we gleefully solved here), so we’re hoping that a few of you have some great ideas to toss out for Rebekah. Any natural remedies or not so natural cures that work like a charm? Any specific products or treatments that did the trick for you? Any ideas for finding the root of the problem (ie: holes? cracks?) and sealing things up at the source? Feel free to chime in and save the day. We’re hoping that regular “Calling All Experts” posts like these will become a great resource for anyone with common issues like clogged drains and pesky pets- and we definitely plan to rely on them whenever we need help right along with the rest of you!
PS: You can also learn several natural solutions for getting rid of fruit flies that involve items you already have around your home.
Jen says
My husband is an exterminator. He can use products the rest of us can’t get, he has state licenses, and he has so much scientific knowledge about bugs that it blows my mind (and disgusts me). Spring for an exterminator! The exterminator should have knowledge of the chemicals he/she is using & can help you decide on safe treatments. I’d be hesitant use stuff you bought over the internet or products from the hardware store. They might be effective but they can also be dangerous if used by a non-professional.
Oh, and don’t mess around if you get roaches, rats, or bedbugs.
Keri says
GET A CAT!
Before we got our cats we had a little Roach problem in our apartment. Sure we would call the office and for a few months the problem seem solved but then later they kept showing back up… once we got our cats the only roaches we have seen are dead roaches and we may only see one every few months. Its one of the most natural ways of getting rid of them I suppose!
Laura says
Mix dry coffee grounds and Borax together. And then say a prayer :)
Phoebe S says
A note to those of you afraid for your pets…
We live in a VERY old place in NYC, and we encountered enough bugs that we sprayed and put out roach traps. It seems to work ok for a while, but you have to stay on top of it.
We were using the little plastic bait traps. A roach is supposed to eat from it, then carry it back to its lair and kill everything in its nest. My dog managed to pry one out from behind a nook we had it in, and promptly ate it himself.
Needless to say, I was in a panic when I found the plastic bit remains. I called poison control, and they told me that for many of the smaller traps, there simply isn’t enough poisonous material to hurt a dog (or child)–particularly medium sized and up.
Obviously, call poison control to check with your traps make and model, but don’t panic and zoom to the Vet without checking in with the experts first. Just keep the box to whatever you’re using, as the numbers you might need are printed there in the fine print on the side.
And if you have any poison in the house, no matter how sure you are that it’s secure, be extra on point with noting the behavior of your pets. If they suddenly break from their normal routine in eating/drinking/bathroom, check to make sure those traps are still where you put them to rule out “eating plastic with insecticides in it” as a cause.
Tiffani says
Melissa,
I would love to know what pest control company that is because I live in Houston too. I am a true believer that pest control should be controlled only outside – I don’t want those chemicals in my home.
Natasha says
Hi friends,
My mom is a Property Manager and she recommends using something called Borik Acid Powder. You take this stuff, mix it w/ flour, sugar, water, the pests eat it, take it back to the nest and die.
Hope this helps!
Hilary says
Like Sherry, I have a nerdy, science loving brother.
My brother has a degree in bug biology (entymology) and works with animals and bugs for a living. He told me that roaches are attracted to water- specifically, open water sources. If you have a leaky pipe, open drain, etc. that is where they tend to make their homes. I saw a few posts that said they were attracted to light- but likely they are looking for water.
My house was built in 1882 and one of the first things we did was secure all open drains and leaky pipes. If you have to, put insulation around all the pipes. It’s great for the winter anyway! Make sure that you have a grate or cover in any open drain.
Merri says
When I lived up North if your neighbors had bugs you ended up getting them too. I found that in a apartment as well as a privet home if you use a bug fogger twice yearly you will never see a pest crawling around anywhere in your space. They make them water based and there is some prep work that needs to be done and some work after but it is worth it.
Good Luck
Bethany G. says
I don’t have any tips, but I am ridiculously creeped out by bugs of any kind. I run away from ladybugs and butterflies.
I can decisively say that after reading these posts (and thinking about 80 times that my bangs brushing my ear was really a cockroach) I will NEVER live in the south. Or New York City.
Corien says
We live in Indonesia, and I clearly remember the first night a cockroach ran over my face. Aaaaargh! Since cockroaches are EVERYWHERE and in every house, we don’t expect to get rid of them for good. But what works for us is spraying the bathroom drains every week. When our 4 kids were younger we bought the Baygon cockroach stations and placed them where the kids (imagine 2-year-old triplets on a discovery journey) could not find them.
Lori says
I also endorse the Borax and Diatomaceous Earth, but one thing I haven’t seen here is that for some reason they hate catnip. WHile you’re waiting for the natural remedies to kick in, get some catnip spray and use it around your bed and sofa to at least keep them away from you.
(and get drain covers, you’d be surprised how many of them come up thru sink drains)
Jenna says
Roaches are the worst! Hate, hate, hate them…cannot stand them! When we moved into our (rental) home we had a roach issue. I had a newborn baby and we saw at least one roach almost every night. Ew! A couple of things we did:
1) We got the excess foliage trimmed and cleaned up around the exterior walls. I’m honestly not sure if that made any difference, but I felt better about it. We still have lots of plants, they just aren’t out of control anymore.
2) BORAX! It’s cheap and you can buy a huge box of it. Roaches do not like it, and I was told that they won’t walk through it (not sure if that’s really true). My husband sprinkled the stuff everywhere and mixed it with water and sprayed it too. This is probably the thing that helped the most. I don’t know about using this with pets, but apparently it’s harmless to humans.
3) Watch out for standing water – especially in the bathrooms. For whatever reason we had a problem with little ones coming up the drain – yuck! We’ve made sure the faucets don’t drip and for awhile we even kept the drains plugged at night.
4) Be aware of paper stashes in dark places – they like to eat it. Think paper bags stored under the sink, etc.
Hope you can solve your roach problems! We still see one every once in awhile, but it’s so much better now. Oh! And when you want to kill one but don’t like splatting it with a shoe? Spray the thing with hairspray or Windex or something along those lines – they won’t be able to breath and therefore die. Take that you pest! Best of luck!
Teresa says
Hey Rebekah,
I can totally feel your pain. We too have a wonderful ranch in the Atlanta area. We live in a heavily wooded area and were not prepared for the ‘intruders’ when we first moved in. I know that you are not keen on exterminators, but after trying a few different companies and experiencing similar 4am horror stories, we HIGHLY recommend going with Stinger Pest Control. We utilize their green products that are child and pet friendly (we have an infant and a toddler). And believe it or not, their green products work ten times better than any of the chemical sprays that the typical exterminators use. And a great plus is that their green products are all natural, so they actually smell good (like rosemary!). They work so well, that it really isn’t neccesary to spray inside. We have them treat the exterior perimeter of the house and inside the basement…and we are virtually bug free. And if you happen to find a squatter, they will come back for a respray free of charge. Their technicians are knowledgable and friendly. I can’t say enough good things about them. Good luck!
Kristin says
Oh My GOD. The moment I got half way through these comments, a GIANT spider ran across my living room floor. Thank God for husband’s GIANT shoes! I don’t think there’s anything you can do about shoes.
As far as the question, is the writer sure it’s cockroaches? Water bugs look a lot like cockroaches.
kristin says
I meant spiders. hahahaha. Not shoes.
Jen says
Georgia here. We had problems with spiders, ants, and pincher bugs. Found a roach once too.
Every three months, I spray the perimeter of my house with this: Ortho Home Defense MAX Perimeter & Indoor Insect Killer. Now I don’t use it indoors (I don’t get bugs now that I spray), but I have used soy based bug killer in the past with success. I got it at Walmart, and actually have no idea where it is in the garage. Good luck!
Phoebe says
My boss lives by the big ol’ Mississippi river and they get water roaches and beetles every summer. She finally discovered something to take care of them! They’re sticky boards normally used for mice. They’re just wood blocks with sticky glue type stuff on them. They’re not poisonous, they just trap the little buggers as they come in. She put them in the spots she kept seeing the roaches come in and poof… no more roaches. Well, actually roaches on sticky boards but no live roaches.
Erin says
Ugh, bug hater here! After living in a 100 year old farmhouse with a dirt floor basement- let me tell you- we’ve seen every our share of creepy crawly things. The people who lived there right before us even found a live woodchuck sitting on the top of the basement steps one day. We tried many solutions, some of which worked to varying degrees, but seriously, nothing worked as great as calling a pest control company. I know it’s not a popular soluation, and I hate using chemicals, but it was worth it to us. They sprayed around our windows, doors and the perimeter the first year and just outside every year after that- and we talked to them about using a chemical that would be considered ‘safer’ around people and pets. We rarely saw a bug ever again. After we had kids, I stopped hiring the pest people, but the bugs still stayed away until we moved away two years later. Good luck!
Sierra Nething says
The house we bought 5 months ago was infested with bugs of all kinds- the most prominent being roaches and black widows. Since the home was a total fixer upper, we bought all new carpet & carpet pads. That really helped because I think they were hiding under there and coming out through holes in the old worn carpet. We also went through the house with that foam hole filler stuff that comes in a bottle that looks like canned air to fill holes. Between that and calking and drywall mud, we sprayed sealed every single hole and crack in our house. Our next project will be to get new weather stripping around doors because they were walking right in the front door because of the gap underneath. Those are improvements you can make to your home that doubly help because the help keep your home insulated thus keeping down your energy bills.
Becca says
We have this same problem. I just recently found a dead cockroach under my baby’s crib. She was crawling on her bedroom floor and started pointing under the crib…I was expecting a pacifier, and instead it was a dead roach. Panic attack quickly followed. At least it was dead.
Roaches are very attracted to water as other comments have stated. Definitely try to eliminate any places with standing water that you can.
Hire a professional. These little demons could be everywhere. In your walls, pipes, or under your baby’s crib.
Not that I’ve said anything new, but I feel your pain (and panic!). Good luck!
Jacci says
Okay – first of all – I’m so sorry! We had a somewhat similar experience this summer, seeing about 5 bugs total. We’re big nature buffs and *love* that we now live close to woods, but weren’t really ready for that part of it!
This is crazy sounding, but here’s what we did. We caught one. I know, I know, but it was important to me that we I.D. the bug correctly. So, I caught one in a cleaned out salsa jar that I had at the ready. I put the lid on, stuck it in the freezer, and the thing died. Then, through the glass, we could get a good solid look. There are MANY different insects within the roach family, and they have different habits. We were extremely thankful to learn that our bug was a Pennsylvania Wood Roach, a roach that does not infest homes, but instead sometimes comes indoors when attracted to light or looking for a water source.
In all of my reading about roaches, though, the boric acid came up again and again. Especially in reference to property management as an inexpensive means of control. This commenter got it totally right:
“My husband’s grandmother would put half/half of borax and icing sugar to get rid of the roaches (they lived on St. Simon’s in Georgia.) The roaches are attracted to the sweetness of the icing sugar but the mixture turns into cement in their stomachs. This stops them from drinking water and they die. It can take up to two weeks for them to die but it really works. We had some in our garage and I put little piles of this concoction all around and I haven’t seen any roaches in months.”
Even if you go for stronger means, make certain your insecticide is one that is CARRIED BACK TO THE NEST or to other roaches. Poisons that the insects eat and then share are consider to be more thorough and long-lasting.
I truly hope you can take care of this! Good luck!!! :)
Jacci
Amanda Wright says
Our house has a heavily wooded backyard so tons of bugs come in even though we keep our house clean. We tried all sorts of do-it-yourself methods and none of them worked. Finally a roach crawled up the side of the couch and onto my lap. When I jumped up and tried to brush it off it started scurrying around my body doing laps…
The next day I called an exterminator. He comes 4 times a year, and we haven’t had any more creepy crawly visitors since. I’d rather have some bug poison around the house than roaches in my lap!
Dianna says
Are they roaches or palmentoe bugs. Living in the south it could be palmento bugs. They live in palm trees. For whatever reason, you see them more at night.
I lived in the south for a # of years and bugs are a part of tropical living. You probably have a local store that sells pest control. They would be able to advise you on products.
Jacci says
Sorry – one more thing. Roaches molt as they grow, so they’ll look slightly different when they are immature. Each stage between molting is called an “instar”. For the first few instars, the roaches are small – very small. If you are finding small papery-looking ovals, those are their molted skins. Look for areas where they might be concentrated. Also, it might help to familiarize yourself with their droppings – google search.
Jacci
Elaine says
Rebekah,
In Houston we call those huge roaches “tree roaches.” Usually they keep to themselves outside and only venture into the house when hasn’t rained in weeks and they’re looking for water.
Years ago, when my little sister and I lived together, we discovered the poor girl’s solution to stopping them mid-flight when they’d glide down from the ceiling: hairspray. It made their wings stick together so they just dropped to the floor. Then we’d whack them with a shoe.
Now I use a roach bait in the back of the cabinet under the kitchen sink. When my son was little we used the boric acid/cornmeal mix. Both methods work really well.
But I do keep a can of cheap hairspray around just in case.
Amanda says
Oh and I just have to tell you this story: once in my old house, a Box Elder bug started crawling in my nose while I was sleeping. I am not making this up. I woke up and immediately snorted it back out and clawed at my face. I think I might have cried, haha. It’s funny now, but it wasn’t funny in the middle of the night!
Kate says
I lived in Miami for 10 years, and I was horrified the first time I saw a “palmetto bug”. I did some studying and training for pest control, especially relating to artwork, and I don’t believe that the bombing and gassing types of pesticides work. When there was a lot of rain, we knew we were going to see a couple of roaches in the house – that’s just the way it is when you choose to live in the South. The same way that I now expect to see a few spiders in my 130-year-old farmhouse at certain times of the year. Unless you are in one of those new hermetically-sealed places that make a suction noise when you open the door, they will find a way to get in when they need to. We kept our house and kitchen in Florida as clean and as clutter-free as possible. You cannot leave out food, empty glasses, etc. and leaving around boxes and other things will invite all kinds of bugs. It’s also true about water. Things need to be kept dry, because other types of bugs that will damage your home will end up being attracted to damp and rotting wood, such as silverfish and termites.
Another thing that makes a big difference is mulch, which I was told by several pest-control experts. People who spread mulch all around the bases of their homes will see an increase in roaches, centipedes, scorpions, etc. We switched to river rocks (which looked nicer anyway), and our friends who kept dumping mulch had many more roaches & scorpions inside their homes.
Good luck! I can’t say that I ever grew to love the palmetto bugs, but I did learn to admire their moxie. One will just crawl into your bag of chips and hang out there until you go to get a Dorito a couple of days later, lol.
Jamie in Canada says
Just reading about this is freaking me out. This is exactly my favourite thing about living where it’s so cold in the winter – NO GIANT BUGS EVER, lol. Good luck to everyone dealing with them!
East End says
A friend of mine always used Boraxo as a preventative measure for bugs. I remembereed this when my cat brought fleas into the house, nothing worked until I sprinkled boraxo around, left it overnight then vacuumed. It’s a miracle!
Rene says
Years ago I bought an old house in Missouri that had enough roaches that we would see one or more in the kitchen every morning. I didn’t want to use chemicals but didn’t want to have roaches! I did some research, bought some ultrasonic pest control units that I plugged into outlets in the kitchen, basement and a couple other rooms, kept all of the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers open so the “sound” could bounce around and I think it took about a week or so before we had zero roaches (though we kept those things plugged in the entire time we lived there!)
I know at the time I researched which brand was best, based on the range of frequencies and the power of the units. I didn’t go with the ones that had an electromagnetic component.
Good luck!
J Mason says
Having lived in the south most of my life, I’ve had roach problems off & on. I try to keep the house clean, but am not the best at it.
I used to use vinegar to clean my hard (non-wood) floors. My husband got sick of the vinegar smell, so I switched to Dr. Bronners (baby mild liquid soap). I have not seen a roach in the house since I switched. I thought maybe it was coincidental, but I cleaned our outside patio walls with Dr. Bronners one day and the next day found two dead cockroaches out on our patio near the walls that I had just cleaned. Proof enough for me, but maybe you can ask almost doctor Dan if there’s any science behind it – or really just coincidence.
I’ve also done a lot of googling about cockroaches & kept seeing Borax as a solution (mostly sprinkling it around the perimeter of the house). I chose not to do that since we have pets & kids. I have however used Borax for many other things including the powdered sugar/Borax mixture (mentioned in another post) on my kitchen counter to get rid of ants. (I get a kick out of the mini-science experiment that I get to watch as the ants crawl over the powder, eat it, die, then consume each other & die – then no more ants! :)
Beth says
I had a roach problem in a house I rented once. I agree with the people who have mentioned figuring out what sort of bugs you have. Especially since you have them in your bedroom: they could be roaches that prefer to be outside that are attracted by the water source or other things. If so, sealing your house better may be the solution.
Also, when you say you put food away, what does that mean? I had to switch to tupperware-type containers for everything (including cereal, chips, etc). They can chew through thin plastic films like chip bags.
Good luck!
Dawn says
Buy powdered boric acid. Home depot carries it, and sprinkle it under all the baseboards (it has a nozzle head to get in crevices). Roaches usually travel in walls and around the perimeter of the room. Also sprinkle under appliances, in sink cupboards, etc. It is different from Borax… which may also work, but Boric Acid is a natural dessicant and will dry out their bodies and they will bring residue back to the nest.
This will also kill spiders, silverfish, and other nasty pests and if applied properly, will only be in areas where pets and children won’t get into it. It was the only foolproof thing we tried that got rid of roaches and silverfish.
Ben says
I just found a bizillion roaches living in our yard in a pile of cinderblocks, so a good thing to do after cleaning up all the insides of the house is check outside for any Roach Motels and bomb them with poison or something (Boric Acid seems to be the popular choice on here)
You might want to bug bomb your basement/crawlspace as well.
Good Luck
bb says
Ask the City Water Department to dust the manhole.. it will make a big diff….I live in Arizona.. roaches love it here.. all the pools etc…
Alot of them do crawl out dead when you have the exterminator over tho. It takes a long time for them to come back once you exterminate.
Diva Style says
Boric acid will kill roaches (and other bugs) DEAD…and keep them at bay. Yes, the term acid sounds scary, but my mom (the queen of homeopathy, lol) used it to snuff out a case of pink eye for me once! It worked immediately. I suggest sprinkling the boric acid around places that one sees the roaches, as well as across window sills, door entryways, etc. Also, I read somewhere that in order to kill ants, it’s a good idea to mix boric acid and sugar in a bowl. The ants will be attracted to the sugar, consume it and die. Using this tactic may work with the roaches, as well, but simple boric acid should do the trick. You can pick up some boric acid at your local drug store.
Seraph says
I haven’t read all the comments yet (in a hurry) but has anyone mentioned how to get rid of camel crickets? I’ve also heard them called cave crickets. I’m not sure if they’re unhealthy the way roaches are to have around, but they’re ugly as sin and my basement apartment in NC -always- seems to have a few. They obviously like water so I’m going to get drain covers, but does anyone have any other tips?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Seraph,
We haven’t heard anything about camel or cave crickets although I do know someone who uses sticky traps (meant for mice) to trap crickets in their home. Hope it helps! And anyone else with advice on the subject, feel free to chime in!
xo,
s
Susan S says
I noticed in one of the comments that someone was looking for ways to get rid of fleas and I have one of those, ‘crazy, heard from a friend who heard from a friend’ deals that actually work.
Pour liquid dishsoap on bright white throw away plate(s) and place them under plug in nightlights in the most heavily affected area(s) right before you call it a night.
It sounds so stupid that I never thought it would work but being desperate, I was willing to try anything. It took about a week, but with routine house cleaning and plates set out each night, our house was once again flea free without the need for any caustic chemicals that could hurt my kidlet or pets.
Hope this helps :)
Megan says
We have roaches that come up the drains from the sewers. At the beginning of the summer I pour about a cup of bleach down all the drains and that normally takes care of them.
Bailey says
Ok, straight from the Terminix guy who does our pest control at work…the best thing you can do is Borax Powder.
Borax powder can be applied to baseboards and in cracks between shelves, under your fridge and oven, etc. The powder is a lot more nature friendly than the pesticide alternative.
That said, if you want to “shock and awe” and go the pesticide route, I highly recommend Bengal Gold roach spray. This stuff will make your bathroom or kitchen look like a roach war zone.
Best of luck!
Stephanie says
My husband and I just bought our first townhouse. When we were getting ready to move in there was a dead water bug (giant roach–ick) in the master bedroom. Before we actually moved in, my husband bug-bombed the heck out of the entire house (and garage). We found two more dead water bugs (and about a million spiders) after that. My mom said that it was from the townhouse being vacant for a year, the bugs had come in during the summer through the pipes looking for water.
My cat recently found another one in the kitchen (shiver). My mother (my source for all things) advises stuffing steel wool in any cracks around pipes in your house. She said that they won’t cross this barrier for some reason. This is the route we’ve gone–it’s not been long, but fingers crossed! We have three kitties, so we don’t want to use chemicals if we can avoid it.
Beth says
I am a Floridian, born and raised. I love everything about what Florida offers, EXCEPT the bugs! After discovering this website thanks to Ready Made Magazine, I am in LOVE! I was cleaning my house today and thought about “what about pest control” so it got on and by accident came across this topic. At any rate, I will say this… we have struggled with bugs invading our 70 year old home, and in complete desperation we called an exterminator. Although he would come out anytime i needed him to, the bugs still persisted. I cancelled the contract and turned to “home remedies” We found that bug bombs work wonderfully! But we would have to set them and vacate the house for half a day. Then come back and clean…ugh. I am going to try borax and hopefully that works out! Thanks so much for the tips!!! I’m excited!
Beth
YoungHouseLove says
Good luck Beth!
xo,
s
Allison says
My parents built a house in a rural area about 10 years ago. My mother poured a container of boric acid into the wet cement when the foundation was poured and then put a line of boric acid along EVERY SINGLE 2×4 when the house was framed. We hear boric acid looses efficacy when it gets wet, so we don’t know if adding it to the cement helped, but when all of their neighbors were inundated with scorpions, spiders and roaches during the winter, my parents had nothing.
I recently bought my first house. We were a little suspicious that the house came with 1 year of pest control. Day 2 after moving in we discovered the roach nest under the hot water heater. The floor was wet, so we let it dry, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, sprayed with bleach, sprayed with something magical the guy at the hardware store sold me (I know, it was probably terrible for me and the environment, but I couldn’t deal with the horror), and put boric acid around all the baseboards. I have only seen a handful of sickly looking roaches since then. I feel the problem is pretty much solved.
Elizabeth@ wake&gather says
The link on the “projects” page to this post is mis-spelled. Fyi!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip!
xo,
s
Sherrie says
They’ll by no means get much though, simply because the gas will ultimately poison them.
There are many chemical flea products on the market,
each with their own set of toxicity risks; however chemical insecticides are often endodocrine
disrupters and carcinogenic. When the cockroach comes in contact with the powder
with any part of its body, the insect’s nervous system will fail to function and
it will die within 4 – 10 hours.