Roaches

[Jscotty]

One thing about owning rental property is that roaches are inevidable. I cannot understand why.. especially when the last tenants were relatively neat and clean... or so they led me to believe.

Anyhow I have had this roach problem in my rental property for quite some time now and everything I tried didnt work. Someone told me that what I needed to do was use boric acid which comes in powdered form and you sprinkle it in the corners. Has anyone else had this problem or had experience with the powder?

[s0urce]

Go get a large bag of peanut butter M&M's. Put them in a blender and add about 1/4th a cup of baking soda. Blend this up and sprinkle it throughout the house. Sounds ridiculous...but you'd be suprised.

[Zya8187]

Don't waste peanut butter M&M's for that they are just to good. :D

[Nygdup]

Boric acid works. It's usually the main ingredient in most roach killers. But don't use around pets.

I sprinkled the trouble areas in my house last year and it made a huge difference. Keep in mind it's a poison, not a repellant though. It won't happen immediately.

[KangamangusDriver]

What i have used in the past for ants is:

-20 mule team borax (soap,chemical available at grocery store)
-Sugar
-Water

Mix the sugar and borax together with a lil water to make a paste.
Place it around the high traffic areas, they will eat, they will DIE!

[moloc325]

put a few bowls of beer/liquor around the house...the roaches will drink, get drunk, fall in the bowl and drown..i'm pretty sure i read that somewhere...

[Jesse30]

put a few bowls of beer/liquor around the house...the roaches will drink, get drunk, fall in the bowl and drown..i'm pretty sure i read that somewhere...

hahaha

[Jscotty]

put a few bowls of beer/liquor around the house...the roaches will drink, get drunk, fall in the bowl and drown..i'm pretty sure i read that somewhere...

Yeah.. the roaches were actually drowning in the toilet from what the previous tenants told me. When I spoke with them today, they were going to call in a professional exterminator and pay for it themselves because they felt responsible for the problem. So at this point I dont know if I should try the boric acid or if I should let the exterminator do his thing.

[MikeE30325i]

let the exterminator have his fun, and if they still arent gone use the methods people have told you about in here.

[HST]

They don't like dry air, get a dehumidifier.

[FredK]

What i have used in the past for ants is:

-20 mule team borax (soap,chemical available at grocery store)
-Sugar
-Water

Mix the sugar and borax together with a lil water to make a paste.
Place it around the high traffic areas, they will eat, they will DIE!

I've used this exact recipe for ants. It works! It sure reduced the number of carpenter ants around the joint!

[Jscotty]

They don't like dry air, get a dehumidifier.

Ah... that might be a key point to the situation. They had several humidifiers in the house because their kid had athsma or some other sort of respitory problem. And that would explain why the house was always immaculantly clean. I feel much better now because I could not add up in my mind how a clean house could have roaches.

[ivo316]

I googled this but sounds good to me

1. Preventative control. If there's nothing to eat in your home, most roaches will just go away. Roaches like open sources of water and standing mess (like crumbs and things rotting at the bottom of a garbage bag). So to get rid of your roach problem, either make sure that you don't leave a mess around, or keep your mess tightly enclosed in thick plastic. Keeping your food wrapped and your dishes clean will probably lead your roaches to look for greener pastures. At the very least, combining this effort with another pest control method will be highly effective.
   
2. Predators. Many claim to have never seen a roach in their home that their cat or dog wasn't in the process of killing. While you can't depend on a cat, dog, or ferret to completely eliminate a roach infestation, they can keep the outside populations that you see moving at night under control. Also, the sheer joy of watching a beloved pet get their claws on a nasty bug is pure catharsis.

[Jscotty]

Interesting. When I was in college, I lived in my apartment for 9 months without cleaning a single thing and I never saw a roach. My kitchen was full of crumbs, spills, grease, etc. and we had long periods of time where there were standing messes. But then again when I signed the lease I "roach bombed" the place with 3 times the reccomended amount of fumigator.