One of My Least Favorite

This year I have seen an inordinate amount of roaches out near the chicken coop and also around the yard and even on the house. Ugh! I have even seen one or two in the basement. Again, UGH!

Does anyone have any good ideas about a remedy for this problem. I'm racking my gray matter to no avail.

Comments

  • RustBeltCowgirl
    RustBeltCowgirl Posts: 1,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Can't help you on that one. Hoping you find some sort of solution.

  • Tave
    Tave Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @naomi.kohlmeier, I used to work in an apartment complex where roaches can get bad. We would dust boric acid where the cockroaches liked to hide out, behind the stove and refrigerator, or anywhere there is a little warmth, like electrical outlets. I would take off the electrical outlet plate and dust a little behind, and put the plate back on.

    Roaches are actually clean freaks and don't like walking on piles of dust, so the boric acid would need to be barely noticeable and somewhere dry. They get it on their feet, then ingest it when they clean themselves. I hope that helps.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    @naomi.kohlmeier I have heard that they also like to congregate in the control panel of stoves. You should be able to flip open a portion of that and be able to check for signs there. I would think that's where boric acid should be sprinkled too.

    I have never had those here. I hope to never have to either. 😬

    Good luck.

  • karenjanicki
    karenjanicki Posts: 996 ✭✭✭✭

    What about using diatamaceous earth in the areas you see them? It's suppose to kill bugs yet be safe for other animals.

  • frogvalley
    frogvalley Posts: 675 ✭✭✭✭

    My husband never let a corrugated cardboard box into our house because it might have roaches in it. I scoffed at him until one day when he wasn't home and I brought in a box and let it tarry too long. Within a short amount of time of noticing a little roach hitchhiker, he tried to flee in an effort to find permanent housing. He was quickly dispatched - sent to live with the angels. Only one box has stayed in our house or sheds since and it too provided temporary shelter for a hitchhiker that met the same fate as the first one. NEVER KEEP CARDBOARD BOXES ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH FOOD.

    I come from the land of the giant roach they call "palmetto bug." They are still roaches no matter what kind of cutesy name you give them. Hold strong and be victorious. Don't feed them or given them sanctuary for sake of all that is holy.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @naomi.kohlmeier You are probably seeing moisture loving roaches, versus the household kind that hitchhike in cardboard boxes from the grocery store.

    Every time one of those gets into my house --if the cats don't get it -- it dies from dehydration in my desert environment.

    I have lizards, roadrunners and scorpions to feed on any cockroaches here.

    Above powder suggestions would probably work, but note that boric acid is toxic to various animals as well. Diatamaceous earth is probably your best bet, just keep from breathing the stuff, and place it away from your various animals and birds.

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2021

    @naomi.kohlmeier

    Do you drink distilled water?

    Sometime back I read that the typical blood work/chemistry was not a good way to check magnesium levels. Have a look at this link and if nothing else you may glean generic info that might help you get to the heart of the problem.

    https://www.mymagnesiumdeficiency.info/how-to-test-for-magnesium-deficiency/#:~:text=The%20ionized%20test%20is%20the%20most%20accurate%20of,more%20specific%20reading%20of%20our%20overall%20magnesium%20levels.

    Have you ever tried 'Earthing'?

    Let us know as you go forward in your search..you never know, sometimes the answer will come suddenly after days or weeks looking.

  • water2world
    water2world Posts: 1,177 ✭✭✭✭

    @naomi.kohlmeier I second the recommendation for the boric acid!! Just don't add sugar to it!

  • bcabrobin
    bcabrobin Posts: 251 ✭✭✭

    We use 40 mule team laundry soap powder for fleas. Dust it on your carpets, beds, floors etc. Leave it on for as long as possible I'm told 48 hrs works great, but we have never done it that long, repeat in 2 weeks with the next batch of fleas. should break the cycle, if not repeat. Don't hurt cats/dog but try to not have the walk on it to much as it will dry out their skin. Just vacuum up when done.

    Just table salt will also dry the shells out.

  • blevinandwomba
    blevinandwomba Posts: 813 ✭✭✭✭

    Ok, not an actually helpful suggestion, but I found it funny so...

    I was reading this post yesterday. Mentioning they were near the chicken coop made me think how much chickens like to eat bugs. I would think a roach would be too big for them to handle, and it wouldn't help much in the house anyhow, but I was trying to think if there was anything one could keep that eats roaches. Later that night I was on the phone with my sister, and one of the first things she told me was that one of her pet rats had caught a cockroach. So all you need are to get some rats to roam about the house...

    For the record, these are domesticated rats, not wild. They actually make very nice pets; not near so grumpy as hamsters.

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    Hmmm....rats or roaches....can't say I'm keen on either one of them.

  • blevinandwomba
    blevinandwomba Posts: 813 ✭✭✭✭

    But the rats you can teach tricks...

  • gardneto76
    gardneto76 Posts: 528 ✭✭✭✭

    @naomi.kohlmeier I agree that they sound more like the larger, what we call sewer roaches. The boric acid will work. You can also pick up a bait at any hardware store just make sure your animals don’t have access to it. As nasty as roaches are they can do some great work outside in the compost pile or in the garden. Chickens can eat the larger ones, but it does take some work. Mine have a hard time catching the roaches as they are so fast and can out maneuver the girls.

  • kbmbillups1
    kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,391 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @naomi.kohlmeier We had those terrible palmetto bugs last year for the first time that @frogvalley was talking about. I hate them more than I can say! They fly!!! Just terrible!!!! We live in the south so palmetto bugs are a normal thing. They say they live in the trees here. We've lived in our house 20 years and just had a few last year. They were coming in from outside somehow. We'd go outside at night and they'd be on the patio.

    Like @karenjanicki suggested, I bought a large bag of food grade diatamaceous earth. I wanted it to be food grade so it wouldn't hurt my cats etc. Anyway, I bought the handheld puffer (for lack of a better word - I can't remember what it was called.) I put a dusting around the outside our house when ever we'd see one inside and after every rain. It seems to have worked really well. I even put some inside where ever I saw them. So far so good this year!

    One other thing I did was to leave a light on in the garage. A couple had gotten in there and I just knew they'd make their way into the house. I put DE all over the garage and left a light on. I think the light has really helped in there since our garage has small areas around the garage door where you can see light during the day - I knew they'd have no problem coming on in. They don't like light.

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Putting out trays of beer, the same way you trap slugs, can also work for roaches. The roaches are attracted to the scent of the beer, climb in to drink it, and drown.

  • Brindy
    Brindy Posts: 212 ✭✭✭

    I like the beer idea. It works great for pill bugs (rolly pollies). My mom bought geckos and they ate the roaches, even the huge flying ones. I'm not sure if it was a specific kind, but they quickly became my favorites.

  • blevinandwomba
    blevinandwomba Posts: 813 ✭✭✭✭

    @Brindy my sister used to live in Okinawa, and often had wild ones in her apartment. She was told not to worry about it, they'll eat the bugs.

  • Brindy
    Brindy Posts: 212 ✭✭✭
    edited June 2021

    @blevinandwomba that's awesome!

    @naomi.kohlmeier If you can handle having geckos, it might be worth a try.

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    I've never considered it, but I'll sure look into them! Thanks @Brindy

  • maimover
    maimover Posts: 359 ✭✭✭

    @silvertipgrizz @naomi.kohlmeier someone just sent me a link for an earthing movie; I’ll see if I can share it here. I watched one a while back and have to say that with no uncertainty that I feel way better when I walk through the woods with my bare feet. Not sure the movie is the same one I watched but it’s very intriguing…

  • jowitt.europe
    jowitt.europe Posts: 1,465 admin

    @naomi.kohlmeier sorry to hear that. They are so difficult to get rid of. I had them once in my flat. I do not know how we got them, but I know very well, why they spread in the flat. My daughter (7-8 years old in those days) did not want to eat breakfast and did not want to fight about it, thus she just threw bread, butter cheese behind the fridge. After quite a time our dog was very much interested in what was there, but he could not reach. By the time I decided to check we had quite a family of roaches, several generations. It was awful to get rid of them. I checked every shelf, every box, every drawer.

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    Ugh! I am so sorry you went through that! I remember having an infestation in a house I previously lived in many years ago. I got up one night and went into the kitchen, flipped on the light switch and saw between 15-20 on the walls. They were all at least two inches long and scattered quickly. I'm sure I was pretty freaked out at the time. At the time, although, I hate to admit it, I probably got out the raid and sprayed every hiding place I could think of.

  • monica197
    monica197 Posts: 332 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • jowitt.europe
    jowitt.europe Posts: 1,465 admin

    @naomi.kohlmeier i used to spray them in old days as well. I was much less nature conscious. Now, if I have to, I try to use some neutral killing stuff. E.g. I have to treat my bees against varroa mites. I use ant acid and oxalic acid.

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @maimover

    I'm curious regarding your post on earthing. I have been absent for awhile but just before that I did post a link to an earthing video. Could I have posted it in the wrong category? I don't see anything in this thread regarding earthing?

    Just in case you have not been able to find the earthing movies/videos you would like to watch I can post some if you like just let me know. In the meantime I'll see if your link will work for me...my puter is in it's 'dial up' mode and it's a real pain.