- Boric acid is a white powder mixed in with more palatable food such as flour and sugar. The roach eats the edible items along with the boric acid. For the roaches to eat all of this, it needs to be laid down in several known places roaches or their droppings have been sighted. The best rooms to place it are the kitchen and bathroom because water drops are available for the roach to drink from.
- After entering the digestive system of the roach, it seeks out the nervous system and paralyzes it by burning it away like an acid. Any boric acid that sticks to the legs can be absorbed by the skin or licked off when the roach cleans itself. The roach cannot move and eventually dies.
- One roach infected with boric acid contains the capacity to kill other roaches. According to the University of Kentucky's entomology department, other cockroaches routinely eat the droppings and even the sputum (spit) of other roaches. Enough traces of boric acid will still be in the infected roach's droppings and sputum to kill any roach that eats it. All species of roaches have not shown any tolerance to boric acid.
