How to Eliminate Cockroaches Forever

Cockroaches can spread germs across countertops just by walking over them.

Eliminating a cockroach infestation takes a certain level of commitment to seeing that job through to the end. Half measures can be worse than useless. If you make cockroaches feel threatened without actually getting rid of them, they are likely to hole up deep inside your walls and breed where they can't be seen. This will make it much more difficult to control infestation. Freeing your home from these germ-carrying insects may be a big job, but it's one you can do yourself, without having to call in professional exterminators.

Things You'll Need

• Flashlight
• Small mirror
• Vacuum cleaner
• Sticky traps
• Pen
• Paper
• Bucket
• Detergent
• Sponges or cleaning rags
• Weatherstripping
• Boric acid dust
• Caulk
• Caulking gun

Instructions

1. Find the hiding holes and homes of the roaches in your house. Go through each room with a flashlight and small mirror. Look behind and under appliances and furniture. Look along the baseboards, in closets and cabinets. Look everywhere it's dark, warm and/or moist. Look for living or dead roaches, roach droppings and shed roach skins. Have a vacuum cleaner ready to suck up any roaches you find. Place sticky traps throughout your house and let them sit. Those that capture roaches are likely to be nearer to their holes than those that don't. At night, quietly enter each room and turn on the lights. Watch where the roaches scurry to. Make a diagram of all places you suspect of infestation.

2. Put all food into sealable plastic containers to keep out roaches and remove a major source of food for them. Wash all surfaces in your kitchen. Wash behind and under all of the appliances. Clean the outsides and insides of all your cabinets and drawers. Place all of your garbage into sealed containers. Wash all of your dishes.

3. Wash all other areas where you suspect cockroach infestation. If you live in an apartment building, pay special attention to walls you share with your neighbors.

4. Apply boric acid dust underneath appliances, in cracks in walls and anywhere that children or pets cannot get into. Boric acid is fatal to roaches but relatively safe for people and pets, reports the University of Nebraska.

5. Seal gaps around loose windows and doors with weatherstripping. This will help keep new roaches from getting into your home.

6. Apply caulk to all cracks in your walls. Pay special attention to the baseboards and behind countertops. Caulk all joints where pipes go into floors or walls. Do the same for all heating ducts. This will further reduce the ways that roaches can enter your home.

Tips & Warnings

• To prevent reinfestation, keep your food in sealed containers. Do your dishes as soon as you have used them.

References

• University of Nebraska: Least Toxic Cockroach Control; Barb Ogg, et al.
• University of Illinois: Get Rid of Roaches

Resources

• UC San Diego: Getting Rid of Roaches