How to Get Rid of Cockroaches Using Boric Acid

Applying boric acid to roach hiding and foraging areas is a cheap, safe and effective way to kill cockroaches in your home. This article will tell you how to use it to free yourself from roaches in about 10 days.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Boric acid powder
• Knowledge of roach hiding places
• Mask and goggles (optional)
• A cold, roach-hating heart

1. Know your roaches. Where do they live? Where do they eat? Where do they go when they're not sleeping or eating? Since roaches are most active during the four hours after dark, choose a night after the lights have been off for an hour or two and go roach hunting with a flashlight. Make a mental note of where you see them. Check especially around floorboards, where it's wet or warm, and where there might be garbage or food available. When you see a roach, it may become startled by light and run off. Follow it to its lair and make a mental note for later.

2. 
    
   Meet your weapon

   Get some powdered boric acid. The kind pictured has a useful nozzle that resembles what you'd find on the top of an Elmer's glue bottle. This will be handy for applying the chemical. Powdered boric acid can be found at hardware stores and even some grocery stores near the insecticides. It's not widely available, though, so call ahead.

3. Apply boric acid moderately wherever roaches go (see step 1). Boric acid is a mild eye and skin irritant, so if you're concerned, now is the time to don your goggles and/or mask. The key to our technique is to get the roach to come into contact with the boric acid particles, so in addition to spraying behind the fridge, into cracks, on those pipes under the sink, you should also dust the boric acid around the edges of walls or cabinets. That way when the roach enters or leaves a location it has to step through the chemical. Since the key is for the chemical particles to stick to the body of the roach, it's critical that the boric acid not get wet, since this will turn the easily-agitated powder into a solid.

4. Patiently watch roaches die. Over the next week to ten days, roaches will contact the chemical and ingest it while they groom themselves. After that it's just a matter of time until they die. You won't be rid of roaches on the first or second day, but that is a small price to pay for a long-run safe, effective and cheap method of roach control. Good luck!

Tips & Warnings

• Don't forget, if the chemical gets wet it loses its effectiveness. Check your application every two weeks or so to see if it's still a fine powder. If not, reapply.
• Increase the effectiveness of this method by removing any possible food source for the roaches. This means no accessible food particles in the sink, on the counter, on the floor, in the garbage... anywhere!
• Start with a smaller application of boric acid than you think you need. If you don't see a reduction within a week, add some more.
• Boric acid is quite safe but is a mild irritant of the skin and eyes. Avoid coming into direct contact with the chemical. Since the boric acid is a fine powder, this might mean wearing a mask or goggles. And be certain to wash your hands when you're done.