Do cucumbers really repel cockroaches?

Factual Questions
1

Lots of sites recommend cucumber slices or cucumber peel as a perimeter defense against cockroaches but these all read like folk remedies to me.

Are there any scientific studies that say this works? Is there any explanation of the underlying mechanism of why it would work?

Bonus round: If you are not a fan of the cucumber approach, what is the best proven way to deal with cockroaches? (My daughter has seen a couple in her apartment. I assume that if one apartment has one cockroach, there are cockroaches throughout the building and only a whole-building solution will work.)

2

Never heard of that cucumber thing. Boric Acid is still effective against roaches.

3

Cucumbers are good for bags under the eye reduction according to rumors. Not sure how you got the internet intertubes crossed to get cucumbers/cockroaches.

4

I’ve never heard of cucumbers repelling cockroaches, although I’ve seen another plant repel cockroaches … I’ll not name that plant as it also causes negative reactions in humans, some could be quite serious …

You are correct that if your daughter sees one cockroach, there are at least 100 she hasn’t seen, perhaps thousands in the building … there are ways to get rid of them, but no way to stop a new tenant from bringing them back in … thus the problem with ridding the building of cockroaches is that it is only temporary, more will be brought in and re-infest the building …

A] Hire an exterminator, an honest one will do a great job …

B] “Do-it-yourself” methods will require all the tenants to fully co-operate, and this starts with complete cleanliness as all food sources must be eliminated … next all the cockroaches’ hiding place have to be filled, and for an older building this might take several cases of painter’s chalking … finally all the tenants have to set out roach traps, Combat brand is the best, one under the refer, another under the stove and one on top of the water heater … replace every month and within six months the building should be clear … remember, all it takes is one tenant leaving a bowl of cat food out to ruin the whole process …

Sadly, in some jurisdictions, if the unit was free of cockroaches when your daughter moved in, then the landlord is not responsible for the cockroach infestation that occurs afterward … however, cockroaches are bad for the landlord’s business … I suggest your daughter and her fellow tenants all do a major cleaning over the whole building, then ask the landlord to help, and suggest that hiring an exterminator when the building is squeaky clean would be of good value and potentially higher profits going forward … just an idea …

Years ago I read an interesting report about cockroaches from the University of Minnesota … one suggestion they had was to move everyone out for a couple of weeks, drain all the water lines, and let the building freeze up … cockroaches and their eggs all die if the temperature is -10ºF for awhile … an outdoor temperature common in Minnesota during the winter months …

ETA: Indeed, boric acid is effective, thanx Dorjän for bringing that up … under the stove and refer, on top of the water heater …

5

Here is what the interwebs say about it

6

I am so not putting cockroaches under my eyes…

7

I don’t think they repel any insect, because I saw a roach crawling on my cucumber this morning.

8

Maybe people are doing a correlation/causation error analogous to using capfuls of beer to kill garden slugs.

Hell, just leave piles of sugar out and wait for them to die of diabetes.
ETA: Come to think of it, I don’t even know what cockroaches prefer to feed on.

9

Advion cockroach gel. It was a miracle solution for me.

I’ve lived in the same apartment for 25 years. Cockroaches were a constant battle. I used every spray on the market. I sprayed daily. I sealed every crack and crevice. I had a professional exterminator come in every month. And best, all this minimized them but if I let up for even a day or two it got worse. And it kept getting worse. I couldn’t turn my back while preparing food. I had to preheat the freaking oven, otherwise roaches would attack while the oven warmed. I couldn’t leave a glass of water on the bedside table.

The exterminator got snarky about my housekeeping-which wasn’t bad, I have someone come in weekly to clean but the exterminator came a few hours before the house cleaner so I wasn’t spotless. Then the exterminator tried to tell me I needed to rebuild my cabinets. Then my neighbors started complaining about roaches they felt were coming from my place.

I looked at some products on Amazon. I ordered the Advion gel. I applied it very liberally. Dots spaced a foot apart. Around all baseboards, where the ceiling met the wall, around every shelf on every cabinet. Around all switcplates and light fixtures. In the cabinet hinges. Along the backsplash. I used all 4 tubes. Don’t skimp.

https://www.amazon.com/Advion-Syngenta-Cockroach-Bait-Tubes/dp/B002Y2GNVM/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1507749862&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=advion+cockroach+gel+bait&psc=1

This was 2 years ago. It took about a week to kill them all. Since then I have not seen one single cockroach ever. And I keep an eye out with the intent of applying it again if I see as much as one bug. I haven’t done any other extermination in that time, I didn’t want anything to interfere wuh the attractants.

But they are gone. Completely. It worked. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

10

I don’t know about cockroaches, but you can use cucumbers to repel cats. Pretty dramatically, too:

http://www.smash.com/why-are-cats-afraid-of-cucumbers-why-felines-are-so-scared-hate-them/

Maybe REALLY TINY cucumbers would work as well on cockroaches.

11

Maybe you were looking at the Spanish internet and confused cucaracha with cucumber.

I’ll show myself out.

12

It’s not like Mexican cockroaches repel German cockroaches, it’s just that German cockroaches want to be with their own kind!

In the suburbs!

Stop looking at me like that!

13

Best post/username combo of the thread! :wink:

14

:confused: I don’t get it…

15

It’s a dick joke.

16

I can’t believe you posted that …

17

FWIW, we had our kitchen cabinets replaced after the water main burst under the house and caused all sorts of water damage. It made a huge difference; I used to see at least one roach a week back then, and I haven’t seen more than three or four in two years since.

18

Wild cucumbers are full of bitter chemicals called “cucurbitacins.” These are defensive compounds that could conceivably repel cockroaches. Cultivated cucumbers have had the cucurbitacins bred out of them, so they won’t repel roaches.

19

The beer slug trap does work, but its effectiveness is limited.

20

Even if cucumbers really did repel cockroaches, do you really want to risk an aardvark infestation?

(I’ve heard that osage oranges repel cockroaches–probably works as well as cucumbers.)