# Please help ROACHES
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 15, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895 "2012-03-15T20:36:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@nims](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nims)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/1 "2012-03-15T20:36:48Z")
Hello,
I really need help getting rid of roaches. Can I just apply boric acid pwdr by itself in my pantry and kitchen?
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/2 "2012-03-15T20:40:08Z")
> [@nims](#):
>
> Hello,
>
> I really need help getting rid of roaches. Can I just apply boric acid pwdr by itself in my pantry and kitchen?
What is pwdr? Can you pwn with it?
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### Author:  [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/3 "2012-03-15T20:41:40Z")
It will be an never ending process if you do it yourself. Your best bet is to call a professional exterminator.
I lived in an apartment years ago that had roaches. I tried everything, yet they survived. It wasn’t until the apartment was tented that the damn things were finally destroyed.
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### Author:  [@nims](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nims)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/4 "2012-03-15T20:41:54Z")
Sorry meant to write powder…it is boric acid powder that you would find at walmart or lowe’s…is just applying that enough…rather than using a mixture of cocoa powder
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### Author:  [@nims](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nims)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/5 "2012-03-15T20:49:31Z")
I unfortunately did call the exterminator that is associated with the apartment that I lease…but he just seemed to puff the powder in the air…it seems like more showed up after that…please help!!!
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/6 "2012-03-15T20:54:49Z")
And just how is pouring boric acid on the roaches supposed to help them-that stuff will _kill_ them if your aren’t careful!
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### Author:  [@nims](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nims)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/7 "2012-03-15T20:57:01Z")
Isn’t that exactly the point…to kill them???
What i meant was to sprinkle boric acid powder on the shelves and cabinets, under the sink etc…
or is there any other method to get RID of the ROACHES
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### Author:  [@nims](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nims)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/8 "2012-03-15T20:58:47Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> And just how is pouring boric acid on the roaches supposed to help them-that stuff will _kill_ them if your aren’t careful!
Allright allright i get it…my title doesn’t help either!!! but jokes aside i do need to get rid of them so any help would be appreciated…thank’s for lightinin up the mood 🙂
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### Author:  [@raindog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raindog)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/9 "2012-03-15T21:03:21Z")
20+ years ago I lived in a condominium in Chicago and had unbearable roaches. I bought Raid “City Formula” and every spray they came out with. I sprayed continuously. The roaches laughed at me.
Nothing worked.
About that time, “Combat” came on the market. (They come in little disks) I bought several packages and I became roach free. I don’t remember how long it took—but it wasn’t long.
That was a long time ago, and I don’t know how effective Combat would be today, but back then the stuff was fantastic.
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### Author:  [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/10 "2012-03-15T21:04:17Z")
Diatomaceous earth (often called simply DE) is another good bug-killing powder. They don’t eat it - you sprinkle it wherever they tend to scuttle (under/behind the fridge and furniture) and after they get it on themselves, they die via mechanical action. It dehydrates them. It’s not toxic and thus safe around kids and pets, although you want to avoid breathing it in or getting it into your eyes.
The roach traps they sell in every grocery store always helped me, and I lived in apartments with some of the biggest ones I’ve ever seen.
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### Author:  [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/11 "2012-03-15T21:08:21Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#):
>
> It will be an never ending process if you do it yourself. Your best bet is to call a professional exterminator.
> [@raindog](#):
>
> Nothing worked.
I moved into a place a while back with a similar problem, and eventually I was able to get rid of them with boric acid and roach motels. The boric acid needs to be as finely powdered as possible, and it will take a couple of weeks of diligent applications.
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### Author:  [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/12 "2012-03-15T21:22:18Z")
Gentrol IGR mixed with Suspend SC
Follow all of the directions about dilution and where to spray.
Kill them and cripple the survivors so they can’t mate.
Gentrol has also been shown to increase appetite in roaches, use the Gentrol mixture with some bait type traps to really be a killing machine.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/13 "2012-03-15T21:41:33Z")
The boric acid definitely works but it takes some time. Use it, and also put down some of the black roach motel traps. The thing is, if you live in an apartment, they’ll just go back and forth between apartments.
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### Author:  [@cplif](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cplif)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/14 "2012-03-16T05:48:00Z")
From my own experience, no local application of products or traps functions correctly, even in a small flat. Roaches nest in insiduous places, like between baseboards and wall, or in cracks in concrete slabs, so getting in there, even with “tramp back” products is generally inefficient.
If you have few roaches, you can try, but don’t wait.
The solution that worked for us is a “fumigation” grenade (sold here in europe at least), You take out all your food, tape closed windows etc, light up the number of fumigators corresponding to volume, close the front door and leave for a week end. These things look like a small sterno stove, and are sold on a volume basis.
We battled for years in a building that had a baker and a café on the ground floor, both treated by 'pros" twice a year. The roaches fled the basement and ground floor during treatment, running up the building, probably to their summer house in my flat.
The fumigation was definitive. though it may be slightly toxic. After that, just be careful that the punctual roach is eradicated before it can nest, they will piggyback in your clothing if they can.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/15 "2012-03-16T06:00:16Z")
[http://www.amazon.com/Advion-Roach-Bait-Tubes-666301/dp/B003LCV4RM/ref=sr\_1\_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331877471&sr=8-1](http://www.amazon.com/Advion-Roach-Bait-Tubes-666301/dp/B003LCV4RM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331877471&sr=8-1)
This stuff kicks ass.
Combined arms is the way to go, a bait, DE or Boric acid, some traps, hit them from all sides.
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### Author:  [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/16 "2012-03-16T06:26:32Z")
[What’s the best way to kill cockroaches? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/20/whats-the-best-way-to-kill-cockroaches) this is one of my favourite SD columns.
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/17 "2012-03-16T11:50:18Z")
Geckos. Lots and lots of Mediterranean House Geckos. They eat roaches like they were going out of business. They are noctural, and will sleep behind your refrigerator during the day (they seem to like the warmth and the little bit of moisture is all they need).
And in three months, you can come back to ask “What can I do about all these lizards in my apartmetn?”
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### Author:  [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/18 "2012-03-16T14:36:25Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#):
>
> Geckos. Lots and lots of Mediterranean House Geckos. They eat roaches like they were going out of business. They are noctural, and will sleep behind your refrigerator during the day (they seem to like the warmth and the little bit of moisture is all they need).
>
> And in three months, you can come back to ask “What can I do about all these lizards in my apartmetn?”
Plus, they’re cute. Geckos!
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### Author:  [@nims](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nims)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/19 "2012-03-16T18:09:34Z")
Thank You all for the wonderful advice!!! Hopefully it works.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-roaches/615895/20 "2012-03-16T18:09:38Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#):
>
> Plus, they’re cute. Geckos!
We had some bug problems until a leopard gecko escaped on us one day. Apparently a decent sized gecko can and will sweep a 2br apartment clear of anything resembling a bug or spider in about 2 weeks.
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