Ive lived in my house for 12 years and never had roaches. I got a new neighbor 1 month ago and now they are everywhere. I bought some boric acid powder and was wondering how effective it is or how long it takes to start working. So far ive seen roaches walk across the stuff like its not even there.

Wouldn't they need to ingest it?

It actually works by damaging their exoskeleton.
Fullers earth does the same thing.

Another ? How is it possible for me to get roaches from my neighbor the house is about 60 ft from mine, but I dont know where else they would have come from.

They breed in water.

Have you had a lot of rain or water in your basement?

If you melt it and pour it on them it kills them real fast.

BSW

Don't know about Boric Acid but I saw a Praying Mantis Loan Shark throw Sulphuric acid in a  Roach's eyes outside a Roach Motel .

Boric acid.....  Are your roaches releasing neutrons?

Boric acid powder works.

They walk in it and carry it back to the nest, then over time it kills then all.  

I've seen it get rid of heavy roach infestations.  takes a few days.

Boric Acid is actually an effective roach killer.  It dehydrates the bug and damages its exoskeleton.

It doesn't poison them.

It cuts up there chitinous exoskeleton and they dehydrate and die.

Think of it as a slow, lingering death.

It does work in a matter of days if used as directed.





It works instantly if you smash the little bastards with the can.


Oddly enough,  though I live in Roach Central (Central Florida) and we always had a few roaches

for as long as I can remember,  in the past few years I've seen almost literally NO roaches in my

house and I don't take extreme anti-roach measures.   I think I've seen TWO roaches in the past four

years.



I think the reason for it is that there are a few geckos that have been seen in the house.  Nobody in the

house worries about them in the slightest.  They're walking bug vacuums and you rarely see them,

and they don't bother anybody.   Plus they seem to be earning their keep, as evidenced by a near total

lack of observed roaches or other bugs in the house.



Natural pest control is the best...if you let it work the way it's supposed to.





CJ
 

87 minutes.

burn down the house and move.

Found some cockroaches a few days after I moved into the dorms. Got some boric acid and spread it evenly across every wall corner of the place and haven't seen any since.

No they don't––––they lay their egg sacks anywhere.

Roaches are a huge problem where I live. We moved into a house built in the 70's and it was apparent that it needed roach control.

We started out with the boric acid. You have to DUST it. You lay it down thick they won't get in contact with it. It only takes a little. However, we had only mild success with it. It is hard to get into all the little places that habitate.

Next, we tried the traps. Good success. Can't remember which ones worked bettter- we bought a variety and laid them all out. Again, you just can't get em back behind cabinets or small places.

The sprays you can but at box stores are only marginal. They are very dilluted solutions. You can spray everywhere many times and still see them running across the floor or up walls.

Roaches are fucking gross. I hate them more than liberals. That says a lot right there. We were about to move out. I mean we weren't up to our knees in them, but they really just creep me out.

On a whim, wifey called around to the exterminators trying to get a good deal. We ended up paying $50 every 10wks to 2mos for the pros to come in and nuke the fuckers.

Typically, they will put out bait, not the kind in the store, as well as hose down the outside and interior of your house with nerve agents. Sounds dangerous doesn't it?

That shit works wonders. Not only does it kill fast, it makes it so they can't reproduce. Double whammy. Money well spent.

it dont work,,,

stay clean,,spray with good treatments and stay clean...always clean up, even dead ones.

stay away from boric acid.

I disagree.   back when we had a roach problem,  a boric acid treatment always resulted in us finding a pretty

good number of dead roaches, tits up, in various parts of the hose,  in the days following the treatment.



And, it seemed to keep them down for some time.



We used the "Roach Prufe" brand packaged version.





CJ





 

Get like an ear syringe or some other kind of little blower and puff that stuff into all the cracks where you have the bugs.

Oh that sounds easy.  I figured I was going to have to teach them to take food or drink from a spoon and the slip the acid to the food while they weren't paying attention.

Glad I live where I do...

No problems here

Rocky Mountain High !!!

word.

eta- you know what works-waterboarding. grab a few and sweat em.

Drill a few discreet holes in the wall underneath your sink. Shoot Boric Acid into said holes. Actually, do the same in bathrooms too.



As others have said, it will damage their exoskeleton and will eliminate them fairly quick.  

Probably because your neighbor just had his house fumigated. Roaches know where they aren't wanted.

There's a powder called Penguin Down, it is boric acid and diatomaceous earth*. The DE scratches their exoskeleton, causing it to be water permeable; the boric acid dehydrates them. Then when they crawl back to their nest, they die and the other roaches eat them.

Probably takes a month or so to completely kill them all but it is the safest way to do so. I saw a demo of this stuff; the salesman mixed a teaspoon of the stuff in water and chugged it down. He even survived!


*Diatomaceous Earth is made of the skeletons of DIATOMS, which are microscopic creatures who leave a spiky skeleton behind when they die. If you know a swimming pool owner, they probably have DE in their pool cleaning supplies, as it is used in the pool filter system.

Another idea: Get a cat. Cats love to catch & eat anything that crawls. Cecil Adams writes that it is one of the more effective ways to rid the home of roaches.


Yet another observation: The latest method of roach eradication involves birth control! Literally, they spray the place with a substance that keeps the roaches from reaching full maturity, i.e. they never grow up to become breeders. Takes a month or so but it works.

The Straight Dope and cockroaches

In the environment that i work.. Ive seen
roach prufe,boric acid, roach away etc etc etc..used. At times used so much that it is almost a health issue for those using it. Let alone unsightly in how much they used around their homes.

The only way i have seen folks Not get or keep to a "once a year sighting" is to stay clean #1, and have a set treatment schedule. Either by themselves or a company.
Myself. I like using Ortho home defense Max sprays and a actual roach bait.

I spray twice a month, bait every 4 weeks and the most i have ever seen is when some folks moved in a few months back.


YMMV
Ive got to try to keep my work "roach" free and Boric acid is  100 spots down the list on things i would use here or what my contractors would use.
But then again .gov housing is the bug version of  Monrovia vs a private owned home