Cockroaches are undoubtedly one of the most annoying pests to show up in your home, and most people would do anything in their power to get rid of them. If you’ve ever wondered how to get rid of pesky roaches without spending a fortune, you’ve come to the right place.
The bottom line is that you don’t have buy expensive chemicals to get rid of roaches. All you need is a little toothpaste and a few other ingredients you likely already have around the house, and your cockroach problem will be a thing of the past. Toothpaste can kill roaches and naturally remove them without pesticides.
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How to make toothpaste roach killer
Here is how to make a simple roach killer at home. This is easy and safe to use in your bathroom and kitchen.
Toothpaste roach killer recipe
The recipe for this all-natural roach repellent has the following ingredients:
- 3 teaspoons of sugar
- 4 teaspoons of all-purpose flour
- 2 to 3 teaspoons of toothpaste
- 3 teaspoons of water (or more)
All you do is combine these ingredients, then add more water if necessary to make a dough that is similar to bread dough. Shape the dough into small balls, then place these bait balls anywhere near where roaches typically hide. That’s it!
The bait balls are simple and inexpensive to make, and you can replace them easily any time you need to. The roaches will ingest the toothpaste balls and will die over the next few days to weeks.
Repel roaches with lemon
There other easy methods to repel roaches that do not involve chemicals. Cockroaches have a delicate sense of smell and they hate citrus smells such as lemon. If you clean with a lemon-scented cleaner or spray the sinks and countertops with lemon juice, roaches will run quickly in the other direction.
The same thing happens when you sprinkle some cinnamon around the entry points because this is another scent they hate!
Other smells that cockroaches hate include lavender, cucumber, peppermint, citrus, tea tree oil, and eucalyptus, among others. Regularly spraying your kitchen counters with a mixture of water and products that have these types of smell does a great job of keeping away the roaches in your home.
How to keep roaches out of your kitchen naturally
There are a few other tips you can follow that will make roaches want to avoid your kitchen altogether. Let’s take a look at a few of them.
1. Seal any hiding spots
There are numerous cracks and crevices in your home that roaches like to hide in that you can seal off to prevent them from setting up shop there. These include electrical outlets, cardboard boxes, light fixtures, and even cord holes.
Check around your appliances and other household items, and wherever possible, go ahead and seal up these holes so that cockroaches stay away.
2. Keep your home cool
Roaches love a warm climate, so if you keep your home a little cool, they won’t be nearly as active. They likely won’t stay away completely, but they also won’t be able to fly because the cool air makes it much harder for them to use their muscles.
If your home stays at a cool temperature, it might possibly deter the roaches from remaining there, and they certainly won’t be able to take to the air when it’s that cool!
3. Keep your benches and floors food free
The less food and debris you spill around the house, the less likely roaches will want to bother you. If you eat only in certain areas of the house and make sure the areas where you deal with food are regularly and thoroughly cleaned, it can stop a lot of cockroach invasions from happening.
Naturally, you can’t keep every morsel of food off your countertops, but if you limit the areas where food is allowed, it can help drive away roaches because it’ll be more difficult for them to find something they’re attracted to.
4. Use a natural repellent
Roaches hate certain scents, and if you use certain plants and essential oils, they will run in the other direction as fast as they can. Some of the smells they really despise include cedarwood oil, peppermint oil, and cypress oil, as well as coffee grounds and crushed bay leaves or rosemary.
You can also combine boric acid and powdered sugar to lure them in and kill them once they’ve eaten the concoction. The sugar makes them want to eat it, and the boric acid kills them.
5. Set out natural traps
You can buy certain traps and devices at your local hardware or home-improvement store, and they usually use a sticky substance that catches the roaches and kills them. They are very inexpensive and can be placed in different areas around your home.
Check out roach traps here on Amazon.
6. Use a soap-and-water spray
Cockroaches breathe through their skin, so if you mix soap and water and put it in a spray bottle to spray the roaches, they will suffocate and die. The only drawback to this method is that you have to see the cockroaches in order for it to work.
This mix will kill the roaches that you do see and manage to spray. It is a very effective method of eliminating roaches.
Conclusion
Getting rid of cockroaches is not that difficult if you know how these creatures work. If you continuously use one of these methods, it’s possible that you can eliminate these pests from your life for good. If you keep your kitchen clean and use strong smelling cleaners like lemon or eucalyptus they are more likely to keep away.
I am an accredited practicing dietitian, experienced gardener and a dedicated cook. I love writing and sharing my experience so you can learn from my successes and mistakes.