# Forum Home Renovation Pest Control  How to easily eliminate cockroaches

## awg

cockroaches have always been a real nuisance at my place, as the micro-climate is ideal for them  
a while back we got overun with German cockroaches, nothing would stop them 
until Boric Acid (powder)..off Ebay $35 for 5kg, will last for years 
its like fine salt, sprinkle it in a systematic way, ensuring that to get a drink, a roach must cross the barrier 
roaches are able to detect most insecticdes, and will avoid them  
they do not detect boric acid as harmful, it is a natural product (refined borax) 
once they have crossed the barrier, they get specks on their bodies, and being "self-cleaning" insects, they ingest them 
the boric acid particles interact with their gut, and dehydrate them to death within 24hrs 
I have done this to 5 houses now 
it has wiped out roaches at my place for a couple of years, which is utterly unprecedented, with just one fairly slack application 
same in other houses, but they were not nearly as bad 
pest companies would be out of business if they used this stuff 
from my research, it is far less harmful to humans & pets than other chemicals, borax is classified non-toxic (to humans) 
boric acid is over 100 times stronger than borax, and is classified as toxic to humans (but I think you would need to snort it) 
plenty of info online

----------


## plum

Nice information, I'll have to remember it if I see one. I rarely see them in Melbourne, unless I'm working in filthy hovels!

----------


## phild01

Yes, Newcastle seems to be haven for the little brown ones as well as the big black ones.  The house I did some work to had them everywhere.  Being an old miners cottage, the walls were a haven for nesting especially when later DIY additions had the framing timber in contact with the ground.  I took some lining masonite off and you couldn't see the floor for the evacuating cockroaches....thousands of them.  Needless to say that that environment suited the resident termites too, which are a relative to the cockroach.  The road drainage next to the property was a major contribution. 
Two of the three houses I knew there were infested with the brown German ones and from what I could see it came down to poor kitchen cleanliness.  But once in, hard to get rid of.

----------

