Keep roaches away?
Question:I am moving to a new apartment and I wanted to know what is the best way to keep the roaches away? They are sooo gross!!
Answers:
Be carefully. Get a licenced PCO to do a preventive treatment if you want to prevent a problem before it arises ,or a treatment to remove an existing problem.
A professional pco will use a (should) use a gel based product.
Be careful useing some of the ideas you get here on answers.
Borax is an inorganic poison what kills by disrupting the conversion of energy with in the cells.
Dursban....NO.NO.NO>>... about to be baned here in Australia even for licenced PCO's.if you feel you must use a liquid spray try to get a product with an active ingredient like Deltemethrin it's much safer. But pay attention to the guy above me USE A GEL.
use boraic acid. it comes in a powder form. sprinkle it around the perimeter of your apt. and it will keep them out.
Home Depot has many choices for you. The fastest thing to use would be any chemical they have that says it's for "Cockroaches."
Two other options are Boric Acid (a powder) or DT (diatomaceous earth, also a powder). These can be purchased at Home Depot.
Try roach motels if you don't already have roaches. If you do put Boric acid down if you don't have other animals. Boric acid can hurt other animals if it is ingested.
Remember to clean!! no left out food, clean your counters with bleach and clean under your sinks.
Professional exterminators use a chemical called Dursban. It's sold in hardware stores under the Spectracide label. It comes in a concentrated form...usually about 30 percent active ingredient.
Dilute a small amount to about 1/2 percent and spray along baseboards, under the sink, under refrigerator and stove, and around doors to the outside.
I keep an old windex bottle with a solution mixed up, and apply it once a month. If you have not yet moved into the apartment you can really scorch the earth and apply everywhere and allow it to do it's job for a couple of days before you move in.
Depending upon which state you live in, your Exterminator political lobby may have made it available only to professionals. It is available in Texas to the public.
Of course you don't want to ingest the pesticide and you should not use it around where your pets sleep and eat. It's not real dangerous, but it's just good practice to treat all chemicals with respect.
Licensed exterminator answer:
Sorry it's so long but, the amount of BS posts I see, and their content, is disturbing, and just plain wrong. Please read my entire post to save yourself a heap of problems.
Are you positive that your new apt has roaches?
If not, then just be very diligent in keeping the place clean. Have someone or you check for holes that allow pest entry.
Most common: Pipe where radiator brings heat. Under any sink where water comes in and out. If gas stove, pipe where gas comes in. Cracks and crevices. Under front door. All of this can be sealed with any kind of silicon or foam, and any hardware store sells it. Put a weatherstrip on the front door. The best way to keep them out is to remove any way for them to get in. Then concentrate on keeping your apt reasonably neat, but don't become obsessive. Enjoy your home.
If you are sure it has roaches, buy a gel based pesticide like Combat and follow the label. It works because roaches eat it then pass it along to the other roaches, causing all of them to die. It is sold in any hardware store, and in ALL pest control stores. Best option, call your local pest control STORE, and tell them you need some gel for roach control. The brand a licensed exterminator uses (MAXFORCE) and the public uses (COMBAT) are different only in name. Then ask him for directions of use. If you use it correctly, it will work for 6-8 mos, and won't turn your house into the NUCLEAR PLANT on the Simpsons.
DON'T use boric acid! The next time you look at a bottle of Boric, look for the ACTIVE INGREDIENT at the bottom. It is 100% Boric Acid, or 100% POISON. The % of active ingredient is % needed to kill the insect. Unfortunately, this is also what you can ingest by accident, or breathe when a breeze, fan, or even a door is shut, causing a small draft, thus sending it airborne. Do you really want to touch or breathe that? Ask those EXPERTS how to dispose of it if it is SO GREAT.
DON'T use a bomb. The roaches you don't kill retreat deeper into cracks and crevices, and come right back after things quiet down.
DON'T try to buy DURASBAN. It was banned from public use for a reason, not just because of LOBBYISTS. It is NOT intended for use by the general public, and in some major states, like mine, it is banned from everyone, even exterminators to use. Most pesticides are banned because of run-off, or the extra amount leaking into drinking water, rivers or wildlife, or the determination that it is more DANGEROUS to the APPLICATOR (you) AND THE STRUCTURE (your house) then it is EFFECTIVE. If you don't have a license, even the mixing instructions are cryptic. Don't end up reaching for the spray bottle, (that these so called experts recommend to store it in) to clean your mirrors or counters only to realize that you've coated everything with a pesticide.
If you spray the baseboards with it monthly, like the EXPERTS are telling you, what happens when you don't pay attention and you touch the residue? If you have kids, you can expect them to touch your baseboards when retrieving a toy or something. Even when it is dry, it leaves a RESIDUAL amount of material. If you spray monthly, like the genius tells you, you will only build up a massive amount of pesticide on your baseboards. That's just GREAT, huh?
Trust me when I tell you that GEL based insecticides are far more effective, less expensive & FAR less toxic to someone who doesn't do this for a living.
The bottom line, keep the roaches out, by using the methods above. If you have them, then use the other methods I listed. Remember, you pay us for our knowledge, not because we can spray your house and turn it into Chernobyl. You can do that yourself.
Pesticides are most effective when they are placed WHERE THEY ARE NEEDED. They become DANGEROUS when they are used incorrectly, or put EVERYWHERE and ANYWHERE for no reason. The reason pesticides have become public enemy #1 is because old school exterminators took stuff like DDT, Diazanon, Durasban and all those other pesticides and darn near PAINTED people's homes, crops, trees and enviroments with it, thinking more is better.
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