Boric acid against cockroaches firmly ranks first or second in the conditional ranking of the most effective and affordable means of combating apartment “Prussians”. Only special Chinese “pencils” can compete with the folk recipe in terms of effectiveness, which, unlike the relatively harmless and clean pharmacy “boring”, are made from unknown ingredients, often from products of processing chemical waste and toxic substances.
If you have to choose, it is better to use a cockroach repellent with boric acid than, who knows, with traces of mercury or lead salts.
Causes of pests in the apartment
Sanitary and epidemiological station specialists, professional insect fighters and simply sellers of insecticides unanimously claim that the reason for the appearance of cockroaches is unsanitary conditions, improper storage of food and untimely removal of garbage and food debris.
At least three more conditions must be added to unsanitary conditions:
- The presence of free water, which is extremely important for maintaining the metabolism of the insect body;
- Problems with sewer lines. Putrid fumes, traces of sewage leaks, places with the characteristic smell of missing food attract cockroaches like a magnet, even if the room is treated with the product;
- Devices with built-in open electric and gas heaters. A cockroach needs warmth, just like water and food.
Heaters most often become nesting sites for insects, even if the apartment is cleaned fairly regularly and food is carefully stored. Cockroaches have a good chemical memory, finding their traces even several weeks after a general cleaning of the room.
Therefore, we have to look for chemicals that can affect the metabolism and chemistry of cockroaches. The best products are those based on siloxanes, but they are too expensive compared to boric acid.
Effects of boric acid on cockroaches
The formula of boric acid H3BO3 is a white crystalline powder with a slight antiseptic effect, most often used as an additive to an alcohol solution to enhance the antimicrobial effect. Pure boric acid is relatively safe, although if used uncontrolled, it can cause burns and severe irritation of the mucous membranes.
When powdered boric acid enters the body of a cockroach, the weak and non-toxic acid base has a dual effect:
- Partial binding of water occurs in the tissues of the insect, which leads to dehydration of the body;
- Boric acid 100% destroys the microflora, bacteria and fungi present in the digestive tract of the cockroach, destroys the senses and the ability to smell in the first place.
Important!
An acidic solution, as an antiseptic, with a weak overall effect, is highly effective against a certain type of microorganism, the death of which leads to the death of the cockroach. Many experts claim that boric acid burns the chemical marks or memory the cockroach leaves on paths in its habitats. The more cockroaches spread boric acid along the paths, the greater the chance of their effective destruction.
Cockroach poison with boric acid
It is possible to win the fight against cockroaches only if all residents of an apartment building are actively involved in the process of chemical extermination of the “Prussians”. If there is at least one apartment left with unsanitary conditions and cockroaches, the effect of using the poison will be much less, and you will have to use the product constantly.
Cockroaches need warmth and moisture; their body is 40-50% bound water, so the insect can be killed in a much more effective way. A private house occupied by cockroaches is cooled down in winter so that the temperature in the room drops to 7-10 degrees below zero. If you combine frost with boric acid poison, you can forget about cockroaches seriously and for a long time.
When using bait, you should remove all sources of water from the room, blot condensation in the bathroom, and dry wet shoes from the street in a box with a tight lid.
Boric acid with egg
One of the most popular recipes for boric acid poison is prepared using the white or yolk of a chicken egg.
One egg is boiled until soft-boiled, the shell and cooked white are carefully peeled. Add 10-15 g of dry powder to a semi-liquid yolk, mix into a dough, roll out a thin layer on wax paper and dry to a firm consistency.
It is best to cut a leaf with an acid-based poison into ribbons or small squares. The prepared bait is pinned on cockroach paths using invisible pins or wallpaper tacks. If there is no moisture or drafts in the places where the poison is placed, then you can simply spread the bait on the floor.
After about three days, the poison based on the acidic mixture must be replaced with a fresh one; as soon as the yolk weathers and dries, the cockroaches will stop reacting to it. You should not use a mixture of egg and chemical in its pure form, without a paper base; the remaining mixture will only ruin the floor covering over time.
Boric acid with potatoes
According to some experts, cockroaches prefer mainly a carbohydrate and protein base, if possible moist. The bait made from yolk and acid powder dries quickly and loses its attractiveness, so to enhance the smell, carbohydrates are added to the composition, preferably grated boiled potatoes with a small addition of boiled yolk.
Raw grated and squeezed potatoes, mixed with 10 g of boric acid and an egg, have a better effect on cockroaches, but their shelf life is only a few hours, or half a day at most. Then the bait will have to be removed or replaced with a new one.
Boric acid with sugar
Cockroaches, like most insects, love glucose and sucrose in any form. If there is a large number of sweets, pastries and cakes in the house, crumbs from which can spill onto the floor or covering, furniture, the risk of cockroaches increases by an order of magnitude.
You can prepare a remedy for cockroaches from sugar and boric acid in a ratio of 1:3. Granulated sugar and acid can be ground to powder and the mixture applied to the edge of the baseboard, along the paths under the refrigerator and near the heaters.
Boron bait with sugar, in addition to cockroaches, attracts ants and wasps, so its condition must be checked periodically; if ants appear, the acid with powdered sugar must be removed urgently.
A sugar mixture with boron powder has the best damaging effect, but the bait easily absorbs water, so its use is limited to the kitchen and pantry.
Advice! If it is necessary to enhance the poisonous effect, instead of boric acid, you can use its sodium salt - borax, its damaging properties are several times higher than those of acid powder.
Boric acid with sunflower oil
Cockroach repellents based on sunflower oil and boric acid are used mainly in the summer. The smell of fresh oil attracts cockroaches no worse than carbohydrate and protein bait.
For one boiled and crushed potato, take 10 g of borax, 5-15 g of starch or flour and one tablespoon of oil. The mixture is pounded with a spoon to form a dough, rolled into thin noodles, dried for a couple of hours and laid out in the kitchen.
In winter and autumn, mixtures based on sunflower oil, as a rule, are not used; the strong smell attracts not only cockroaches, but, first of all, mice. Therefore, getting rid of insects can lead to a serious rodent problem.
Liquid products
A solution of boric acid is more convenient and easier to use; dissolve 25 g of powder in 100 ml of water. Liquid acid mass is used primarily as a supplement to solid bait. After two to three days of a “dry” diet, cockroaches look for sources of water, so a cloth tape soaked in an acid solution kills no worse than branded boric acid against cockroaches.
There is no point in installing saucers or bowls with the solution; “Prussians” usually avoid them, even if sugar is added to the mixture. Acidic poison precipitates as a dense sediment that is difficult to clean up and reuse.
Summarizing
Your efforts will pay off if you act long and consistently.
Cockroaches have a lifespan of 100 to 200 days.
During this time, females lay five egg oothecae, each containing about 36 eggs. And the hatching rate is high. Therefore, one large-scale operation in which larvae and adult cockroaches are destroyed is not enough. It is necessary to regularly clean your apartment and use insecticides. A gap of two weeks is optimal. During this time, new cockroaches hatch, do not give them the opportunity to reproduce. Source
How to make boric acid balls
Even if there are cockroaches in the house, no one wants to walk on bait poisoned with boric acid, so the poison is given a more or less compact form:
- Granules or balls;
- In the form of individual blots or “spots” pasted onto paper;
- In the form of adhesive cords or strips.
The easiest way is to make “piglets”. It is enough to knead a mixture of acid powder or borax with flour and a small amount of sugar, and lay out the mixture in separate blots on a sheet of thick paper. A creamy mixture for cockroaches can be applied to the threshold or baseboard using a large-capacity medical syringe.
To make granules, the dough with boric acid is flavored with sunflower oil, rolled into thin cords, cut into tiny pieces and rolled with a wooden plank to a round shape.
Common Mistakes
Many people poison cockroaches incorrectly, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the substance or completely eliminating it. Now we will talk about the most common mistakes that people make when baiting insects with boric acid.
- Available fluid sources
As mentioned above, a cockroach can cleanse the body with water, so you need to carefully isolate them. Many people forget to wipe down dripping water from a sink or bathtub or fix a leaking faucet, creating an opening for pests.
- Incorrect placement of poison
Cockroaches are not stupid at all - they will not climb onto a pile of powder poured in the corner of the room. For the poison to be effective, it must be distributed evenly throughout the room, paying special attention to the paths of movement of insects.
- Incorrect drug concentration
If the acid concentration is too low, it will cause virtually no harm to the insect, but if it is too high, it will simply scare it away from the bait. Carefully follow the dosage indicated in the recipes.
How to poison cockroaches with boric acid
In order to kill cockroaches with boric acid, you must follow two simple rules. Firstly, no food or water should be stored openly in the room; only bait granules should be accessible to cockroaches.
Secondly, bait with boric acid in the form of granules and finely ground powder is scattered over the cracks and passages of insects. Periodically, areas with dead insects must be removed and sprinkled with dry boron powder. Crystals of poison stick to the paws, and sooner or later they are eaten by insects.
Boric acid for cockroaches: reviews
The effectiveness of the bait depends not only on a successful recipe, but also on the experience of using the acid mixture in the fight against the cockroach tribe.
Victoria Alekseevna, experienced housewife, Voronezh
Boric acid with an egg helps against cockroaches better than any branded products, it costs a penny, and there is less poison in the house. Before preparing boric acid for cockroaches, it is necessary to wash and clear the room of any food debris, otherwise the “Prussians” will not take the bait.
Sergey Petrovich, pensioner, Minsk
It will take at least two weeks to get rid of cockroaches. I mix boric acid with chalk and water and use a brush, like paint, to paint all the baseboards, cracks in the floors, circles around the refrigerator and the threshold. You need to paint with the poisoned mixture once every three days until the cockroaches go away.
Victor, Pyatigorsk
You need to fight cockroaches wisely; boric acid is the most harmless product, although in Russia it is prohibited for use as a food additive. The effect of the acid lasts quite a long time; if you have enough patience, after a few weeks of baiting the cockroaches will go away forever.
Pros and cons of the product
Using boric acid to kill cockroaches has its pros and cons.
The advantages include:
- cost-effectiveness and availability (the substance can be bought at any pharmacy, and its prices are very affordable);
- no unpleasant odor;
- combined effect on cockroaches (they not only die, but also lose their ability to reproduce);
- Easy to prepare bait (just mix the powder with a suitable product).
Main disadvantages:
- boric acid has no effect on eggs;
- the result does not appear immediately, but as the substance accumulates in the body of insects, that is, 4 to 7 days after the start of using the poison.
Corpses
But despite the disadvantages, boric acid remains one of the most used folk remedies for cockroaches.
