Toxic Free NC Tip of the Week (er, Month): Attack of the Cockroaches

Lots of people have been fighting the cockroach battle lately it seems, myself included.

Oh, how I hate them. Unlike spiders and bees and the like, I have no qualms about killing cockroaches (or for that matter mosquitoes, fleas, and anything else that’s equally gross). I’m sorry beautiful nature where everything has its rightful place in the grand ecological system, and the seasons turn turn turn and all that stuff - I don’t care. Cockroaches deserve to die.

So, I understand the impulse to scream and run for the can of Raid, or even the bug bomb, and nuke the little bastards. But people, please get ahold of yourselves: If cockroaches really do survive to dominate the planet long after people have gone extinct, it will be because we nuked them so many times with chemicals that they became completely resistant super-bugs, and/or because we nuked ourselves so many times with chemicals in the process that we all ended up sickly.

Seriously, I know I’m a broken record, but household pesticide use has been connected with increased risk for a wide range of health problems in people, and also in pets. The chemicals do not actually go away within the 4 or 6 or 12 hour time frame the product label tells you to wait. Studies have found that chemical residues from pesticide applications can linger in indoor environments for days, months, or even years - gathering in regular house dust, and being absorbed into soft things like toys, pillows, couches and the like. A recent study found that most American households have lingering indoor pollution from prior pesticide use, including some pesticides that have been banned for decades.

So, please do your part to preserve our species and prevent a takeover by the cockroach empire: kill cockroaches with least-toxic methods! I have previously written about a non-toxic cockroach bait recipe that uses borax powder as the active ingredient. It sounds kind of weird, but it really works! Wait, I should qualify that: it really works if you’ve also done your part to roach-proof your place.

By roach-proofing, I mean make it hard for new generations of cockroaches to set up shop. For instance, a few things I did to tackle my most recent home roach invasion:
- Remove clutter from the kitchen counter, and/or the floor. I had a row of cookbooks on the counter, and some other random condiments and spice jars and bowls of screws and beads and junk like that. My kitchen was pretty clean overall, but the clutter was making it hard to clean the whole counter surface, and I didn’t even realize I had a small village of roaches living under the cookbooks until I moved them. Gross. Floor clutter, especially in the kitchen, also provides a significant roach hideout, so get that stuff up off the floor and put away. May I suggest a wire rack, so it’s easy to clean underneath?
- Caulk gaps and crevices where roaches like to hang out. Also hiding behind that row of cookbooks was a very tiny gap between the kitchen counter backsplash and the wall. A teeny tiny gap that was big enough for roaches to squeeze through, and thus pass undetected to and from my countertop. Roaches love that. So I caulked it up! Take that, suckaaaas! You should fill similar gaps around backsplashes, pipe chases (like where the pipes pass between floors or rooms), baseboards, and the like.
- Roach-proof food storage. I found a roach in a bag of cornstarch in one of my kitchen cabinets, ugh, and realized I had a few different foodstuffs being styored in loosely-sealed bags and boxes, making them very vulnerable to roach attack. So I transferred all the flours, beans and other dry goods to quart-sized ball jars (a dozen for $5 at Food Lion). Another option would have been to start storing insect-vulnerable foods in the refrigerator.
- Wash your darned dishes. I know, duh, but seriously. Wash them promptly. Do not leave them hanging around dirty, and do not leave a dishwasher half full of dirty dishes either - roaches got into mine. Super gross.

I’m pleased to report that thanks to these steps, and a batch of the borax roach bait, cockroaches are now pretty much gone from my kitchen. Down with cockroaches! Long live the humans!!
Got more questions about dealing with cockroaches? Check out Toxic Free NC’s factsheet, Getting Rid of Roaches without Toxic Chemicals.

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