Borax For Roaches: Sugar Bait Recipe
Many products are available today for getting rid of cockroaches. Products you purchase at a home improvement store often contain chemicals that you would not like your pets, children, or yourself exposed to regularly. Also, some cockroaches are becoming resistant to certain types of chemicals. Fortunately, a few simple ingredients that you might already have in your home can work just as well as harmful chemicals for ridding yourself of these pests.
How to Make Borax and Sugar Bait
One of the more popular ways to use borax to kill cockroaches is to combine borax and sugar to make bait. Powdered sugar works best, but you can also use regular cane sugar. All you have to do is mix equal parts of borax and sugar.
One way to use it is to put it in a squeezable bottle and use it to dust areas where you have seen cockroaches. The key is only to spread a light dusting. The sugar attracts the roaches, and they will consume some Borax along with the sugar. The borax will also stick to their legs, as described earlier. You should use this dust along walls, in cupboards, behind appliances, and in any cracks or crevices where they might be hiding.
You can also mix the borax and sugar and place them in a low container. You can tell if the cockroaches are taking the bait because of the tracks they leave.
Another method is to mix the borax and sugar with raw egg yolks, peanut butter, and cocoa powder.
Regardless of the method you use, you will still want to place the baits in a place where pets or small children cannot come in contact with it. Even though it is relatively harmless, especially compared to toxic chemicals, it is still not something you would want them to ingest in a large quantity.
How Does Borax Kill Roaches?
Borax is a naturally occurring mineral that has many uses around the home. It has been used as a household cleaner and has boosted the power of laundry detergents for decades. You might not know that it is also a perfect solution for ridding yourself of cockroaches and other pests.
It is a relatively low-risk product, and the best part is that it leaves no residue or odors. Boric acid is another method for killing roaches when used as a powder placed along walls, behind appliances, and in other places where they hide. Boric acid is a byproduct of processing natural borax.
For borax to work as a cockroach killer, the roaches have to eat it. It is not an attractive food source, but you can use the food they like to make an irresistible treat. Borax sticks to the cockroaches’ legs when they come to consume the other food source. It works by static electricity, much like rubbing a balloon on your head will make your hair stand up.
The cockroach goes back to its nest and begins to clean itself. In the process, it will consume the borax. It disrupts the cockroach’s digestive tract, and it will eventually die, but it does not stop there. It also damages the cockroach’s exoskeleton, which causes them to lose fluids and dehydrate.
One of the characteristics of cockroaches that makes borax so effective is that when they go back to the nest, other cockroaches will try to clean them and groom them. This means that one cockroach can poison many more.
How Long Does Borax and Sugar Bait take to Work?
Using cockroach baits with borax is not a one-time solution. You will have to keep up by replacing the bait every week or when you see that they are being consumed. The bait does not kill cockroaches quickly because it is intended to allow them to live long enough to carry the poison back to the nest.
It is not unusual to see an increase in cockroaches after a couple of days. This is not a sign that the methods have failed, but it is a sign that it is working. This means that the cockroaches are becoming dehydrated and desperate in their search for water and more food. You should begin to see a decrease in the population in about a week and a significant decrease in about two weeks.
Borax and sugar is an effective and safe way to rid yourself of cockroaches. It is an effective long-term strategy that roaches will likely not grow immune to when used properly.
