Homemade Roach Killer With Borax: Easy Recipes
Cockroaches are fascinating creatures, but they are also a pest that no one wants in their home. If you have cockroaches, the only thing you want to know is how to get rid of them. Fortunately, mixing borax and sugar is a natural method that will help you get rid of them without resorting to harsh chemicals.
What is Borax?
Borax is also known as sodium borate decahydrate, sodium borate, or sodium tetraborate decahydrate. It is a natural mineral that occurs in natural mineral deposits. Borax is purified and crushed into a powder that can be used as a laundry detergent booster. The purification process results in boric acid. Borax is a salt of boric acid. Aside from being a laundry detergent booster, it can also be used to kill cockroaches. Borax can be purchased as 100% borax in the laundry detergent section.
Borax is not considered toxic in its pure form, but you should use it in places that pets or children cannot access. Small quantities are not harmful, but larger quantities can cause digestive tract distress.
Easy Borax Recipes
Borax is sold as a white powder that can be dusted around the edges of walls, in cupboards, under sinks, and in any area where roaches have been seen. Borax can also be mixed with other solutions to make easy roach killer recipes.
Borax and Sugar for Roaches
Roaches love the taste of sugar! To make a sugar and borax mixture, combine 50% borax and 50% sugar. You can use either powdered sugar or granular sugar. Place the mixture in a squeezable bottle and dust in areas where roaches have been seen. You should re-dust every two weeks until all the cockroaches have been eliminated.
You can also add baking soda to this mixture for an added lethal punch. Baking soda is a natural roach killer that causes gas to build up in the stomach of roaches, ultimately leading to their death.
Borax Balls
Another effective method is to mix flour and water with the sugar and borax mixture to create a dough. This mixture can be formed into balls placed in areas where roaches have been seen. The roach must immediately ingest borax balls, but the sugar and borax method works by sticking to their legs.
Peanut Butter & Borax
Roaches are attracted to peanut butter due to its high protein and fat content. Roaches also love the strong scent of peanut butter, so they will be easily drawn to it. For this bait recipe to work, place four parts peanut butter for every 1 part borax in a small container in a place where you often see roaches congregate.
Regardless of the recipe, borax works the same way in the digestive tracts of cockroaches. The only difference in these methods is that the sugar and borax method increases the chances that the cockroach will come into contact with it. When you place any of these baits or mixtures around your home, be sure to eliminate any other food sources.
How Long Does It Take for Borax to Kill Roaches?
The amount of time it takes for borax to kill a roach effectively depends on the bait method you choose to use.
When the borax sticks to the legs of roaches, they will go back to the nest and try to clean it off. In doing so, they will ingest it. The borax is a neurotoxin and damages the gut of the cockroach. Roaches are social creatures, and other cockroaches in the nest will try to help clean the affected colony member. When they do, they will ingest enough to kill them, too.
Roaches are also known to eat the dead bodies of roaches within their community. Once a roach dies from eating one of your baits, the other roaches may eat the infected roach corpse and become poisoned themselves.
Unlike chemical sprays, borax does not kill roaches instantly. Affected cockroaches usually die over two or three days. You should reapply the sugar and borax mixture every few days for about a month or more.
It is typical for you to see an increase in the cockroach population in the first two days after applying the baits. This is because the cockroaches are desperately searching for food and water. This is a sign they are dying.
After about a week, you should see a decrease in the population after the initial increase. The time it takes to eliminate cockroaches depends on the colony’s size when you begin. In most cases, you can expect the colony to be completely eliminated in about a month. You can reapply the mixtures if they return.
Borax is an effective way to eliminate cockroaches, and you do not have to worry about harmful chemicals. If one of the recipes listed above doesn’t work for your roach problem, try mixing another until you find the one that works best for your home.
