Of all the folk remedies for cockroaches, boric acid is probably known more than anyone else. There are so many recipes for poisonous mixtures with it that pests can be called true gourmets.
Boric acid is applicable in almost any room and situation. However, for all its versatility, this powder has its own characteristics, positive and negative. Therefore, it is necessary to know how to poison cockroaches with boric acid even before deciding whether to use it: in some cases it may be more expedient to use other methods.
The reasons for the appearance of pests in the apartment
Sanitary and epidemiological specialists, professional insect controllers and just insecticide sellers 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's body;
- Problems with sewer communications. Putrefactive vapors, traces of sewage flow, places with a characteristic smell of missing food magnetically attract cockroaches, even if the room is treated with a product;
- Appliances with built-in open electric and gas heaters. The cockroach needs heat, as well as water and food.
Heaters most often become objects for insect nesting, even if the apartment is cleaned regularly enough and food is neatly stored. Cockroaches have a good chemical memory, finding their tracks even a few weeks after the general cleaning of the premises.
Therefore, you have to look for chemicals that can affect the metabolism and chemistry of cockroaches. Siloxane-based preparations are considered the best remedies, but they are too expensive compared to boric acid.
Processing rules
To maximize the effectiveness of boric poison, you must adhere to the following rules:
- minimize the access of insects to other food sources: pack food tightly, do not leave dirty dishes and crumbs in the kitchen, do not keep open trash bins, wash away traces of grease from the stove and all surfaces;
- to minimize the access of insects to water, as a poisoned cockroach can "drink" and the effectiveness of the product will decrease;
- re-treatment 2 weeks after the death of the main population, in order to avoid its recovery from the preserved eggs.
Also, a mandatory event when processing an apartment from cockroaches is a general cleaning.
Boric acid action on cockroaches
The boric acid formula H3BO3, a white crystalline powder with a slight antiseptic effect, is most often used as an additive to an alcohol solution to enhance the antimicrobial effect. Pure boric acid is relatively safe, although uncontrolled use can cause burns and severe irritation of the mucous membranes.
When powdered boric acid enters the body of a cockroach, a weak and non-toxic acid base has a dual effect:
- There is a partial binding of water in the tissues of the insect, which leads to dehydration of the body;
- Boric acid 100% destroys microflora, bacteria and fungi present in the digestive tract of a 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 a cockroach.
Many experts argue that boric acid burns chemical tags or cockroach memory left on the paths in its habitat. The more cockroaches carry boric acid along the paths, the more chances of their effective destruction.
Disadvantages of the method
The use of this drug against insects also has its drawbacks - it does not work on cockroach eggs. Surface contact of insect bodies with powder causes a pestilence among uninvited neighbors, but does not guarantee complete destruction. To ensure maximum effect, you need to poison them several times.
The disadvantages of this method include the fact that it will not be possible to immediately poison the insects. The poison works slowly. You must start using the tool as soon as the first individuals are seen in the house.
Cockroaches are very tenacious, so long-term use of the drug leads to addiction. The same phenomenon is observed if the neighbors use the powder. Insects that have adapted to the poison will not die from it.
Boric acid cockroach poison
It is possible to win the fight against cockroaches only if all the residents of the apartment building actively participate in the process of chemical extermination of the "Prusaks". If there is at least one apartment with unsanitary conditions and cockroaches, the effect of using the poison will be much smaller, and you will have to use the tool constantly.
The cockroach needs 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 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 the bait, remove all sources of water from the room, blot the 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 cooked on the protein or yolk of a chicken egg.
One egg is boiled until soft-boiled, the shell and boiled protein 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 waxed paper and dry to a hard consistency.
It is best to cut the acid-based poison leaf into ribbons or small squares. The prepared bait is pinned on cockroach trails using invisible pins or wallpaper studs. If there is no moisture and drafts in the places where the poison is laid, then you can simply spread the bait on the floor.
After about three days, the poison based on an acid mixture must be replaced with a fresh one, as soon as the yolk wears off and dries, the cockroaches stop reacting to it. You should not use a mixture of eggs and chemical in its pure form, without a paper base, the remnants of the mixture will only spoil the flooring over time.
Boric acid with potatoes
According to some experts, cockroaches prefer mainly carbohydrate and protein bases, as moist as possible. The bait of yolk and acidic powder dries quickly and loses its attractiveness, therefore, carbohydrates are added to the composition to enhance the smell, best of all is grated boiled potatoes with a small addition of boiled yolk.
Raw potatoes, grated and squeezed from the juice, 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, at most half a day. Then the bait will have to be removed or replaced with a new one.
Boric acid with sugar
Cockroaches, like most insects, adore glucose and sucrose in any form. If there is a large amount 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 1: 3 ratio. Granulated sugar and acid can be ground to powder and apply the mixture to the edge of the skirting board, pour paths under the refrigerator and near the heaters.
Boric bait with sugar, in addition to cockroaches, attracts ants and wasps, so its condition must be periodically checked, if ants appear, the acid with powdered sugar must be urgently removed.
Sugar mixture with boron powder has the best damaging effect, but the bait absorbs water easily, 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 that of an acid powder.
Boric acid with sunflower oil
Means for cockroaches based on sunflower oil and boric acid are used mainly in the summer. The smell of fresh oil attracts cockroaches as well as carbohydrate and protein bait.
For one potato cooked in a peel and crushed, take 10 g of borax, 5-15 g of starch or flour and one tablespoon of oil. The mixture is ground with a spoon to a dough state, 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 are usually 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
Boric acid solution is more convenient and easier to use, dissolve 25 g of powder in 100 ml of water. Liquid acid mass is used mainly as an addition to hard bait. After two or three days of "dry" diet, cockroaches are looking for sources of water, so a cloth tape moistened with an acid solution destroys no worse than branded boric acid from cockroaches.
It makes no sense to install saucers or bowls with the solution, "Prusaks" usually bypass them, even if sugar is added to the mixture. Acid poison precipitates as a dense sediment that is difficult to clean up and reuse.
Pros and cons of the remedy
Unlike many other popular insect control methods, a cockroach remedy made from boric acid has more advantages than disadvantages:
| Dignity | disadvantages |
| •low cost; •high efficiency; • combination of lethal and sterilizing effect on cockroaches; • lack of development of addiction in insects; • lack of chemical odor and harmful fumes; • environmental friendliness and ease of disposal of the product. | • the need for additional time for the development of the cumulative effect; • the need for additional time to prepare baits; • lack of a toxic effect on eggs. |
It should be noted that the disadvantages of boric acid are inherent in many chemical insecticides. At the same time, cockroaches often develop addiction to the active ingredients of purchased products.
How to make boric acid balls
Even if cockroaches are 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 separate blots or "patches" pasted on paper;
- In the form of glue cords or strips.
The easiest way is to make "patches". It is enough to knead a mixture of acidic powder or borax with flour and a small amount of sugar, and put the mass in separate blots on a sheet of thick paper. The creamy cockroach mixture can be applied to the sill or baseboard with a large-capacity medical syringe.
To make granules, dough with boric acid is flavored with sunflower oil, rolled into thin cords, cut into tiny pieces and doused with a wooden plank to a round shape.
How to poison cockroaches with boric acid
In order to poison cockroaches with boric acid, you must adhere to two simple rules. Firstly, no food and water should be kept open in the room, only bait pellets should be available for cockroaches.
Secondly, the bait with boric acid in the form of granules and finely ground powder is scattered over the crevices and passages of insects. Periodically, places with dead insects must be removed and sprinkled with dry boron powder. Crystals of the poison stick to the paws, and sooner or later are eaten by insects.
Boric acid from cockroaches: reviews
The effectiveness of the bait depends not only on a successful recipe, but also on the experience of using an acid mixture in the fight against a cockroach tribe.
Victoria Alekseevna, an experienced housewife, Voronezh
Boric acid with cockroach eggs helps better than any branded remedies, it costs a penny, and there is less poison in the house. Before preparing boric acid from cockroaches, it is necessary to wash and clean the room from any food remnants, otherwise the "Prusaks" will not bite the bait.
Sergey Petrovich, pensioner, Minsk
It will take at least two weeks to get rid of the cockroaches. I mix boric acid with chalk and water and with a brush, like paint, I paint all the baseboards, cracks in the floors, circles around the refrigerator and the threshold. You need to paint with a poisoned mixture every three days until the cockroaches leave.
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 long enough, if you have enough patience, after a few weeks of persecution, cockroaches will go away forever.
Terms of use
Grassing cockroaches with boric acid powder, do not forget about the simplest safety rules. The substance is classified as hazard class 3. Store it out of the reach of children. All work is carried out with gloves. It is important to ensure that the ready-made baits are not eaten by children or pets: this can lead to poisoning. If the poison is swallowed, the stomach is flushed with copious amounts of water, causing vomiting. If symptoms of intoxication appear, seek medical help.
To make the baits more effective, thorough cleaning is carried out before using them, all products are placed in the refrigerator or wrapped in plastic bags. Another success secret: dryness. The sink is kept dry by wiping it after use; if liquids get on the floor, the drips are immediately removed. By depriving cockroaches of free access to water, you hasten their death.
