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Do you know what the number one question was we were asked this summer? How to get rid of roaches!
Each summer, our homemade ant spray recipe gets really popular. People want a safe way to get rid of all those ants that linger in their kitchen or around doors.
I just used a bunch of homemade ant spray because a random trail of ants showed up on my front porch, and I didn’t want Amelia to get in it. I spray the ant spray to safely kill the ants. It was safe for her, safe for the dog, and killed the ants. You can see more of Amelia’s adventures on Instagram 🙂
So many readers have asked what they can do about cockroaches!
To be honest with you, it makes me sick to even think about it. Roaches are one of my biggest “heebie jeebies” lol. You can ask my husband! I scream so loud when I see one! So, I like knowing how to get rid of roaches fast.
These are scientifically based and proven tips to try. Remember, different remedies work for different areas. Always test things and try what works.
Okay, let’s get started!
How to Get Rid of Roaches Based on Science
If you want to know how to get rid of cockroaches with a baby in the house or if you have pets, then you will enjoy these tips. Store-bought sprays are effective, but you probably don’t want your kids and pets getting into it!
These are methods proven to work, and I have used them around my home.
For reference, this is for regular sized roaches, not infestations! If you have a serious problem, please contact a professional!!
What Attracts Cockroaches in Your Home?
Before we start on all of our easy tips for getting rid of roaches, we need to start with the most important issue. Why do you have them?
If you are dealing with roaches outside or around flower beds, it is easy for them to come around sidewalks and doors. This is simple to deal with, and all of our solutions below will help with this! I have never had them inside my house, but I have encountered them near door frames like in the photo below.
Roaches that are INSIDE your home are usually attracted by food, water, and shelter.
Using our tips will kill the roaches and deter them, but please START here first:
- Make sure you don’t leave food or trash sitting out.
- If you have a leak in a bath tub, sink, or toilet, make sure to address this. Roaches are attracted to moisture.
- Don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink or dirty clothes on the floor.
- Keep your home clean. Regular vacuuming, wiping down counters, etc.
Like we mentioned above, PLEASE contact a professional exterminator if you are dealing with an infestation. Home remedies can help, but a professional needs to take care of your situation as soon as possible,
What Are Home Remedies Best For When It comes to Roaches?
The reason I am starting this post with so many tips about roaches is due to the fact that home remedies are amazing, but might not be the best answer for your situation. On Chemistry Cachet, we want our readers to receive the best, most thorough information. So, we want to make sure you discover the source of problems along with all the methods on getting rid of the issue.
Getting rid of roaches with home remedies works for:
- Occasional roach sightings inside the home
- Around porches
- Inside flower beds
- Door frames
Now let’s check out some of the best scientifically proven ways to get rid of roaches.
How Do You Get Rid of Cockroaches Fast? Use Our Homemade Roach Spray!
The fastest way is to try our homemade spray. Yes, it was made for ants, but I have had dozens and dozens of readers write me saying it worked amazing on roaches around the home.
Here is the recipe, but please visit original post for detailed science and tips.
- 2 cups of vinegar, distilled
- 2 cups of water
- 3 tablespoon blue Dawn dishwashing liquid
- 3 tablespoons table salt
- Spray Bottle
Directions:
- Mix ingredients together, add to a spray bottle.
- Shake well before spraying each time.
To INTENSIFY this solution:
If you have larger roaches to deal with, eliminate the water in the solution above and replace with additional vinegar. This means the solution will contain 4 cups of vinegar, 3 tbsp dawn, 3 tbsp salt. I have used it on small roaches and it kills them instantly.
Use Borax
Borax is beneficial for many insects including roaches! Please note that the borax you buy at the store in the laundry section is not boric acid. Despite many myths out there, borax is safe to use around the home. You can read more myth busting and the science behind borax in this post.
Using borax as an insecticide works if the insect can walk through it. Professionals say that roaches can see borax powder, so it is best to lightly dust areas where they hide. When they walk through the borax, it gets stuck to their legs. While trying to remove it and ingesting it, the borax eventually kills them. It isn’t a matter of if borax kills them, but when. Sodium Borate is scientifially proven to kill insects.
Borax is a long term treatment. If you decide to use this home remedy, continue to dust the areas for a few weeks to a month.
Diatomaceous Earth
We have had readers ask about using diatomaceous earth for ants. I think this substance is a great natural remedy for killing most insects, but I don’t like using it INSIDE the home. It makes a huge mess and can be harmful to people with breathing issues. You might be wondering if that is true about borax? No, borax is more granulated and not as much as needed. Diatomaceous earth is very powdery and more is needed to kill insects. It is a great option for outside.
The Natural Pesticide Information Center describes diatomaceous earth as a substance made from fossilized remains of aquatic organisms called diatoms. The particles in this substance damage and kill insects. It is also a registered roach killer.
You can use this by dusting around flower beds and porches to get rid of roaches. Be sure to use gloves and not breathe into the dust.
Peppermint Oil
Different oils can be used to deter insects, but peppermint oil is one of the best ways to deter cockroaches! Essential oils cannot kill roaches, but it will deter them.
I have used peppermint oil as an insect deterrent for years, and it is very helpful.
Mix about 15 drops of peppermint oil with 1 cup of rubbing alcohol. Spray around sinks, door frames, and anywhere else roaches cross to get inside your home. I prefer to mix it with rubbing alcohol, but you can also mix it with vinegar. Rubbing alcohol is safe for all surfaces, so it is always my go to choice.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is one of our favorite methods for keeping insects away. It will deter them from areas, but you will need to reapply it often. For the science behind how cinnamon works as an insecticide, please read our post here.
You can sprinkle cinnamon in flower beds or plants where roaches hide.
Try cinnamon oil for inside the house. Don’t use anything expensive, I just use the Plant Therapy brand. Create a spray like the one we talked about above with peppermint and use the same way.
Ultrasonic Pest Repeller
I have used one of these in my house for 12 years now. My mom bought one for me when we first got married. I never have insect issues inside when I use it! When we rearranged our living room last year, I never plugged mine back in. We started seeing a few bugs here and there all of a sudden. I remembered our device was never plugged back in! It is amazing how well these pulses work to deter insects. A friend of mine uses it for roaches!
The best thing is they are safe for kids, pets, and you don’t have to do anything with it. I highly recommend using these in the house!
Last, but not least, Chemistry Cachet’s all-purpose cleaner!
I think everyone’s favorite mixture is our all-purpose cleaner from the eBook on page 13. I had a reader the other day tell me she cleaned her entire boat with it and her husband asked how everything was so shiny?
Well, another reader emailed me a few months ago saying he used this all-purpose cleaner to kill roaches! He just sprayed them, and it killed them.
In this post we talk about using it to kill gnats, well it will kill roaches too.
This is an eBook recipe you can check out here. To increase the all-purpose spray for an insecticide, add 15 drops of peppermint oil to it!
Let us know if you try anything!
I love seeing readers enjoying our tips. Feel free to let us know what you enjoyed or tag us on instagram #chemistrycachet and @alexis.roch
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Alexis is an investigative chemist sharing her expertise in cleaning, skincare, gardening, and home hacks. She personally tests out products like the best skincare products or home products then shares not only the science behind how it works, but also her personal results. She is the mom of two living in Texas with her husband. Find her on Instagram for fantastic videos, tips, and behind the scenes.
Alexis, thanks for all of your recipes to solve so many problems in the home and garden . I especially love the explanations for why they work. You are the best!
I have been using Tea Tree Oil for those large roaches so common in the south during the hottest months. I put about 15-20 drops in a spray bottle and fill with water. Then spray inside base boards and outside porches, door frames etc. It’s worked for me! No roach problem!
Thanks so much Mary! Oh, that’s a great tip! Tea tree oil is so good for bugs!
How about flowers, keep the deer from eating them spray?
We have a post for deterring wild animals from flower beds here.
Hi Alexis, Love this post. Thankfully all is calm in the intruder/insect world here so far, but I always have your everything cleaner nearby so that will be my first go to. I hv used cinnamon (powder) for ants and it seemed to work. Cleaning up the leftover cinnamon was a bit messy. Thanks you for all the helpful tips.
Cinnamon is great for bugs too! It can get messy though, I love to use the cinnamon oil when I can. Thanks Laurie!!
Hi Alexis, volip prirodna sredstva za pomoć u kući. Veseli me tvoja stranica
I use 12 to 16 drops of peppermint oil in a diffuser and hardly ever see a roach.
Peppermint is great for bugs!
Do you know if any of these oils ie: peppermint or cinnamon will deter bedbugs? Any ideas? Thanks
Hi Denise! I don’t have any experience with bedbugs, but these oils cant help deter many types of insects!
Would anyone know how to keep crickets away from the house so they don’t come in?
Most of the tips in this post will also work for crickets too! I have used the essential oils and diatomaceous earth for crickets
Do you have anything for spiders or will the vinegar and dawn solution work on them too..
We have had readers use it for spiders with success! Many of these other tips will work for spiders too 🙂
Love home remedies that are not harmful.
Another use for Dawn:
Cleaning stains in laundry, also used on the patio furniture and aluminum framing.
1 part Dawn original dishwashing liquid
3 parts hydrogen peroxide
Shake well.
Also removes grease from driveways.
I have removed grease and blood from clothing…the sooner you apply the better the results..may have to scrub or leave over night depending on how large or old the stain..has worked almost all the time.
Dawn is so great for stains! We have a recipe like this in our eBook too. Here is a link for some more useful things to do with Dawn:
Do you have a safe and effective recipe to kill bed bugs and fleas.
I don’t like to use chemical poisons that can be purchased.
I recently had to take a trip and stayed in a motel an I think I may have brought them home.
I have tried “Home Defense” and”Hot Shot bed bug and flea killer” that was purchased at Home Depot, but I am not happy with the results. They slow them down butthey don’t seem to work as long as they are supose to.
I don’t want to use them as often as feel that I need to.
We have cats and so I want something safe to use in the house and on the furniture.
Thanks for any help you can give.
I don’t have any experience with bedbugs, so I am not sure how well certain homemade remedies would work. I have had some readers talking about it, some have shared some recipes that have worked for them. This is one a reader sent in:
8 oz vinegar
4 oz warm water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl then slowly add them to the wet to avoid bubbling over. Put in a spray bottle
I haven’t had experience with this, but readers have had success trying it!
I just used hand sanitizer it suffocated them and they died.
Hello ,I used table salt in the room that had fleas simply scattered salt all over my floor for about 1week and the fleas are gone even though it looked like snow but they are gone now.
Hand sanitizer works for me.
You can put rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle. Spray the mattress and let it sit for a bit and vacuum the mattress
Unfortunately the only thing I know of that works , actually works, mothballs. Along with suffocating you… haha… they suffocate and kill them while keeping them from coming back, gee, wonder why. This method has been used in the hotel industry, industrial and wise old granny’s for decades. This is why when traveling if you enter a room that has that “ancient Grandma Cedar Chest” smell , that room most likely had a bedbug problem at some point and was not properly ionized afterwards to removed the gag factor.
Do you have anything to deter Cuban frogs. The are always on my front porch at night and they poop all over everything!! Plus sometimes they jump on me!!
I don’t have any experience with them, but a friend of mine has used diatomaceous earth for the frogs around her house!
I been having roach problems.Thank you so much for posting your recipes….hope to get more from you for stains in clothes and rugs.I can’t get no stains out of my rugs,more stains come when I’m trying to remove one.Thank you so much….Alice B.
I hope this post is helpful for you!! 🙂
The roly poly bugs are back in our garden eating the roots of our plants. We tried need oil but that didn’t phase them!! Help!!! What kills these bugs?
You can use many of these tips for deterring other bugs. I have never tried for roly polys, but it works for many other insects like ants, beetles, etc 🙂
What works on wasps and huge carpenter bees? For the last few years, the red wasps have been horrible.
Flying bugs like wasps are hard to deal with. These methods will certainly kill them, but trying to catch them as they fly or spray on their nest is difficult. I continue to use a foam spray for quick killing, and it is all that has work for me so I can kill them quick with kids around
How do I get rid of Japanese Beetles?
Does vinegar kill grasses?
This spray kills many insects including beetles. Vinegar shouldn’t be sprayed directly onto grass
Hey Alexis!
With the ant spray…it likely acts as a deterrent, but do you have to spray it directly on ants to kill them? What about all the other ants in the colony? Will saturating the ground kill them or will they just relocate? In the past I have used a fantastic recipe for ants that contained borax, icing sugar and water, mixed into a semi-thick syrup placed into a small pop bottle. I put a rock against it to hold the neck close to the ground to attract them. I was AMAZED at how many went into the pop bottles! ? I think some of them simply got stuck in the thick syrup and the rest were killed by ingesting the borax. I would use this again in a heartbeat…if only I could find that original recipe I used!!! I tried three different versions of the same recipes this year…and none of them worked?.
Not one single ant went in them. So, if you have a recipe like this (with appropriate quantities) I’d love to have it! One I tried had about a cup of Borax in it and they wouldn’t go near it, whereas the first time they were FULL. I left it out all summer (in a shady spot) and it continued to work, then simply disposed of it in the Fall like the fly traps! Just an FYI…(I don’t ‘think’ I read this info on your site…but ?♀️) Perhaps you can verify this for me… I read that you should use both a dry mixture and a wet mixture to effectively kill the ants. Apparently, one method kills them when they ingest it (I’m assuming that’s the liquid one). The powdered borax & icing sugar mixture is carried back to the colony, fed to the Queen, which kills her, and I ‘think’ I recall something about it killing the larvae as well. Can’t recall for sure. Perhaps it penetrates their outer covering, or more likely, it is fed to them when they emerge as ants. With no more Queen and no more babies the colony collapses. No more ant hill!! ? Thanks for any information or advice you can offer on this ant recipe!
Patti ?
Hi Patti! The ant spray is actually an ant killer. You spray on the ants and they die. It can deter, but it is more so for killing them directly. We have had readers just pour this solution on ant beds and it kills them too. I have not heard about the dry mix and wet mix for killing ants. We just use this one and it works for us 🙂 Hope this helps!
IS pepperment oil mixed with the alcohol, dangers to cats
We have never had a problem with our cats. They usually just stay away from the smell of essential oils
Can y’all let me know which one of these recipes works good on getting rid of roaches I have a lot I clean my kitchen don’t leave any dirty dishes clean everything and still have them I need something.
All of these are great to use. I recommend using the spray to kill them, and try one of the other tips to keep them away.
What do you recommend that I could use to kill bed bugs and roaches at the same time?
I don’t have experience with bed bugs, so i can’t say for sure. But any of these tips for roaches should work for other insects including bed bugs
My husband and I live in a motel and the lady next door moved out but brought thousands of roaches with her and now we have her roaches. We don’t have a lot of money. So things over $15 is too expensive. What is the best natural remedies to kill them. I read that a lot of people have tried diatomaceous earth and it didn’t work.
All these tips in this post are the ones I have used with success. If you can’t find the source of the roaches (like a neighbor who caused them), it does make it more difficult to get rid of them. Roaches won’t stick around if they don’t have water or food sources, so maybe the place that lady lived can get a really good cleaning and it will help too