We have cockroaches in our apartment. Is there a way we can safely exterminate them, as we have two babies less than five months old in the house?
By Dean from Hamilton, Ontario
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Dean, if you are not squeamish, look into getting a gecko. I had a friend who released one in her apartment, when she and her husband could not have it sprayed due to an allergy to the insecticide. She said they rarely saw it, it kept the place free of bugs, and they were thrilled with the compromise. I am not sure what kind they specifically used, but they did their research and bought it at a pet store.
OMG, I love the idea of releasing a gecko in the house to eat the bugs, but it'd be my luck I'd step on it in the dark while I was barefoot & break my neck trying to get back off it! LOL!
Here's a link I've posted before about a mixture you can use for roaches.
www.instructables.com/
The 'roach pruf' in the photo is basically boric acid. You can buy boric acid in the insecticide dept. of most hardware stores, it's usually a roach bait powder,but look at the ingredients for boric acid. You can also use Boraxo, which is in the laundry soap section of the store, it has boric acid in it.
The good thing about boric acid is it isn't toxic to animals or humans - but it can make them sick if they eat it in large quantities. But you can put it in out of the way places your babies can't get into. That's what would be good with the above recipe, I'm thinking of using it for ants around my place.
You can also just mix the boric acid with a bit of sugar (the cockroaches are attracted to the sugar & eat it) & place tiny piles of it in the back corners of your kitchen/bathroom cabinets, behind appliances, pull your bottom drawers out & put it under there, etc.
Or, if you want to spend a little more, you can buy the roach bait things that have the bait (boric acid) inside the little containers. The roaches can get in to the bait, but babies & animals can't get into it unless they tear it up. I like the ones I've seen recently that look like little clear plastic half-circles & have water in them. Supposedly the water is what attracts them to the bait. We had a problem a couple of summers ago when we had drought-like conditions & the big cockroaches started coming in looking for water behind our freezer in the garage & the bathroom. I put several of those water baits out & in no time the cockroaches were gone!
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