Humane Cockroach Control
Last night, I got sucked into watching a few documentaries with overly dramatic titles about insects. I sat in awe for nearly three hours watching ants raise caterpillar larvae as their own, spiders weave thick squares of web to use in a tool-like fashion to capture their prey from the rain-forest floor, and mayflies and cicadas as they shed their skin and emerged from the water and dark underground to start the last and most brief part of their life.
Insects develop complex relationships, care for their young, and work as teams much as we do. When you see a spider or ant running across the floor, it’s likely that they have somewhere important to be in order to complete something that they set out to do that day, just as we run errands and have order in our daily lives. However, often when we see them, we treat their presence as an intrusion, and many people even resort to inhumane methods for dealing with these encounters.
Cockroaches probably bear the brunt of our negative reactions more heavily than most insects. While you certainly don’t want your living space to turn into a cockroach haven, there are humane and affordable methods for discouraging them. Inhumane poisons and traps will do nothing for long-term control and will have you spending more time and money than solving the problem once and for all in an effective and humane manner. With a little time, you can have your environment cockroach-free, and no one has to get hurt. The following is a strategy that I used a couple of years ago, and it worked perfectly.
First and foremost, you must work on prevention. Keep all dishes washed, take trash out frequently, and make sure that unrefrigerated companion animal food is tightly sealed and put away when your animal companion is not eating. Keep countertops wiped down with a vinegar-and-water solution, and sweep, mop, and vacuum regularly. Now for the actual cockroachproofing, you will need the following:
• Non-toxic white glue
• Caulking in either white or clear (available from hardware stores)
• Stoppers for all your drains that do not already have built-in stoppers
• Dried whole bay leaves
Start with one room at a time, and begin with places where you have seen cockroaches. Put stoppers in all your drains—sinks and bathtub―when not in use to prevent roaches from coming in via your drainpipes. Also be sure to repair leaky faucets and pipes, as roaches are attracted to water.
Seal up all gaps between floorboards, under counters, around sink plumbing and windowsills, and near fuse boxes. For larger gaps, use the caulking, and for smaller gaps, use the glue. This will take some time, but if you just work on it for a little while each day, you will have it finished in no time.
Add dried bay leaves to your kitchen drawers and cabinets, too, as they are a great natural repellent and will leave your kitchen smelling wonderful!
P.S. If after your cockroachproofing you find any little guys who got stuck inside, help them out and use something like this to humanely remove them from your living space. Click here for more tips too.
October 9th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
These are great ideas, thanks so much for the post.
October 9th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
i have roaches and already keep everything clean. i think they come in from my neighbor’s apt. sealing up the cracks will probably work, but not sure how to get behind the stove.
October 10th, 2008 at 1:33 am
very cool ~thanks!!!
October 10th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
The caulk also works great for furry friends that come in during the winter months! They stay away from the caulk because of the smell and the knowledge it will hurt them! So much better than disgusting traps…steel wool works well too!
October 11th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Hi Mylie
I am very touched by your article. I will never look at common inserts, such as cockroaches, the same way again
October 20th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Another really good reason not to kill spiders is because they catch the insects that you may not want in your house!
Also, my husband and I have a safe, humane bug vacuum that we use all the time. It is just a long hollow tube attached to a small vacuum. We save insects of all kinds this way.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I’m headed to the kitchen to get the bay leaves!
October 29th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
How often do the bay leaves have to be replaced to remain effective?
Thanks!
October 29th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
I live in the country in FL and have tons of Palmetto bugs and these other roaches that look more like armadillos (the have these shells vs. wings)… anyway, I have an extreme phobia to these bugs, I’m not kidding, if they fly at me, all bets are off: each man/woman for her own and if I accidentally harm one, I just don’t know what to say… you’d have to have this kinda fear to understand. Anyway, first I tried bug vacs, too weak for the monster roaches I encounter, so I got a hand vac with a little extension for the end: works like a champ. I’ve become a pro at catch and release. It freaks me out, but I’m able to keep enough distance so I’m able to do this.
October 29th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
oh god! thank you,, i didn’t want to hurt the cockroach,, but yesterday i saw one,, & i started to cry! cause when i see one i’m like so scared.. but i don’t want to kill them so,, thank you really,, those are great ideas (:
October 30th, 2008 at 4:10 am
My view is a little different from other. I see this world as a cycle.
Try and think it like this, if we start throwing off these cockroaches the way is suggested. They wil land up in someones house anyways. I understand that Killing animals in no good and I am myself a great animal lover. But I also hold the concept that this nature has provided us with a beautiful concept of Balance, where one thing for the other.
I can write more on this concept, but i guess its a long debate. I am ready for it….r you?
October 30th, 2008 at 7:40 am
Great article - thanks for posting it!
Do you have any ideas on how to get rid of ants without hurting them?
Thanks
October 30th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
wow this is great! I already keep my house very clean, but I didnt know about the bay leaves. I love it, and the kitchen does smell great!
Thanks!
October 30th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Catnip has been found to be more effective than chemical cockroach repellants. Check out this link:
http://www.eartheasy.com/live_natpest_control.htm
November 13th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Yes AmyA, I took a look at that link on eartheasy.com and there’s a number of pertinent articles on pest control. They really have a good feel for ‘what’s right’. http://www.eartheasy.com - check it out people!
November 21st, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Thankyou for this information. I have discovered that insects are just like us in many ways. They are thinking feeling beings. Why do you think that they run from us.They are aware of us.Insects know we will kill them therefore If they have the capacity to know fear insects must have emotions not just instinct. This is an awareness that I have just discovered in life. You would not crush or poison a family member.Can you imagine what it would feel like to be crushed.We are the higher animals on Planet Earth,so why must we cause so much suffering to the creatures living with us..??
February 16th, 2009 at 12:04 am
if you are trying to save insects….. they die in a vacuum, so it may be a nice way to make you feel like you are doing something, but because of the way they respirate, it kills them