Comments on: Calling All Experts: Critter Control?

By: Deb

Deb — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:39:36 +0000

Boric Acid powder is the best thing to use. Farmers use it on their migrant camps, you can buy it cheap at Family Dollar stores.

By: Allison

Allison — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 21:43:37 +0000

My parents built a house in a rural area about 10 years ago. My mother poured a container of boric acid into the wet cement when the foundation was poured and then put a line of boric acid along EVERY SINGLE 2×4 when the house was framed. We hear boric acid looses efficacy when it gets wet, so we don’t know if adding it to the cement helped, but when all of their neighbors were inundated with scorpions, spiders and roaches during the winter, my parents had nothing.

I recently bought my first house. We were a little suspicious that the house came with 1 year of pest control. Day 2 after moving in we discovered the roach nest under the hot water heater. The floor was wet, so we let it dry, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, sprayed with bleach, sprayed with something magical the guy at the hardware store sold me (I know, it was probably terrible for me and the environment, but I couldn’t deal with the horror), and put boric acid around all the baseboards. I have only seen a handful of sickly looking roaches since then. I feel the problem is pretty much solved.

By: YoungHouseLove

YoungHouseLove — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:22:19 +0000

Good luck Beth!

xo,
s

By: Beth

Beth — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:19:37 +0000

I am a Floridian, born and raised. I love everything about what Florida offers, EXCEPT the bugs! After discovering this website thanks to Ready Made Magazine, I am in LOVE! I was cleaning my house today and thought about “what about pest control” so it got on and by accident came across this topic. At any rate, I will say this… we have struggled with bugs invading our 70 year old home, and in complete desperation we called an exterminator. Although he would come out anytime i needed him to, the bugs still persisted. I cancelled the contract and turned to “home remedies” We found that bug bombs work wonderfully! But we would have to set them and vacate the house for half a day. Then come back and clean…ugh. I am going to try borax and hopefully that works out! Thanks so much for the tips!!! I’m excited!

Beth

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:53:33 +0000

My husband and I just bought our first townhouse. When we were getting ready to move in there was a dead water bug (giant roach–ick) in the master bedroom. Before we actually moved in, my husband bug-bombed the heck out of the entire house (and garage). We found two more dead water bugs (and about a million spiders) after that. My mom said that it was from the townhouse being vacant for a year, the bugs had come in during the summer through the pipes looking for water.

My cat recently found another one in the kitchen (shiver). My mother (my source for all things) advises stuffing steel wool in any cracks around pipes in your house. She said that they won’t cross this barrier for some reason. This is the route we’ve gone–it’s not been long, but fingers crossed! We have three kitties, so we don’t want to use chemicals if we can avoid it.

By: Bailey

Bailey — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:18:31 +0000

Ok, straight from the Terminix guy who does our pest control at work…the best thing you can do is Borax Powder.

Borax powder can be applied to baseboards and in cracks between shelves, under your fridge and oven, etc. The powder is a lot more nature friendly than the pesticide alternative.

That said, if you want to “shock and awe” and go the pesticide route, I highly recommend Bengal Gold roach spray. This stuff will make your bathroom or kitchen look like a roach war zone.

Best of luck!

By: Megan

Megan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:22:42 +0000

We have roaches that come up the drains from the sewers. At the beginning of the summer I pour about a cup of bleach down all the drains and that normally takes care of them.

By: Susan S

Susan S — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:18:33 +0000

I noticed in one of the comments that someone was looking for ways to get rid of fleas and I have one of those, ‘crazy, heard from a friend who heard from a friend’ deals that actually work.

Pour liquid dishsoap on bright white throw away plate(s) and place them under plug in nightlights in the most heavily affected area(s) right before you call it a night.

It sounds so stupid that I never thought it would work but being desperate, I was willing to try anything. It took about a week, but with routine house cleaning and plates set out each night, our house was once again flea free without the need for any caustic chemicals that could hurt my kidlet or pets.

Hope this helps :)

By: YoungHouseLove

YoungHouseLove — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:35:31 +0000

Hey Seraph,

We haven’t heard anything about camel or cave crickets although I do know someone who uses sticky traps (meant for mice) to trap crickets in their home. Hope it helps! And anyone else with advice on the subject, feel free to chime in!

xo,
s

By: Seraph

Seraph — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:59:39 +0000

I haven’t read all the comments yet (in a hurry) but has anyone mentioned how to get rid of camel crickets? I’ve also heard them called cave crickets. I’m not sure if they’re unhealthy the way roaches are to have around, but they’re ugly as sin and my basement apartment in NC -always- seems to have a few. They obviously like water so I’m going to get drain covers, but does anyone have any other tips?