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Rachael needs your help!
I have a problem. A horrible, awful, kitchen bug problem.Some of my roommates have been, let’s say, not so good with cleaning sometimes. So the bugs came. We rarely see them during the day, but they’re EVERYWHERE at night. Turning on the light, I usually have to stifle my instinctive scream. There are tiny little brown bugs everywhere. Not ants — they look like small roaches.
I’ve been actively working on the problem the last month by discouraging messes in the kitchen and cleaning down the counters and all around with a bleachy cleaning product. The bug problem is not getting better. It might be worse!
What’s my best option to take care of these pests? Bonus points for a gentler solution than my bleachy friend.
max gel roach killer, it works amazing we were infested, and i read about this and it worked wonders, clean everything then put this along the edges of wherever youve seen them. its has a chemical that could potinially harm a animal but they would need to eat like 12 hole tubes of the stuff for it to even make them sick.
Peppermint oil is a natural solution. Many bugs and rodents do NOT like the smell and leave. Spiders, roaches (also water bugs as we have here in the desert), fleas, mice, ants… I’ve driven a large anthill of large, red, biting ants away from my backyard last summer, driven a few mice from my garage last winter season.
I don’t see bugs near front and back doors anymore, and there are other essential oils and blends that you can use for bedbugs and hotel rooms germs if you want to, can use oils to protect your ‘air space’ and your respiratory tract, can also use it as natural hand sanitizer. Many common health ailments one might get, I can help with, using certified pure therapeutic grade essential oils. The list goes on.
We had a horrific roach infestation after new roommates brought in contaminated furniture. At first we saw the suckers only at night & first light, but eventually the roaches stopped giving any fucks and we saw them during the day.
We did get rid of them. Three steps:
1. Clean fucking everything. Deep, deep clean. Pull the stove out from the wall and clean under there. Vacuum every nook and cranny. Mop all floors. Make sure that all food is sealed and stored away properly. Roaches are only related to cleanliness in that you need to cut off their food source.
2. Spray all surfaces with catnip tea, every day. It messes with their antennae so they can’t follow each other around.
3. Get these, and lay ’em out exactly as directed. It was the egg stoppers that really did it for us. They work by interrupting the roaches hormones so they become sterile and can’t reproduce.
This is not an overnight process- it took a good 3 months for them to die off. It’s been about 2 1/2 years since we’ve seen any (or their shredded exoskeletons) and we live in an apartment building.
Bonus points if you stop killing the spiders and centipedes that you’re probably seeing with increasing numbers (and size) as they feast on all the tasty roaches. Unless you have a recluse/widow problem, these are your BFFs. You know you’ve won when the predator bugs move on.