And the Winner Is... (Enoch's Blog Part 2)

Hello everyone,

Since my last email about roaches, lots of things have happened. I could tell lots of stories, but I’ll only talk about one:

Cindy Brewer (our co-worker from the States) homeschools her 5 children. At the moment they are learning about bugs in science class. Cindy is always looking for interesting things to do with the kids in class. She heard about our little bug problem and thought it would be great if we could try to catch one for an experiment called the “Lazarus Effect”. What a great idea! We’ll give them away! Well Marissa catches one in a can and I stab the can with some scissors to give it air holes, trying so hard not to stab the poor roach in the process *sarcasm*.

The next day, we take the nasty monster to work with us and give it to the children. We start to work in the office down the hall and the children start class. Minutes later we hear a loud scream (which isn’t unusual in a house with 5 little girls.) I look over to Marissa and say, “The roach got out”.

Soon after, the children come running into the office screaming and yelling; one is crying…. It was hilarious.

OK.

Here are some of the suggestions that I received in the past week:

“When we were in Venezuela they had trouble with large bugs. They would take a piece of tile, turn it over (so the rough side is up) and spread some glue/paste on it. They'd lay it in the corner of the room and I think they put some sort of crumbs on it to attract the bugs. When the bugs were all stuck to the glue, they'd take a scraper and scrape them off in the trash…or somewhere safe (so they can't return!!!). I suppose you could also use some strong tape...maybe duct tape?”

ROACH SOLUTION:
1- PUT A BOWL OF FOOD FOR THEM OUTSIDE, SO THEY WILL STAY THERE.2- WRAP SOME FOOD AROUND A PILL, LIKE TYLENOL, ETC... OR GRIND IT UPINTO THE FOOD AND PUT IT OUT FOR THEM
3- PUT UP A SIGN...NO ROACHES ALLOWED (BETTER WRITE IT IN VIETNAMESE)

“I have heard that bay leaves are good for keeping away bugs. I don't know if that would be the case with roaches but it would be worth a try. That is, if you can find any bay leaves. If so, I would put them everywhere - in every cabinet, closet, under furniture, etc.”

“As far as the roaches go the best I've come up with so far is to purchase a snake or lizard of some kind and let him wander around the house. It will eat all the roaches and no doubt provide many funny stories for the blog. My wife’s suggestion, while not as fun but a lot more practical, is to Google organic or home remedies for killing roaches.”

And found on the internet:

Set Out a Mixture of Baking Soda and Sugar. Cockroaches have a very high acid content in their stomachs. When they ingest the sugar, and the baking soda along with it, the subsequent reaction between the soda and their natural make-up results in death.

Mix Up a Non-Toxic Bait. Also taking advantage of the adverse effects of baking soda, mix up dough made of baking soda, bacon grease, minced onions, sugar and flour. The bait is easier to distribute and cleaner than the above mentioned strategy, with the same deadly results. Try Boric Acid. Boric acid isn't non-toxic, but it isn't as volatile as most insecticides, either. You can purchase it as a powder that you sprinkle in areas where you suspect roaches are congregating. It's not exactly organic roach control, but your roaches in house will get the boric acid on their exoskeletons through contact, after which the acid eats away at them until they die. You can also make Boric Acid-based bait, similar to the baking soda bait listed above, though be sure to keep pets and children away from any area where boric acid is used.

And the winner is…Myra Oldham! Her suggestion of crushing pills and putting them in food is the only one that we could use (since we couldn’t find Boric acid…or anything else, for that matter). We tried her idea last night and…there were several dead roaches this morning.
We will probably try the bay leaves once we find them. That will at least keep some from coming in.

Thanks everyone that sent solutions to the roach problem. I enjoyed reading them all.

Enoch