Safe, Easy & Effective Way to Get Rid of Roaches

By Kelly Love | 03/21/2018

Now that Spring is officially here, many of us are starting to get warm weather. We’re loving it here in Texas! However, with warm weather, roaches and other pests start to come out of the cracks and openings in our homes where they’ve been hiding in an attempt to stay warm during the winter. Roaches are not only really gross and give you that creepy crawly feeling when you see them, they can spread food-borne illnesses and their waste and body parts can cause allergies.

There’s a very simple and inexpensive way to get roaches out of your home.

Marilee taught me this trick ten years ago and I’ve had noticeable success with it in six different homes in four different cities. When we moved into our current home in Austin, TX, I saw at least two roaches a day. It was summertime and they were MASSIVE. I was so disgusted, but within a week or so of making my homemade “roach bait”, we almost never saw any again!

DIY ROACH BAIT

Mix equal parts of:

powdered sugar
yellow cornmeal - use fine cornmeal
Borax or boric acid*

*I have always used Borax with success, but if you have heavy infestation you might try the boric acid. You can purchase it at your local pharmacy. Place mixture in caps around the house - under refrigerator, in cabinets, etc. (I use jar lids and the caps of empty supplement bottles.) There’s no exact number of caps you should put out. Just use your best judgement and if it is a heavy infestation, go for a more concentrated effort. I usually put five or six in my kitchen and two or three in my bathrooms.

VERY IMPORTANT: If you have children and/or pets, place where they cannot access.

I have a toddler, so I put them on my countertops (hidden behind things so they’re not an eyesore), in the back of cabinets that have child locks, and behind the fridge. I put the majority of them in our kitchen and also some in our bathrooms. This will rid the house of roaches in about two weeks and works up to a year. It is much more effective (and safer!!!) than having a pest control service treat your home with pesticides.

Kelly Love

is a co-founder of Branch Basics. Raised in a home with all things conventional, it wasn’t until college that she experienced the power of living in an environment free of harmful chemicals and eating according to the principles of Food as Medicine. All of the “normal” problems Kelly had experienced most of her life: dry and itchy eyes, painful menstrual cramps, joint pain, and even body odor disappeared! Turns out they don’t have to be normal after all, and Kelly is passionate about helping others thrive, not just survive. She lives in Jackson, MS where she loves making heathly breakfasts for her husband and daughter, grounding, and jumping on the trampoline with her husband and daughter. But she’ll always be a Louisiana girl at heart!

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