DIY Ant and Cockroach Remedies

If you know where the ants are coming in from, you can repel them with food-grade diatomaceous earth (DE), baking soda, talcum powder, medicated body powder, damp coffee granules, salt, cayenne, or garlic powder.

Place any of these materials in corners, under baseboards or in any cracks and crevices where you see ants emerging but where pets and children can't get to them. These products are mostly powders and won't work on the perimeter of your home as they will be blown or washed away. Food-grade diatomaceous earth is available at feed stores.

If you can find the ants' entrance on the outside, you can block it with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, toothpaste or duct tape. You can also squeeze the juice from a lemon into the opening and leave the lemon peel there.

You can spray the ants themselves with a mixture of 40 percent water, 40 percent alcohol and 20 percent dish soap (these proportions don't have to be exact). You can spray around your foundation with a mixture of 2 ounces table salt and 1 ounce white pepper in 1 pint water.

If you have ants making mounds in your garden, you can flood the nests with club soda, white vinegar or food-grade DE. If you use the DE, mix 4 tablespoons per gallon of water.

You can also use 1 gallon of orange juice diluted with 2 gallons of water and a dash of soap. If you prefer, you can also spread dry instant grits on the mound. The ants will eat it and not be able to digest it and die.

Once ants are in the house, you can usually eradicate them with a nontoxic bait. I always recommend placing baits - whether toxic or nontoxic - where children and pets cannot get to them.

When you use baits, the ants will take it back to the colony and kill the queen. If you are seeing dead ants around the bait, they aren't taking it back and the problem won't be solved. You may want to change baits if this is the case.

You can mix apple sauce, sugar water, canned cat food (fish flavoured), creamy peanut butter, honey or jam with boric acid or borax. Mix about 2 percent boric acid or borax into the bait.

Other baits you can use are a mixture of half baking soda and half powdered sugar or a mixture of a third each of powdered sugar, baking soda and powdered vitamin C.

If cockroaches become a nuisance, here are some tips:

• Combine 60g powdered sugar and 30g bacon drippings. Add 60g onions, 60g flour and 8 ounces baking soda. Add enough water to make a doughlike consistency. Make balls of bait and put them wherever you see roaches.
• Also you can mix 1 clove garlic, 1 onion, 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper and 1 litre water. Steep for one hour, strain, add a tablespoon of liquid soap and spray it around the house for ant and cockroach control.
• You can mix 60g borax and 30g black pepper and 30g shredded bay leaves and place them in areas to repel cockroaches. Keep all of these baits away from kids and pets.

Article provided by Dynamic Pest Control