Get Rid of Roaches by Caulking
Let cockroaches have their space, but keep them out of yours!
Steps
- Exterminators alone will not help, and their products are not good for you. The pest control guys and building superintendents want to come in and "bomb" your stuff. Let's see, putting the residue of toxic bug killing haze all over your furniture, floors, walls and toys hurts who -- the bugs who live hidden in other spaces, or the people who use and touch the stuff? Just say no to cockroach "bombing".
- To really cure this problem, you need to be in a place you are going to stay for awhile. If you'll only be there for a month or two, you might just want to find a different place. Otherwise it is not labor or cost effective.
- This worked for us. We got rid of 100% of the cockroaches in our apartment without exposing ourselves or our kids to toxic pesticides. No more checking my kids in the night and seeing a giant pregnant one crawling across the headboard (Gut reaction: Kill! Kill! Kill!).
- We used the barrier method. It may not be 100% effective in preventing pregnancy but it works pretty damn good for bugs. Basically, roaches live in the walls. People don't, so we decided not to care if they did. We just stopped them from coming out into our side of the apartment (outside the walls). Let's get started!
- At home, put a tube of caulk in the caulking gun (see: Things You'll Need). Cut an opening in the tip, and keep it small so you have good control.
- Start in the kitchen. Keep a damp paper towel handy to wipe your hand on. Examine your cabinets. Cabinets are hung on walls which may have openings in them that you can't see or seal up, so seal with caulk all around your cabinets. If you do a neat job, your landlord will not even know you did anything. They'll only be pissed at you if you make a big messy blob. Ask for help if you've never done it before. Squirt the caulk out along the joint, then smooth it down with a damp fingertip. Wipe off excess.
- It's also helpful to keep a sponge and a bucket of water with you. Dampen the sponge, squeeze it out and run the long edge along the floor (or surface)where you just caulked. Don't press really hard--let the sponge keep an edge. You'll have a thin, smooth line when you're done. Wring/rise out the sponge after each swipe.
- Make sure to caulk between each cabinet box where it butts against the next cabinet. Also get up on the counter and check the top side of the cabinets and seal it off up there, too. Look inside your cabinets and seal any openings on the back wall. Make sure the sink is sealed to the countertop.
- If you find any major holes (we found a whopper behind a blank panel where they had pulled off the old cabinets) use the expanding foam to fill it. That stuff is ugly, so if it is exposed, make a plan to fill the space that looks better than the foam.
- A secret opening the cockroaches know about but you don't is the gap between the countertop and the cabinet box on the underside. Take out all your stuff and caulk that baby good! Do all the cabinets on all sides in your whole kitchen.
- Now you need to do an exhaustive search. Crawl around the edges of all of your rooms. Anywhere a wall meets a floor, ceiling, windowsill, door jamb or trim item needs to be caulked. This takes time, and a LOT of caulk. When in doubt, caulk it.
- Switch plate covers -- here is where you may want to call an exterminator. There are special baits an exterminator has access to that a regular person does not. Before you take off all the switch plate covers and seal around them, the exterminator can place bait inside the walls. Tell them to put in a lot because it will be hard to get back under there when you are done. The baited cockroaches go back to the nest, die, are eaten by others and kill at least some of them, too. A comforting thought.
- After you've resolve the bait issue, every single switchplate and outlet cover of any type must be must be taken off, caulked around the inside edge and stuck back on (wipe off any extra that oozes out). You might think they'd come through the prong openings on an outlet but there is not really much access. You can use the plug covers if that bothers you.
- Dropped or acoustic ceilings are the hardest thing to fix if the acoustic tile has big holes in it (pencil eraser size, for example). You might want to replace the holey kind, or hire someone to float drywall mud over it and paint it. Ask your landlord to do it, or at least for permission if you are a renter. This type are usually glued to the ceiling and may have asbestos so it is better not to pull them down.
- If the fibrous acoustic tiles do not have holes in them, either paint the whole thing to seal between the panels and the metal hanging strips, or lift each panel,caulk around it and set it back down.
- Next, do the plumbing. This is very important, since roaches need water even more than they need food -- they've got nest mates for that! Make sure your tub is caulked all around, even at the top of the wall surround. Caulk gaps in the grout if you have tiles. Get down and caulk all around the base of your toilet. Pull the thin metal flanges away from the wall where the pipes come through and caulk around the pipes. Caulk around the cabinet or around the sink itself if it is hung from the wall.
- If you have forced air heat, lift out the vent covers and caulk or foam around the opening. Make sure you leave room for the vent cover to go back on, and not get stuck in the gooey caulk. If your ducts seem to have gaps in them inside the wall where you can't reach, roaches might be able to get access. You can fix some screen fabric under the vent to prevent them from getting in. A hot glue gun would be helpful for that. The screens would need to be cleaned periodically.
- The last thing we had to do was fill very small gaps between the hardwood floorboards. A flooring person would not recommend this, but a person who wants the bugs gone would!
- Keep your eyes open. If you see them, follow them and find out where they are coming in. Pretty soon they will be gone, gone, gone. We lived above a group of bachelors who did not care. The exterminator said it was one of the worst places he had ever seen, but we had zero bugs. He was impressed. Victory for our side!!
Tips
- Don't forget to check behind wall mounted items like a door chime or Thermostat. There are usually holes leading into the walls there.
- We did not have them in our environment, but if you do, tight fitting screen doors and windows are needed. Make sure to seal the openings around a window A/C unit.
- Before we cured the problem, we told our preschoolers that the bugs we had in our house were big ants, a socially acceptable bug. That way we didn't have to cringe when they proudly told the preschool teacher about the big bug they found. I never want to have so-called ants again -- and you shouldn't either. It was such a good feeling -- like stopping the horde of Visigoths from invading. Have fun, and happy cockroach hunting!
- Keep up with the recycling, garbage, dishes and clutter. You don't want any refugees who find a way in to start up a colony on the inside.
- You have now filled every possible opening a roach can come through. Thoroughly clean up all the residues they have left behind, because you know they will not be back.
- Keeping your pantry food in containers is a good idea for many types of pests, and just for your own peace of mind. I became a Tupperware Lady for awhile to get a discount on their kitchen storage stuff ("Modular Mates").
Warnings
- Caulking in roaches does not remove the problem.
Things You'll Need
- You'll need a caulking gun from a hardware store. This is not a power tool and it costs less than ten bucks.
- You'll need a lot of caulk. I prefer the clear, paintable silicon type that is not too smelly. They sell it by the case, and it is cheaper that way. You'll need bathroom rated caulk (read the label) to caulk around water pipes and plumbing fixtures. You'll need a box cutter to open the tubes and a large nail to seal the opening between jobs.
- You'll probably need a few cans of expanding foam. Get the low-expansion type because this stuff is crazy! Crazy ugly, too, so if you have actual holes in your walls, you'll need materials to repair them correctly.
- You may also need a hot glue gun, glue, and a small amount of screen fabric.
- Bucket
- Sponge
