cockroaches appear to be unaffected by de

A year ago, I suggested that my friend buy diatomaceous earth to control cockroaches in an apartment with cats. Now I know she did not buy the pool grade DE because she read that it didnt work on bugs (I didnt know about that til then).she bought a big package of the DE and sprinkled it liberally around where ever she could including as many places as she could where the roaches might go and waited.

She waited several weeks without getting much results, could anyone say why this would be? In the end she had to call exterminator....eww not nice. I hope I can get good ideas on why DE did not work for her as well as other suggestions to get these pests under control...remember the cats!

Most exterminators are using boric acid with a little soap and other foamers as their primary spray now, especially with so many finds about xeno estrogens being discovered.

there are many here who rail about boric acid being a poison. I will tell you it used to be in newborns eyedrops with colloidal silver, and that it can be an inhalation hazard, as all small particles are.

It also works.

and on every insect i have ever tried it on. I always blow it into any cracks in the walls, especially around plumbing pipes, and around the perimeter of the walls, then broom it into the crack so Fluffy doesn't inhale it.

for roaches tho, i usually buy the bait in a big syringe they sell in every store in the US. It does have some nasties in it, but they take it back into the walls, and i dont have the stuff laying around for weeks. That said, it does smell, but that is why it is a bait. It will get em all in about 2-3 weeks. It works outside as well, but dries out very quickly, so i do the sewer drains and building cracks and wooden stairs after a light rain. It clears the streets and sewers in 2 applications, and finds all the hatches in 3.


Just saying, for roaches, bed bugs, and scorpions, i use all the weapons at hand that aren't un-targeted.