Originally published at: Here's why bug sprays are no threat to the cockroaches invading your kitchen - Boing Boing
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Maxforce Gel is highly effective. It may only be available through licensed exterminators, however.
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And/or…?
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We’ve found Combat Max gel to work quite well. Looks like it’s the same active ingredient as Maxforce. Both are available on Amazon.
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I’m in Canada, and it used to be available over the counter from extermination companies, but then the government restricted use to exterminators only, but we might be able to sneak it in via Amazon.
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Not sure what our pest control folks use but it works.
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We just left an apartment building with a long term chronic problem. They would come by frequently to place gel and diatomaceous earth and it seemed to do nothing. Out of desperation, I tried something I read online: a few small plates of peanut butter in high “sighting” areas. Before putting it out, I’d dust the plates and peanut butter with boric acid. It seemed almost completely get rid of them. I tried stopping it a few times and they came back in a week or two. Same if I left the same peanut butter out. But if I put out new peanut butter every 7-10 days with new poison on top all was good.
The plural of anecdote isn’t data but it may be worth a shot if you’re battling something similar.
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i just use my bare hands. i’m not squeamish and i don’t hesitate. i haven’t met one yet that’s developed a resistance to brute force.
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The one I’ve used is Advion and was extremely effective. I saw a lady at the big box hardware store with a cart full of different baits. I had mix feelings about telling her I could tell she had a bad infestation but I went for it and she was grateful as I showed it to her online.
It was so effective, four tubes is basically three too many.
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For chitinous bugs that size, otherwise inert Diatomaceous Earth is like rolling around in broken glass.
I wonder. There’s spray to kill the creeping charlie in the lawn, but Amazon.ca won’t ship it to Ontario or other provinces where it’s banned.
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There’s no cockroaches invading my kitchen, thank you very much.
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Not to mention that store-bought pest sprays only deal with the ones you can see; plus the toxic nature of the chemicals involved wrt pets, people, and children.
In keeping with the fact that we all have different living situations, the best I can suggest for those are able to, is an Ally Brosh-style “Clean All the Things!” approach.
For other users in a flat (or apartment) and may be at the mercy of a less-than-tidy neighbor, roommate, etc., the best you can probably do is abatement, in which case I second the use of bait traps mentioned above.
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buy a can of Great Stuff or similar aerosol gap-filling foam and filling e.g. all the gaps around the pipes under the sink and EVERY other gap in the walls/baseboards (use caulk for long, thin gaps). check the furnace, water heater, and vents.
then all you have to do is kill the ones in your apartment, but no more will migrate in from your slob neighbors.
they make foam now with pesticide in it.
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Similarly, the bedbugs brought home from vacation have effectively been bred for resistance to pesticides by repeated treatments in hotels. A friend had an infestation and pesticides didn’t seem to do much of anything. She had to get one of those whole house heating treatments to get rid of them. Expensive from professionals and dangerous enough that you definitely don’t want amateurs doing it because of the risk of setting your house on fire.
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Plus hiring security to prevent pop-up meth labs.
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or grow ops:
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