Borax for Roaches: How Does It Eliminate These Pesky Insects?

So, you go to your kitchen to make breakfast, but you’re met with a small, brown, mustachy creature that no one likes to see.

What do you do? Make a run for it? Pretend not to see it and hope it goes away? Grab your slippers and fight?

Although the third option seems to be the most effective, slippers may not be the best weapon to eliminate roaches in the long run. Have you tried using borax for roaches?

What? You’ve never heard of borax? Then, you’re in luck. In this post, we’ll cover how efficient it is in eliminating roaches, how you can mix it, where to apply it, and more.

Borax for Cockroaches: Does It Work? 

Yes, borax can kill roaches quickly. Roaches aren’t inherently attracted to borax, though, so you’ll have to mix it with other alluring ingredients to tempt them to ingest it.

Keep in mind that roaches can hide in countless areas around the house, so choose the spots to leave your borax mixture in carefully.  

Does Borax Kill Roaches?

Yes, you can use borax powder for cockroaches. You see, borax is merely sodium borate. When roaches digest it, it penetrates their exoskeletons and dries them out.

Why use dehydration to kill roaches? Well, these insects are more versatile and durable than you think. They can last for weeks without food.

In dire circumstances, they can eat vomit, feces, and other roaches to survive. However, they can’t withstand dehydration. So, your best bet to eliminate them is to dry them out, and borax does that easily.

Of course, you shouldn’t expect it to be an instant kill. It’ll take a while to kick in, but once it does, rest assured it’ll give you the results you’re looking for.

Here’s the catch: Borax only works if roaches ingest it. You can’t expect these cheeky buggers to step on it and start experiencing dehydration.

So, you want to set it up in a way that allows them to swallow it, which is more challenging than you think. You see, borax isn’t an alluring bait.

You’ll have to mix it with other ingredients to make it more tempting. Lucky for you, there are countless ways to do that. Let’s see a few examples.

1. Borax and Sugar for Roaches

The borax and sugar combination is the easiest and most effective mixture you can prepare to eliminate roaches. The wall crawlers love sugar and can smell it a mile away.

So, it’s the perfect ingredient to lure them. All you have to do is mix equal parts sugar and borax in a container. The quantity depends on how much area you want to cover.

Pour the mixture into a powder duster and apply it to the infested areas. The sugar will prevent the roaches from smelling the borax, so they’ll happily ingest it. Eventually, the number of roaches infesting your house will decrease significantly.

2. Borax and Peanut Butter to Kill Roaches

It doesn’t look like it, but peanut butter is another effective roach magnet. After all, it’s rich in fats and proteins. Combine that with its distinct smell/taste, and these roaches won’t even stand a chance. Who knew they had such good taste?

To make a borax-peanut butter mixture, combine 2 tsp peanut butter and ½ tsp borax. You can change the measurements depending on how much you want to make. Just make sure borax is always fourth the amount of peanut butter.

Put the mixture in bottle caps and place them in infested areas. You want to keep the caps away from children or pets, as ingesting borax can be fatal.

3. Borax and Baking Soda to Eliminate Roaches

Most people use baking soda for baking and cleaning. You probably didn’t think it’d be an effective roach killer, but you’d be surprised.

When roaches consume it, it causes gas build-up, which damages their digestive system, potentially killing them.

That’s why baking soda and borax might be the most fatal mixture on this list. Both ingredients can eliminate roaches on their own. Imagine how much damage they can do combined.

Here’s the catch: Like borax, baking soda isn’t an attractive bait to roaches. If you mix it with borax, you’d be adding two plain ingredients together, and that’s not enough to lure roaches. So, you want to add some sugar to your mix to make it more tempting.

4. Borax and Egg Yolk to Kill Cockroaches

Some of you may not like the smell and taste of egg yolks, but roaches do. That’s why borax and egg yolk make a perfect roach killer.

The best part about this mixture is that you can prepare it in different ways. For instance, you can pour raw egg yolks into a container, sprinkle some borax, and mix them.

Unfortunately, that’s not a long-lasting solution, as raw egg yolks can spoil quickly. So, it works best if you know there are a lot of roaches in your house that will take that bait within the hour.

If you don’t want your house to smell, you can always use cooked egg yolk. Just boil your eggs, cut them open, scoop the yolk out, and mix it with borax and sugar. Now, sit back and let your mixture do its magic.

5. Borax and Cocoa Powder for Cockroaches

Cocoa powder works like sugar. Its sweetness lures roaches like magnets. It’s also a straightforward mixture that you can make in a few minutes.

If you want to use a powdery mixture, combine equal parts borax and your favorite cocoa powder brand. You can also turn the mixture into doughy balls.

Mix one tbsp cocoa powder, one tbsp borax, and two tbsp flour. Add a few drops of water and keep mixing until you get a dough-like consistency.

Now, form the dough into small balls, put them on bottle caps, and place them in the infested areas.

Borax vs. Boric Acid for Roaches

You’d be surprised how many homeowners confuse borax with boric acid. Although both are compounds derived from boron, they’re not the same substance.

Borax is a combination of oxygen, sodium, and boron. Boric acid, on the other hand, is made by mixing borax with other minerals, like colemanite and boracite.

Differences aside, you can use both products to kill roaches. Which is more effective?

Well, both will give you excellent results, but boric acid has proven to have the upper hand.

It’s finer and more concentrated, making it the more viable option. Unlike borax, boric acid doesn’t just dry roaches out. It also damages their internal tissues, which kills them quickly and more efficiently.

Although it’s called boric acid, it comes in various forms: tablet, liquid, and powder. The powder is the most commonly used form. You can add it to baits or sprinkle a thin layer in infested areas. 

No, boric acid won’t kill roaches just by making contact with their skin. However, when they unknowingly step on it, they’ll lick it off to clean themselves. That’s when the powder can start killing them from inside.

Where Do You Put Borax for Roaches?

The easy answer here is any spot where you think roaches might reside. That’s not always easy to identify, though. So, let’s go over the most common hiding spots for roaches.

1. The Kitchen

The first spot you want to place your borax mixture in is behind the refrigerator. That’s the most common hiding spot in the kitchen, as roaches prefer damp locations. It’s not just about moisture, though.

Roaches like the warmth emitting from kitchen appliances. So, you’ll find them under/beside the toaster, coffee maker, blender, and microwave.

Ovens, in particular, are tempting hiding spots for roaches. Not only do they offer warmth, but they also contain food debris they can feed on.

That’s why you’ll also find them inside your food cabinets, hunting for crumbs and food spills. You also want to sprinkle your borax roach killer inside the dishwasher, too.

Roaches like to hide in small, dark spaces. So, look under the countertop and inside your drawers.

2. The Bathroom

Yes, the kitchen isn’t the only spot roaches can infest. You can also find them all over your bathroom, where they can feed on toilet paper, soap, and toothpaste. The most attractive hiding spot for roaches in the bathroom is under the sink.

You might want to look inside the drains/pipes, which isn’t surprising given how they check all the marks. They’re tight, dark, and damp. What more could they ask for?

Don’t forget to place some of your borax poison behind the toilet, as that’s another common hiding spot. Of course, you can find numerous roaches hiding in the small cracks in your bathroom, whether in your walls or bathtub.

Most people don’t care to look inside the small holes between the tiles of the bathroom floor. You’d be surprised how many roaches can sneak in there, though.

3. The Living Room

Picture this: You’re enjoying a delicious sandwich in your living room while watching TV. Naturally, you spill some crumbs over the couch.

Who do you think will hunt those crumbs later? Correct! Roaches. That’s why you want to place your borax mixture under or beside your furniture or any other spot where you might have left food debris.

Those tiny gaps in the walls make perfect hiding spots for roaches. So, don’t forget to put some borax near them.

Do You Need to Cover Every Corner in Your House?

At first glance, you might think you need to place your borax mixture all over the house to cover as many areas as possible. While that’s definitely effective, it’s not as necessary as you think.

You see, roaches live in groups. They leave their nests to search for food and return after ingesting enough sustenance.

So, when they find your borax bait and take it, they’ll return to their nests and start experiencing the side effects, which include vomiting and defecating.

As previously established, these are substances that roaches can feed on. So, it won’t be long before the other roaches in the nest ingest the vomit of the poisoned cockroach, which still contains traces of borax.

Eventually, that borax will take its toll on these roaches, and they’ll die from dehydration. In other words, you don’t have to place your borax mixture all over the house to have a widespread effect.

Are There Effective Alternatives for Borax on the Market?

Let’s assume you couldn’t find borax on the market. Should you give up and let these roaches take over your house? Of course not! There are numerous other viable alternatives out there.

Diatomaceous Earth Powder

DE powder is a mineral-based roach repellent. Like borax, it absorbs all the moisture inside roaches’ bodies, drying them to death. 

DE powder has one advantage, though: It’s not as toxic to humans and pests as borax. So you won’t have to worry if your cat accidentally ingests it.

Whether it’s roaches, fleas, or bed bugs, DE powder will keep your house pest-free.

You can buy Diatomaceous Earth here at Amazon.

Terro T502 Roach Bait

The biggest advantage to using a gel over a powder is that you can apply it in tiny nooks and cracks. Besides, the T502 is easy to apply and quick to kill roaches. What’s not to love?

You can buy T502 here at Amazon.

Final Thoughts

Now you know how to use borax for roaches. Keep in mind that the powder itself isn’t alluring enough. So, you’ll have to mix it with an attractive substance, like sugar, peanut butter, or cocoa powder.

After preparing your mixture, you’ll have plenty of spots to place it in. So, choose strategically to make the most out of your borax.

 Thanks for making it to THE END!

FAQs

Can I use borax alone to kill roaches?

Yes, you can, but it won’t be that easy, as borax isn’t an alluring bait. So roaches won’t be attracted to it. You’ll wait a long time before you start noticing the number of roaches in your house decrease.

How Long Does It Take for Borax to Kill Roaches?

There isn’t a definitive answer to that question, as it depends on the type of roaches you’re facing. On average, though, borax takes three days to a week to kill roaches.

Do roaches become immune to borax?

No, roaches haven’t developed immunity to the dehydrative effects of borax. You can safely use it, knowing it’ll give you excellent results.