How does vinegar work on cockroaches?

Fighting cockroaches in an apartment

What cockroaches look like
There are a lot of ways to fight cockroaches, and each has its own disadvantages and advantages. It is also important to consider how long ago pests appeared in the house, whether there are pets, and whether it is possible to leave your home for a while.

The most famous ones that will help make domestic cockroaches go away and how to get rid of them forever:

Crayons

The method is quite effective, but has one big drawback - the toxicity of this product /

If there are animals or children in the house, then you need to use the product with extreme caution.

Gels

They are convenient because they can be applied to the most inaccessible places, into which a child or animal is unlikely to be able to climb, they also have an “infection effect”, an insect that comes into contact with the gel will poison everyone else when it returns to the flock.

Sprays

The spray will destroy pests.
Aerosols effectively kill insects that come under their influence.

However, it does not affect well-hidden cockroaches and is dangerous for animals and children.

Sticky traps

They act on the principle of bait, have a delicacy smell, thanks to which insects crawl onto the sticky surface and stick tightly.

Important! The product is ineffective, because it only works on those insects that have climbed into the trap, and does not neutralize insect eggs and their larvae

How to get rid of cockroaches using chemicals

Chemicals are an effective and reliable method for quickly getting rid of cockroaches. But even in this case, the choice of insecticide must be carefully considered, weighing the pros and cons. Even if you are completely confident in your abilities, do not forget about safety measures. Please note that any household pesticides under certain conditions can turn out to be truly dangerous if you forget about basic precautions. It is worth paying attention to the fact that any insecticidal treatment involves the use of rubber gloves and respirators or individual masks. When spraying pesticides in the air, it is necessary to isolate the room from people and remove pets from it. In no case should you use chemicals that have a toxic base on your own - many folk recipes suggest extracting arsenic for these purposes. Remember that toxic substances can be deadly to humans.

The table below of the main forms of drug release, their advantages and disadvantages, will tell you how to get rid of cockroaches in your apartment forever with a minimum of troubles and side effects.

Vinegar for home pest control

Everyone wants a cockroach repellent that is cheap, effective, and has no toxic effect on pets and small children. Vinegar may well be such a remedy. Many people have already tested whether cockroaches are afraid of vinegar, and the effectiveness of vinegar against domestic cockroaches has already been proven. The principle of its action against cockroaches is quite simple: these insects are very afraid of an acidic environment, this smell causes them significant harm and the likelihood that they will escape is quite high.

You should not expect that immediately after pouring vinegar, cockroaches will immediately fall into piles; it is quite difficult to kill them in this way, but it is possible to eradicate them.

Vinegar

A homemade vinegar-based spray is especially popular in the fight against Prussians. It’s quite simple to prepare, you will need:

• one teaspoon of vinegar;
• a few drops of essential oils;
• approximately 500 ml of water.

Note! All components for the spray are thoroughly mixed and poured into a spray bottle for more convenient and precise use. Treatment must be carried out primarily in places where insects build nests and in those where they feed. These could be ventilation grilles, baseboards, hidden areas of furniture where the Prussians could easily settle down.

The second available method of using vinegar against cockroaches is to place small bowls filled with vinegar in places where cockroaches may accumulate and feed. Thus, the Prussians will not be able to get to their favorite places, they will be left without food, and most likely they will go to get food for themselves in other places. This method is only suitable for those who do not have pets or children at home, who can easily get to the saucers with vinegar.

Using acetic acid against cockroaches has both its pros and cons. Among the advantages are the low cost of such a product, the effectiveness of the effect, provided that the treatment is carried out regularly, as well as the lack of toxicity for people and animals.

The most common disadvantages include the need for daily treatment of the apartment for several weeks, a constant unpleasant smell in the apartment, as well as the fact that cockroaches do not die from vinegar, but simply change their habitat. And often, as soon as the treatment of the apartment is stopped, the insects return to their former habitat, and even in greater numbers than before.

How does vinegar work on cockroaches?

Whether cockroaches are afraid of vinegar cannot be answered in monosyllables. These insects are generally one of the most tenacious species on the planet; they don’t even care about high radiation. Therefore, the use of modern industrial means for radical control of cockroaches is based on the following factors:

• mechanical destruction (damage to chitin);
• sterilization (after exposure to the drug, the insect becomes infertile);
• effects on the nervous system (paralysis and death).

But cockroaches are also very sensitive to certain odors. This is their property and is used by the people when people independently prepare mixtures against these voracious, ubiquitous barbels.

They are afraid of the smell of vinegar, as well as the aromas of some essential oils: they are affected by eucalyptus and cedar oils, the smell of camphor, etc. Therefore, cockroaches and vinegar in the same room are incompatible. But if you are wondering whether this product kills these annoying guests - alas. Vinegar-based folk remedies are used to drive them out of homes - but no more: vinegar essence repels but does not destroy insects. This may please those who do not like to use a broom to collect an even layer of fallen enemies after treatment with an insecticide, but it is unlikely to please people who decided to attack cockroaches in one fell swoop and suddenly discovered that after a while they returned.

What other folk remedies can you use against Prussians in an apartment?

Turpentine
Boric acid is rightfully considered the most effective folk remedy against insects in residential areas. Its method of exposure is quite aggressive for insects; it is best to treat your home with acid while wearing seals and a medical mask on your face.

An equally effective method is to use ammonia. It works on the same principle as boric acid. A significant disadvantage is that ammonia quickly dissipates, so the treatment will have to be done quite often, daily and several times a day.

You can also scare away insects using bay leaves, geranium, and pyrethrum. Prussians are extremely sensitive to pungent odors, and such methods can force insects to leave their homes in search of a new one. The action is quite mild, but if there are not a whole horde of cockroaches in the house yet, then it is possible to get the desired effect.

On a note! Kerosene and turpentine also have extremely unpleasant odors, but you need to be prepared for the fact that you yourself will also have to constantly inhale the unpleasant odor. It is better to move to another home during the treatment; such strong odors can cause at least constant headaches in a person.

How do pests get into your home?

How can a cockroach get into living spaces? Perfect cleanliness, like in an operating room, is rare. It is not surprising that in the average apartment pests are likely to find something to profit from. In addition, among the factors that increase the likelihood of an insect entering a home, one can note the presence of a garbage chute in the apartment, poorly functioning ventilation, leaking pipes and troubled neighbors. The proximity of the basement can also become a risk factor. But there are also external sources of infection. You can bring the pest along with used furniture or household appliances, or purchases from the market. That is why, when a single case of infection is first discovered, measures need to be taken throughout the entire apartment.

Ventilation of the room after treatment

After treating the apartment with vinegar against cockroaches, all windows should be closed for a while and not ventilated. This method of fighting Prussians is based precisely on their intolerance to the vinegar smell. It is better to leave the home for a short time, leaving it completely clogged, since such a concentrated smell can negatively affect the residents of the apartment. It should also be remembered that some furniture may deteriorate from constant exposure to acetic acid.

Preventive measures

When moving into a new apartment or undertaking renovation of an old home, it is necessary to immediately take preventive measures to prevent the appearance of cockroaches. So it follows:

• remove all layers of old wallpaper;
• fill existing holes and cracks on surfaces;
• cover the ventilation holes with fine mesh;
• check the water supply and eliminate all leaks, adjust the taps;
• Take out the trash regularly and cover the bin with a lid at night;
• store food, cereals, fruits and vegetables in places specially designed for this purpose;
• wipe the sink dry and do not leave dirty dishes behind;
• periodically treat baseboards with special disinfectants.

Anyone who wants to live in a clean apartment and not see cockroaches in their living space will adhere to the above recommendations. The main thing is to maintain cleanliness and maintain order in everything, preventing the appearance of “uninvited guests”.

How to remove cockroaches if they won't go away

Treatment of an apartment to destroy cockroaches
If ancient insects refuse to leave the premises they have owned, and all attempts to exterminate them only end in a decrease in the population, then the issue should be approached more globally and seriously. Most likely, you will have to turn to the services of a pest control service. Before such a procedure, it is necessary to remove all food products from the house and move to other housing for a while.

As soon as the exterminators have finished their work and the cockroaches have been eradicated, it is necessary to wash the entire apartment, wash all the dishes and kitchen furniture, and thoroughly wash the furniture. If we are talking about an apartment building, then the problem may lie in the fact that cockroaches live in several apartments at once and to get rid of them you need to join forces and carry out a global disinfestation of all nearby apartments. Sometimes the scale of the situation is so large that all the apartments in the entrance have to be treated.

Whether or not vinegar helped against cockroaches, reviews will tell you.

The principle of action of vinegar against cockroaches

Do not expect that after the first treatment of the apartment with some vinegar solution , cockroaches will lie down in even dead rows, preparing for burial. For to die , it must bathe in vinegar .

Not a single mentally healthy cockroach will do this, so the principle of action of this remedy is based on something else. The fact is that Prussians are very afraid of an acidic environment . Its smell drives the pest crazy; he would rather run away than continue to smell it.

Thus, vinegar can only be considered as a cockroach repellent , and can also be used as a preventive measure . Moreover, this folk method has a lot of advantages:

• harmless to humans and animals (a person is not a fool to drink vinegar, but a pet will be scared of the pungent smell);
• the cost of the product is cheap;
• preparing solutions and treating the premises does not cause difficulties;
• cockroaches never adapt to these acidic fumes.

By the way, an additional advantage of vinegar is its long-term preventive effect, it is almost endless. Cockroaches will not return as long as there is a hated irritant near their favorite habitats.

Reviews

Anastasia, Solikamsk: “For a long time we suffered from an invasion of cockroaches in our house, we thought about how to kill cockroaches in the apartment ourselves and decided to try vinegar, since this method is quite harmless to others, we took the recipe from the Internet.

This is what we did: we made a concentrated spray with apple cider vinegar, and all the ingredients were added there in double quantity, just to be sure. After which we thoroughly sprayed all the corners and baseboards, and also washed the floor with this solution. This type of cleaning was repeated twice a day for several days. There are practically no cockroaches, over the last week only two crawled out, and they were immediately killed, now there is silence. This is a fairly effective method; I will continue to use the solution periodically for prevention.”

Victoria, Anapa: “So my apartment came to be attacked in the form of red-haired Prussians, I tried to place glasses and saucers with a proportion of acetic acid in the corners of the apartment, there was a fear because of small children, there was a fear that they would be afraid of pests. After a couple of days, the cockroaches became noticeably smaller, but they did not disappear completely. It seems to me that the most effective way to combat them would be to combine the use of vinegar and special chemicals. Alone, vinegar only reduces their flock, it does not completely remove it.”

If we compare vinegar with other methods of getting rid of cockroaches, we can say that this method is quite gentle. Chemical agents, as a rule, are aimed at destroying cockroaches immediately. Some folk remedies also tend to kill cockroaches rather than drive them away. These include boric acid or ammonia. If the insects have just appeared and have not yet appeared in flocks in the apartment, you can use vinegar against cockroaches. It is also useful to use vinegar to prevent the appearance of insects in your home. If a more powerful agent is needed, it is better to turn to chemical agents, or combine treatment with vinegar and the use of special destructive agents.

Recipes for vinegar solutions against cockroaches

To use vinegar against cockroaches, it is better to use inexpensive synthetic vinegar 9%. If you don’t have anything ready-made, you can dilute the vinegar essence. To do this, you need to take 22 parts of water for 1 part of 70% essence.

IMPORTANT! Be sure to pour the essence into the water, and not vice versa!

For prevention, you can periodically wipe kitchen cabinets, stoves, and window sills with vinegar. When washing the floor, add 3 tbsp to the water. l. vinegar per bucket of water.

If there are already insects in the apartment, you can pour a little vinegar into the kitchen sink overnight to block their access to water.

Home spray

To prepare a remedy for cockroaches at home , pour 1 tbsp into 1 glass of water. l. vinegar and 3-4 drops of any essential oil with a pungent odor (mint, eucalyptus). Pour the resulting solution into a spray bottle, treat walls, baseboards, ventilation holes, radiators.

Red pepper spray

Add 4 tbsp to 1 liter of water. l. vinegar, put 2 pods of hot hot pepper, close the lid. Leave for 5 days. Pour into a spray bottle and spray vinegar into the favorite areas of cockroaches.