Roaches inside kitchen cabinets

terestrife

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
2,412
Purraise
2,586
Anyone have better suggestions than using Home Defense bug spray? My niece kept leaving the kitchen with food crumbs so we now have roaches. I've started cleaning up after her, but the home defense only works for a couple of months and they come back.

Its a hassle to use that spray because i need to put my cats in a room for a few hours.

The roaches seem to be hiding in the kitchen cabinets, which makes things more difficult. how can i get rid of them?


Any ideas?

the kitchen: i mainly see them near the sink they run into the space between the wall and cabinet right behind the sink. already tried a drain cleaner.

EDIT: I already tried spraying diatomaceous earth into crevices, and it made no difference.
thinking of buying this stuff to put in cracks and crevices that the cats cant reach. anyone try this before?


Screen Shot 2020-02-14 at 12.05.15 AM.png :
 
Last edited:

DreamerRose

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 11, 2015
Messages
8,744
Purraise
11,085
Location
Naperville, IL
Roaches leave their eggs behind, which then hatch. Try treating your kitchen, and then do it again two weeks later. The second time you'll catch the hatchlings. My parents' house was so badly infested that I had to call an exterminator, who told me about the second treatment. He completely rid the house of roaches.

They can also be coming from outside. A pest control service can come four times a year and sprinkle chemicals around the house to kill them before they get in. They will also treat the inside of the house if you want, but be sure to get that second treatment 2-3 weeks after the first.
 

BlackCatOp

Black Cats Rule!
Adult Cat
Joined
Dec 3, 2019
Messages
233
Purraise
238
Location
Cat Cuddling (USA)
As someone who despises bugs, I have had really good luck with Demand CS. I use a 1 gallon hand sprayer to apply the diluted mixture to my baseboards throughout my duplex. I also use it outside spraying the exterior walls up 3 feet. The best things I like about the product is that there is no smell, no greasy residue and it does not stain. Plus it really does work! Crickets, beetles, roaches, ants and spiders don’t stand a chance in my apt! I spray quarterly and lock my cats up in one bedroom until dry. (Demand is a pyrethrin so cat safety is important)
 

tabbytom

Happiness is being owned by a cat
Staff Member
Mentor
Joined
May 12, 2016
Messages
19,672
Purraise
36,869
Location
Lion City, Singa-purr
Any ideas?
You can try using fresh or dried bay leaves. Either leave them whole or better if they are crushed. Put them in a little plate or bowl and place several in and around the cabinets. Those that are exposed, make sure the cats don't get into them.

Bay leaves acts like a repellant as the roaches find the scent of the essential oil from the leaves offensive and therefore use with care around cats. Same as if you use any pest killing chemicals or call in the pest control, they are not safe for cats. Unless you can find cat safe products to use, but please still use with care.

But if the infestation is rampant, best is to go to the root of it and eradicate the nest of eggs and keep the sink area always dry especially under the sink which is inside of the cabinet.
 

Jcatbird

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 5, 2017
Messages
10,301
Purraise
58,378
Location
United States
Combat makes a gel that comes in sort of a giant hypodermic. You put this in cracks and under the edge of any spot they go. I made sure to use it where cats cannot get to it. The stuff works really well!! We had a new type of roach come into this area. I started seeing them outside in leaf litter first. Then they started coming in. I detest roaches so I was horrified when they showed up in the house. I had gotten professional treatment but they seemed to multiply after that! Yuck! The Combat and traps finally got them. None since. They seemed to mostly come in around plumbing that was inside cabinets. I sealed those places with caulking too.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

terestrife

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
2,412
Purraise
2,586
Try treating your kitchen, and then do it again two weeks later. The second time you'll catch the hatchlings.

They can also be coming from outside.
I had no idea about the second treatment. Thank you for the info I will try this. And yes in spray home defense around the entrances and windows twice a year.
As someone who despises bugs, I have had really good luck with Demand CS.
Thank you I will look into this product! 😊

You can try using fresh or dried bay leaves. Either leave them whole or better if they are crushed. Put them in a little plate or bowl and place several in and around the cabinets. Those that are exposed, make sure the cats don't get into them.

Bay leaves acts like a repellant as the roaches find the scent of the essential oil from the leaves offensive and therefore use with care around cats.
Thank you! I will try adding them to our drawers with our utensils. Haven't seen a bug in them but you never know.

Combat makes a gel that comes in sort of a giant hypodermic. You put this in cracks and under the edge of any spot they go. I made sure to use it where cats cannot get to it.
I'll try putting this in the crevice behind the sink, thank you!
One thing you can do that roaches hate and won't hurt the cats is catnip.
Oh wow, i had no idea roaches hate catnip that's awesome. 😄


Thank you everyone! The battle starts tomorrow. Lol
 

BlackCatOp

Black Cats Rule!
Adult Cat
Joined
Dec 3, 2019
Messages
233
Purraise
238
Location
Cat Cuddling (USA)
I had no idea about the second treatment. Thank you for the info I will try this. And yes in spray home defense around the entrances and windows twice a year.


Thank you I will look into this product! 😊


Thank you! I will try adding them to our drawers with our utensils. Haven't seen a bug in them but you never know.



I'll try putting this in the crevice behind the sink, thank you!

Oh wow, i had no idea roaches hate catnip that's awesome. 😄


Thank you everyone! The battle starts tomorrow. Lol
Best of luck with conquering the roaches!

One word of caution if using multiple products. There are two main types of products, baits and sprays. With baits you are actually “attracting” the roaches to consume the poisoned bait which will cause them to die. With sprays, the idea is to put up a barrier that repels the roaches. If they do come in contact with the perimeter, the pesticide sticks to their skeleton and they ingest it during grooming. It does not really matter which you use but you want to be careful about contaminating the bait with spray pesticides as then the roaches wont be attracted to the bait.
 

vyger

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Jun 24, 2017
Messages
810
Purraise
1,434
Location
Northeast Montana
If you want to try all natural you can get some lizards and gecko's. I have heard of the gecko's living under the fridge. It's nice and warm and lots of bug traffic. It's not unlike the idea of getting a cat to control mouse problems.
I am guessing you live in a warmer climate. In Montana we don't really have roaches because they can't handle being frozen. A whole house Montana treatment would involve winterizing the house. This means making sure the pipes are drained of water and everything that can't handle freezing is removed, like canned food. Then the heat is shut off and some of the windows opened and it's is left to sit frozen for a few weeks. You don't want to leave it go to long otherwise the ground under the concrete can freeze and cause cracks, but for a short time it kills all the more tropical bugs like roaches.
And one more solution is to get a whole house Ozone machine and run that for a few days. Ozone, which is O3 reacts with living things much the same way as carbon monoxide does. It kills everything and yet it is not really a poison. It leaves no residue because it breaks down into regular oxygen. A few days of running that in the house and everything would be dead but there is no poison left behind. If you go that route you should get a professional to help as it can be dangerous.
 

CatGuyAZ

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Feb 9, 2020
Messages
22
Purraise
65
I was unfortunate enough to live in a place that had a roach infestation several years ago. The apartment management kept sending a bug guy around, but it never did anything that I could see. Eventually, I tried some roach bait stations (Combat brand, I think) and put them in the typical places, in the cabinets, in corners, etc., and before I knew it, the roaches were gone, and they never returned. I was amazed that it had not only worked, but worked very well indeed!

As someone said above, be careful not to contaminate the baits. When I put the baits out, I didn't do anything else other than try to remove the potential un-poisoned sources of roach food.
 

MissClouseau

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 20, 2019
Messages
1,733
Purraise
2,126
Location
Istanbul, Turkey
The best and only way to get rid of roaches for good is to fill the cracks on the walls and everything they can use to get inside the house. You can use temporary solutions like duct tape for now, a transparent silicone with those silicone guns. There could be some dead areas where you can't reach (I have), I use Raid foam spray only there.

Roaches enter where they can. I have seen some even in completely empty rentals - even without food there is still warmth and safety. Food attracts them more but really if they could enter, it was just a matter of time. (They even eat paper, yucks.)
 

CatGuyAZ

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Feb 9, 2020
Messages
22
Purraise
65
I put the roach traps in a lot of places where the cats could not get to them, and these places would have been more convenient (dark and "safe") spots for the roaches to get food, so they would not have to forage out in the open. I didn't see roaches out in the open very often before I put the baits down, but afterwards, it was like the roaches just vanished.

I don't know what the active ingredient of the roach baits was, but I did have an ant problem about six months ago, and I used some liquid ant baits for that. The active ingredient was boric acid, which apparently slowly builds to toxicity in ants (who have shared the food with their sisters and the queen by then), so they all die after a while, but to pets, boric acid is supposed to be only mildly toxic, and the amounts in the ant baits should have been trivial for a cat (and cats can throw up, unlike pests like insects and rats). That's the theory, anyway.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #16

terestrife

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
2,412
Purraise
2,586
hi everyone!

i went the route of the bug spray and the liquid poison. i keep finding dead roaches so it seems to be working. i have used bait stations in the past, but it didnt seem to help much.

misty8723 misty8723 my cats will slap around roaches, but they dont eat them. i just pick up the dead roaches when i see them.

if i keep seeing them, then i will try some of the other suggestions. thank you everyone!
 

misty8723

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
Messages
7,688
Purraise
8,129
Location
North Carolina
terestrife terestrife my cat once brought a large black bug over to us on the bed in his mouth. I would never have poison around just on the change they do more than just bat around. But that's just me.
 

tabbytom

Happiness is being owned by a cat
Staff Member
Mentor
Joined
May 12, 2016
Messages
19,672
Purraise
36,869
Location
Lion City, Singa-purr
my cat once brought a large black bug over to us on the bed in his mouth. I would never have poison around just on the change they do more than just bat around. But that's just me.
Yes, this is true. I do not spray any insecticide or place any pest bait around. My boy likes to catch bugs and lizards and I don't want him to ingest a but that's covered with poison whether dead or alive.

Although we have cat safe spray here, I still use with caution.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #19

terestrife

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
2,412
Purraise
2,586
terestrife terestrife my cat once brought a large black bug over to us on the bed in his mouth. I would never have poison around just on the change they do more than just bat around. But that's just me.
Trust me, I understand. I tried using diametous earth for months and it didn't work. The roach problem got worse. I don't like using poisons, but don't want the house full of roaches with a baby in the house. 😔
 
Top