If you have been researching different websites and are just confused as to what product to use to kill roaches, then you are not alone. When I had my cockroach infestation, I did countless of hours of research and my head was spinning on what to buy:
Do I use spray, gel, boric acid, baits, insecticide?
I wish there was one site that just told me the ONE thing to buy that would kill them for good.
Money was no object for me at this point, because I just wanted to get rid of them and do so QUICKLY. So I ended up buying a lot of products and testing them.
This site is from my own personal experience and you’ve come to the right place to finally learn how to get rid of cockroaches.
I’ll explain what finally worked in killing the nasty insects so that you don’t have to spend as much money as I did. And also, which is just as important as killing them, you need to know how to prevent roaches from coming back which I explain in detail.
So the below is my actual true life experience. I actually hired a bunch of pest control companies to see what they did. You can read my story and seen my receipts from the pest control companies I hired. I’m sure by now, you can’t wait to see what I used. I was so sick and tired of these roaches, but more importantly I was terrified of them!
I am using the exact same product that the best pest control company in my area was using.
And I wasn’t able to find it in places like Home Depot or Lowes. I will link at the bottom to the amazon link (which I do earn a small commission from) that has the exact product that I bought (and continue to buy) and that the pest control professional used.
If you have noticed pest control companies going to homes, they usually carry a backpack and a big sprayer. The backpack has the insecticide they are using to spray the home. And that’s exactly the same thing I used and am using today. I’ll show you how to get rid of the cockroaches without having to pay and use and exterminator.
WHY DIDN’T I USE ROACH GEL BAIT?
I know there are several sites that say to use gel baits to kill roaches. I’m not saying it won’t work, and I have researched that it can also be effective, but here are two main reason I didn’t use the gel baits to get rid of the roaches:
1) All the pest professionals that I had seen were spraying homes with a chemical. In fact, the second pest exterminator I hired for $225 used an insecticide. That’s what I wanted! I wanted what the pros were using!
2) You CAN’T MIX insecticide spray WITH gel baits. If you do, then the roaches won’t want to eat that gel bait, because you end up contaminating the gel bait when you spray at the same time.
THE ROACH KILLER INSECTICIDE THAT I BOUGHT
The ingredient that the best pest control company I hired used to kill the roaches is called called Cyfluthrin.
And this chemical comes in a product called Cy-Kick CS. I couldn’t find this at Home Depot or Osh, so you have to get it online. I provided the link to Amazon so you can order EXACTLY what I did.
This insecticide is supposed to last 90 days. Which is why many pest control companies that use Cy-Kick CS offer a 60 or 90 day guarantee. But on top of Cy-Kick CS killing the roaches, it actually also kills spiders, ants, mosquitoes, bees, crickets, fleas, flies, bed bugs, silverfish, ticks, wasps, wood infesting borers and more. After I used this, I also noticed a lot of the spiders I had crawling around were gone as well! It was fantastic.
CLICK BELOW TO BUY CY-KICK CS
THE INSECT GROWTH REGULATOR (IGR) TO GET RID OF COCKROACHES
So not only do you need Cy-Kick CS, but the pest control professional mixed another chemical called ARCHER IGR. IGR is an insect growth regulators, and it basically prevents the life cycle of the roaches. And this is KEY to killing them. You want to kill them, but you always want to stop them from reproducing. Think of IGR as “birth control” for roaches.
CLICK BELOW TO BUY ARCHER IGR
THE SPRAY PUMP
You need to be able to mix both the Cy- Kick CS and the Archer IGR into a sprayer. There are several on the market. I ended up getting this one, The Chapin 21210XP, because it wasn’t the most expensive, but wasn’t the cheapest so I knew it wouldn’t break. I already learned from my mistakes that if I bought a really cheap one, that I would eventually have to come back and buy the more expensive one. Plus, I plan on doing my own pest control from now on. I love it. It’s easy to use. You pump it a few times and the sprayer lasts a while which lets you easily spray around your home and inside.
CLICK BELOW TO BUY CHAPIN SPRAYER
GRANULAR BAIT TO KILL COCKROACHES
If you have hard to reach places then you may want to get this. I use this because there is a crawl space that I just can’t crawl underneath – and I don’t want to either. So I just grab a handful of these and throw them in there. This cockroach bait has an ingredient called hydramethylon which will kill the cockroaches. You only want to use this outdoors and in tough to reach places.
CLICK BELOW TO SHOP GRANULAR BAIT
IT MAY LOOK PRICEY, BUT IT’S WORTH IT
This stuff isn’t cheap. I know. However, this is what the professionals use. Also, the last pest control company charged me $225 to come out once, and to come out every 2 months, they charge $90. That’s $45 a month! The first company I hired was $120. If you were to hire a pest control company, it could cost you $495 a year! When you buy the exact insecticides they use, you will know the EXACT amount you are using, and you can do your own pest control on a monthly basis for a lot cheaper. So in the end, you end up SAVING money and you get PEACE OF MIND, which for me is priceless.
(check out my receipts from the pest control companies I hired on MY STORY page)
EXTRA BENEFITS
The Cy-Kick CS is supposed to last 90 days. But if you want to be safe, you can spray this every month around your house and inside. This is basically what pest control companies do. They grab their chemical and spray your house and go onto the next home. Who knows if they diluted their chemical. But the benefit you get when you buy your own is you know EXACTLY how much you are using. On top of that, this not only gets rid of cockroaches, but it also kills all the other insects and bugs mentioned above.
VIDEO INSTRUCTIONS
Here is a video I created of how to mix all the products together and how to spray your home. Below, you will also see the instructions of how to mix it as well.
INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO MIX AND SPRAY
1) WEAR SAFETY CLOTHING
Make sure you use gloves and also wear a long sleeve shirt and pants. I remember the pest control man telling me that they are required by law to actually wear long sleeve shirts. I figure it’s better to be safe than sorry.
2) MIX 0.5 FL OZ. to 1 FL OZ OF CY-KICK CS
The total amount of liquid you are going to want to end up with is 1 gallon. The sprayer has a mark on the outside that shows a gallon.
a) Add 1/2 a gallon of water into the sprayer
b) Pour 0.5 or 1 fl oz of Cy-Kick CS into the sprayer
Note: I used 1.0 fl oz to mix because I wanted to make sure I really killed these roaches. Before you pour the Cy-Kick CS, make sure you shake it also. By the way, the Cy-Kick CS bottle has a separate compartment in the bottle itself that measures the 1.0 Fl Oz for you. However, I must say, it wasn’t the easiest thing to use, because you have to turn the bottle upside down and all over the place to try and get the liquid into that compartment. It was like playing a pinball machine and this is really what took me a while to do!
3) MIX 2 FL OZ of ARCHER IGR
Pour 2fl oz of Archer IGR into the sprayer with the water and the Cy-Kick CS.
Note: The Archer IGR container also has a separate compartment within the bottle that also shows the measurements. Again, this was the most difficult part, because it wasn’t easy figuring out how to get the liquid into the little measuring chamber.
4) CLOSE THE LID ON THE SPRAYER AND SHAKE
You want to close the lid on the sprayer and shake. You just want to make sure the ingredients are well mixed.
5) OPEN THE LID AND ADD REMAINING WATER
Remember, the total amount amount of liquid that you want in the sprayer is 1 gallon.
6) SHAKE ONCE MORE AND START PUMPING
Once your sprayer has reached 1 gallon, you want to shake some more to make sure everything is nice and mixed. Then you want to pump the handle on the sprayer. You’ll notice that after pumping it several times, you will barely be able to pump. That’s when you know you are ready to spray. Don’t over pump, you don’t want to break your sprayer.
7) SPRAY THE OUTSIDE OF YOUR HOME
The goal here is to create a barrier so that cockroaches won’t get into your home. So go around your house and you want to spray around 2-3 feet up the wall of your house and 2-3 feet on the ground in a left to right motion. If you can reach windows, spray around the windows as well so that the roaches the get in through there. And any other cracks you see around your house, you also want to spray there. I have some rocks, and I was told that they sometimes like to hide in there. So I spray in there as well. If you live in an apartment, you may be limited to the places you can spray, so try and do your best to spray the perimeter of your apartment.
8) SPRAY THE INSIDE OF YOUR HOME
The key places to focus on are your bathrooms and your kitchen. These roaches and slide through the tiniest of cracks. So spray your baseboards, but when you get to the kitchen, spray behind the fridge, under the sink (don’t spray on your plates or anything else in there!), the cracks in the dishwasher, basically, any place that’s dark where they can hide. Same goes in the bathroom. Behind the toilets, under the sinks, around the tubs. Anyplace your see cracks.
GETTING RID OF ROACHES FOR GOOD!
After you spray, you can also throw those granular roach baits. And that’s it. This is how to get rid of american, german and oriental roaches fast and without an exterminator! This is basically what the pest control companies do. And you can do it yourself every month, every two months or every three months, since the manufacturer of Cy-Kick CS claims this lasts up to 90 days. And don’t forget, not only do you need to kill them, but you have to prevent them from coming back!
COCKROACHES ARE DANGEROUS
I thought cockroaches were just disgusting little creatures that didn’t bite or attack. But did you know that roaches are an important source of allergies ? We just had a newborn and found that early exposure to roaches can even develop asthma. On top of that, roaches have been implicated in carrying 33 kinds of bacteria which include E. coli and salmonella! I wasn’t going to take any chances – I had to protect my family from these creatures!
I created this site because not only do I just detest cockroaches, but I’m terrified of them. And they carry so many dangerous diseases that I had to figure out how to get rid of them for good.
COCKROACH FACTS
I know you just want to get rid of roaches. I mean, why do cockroaches exist? Right? But as in warfare, understanding your enemy is key to defeating them. So you should know a little bit about them. There are over 4,300 types of cockroach species in the world! But three are considered the most annoying pests in North America. They are:
American Cockroach
SIZE: 1.7 inches average
LIFESPAN: 1 – 1.5 years
CAN FLY: Yes
COLOR: Reddish brown with some yellow margin behind the head area
LIVES: They love warm weather and the outdoors, and hate the cold. They usually are found in the sewers, crawl spaces, pipes or anywhere that is dark and moist.
NOTES: The American Cockroach is the largest of the species and has an average length of about 1.7 inches.
German Cockroach
SIZE: .43 – .63 inches
LIFESPAN: 6 – 9 months
CAN FLY: Barely
COLOR: Tan to black. Two dark streaks behind the head.
LIVES: Love dark, confined spaces and found mostly indoors.
NOTES: The reproduce faster than any other cockroach.
Oriental Cockroach
SIZE: .0.71–1.14 in (males)
LIFESPAN: 1 – 1.5 years
CAN FLY: No
COLOR: Dark Brown to Black with a Glossy Body
LIVES: Love warmth and found in sewers, outdoors, pipes and damp places.
NOTES: Sometimes called waterbugs.
They have existed for over 250 to 300 million of years. Which means they aren’t going anywhere soon!
They eat their own feces, they eat their vomit and they are cannibals… which means they will eat each other!
Cockroaches can Bite. They have large mandibles and will bite human flesh. Although it is rare, if they do end up biting, this could cause a severe infection.
Cockroaches have wings. This is mostly in adult males. This means they are fast and can jump!
HOW I KILLED THE COCKROACHES
It’s time to take action. I spent hundreds of dollars on all kinds of roach killers and even hired pest control professionals. Do what I did above, and you will thank me.
In the end, it was the pest control professional that got rid of the roach infestation in my home. And it makes sense, they do this for a living. I was going to buy THE EXACT SAME product that the pest control professionals use in order to upkeep my home. However, please note that I ended up hiring two different pest control companies, and it was the second one who I hired that told me the best product to use. They weren’t the cheapest service, but it showed in their work and their product. I was happy that I hired them, because I also learned a lot.
RELAX, THESE COCKROACHES ARE ALMOST ON THEIR WAY OUT
I know the feeling you are having if you have cockroaches in your home – trust me. I was ready to move out, that’s how much I hate them and am scared of them. I even slept with the lights on for several nights! I was worried that if I got up, I would step on a roach. And I had nightmares of roaches crawling all over me.
But if you read this up to here, then you are well on your way to getting rid of cockroaches. Above I show you what worked for me, and what some of the best pro’s use to get rid of roaches so you can go back and have a roach free home.
