Does Baking Soda Kill Roaches?

Baking soda alone can kill roaches if they happen to ingest it. However, it does not attract them unless you mix the powder with a sweet bait like sugar or something sweet. Roaches love sweet, sugary, or tasty food. Baking soda by itself has none of those properties that can attract them.

To get rid of roaches, mix equal parts of baking soda and chocolate powder. Then leave it near their hideouts for them to take it. It takes 1 day for baking soda to kill cockroaches. However, this depends on the amount ingested.

Roaches are a nuisance that can be challenging to expel from your house completely. The insects often appear from hideouts at night to feed on kitchen scraps, flour, sugar, and other foodstuffs. Their presence brings numerous health risks to your family and often carries bacteria and other pathogens to your space.

How long does it take for baking soda to kill roaches?

It can take between 12 to 24 hours for baking soda to kill roaches depending on how much they consume. However, the total duration depends on the quantity of baking soda ingested and which baking soda combination you use. 

You can mix baking soda with bait to ensure that the roaches consume copious amounts of the product, increase its effectiveness, and reduce the overall time it takes to eliminate the bugs.

A sugar-baking soda mix takes about 12-24 hours to kill roaches hiding in your home. However, it might take several more days before you notice the implications of the product within your space. 

Dry bait does not activate the baking soda, making it last for longer durations than wet bait such as vinegar. However, as the vinegar is wet bait, the concoction has a reduced lifespan than other dry bait ideas.

Using onions and peanut butter as bait takes a similar average duration (about 12-24 hours) to sugar and vinegar, as baking powder is the main compound. The powder expands on ingestion, causing the stomach to burst from the inside.

How to get rid of roaches with baking soda

Baking soda can act as a suitable home remedy for dealing with roaches. You can try different baking soda combinations to find the best fit for your home. Cockroaches are not naturally attracted to baking soda and are more likely to nibble on more nutritious foodstuffs within your kitchen and storage rooms.

A combination of baking soda and attractive baits is always the best solution. You can also use this to get rid of roaches in the bathroom and kitchen. Tasty and sugary baits can lure these pests into consuming your DIY pesticide. Sugar, onion, and vinegar can help you attract the roaches to your baking soda mix to make your concoction more effective.

Alternative DIY like using baking soda to eradicate roaches from your space can always work if the infestation is not really big. Below are a few ideas on how you can use baking soda to eliminate roaches

1. Baking soda and vinegar to kill roaches

A baking soda and vinegar mixture can help keep roaches at bay but with mixed results. Vinegar is a common product available in many kitchens as a disinfectant, food additive, etc. 

Although vinegar alone does not kill roaches, it can act as a deterrent considering its strong smell and disinfecting qualities make the space unappealing to the pests. Mixing vinegar with soap or shampoo can block the insets’ spiracles, causing them to suffocate and die.

White vinegar is a more preferred option as it also doubles up as a cleaning agent keeping your kitchen spotless. However, its deterrence fades as the vinegar loses its smell over time. Adding a small amount of baking soda to the solution adds to the lethality of the solution.

Here’s how to use baking soda and vinegar to kill roaches

1. Mix equal hot water and vinegar parts in a small cup and stir.
2. Add a teaspoon of baking soda to the water-vinegar solution and sprinkle it along pathways, hiding spots, etc.

2. Baking soda and sugar for roaches

Cockroaches love sugar! You can use a sugar-baking soda mixture to lure and eliminate the pesky pests from your space. The blend gives homeowners (and caretakers) a natural, easy-to-implement, DIY solution to effectively deal with roaches and other insect intruders living within your home.

Sugar is an ideal bait to entice roaches into ingesting baking soda. The high-energy substance also has an attractive smell that the insects can’t resist. It also resembles baking soda and is rarely hazardous to pets and other people when accidentally ingested.

Here’s how to use a baking soda and sugar mixture to kill roaches

• Add about 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 tsp baking soda to a small bowl.
• Mix the products and place/sprinkle strategically along critical paths, hideouts, and other spots with a roach infestation.

If you always find roaches crawling on your toothbrush, this combination can help. Disinfect and repel bugs by soaking the brush in this solution for at least one hour.

How to get rid of roaches with Baking soda and onion

Onions can act as suitable bait when dealing with roaches. You can use an onion-baking soda concoction to attract, trap and eliminate bugs from your space with relative ease. Baking soda has harmful effects on cockroaches who purposefully avoid it. 

You can use raw yellow onions as a natural deterrent for cockroaches. Their strong smell dissuades the insects but does not kill them. Some people use an onion-pepper blend, but the mixture provides mixed results. 

Instead, it is better to use an onion-baking soda combination to ensure the product remains lethal long after the smell wears off. Besides, the thick onion juice does not allow for the baking soda to activate.

Here’s how to use a baking soda and onion mixture to keep roaches at bay

1. Pick an onion and cut it into several parts.
2. Mix your onions with about 2 teaspoons of baking soda and place the pieces strategically in different locations of your home. It’s best to do this at night when the insects are most active. 
3. Change the onions every 2-3 days.

3. Peanut butter and baking soda to kill roaches

Peanut butter is a favorite diet for cockroaches considering its sweet smell, numerous fats, and proteins. You can use peanut butter to attract the bugs to your pesticide. Roaches have a strong sense of smell that you can use as leverage to eliminate them. 

A peanut butter-baking soda mixture is difficult to separate because the baking soda disappears into the peanut butter. The product is also non-hazardous to humans and pets, but it can retain lethality to roaches for a considerable duration.

Here’s how to use peanut butter and baking soda to kill roaches.

1. Scoop 2-3 spoons of peanut butter and place in a mixing bowl.
2. Add about 2 teaspoons of baking soda and mix the two products thoroughly to have a consistent paste.
3. Scoop small amounts of the mixture and place them on small-cap lids, bowls, etc.
4. Position the caps on strategic locations within your space, such as under kitchen sinks, cooking cabinets, etc.
5. Conduct regular checks on the roaches’ favorite hiding spaces to remove the dead insects.

Can baking soda by itself kill roaches?

Baking soda by itself can kill roaches, but it is not as effective. Bugs are wary of eating baking soda as the product tastes terrible, offers no nutritional benefits (and can be fatal). The strong baking soda smell also deters pests, mainly because roaches don’t like it.

Spraying a baking soda solution can help you keep a roach-free kitchen for a limited duration. Once the smell wears off, the bugs will come out of their hiding spots and continue feeding on your foodstuff.

Instead, you can try using different types of bait to ensure the roaches ingest the baking soda, which is more lethal and a more effective long-term solution to dealing with roach infestations and recurrence.

Opting for synthetic or natural solutions to effectively deal with roaches is an alternative solution. Chemical pesticides might act faster, but they also carry health risks for your family and can be dangerous when ingested by pets, kids, etc. You might also have to spend a little more or call an exterminator to help you deal with the pests.

References:

• Really? You can do that with baking soda – CNN.com
•  Insecticidal bait composition for cockroaches