Cockroach Powders: A Review of Effective Means

Among the most familiar and traditionally popular means of disinsection are all kinds of powders from cockroaches - they are easy to use, are mostly inexpensive and in practice, when properly used, really show high efficiency.

One of the first representatives of powdered insecticides was dust (DDT, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) - it is well remembered by the older generation, because dust has found wide application not only in agriculture, but also in everyday life, to fight against cockroaches, domestic ants and even with lice. And the remedy was really killer, at least DDT cockroaches were mowed clean (that’s why the drug often poisoned the tenants themselves, because it was very toxic).

Below in the photo - the same legendary dust, which is now on sale no longer find:

Also boron acid (the so-called boric powder) has found wide application from cockroaches: its mixture with egg yolk is a classic folk recipe from cockroaches, used to this day, and not without success.

Meanwhile, progress did not stand still, and today a large number of other powders from cockroaches have appeared on the market, no less effective, but at the same time much safer to handle than dust, and operating in a lower concentration than boric powder. Interestingly, in the people almost any insect powder is still often called dust, although, of course, modern means have no relation to DDT, and the active substances in them are completely different (we'll talk about them a little lower).

So, let's see which insecticidal powders are most popular today for killing cockroaches, and also try to figure out how to use such tools correctly in order to get the maximum effect and forget about pests in the house for a long time.

And let's start with the exotic - with the so-called "tire powder" - its specificity is that many have heard of its extremely high effectiveness against cockroaches,but they have absolutely no idea what this substance is, where to buy it, and in general, why some people call it tire powder, while others call it cable powder ...

 

Tire powder from cockroaches (aka thiuram, aka cable powder)

Perhaps the first (and most important) thing to know here: a tire used from cockroaches or cable powder is the everyday name of a technical tyuram (tetramethylthiuram disulfide, aka Tiuram D, Thiram or TMTD). The main field of application of this chemical is the rubber industry, where thiuram is used as a vulcanization accelerator.

Actually, for the reason that thiuram is used for the production of rubber, it is commonly called tire or cable powder.

On a note

Thus, a tire powder is by no means a car tire powder, as is sometimes thought. Thiuram is an individual chemical, and is a white or gray crystalline powder, almost odorless.

Fungicidal properties have been found in thiuram - methods have been developed for using this substance in the fight against fungi, as well as for baiting rodents.

In addition, tire powder has insecticidal properties and, in particular, helps to get rid of cockroaches, and, judging by the reviews, the tool works much more efficiently than even the old time-tested boric acid. In the meantime, insect control agents (disinsectors) are not widely using cable powder.

Another nuance of the use of Tiuram is that it is difficult to buy. In the markets and in ordinary hardware stores it is not for sale. Thiuram is sometimes used in tire workshops, as well as in tire factories - this is where you can try to find and buy this powder. You can also purchase it:

• in online stores as a chemical reagent;
• in small packing as "Cable powder";
• in packages of 1 kg called "Thiram".

Feedback

“There was an experience of using thiuram. Chemistry is terrible, about 30 years ago parents poisoned cockroaches with it. They say that then they walked right across the placers of these reptiles, crunched under their feet. But then he did not sell anywhere, his father worked at a tire factory and was able to get it. And now there is no such possibility, therefore I am looking for where this powder can be bought.It is painfully good, after the use of dichlorvos, housewash gels, kombatov traps and other shop nonsense that are worthless there, I rely only on him ... ”

Pavel, Novosibirsk

It should be borne in mind that thiuram is toxic to humans and domestic animals. Therefore, even if it is possible to get this “tire powder” somewhere, it is necessary to apply it in the living conditions carefully, excluding the possibility of contact with it of children and pets.

Thiuram has a so-called intestinal poisoning effect on cockroaches, that is, a cockroach must eat the substance in order to poison itself. In this respect, the substance is in many ways similar to boric acid, which, unlike modern insecticides, also does not have a contact poisoning effect, but exerts its own poisoning effect only when eaten by an insect.

 

Good old boric acid

Boric acid (also called boric powder) is a much more popular and well-known remedy for cockroaches than thiuram. It is very toxic for most insects, and if used correctly, it can take cockroaches out of the house in literally 2 weeks.

Boric acid as an insecticide can be used in two ways:

1. The powder is poured in paths where cockroaches are likely to run through it, or a small bait (bread, egg, onion) is simply placed in the middle of piles of boric acid. The bottom line is to make cockroaches smudge in boric powder. When insects begin to clean their paws and antennae, they certainly swallow a few bits of the product;
2. Or boric powder is added to the food bait, and cockroaches simply eat it. Traditionally, the recipes of such baits involve the mixing of boric acid with boiled egg (yolk), with mashed boiled potatoes, with dough, but, in principle, you can mix the powder in anything that will eat cockroaches. Balls are rolled from the resulting mixture, which are then laid out in different parts of the apartment. Gradually, cockroaches find them, willingly eat and poison them.

Feedback

“My mother and I poisoned cockroaches with boric acid. They got us incredibly! Bought at the pharmacy 4 sachets for 10 grams, cost 40 rubles each. Cook two eggs hard-boiled and mix the boric acid powder with the yolks well.Then they rolled small balls, they were laid out in different places in the kitchen, especially under the sink, where these creatures constantly crawl. Cockroaches just pounced on this treat, it seemed that the whole kitchen was chomping. Somewhere in 5 days they became much less poisoned began. Boric acid for them is a poison. Then a few more days swept the corpses, and now everything is clean, even from the neighbors do not come. "

Svetlana, Moscow

Boric acid is good for its wide availability, complete absence of odor and relative safety for humans (moderately toxic, it rarely causes allergic reactions, it was even used to disinfect wounds before). You can buy it in almost any pharmacy.

On a note

Instead of boric acid for baiting cockroaches with the same success, you can use borax (sodium salt of boric acid, which is also a white crystalline powder).

Another important point that not everyone takes into account when using boric acid in practice: indoors for at least some time there should not be easily accessible sources of water, since cockroaches poisoned with boric acid can sip, which significantly reduces the efficiency of the method.

 

Ecociller insecticidal powder (based on diatomite)

Generally speaking, the Ekokiller product stands somewhat apart from most other insecticidal powders due to its specific mechanism of action on insects. While other powders somehow poison cockroaches, Ecokiller acts completely differently.

The basis of the drug is a specially treated diatomite, also called mountain flour - cream colored mineral powder, the particles of which have a strongly pronounced abrasive action (consist mainly of silicon dioxide) and at the same time have high absorbing properties (in particular, they are actively able to absorb moisture from the outside). Contact of the cockroach with the Ekokiller drug powder causes damage to the protective layer on the external integuments of the insect's body (cuticle) and, as a result, rapid loss of fluid by its body. And since a cockroach cannot get rid of the powder sticking to its body, there is practically no chance of surviving it.

The photo below shows what diatomite particles look like under a microscope:

As practice shows, if you use Ecokiller according to the instructions, you can get rid of cockroaches in about 2-3 weeks,and even in the most neglected cases, when the apartment is literally teeming with pests, as well as in those difficult situations when the cockroach population has resistance to "chemistry" (permethrin, karbofos, etc.)

On a note

Ekokiller preparation is remarkable also by the fact that it allows you to fight against insects that do not eat any baits at all. In particular, just like cockroaches, Ecokiller powder can be poisoned by bedbugs and fleas that feed only on blood, and it can also be used to destroy moths and pests in the garden plot.

In general, almost any effective insecticidal powder is quite versatile, and its scope is not limited only to the fight against cockroaches.

It is also important that Ekokiller, unlike preparations based on traditional insecticides, is highly safe for humans and domestic animals. Physically, it is somewhat similar to chalk - so inert that even if a cat or a child accidentally gets dirty, it will have no consequences for their health (which cannot be said about preparations based on pyrethroids and organophosphate insecticides).

 

Cockroach Remedy Front Line M

Belarusian-made powder Frontline M is a typical neuro-paralytic insecticidal agent. As active ingredients, the drug contains fipronil and methoprene - two substances that have an acute contact and intestinal effects on cockroaches.

If the insect runs through the powder, or the product enters the digestive tract (it does not matter when cleaning the paws or eating the bait with Frontline), the active substances enter the body, lead to poisoning and rapid death of the insect.

On a note

Frontline M and similar powders in everyday life are often called dust, as well as powders or powders. As noted above, these drugs have nothing to do with true dust (DDT).

 

Phenaxin Powder

Fenaxin contains insecticide fenvalerate and boric acid already mentioned above. Due to this, the drug has on the insects as a nerve agent, and acute intestinal effects.

The powder is inexpensive, the packaging for 125 grams of Fenaxin costs about 40 rubles, and one such bag is enough to bait cockroaches in a room of about 30 square meters. m

The drug is used primarily in places of accumulation of cockroaches, as well as on the paths of their possible movement. In particular, the gaps in the walls and the floor, the gaps along the baseboards, the holes in the entry points of the plumbing, heating and sewer pipes to the apartment, as well as the back walls of the furniture (especially in the kitchen), are treated with powder.

Important

For the destruction of cockroaches is used Fenaksin, not Fenaksin Plus. The second drug is not a powder, but special granules used in agriculture for the destruction of a bear.

Feedback

“We tried, probably, with a dozen different means ... Regent helped in some way, but not for long. About half a year ago, we managed to more or less get rid of cockroaches when we bought some kind of Chinese powder, but now we don’t have it, our relatives buy it only in Moscow. In our panel house, cockroaches live everywhere, walk around the apartment, like on a boulevard. Recently, they have etched Fenaxin; several weeks have passed since then, while clean, not a single new cockroach. The bad thing is that the powder stinks badly, it is advisable to scatter it when you leave somewhere ... ”

Alyona, Irkutsk

 

Insecticidal Super Fas and Fas Double

Despite the similar names, these tools have a different composition:

• The drug Super Fas as an active ingredient contains insecticides thiamethoxam (4%) and zeta-cypermethrin (1%). Sold in the form of a water-soluble powder, and in the form of tablets;
• In Fas-Double, the active ingredients are zeta-cypermethrin, es-fenvalerate and piperonyl butoxide. Form release - powder from light gray to light brown.

Super Fas is used to prepare a 1% solution, followed by applying it in places where cockroaches accumulate and move (consumption rate 50-100 ml per square meter). Fas-Double is used directly in the form of a powder - in the fight against cockroaches use a consumption rate of 2 grams per square meter.

At the same time, the effect of both drugs on cockroaches is about the same: when the ingestion of an insect comes into play, the components of the drugs lead to disturbances in the nervous system, paralysis and early death. Both products have a contact and intestinal poisoning effect.

The price of Super Fas powder is about 80 rubles per pack per 10 grams. A 125 grams Fas-Double packet costs about 70 rubles.

Feedback

“We have neighbors below the drunks, they are constantly cockroaches crowds rod. Prior to that, 5 years lived with cockroaches, nowhere to go. What just did not try, and all sorts of traps, and crayons, and sprayers. And only two years ago they found the right tool. We were helped by Fas powder - a very effective means, it is still used from the Colorado beetles. We managed 100%, almost 2 years already we don’t remember about cockroaches. We processed the whole apartment with Fas, then made some repairs. Cockroaches are no longer seen! "

Ira, Moscow

 

Dust Cockroach Clean House

The powdery insecticidal Pure House contains in its composition two highly effective insecticides that have a nerve agent on cockroaches - tetramethrin and cypermethrin.

Pure House dust is used in the same way as similar means, and if the instructions for use are observed, the result is manifested in a couple of days and is quite well pronounced (many dead cockroaches are on the floor). The drug allows you to get rid of not only cockroaches, but also from domestic ants, wood lice, fleas, silverfish, and with a certain zeal - even from bed bugs.

 

Feverfew Powder

Pyrethrum is another specific powder used to fight cockroaches. It is interesting in that it consists of dried and crushed flowers of Dalmatian chamomile - a flower, which consists of natural insecticides from the pyrethrin class. It was the pyrethrins that were used to fight insects until the industry established the production of their synthetic analogues, pyrethroids.

The second name for pyrethrum powder is Persian powder.

It is believed that synthetic pyrethroids as insecticides are more effective than pyrethrins, that is, they have a more pronounced nerve-paralytic effect on insects. At the same time, pyrethrins are safer for humans and domestic animals, and therefore Pyrethrum powder is used not only against cockroaches in residential areas, but also to fight, for example, with lashes, ticks and fleas in cats and dogs.

The price of Pyrethrum powder is about 500 rubles per pack per 300 grams.

 

General rules for the use of insecticidal powders in the fight against cockroaches

The vast majority of commercially available insecticidal powders are very similar in composition and effect to cockroaches: for example,Khalek, Biocifen, Green House and some others not mentioned above contain all the same pyrethroids and poison cockroaches due to contact and intestinal action.

When buying a product, it is important not to confuse powders that are ready for use with powders intended for dissolution in water - the latter are much more concentrated, somewhat more difficult to use and are used for disinsecting a room by spraying the prepared solution. Such water-soluble powders include the Super Fas preparation mentioned above, as well as Tarax, Spark, Atlant, Super Attack and some others.

Anyway, before using any insecticidal product, you should definitely read the instructions for use of the drug and follow basic safety rules (for example, use a respirator and rubber gloves when working).

On a note

Specialists from SES and private disinfestation services often combine different types of products - for example, they spray a preparation made from an emulsion concentrate, and in addition use a powder insecticide treatment (this is especially important when treating basements for fleas).Competent combination of several means gives a more pronounced and lasting effect than the use of a single drug.

In general, the task of applying powdered insecticides is to make the cockroaches run over the scattered powder. This is achieved in two ways:

1. The powder is simply poured in where the cockroaches regularly and often are, in the hope that the insects themselves get dirty in the product;
2. Or cockroaches are attracted to a special tray or box of powder.

The first method is simpler, although it is usually undesirable to apply it in those rooms where children and pets live and where there is a risk of the funds being scattered throughout the apartment. For maximum effect, powder is poured near the bin, around the sink, along the baseboards, behind the stove (this is the favorite place where cockroaches stay) and behind the refrigerator. The longer the tool will be here, the greater the number of cockroaches in it gets dirty.

As for special trays with powder (a kind of baiting stations), they are usually used as follows:

1. A suitable box is taken with small openings through which only cockroaches can climb inside - this is how access to the poison of domestic animals is limited;
2. Inside this box, a insecticidal powder is poured in a thin layer, a bait is put on it - a piece of apple, sausage, onion, bread, oatmeal, banana;
3. The whole structure (and preferably several structures at once) is installed where the cockroaches are most likely to find it;
4. Attracted by the smell of bait cockroaches (as well as ants, silverfish and woodlice) run through the powder, get dirty in it and soon die.

Practice shows that closed boxes with insecticidal powder inside are significantly safer for the sanitary condition of the room, rather than the poison just scattered at the corners of the apartment.

 

If you have used this or that powdered means to kill cockroaches - be sure to share your experience by leaving a review at the bottom of this page.

 

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