Do it yourself roach, flea, bedbug, spider and pest control

[Mike from back east]

Nice article in today's NY Times that roach breeding habits are changing due to the roaches being less interested in sugary items.

Gist of the article is that for generations we've poisoned roaches with sucrose-laden baits that attract roaches seeking sweet foods. This caused sweet seeking roaches to die-out to an extent. Those roaches with little appetite for sweets avoided the sugary baits, survived and reproduced in place of sweet eaters.

Excerpt: "The good news for consumers is that pesticide manufacturers share Dr. Wada-Katsumata and Dr. Schal’s enthusiasm for understanding cockroach evolution, and they are actively changing their cockroach-killing formulations to move away from glucose. But given how new this research is, it will take some time for those changes to make their way to the products on our shelves."

[mdovell]

Any advice on mice/rats?

I live in more of a rural area so it kinda comes with the territory. Anyways what happened last year is I'd hear a mouse (assuming a mouse) in the walls. Eventually I thought it died.

Now I have a odd hole in my kitchen wall and I noticed missing parts of bread and other grain foods. I vacuumed (I know I know but droppings looked bad). I put on some eucalyptus oil on a diffuser, put steel wool in the hole (they can't chew it without pain). I put on a youtube sound of various repellants.

I have a unfinished adu along the same wall and I put a fresh trap with peanut butter in there and the kitchen. Yesterday I found one in the ADU, the trap worked...but I hope it's just one. I thought I heard some sounds again.

How long does it take for one of these to be without food? Can a trap attract mice/rats from outside to go in? I'm just not sure how much longer I should leave the traps out.

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Any advice on mice/rats?

I live in more of a rural area so it kinda comes with the territory. Anyways what happened last year is I'd hear a mouse (assuming a mouse) in the walls. Eventually I thought it died.

Now I have a odd hole in my kitchen wall and I noticed missing parts of bread and other grain foods. I vacuumed (I know I know but droppings looked bad). I put on some eucalyptus oil on a diffuser, put steel wool in the hole (they can't chew it without pain). I put on a youtube sound of various repellants.

I have a unfinished adu along the same wall and I put a fresh trap with peanut butter in there and the kitchen. Yesterday I found one in the ADU, the trap worked...but I hope it's just one. I thought I heard some sounds again.

How long does it take for one of these to be without food? Can a trap attract mice/rats from outside to go in? I'm just not sure how much longer I should leave the traps out.

While there may be a chance of having just the one off mouse, chances are (and it sounds like) you have mice (more than one).

Standard advice is what it has been for ages;

Find and seal all possible points of entry into home.

Clean up and or remove any potential sources of food, water and nesting material.

Launch a determined and planned attack consisting of traps and or poisons.

https://diypestcontrol.com

If you don't find and eliminate all points of entry problem will simply occur again sooner or later. Rodents like other animals leave a scent trail that others can (and will) follow.

Essential oils are basically useless. You have to use enough to point you yourself will get sick of scent, and they quickly dissipate. This and rodents will grow accustomed to scent, and or move to part of home where scent is weaker or non existent.