Years ago, without thinking we sprayed for roaches in an old house, and killed my son's gerbil, "Fred Flintstone". I still feel horrible about that.
Bonnie in WI www.elephants.com
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Ahh, yeah, I used to live in Arkansas, and had roaches in a
house I rented. What I found HELPED the most was:
1. LOTS of scrubbing with strong bleach solution. Make it
spotless. Make it a weekly thing. Empty all cabinets and pantries and scrub the
insides, bottoms, sides, and under the shelves every week.
2. CAULK. Caulk everything. Get like 30 tubes of white
silicone caulk, and caulk EVERY crack in your house. Crawl under the cabinets
and caulk every seam INSIDE them, caulk the countertop where it meets the wall,
caulk under the electrical covers and wall switch covers, caulk the baseboards
to the walls, caulk EVERYTHING where it butts up to ANYTHING else. Those are the
hiding spots they live in during the daytime.
3. Store everything in airtight plastic containers, preferably
as much as possible in the freezer. Freeze your flour, sugar, bread, etc,
everything that can be frozen. Store everything else in Tupperware or a similar
storage container.
4. Don't keep an inside trash can. If you make trash, use one
of the small plastic grocery bags as you make it (such as during meal prep time,
then take the bag out to the outside trash as soon as you are done. Store the
outside trash cans well away from your building if possible. (this of course,
can't be done in an multi-family dwelling)
5. Sticky traps work well and are not poisonous. Place them
where cats don't walk or rub up against.
6. Never leave food, crumbs, or anything edible anywhere.
Vacuum everything daily, the cracks in the couch, everywhere crumbs might hide.
It's a good idea to make the entire house except the kitchen a "non eating
area", that way you do not get crumbs in the couch or bed. Vacuum the table
after eating, then wash it with bleach. If you can, buy a bagless vacuum, and
empty it in the outside trash after every use, then rinse it with bleach
solution and dry before putting the dirt bin back on the vacuum. Don't leave
used bags on the vacuum, that is a food source the roaches can
smell.
What you are trying to do is make your NEIGHBOR's place a much
better place for roaches to live than your place. If they can find an easy food
source somewhere else, they will be less likely to hang out at your
place.
Now, on to the Boric Acid (Borax)...
Cornell Vet on boric acid poisoning in cats:
Borate, or boric acid is used as a homemade insecticide. It has a low oral toxicity. Signs: Vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, CNS depression, muscle weakness, ataxia, and possible seizures. Treatment: The problem with this poisoning is that activated charcoal does not absorb it, the only way to get it out of the system is through dialysis. (taken from: http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/toxcat/toxcat.html#pest ) Another online source on boric acid poisoning in cats: Sources Borates and boric
acid are contained in many products including roach killers, flea products,
fertilizers, herbicides, antiseptics, disinfectants, and contact lens solutions.
Sodium perborate is found in mouthwashes and denture cleansers. Other
boron-containing compounds include sodium borate, sodium biborate, sodium
pyroborate, sodium tetraborate, boric anhydride, boron oxide, boron trioxide,
boric oxide, boron sesquioxide, borax, sodium metaborate, and magnesium
perborate. I would either return the powdered poison, or throw it in the trash. Not
worth the risk. If you have to poison your dwelling, rent a motel room for a
week, bomb the house with aerosol bombs (use double the recommended amount per
square foot), let it air out for 2 days, bring in heavy cleaning supplies and
scrub everything to rid the residual poison (probably 2 days heavy cleaning job,
all laundry, curtains, all surfaces, carpet cleaning, etc need to be cleaned of
poison before bringing cats back in), then move back in after a week's time. In
your case, I think the preventive measures I listed at the top of this email
should suffice though.
Jenn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I collect KMR kitten formula labels for Bazil, a 3 yr old special needs cat who must live on a liquid diet for the rest of his life. Bazil's caretaker collects labels and sends them to KMR, where they add up until she earns a free can of formula! PLEASE save your KMR kitten formula labels for Bazil! If you use KMR, even just one can, please ask me for the mailing address
you can send them to, to help feed Bazil!
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